We can’t tell you how much happier we're to have you here Sweta, it was exciting having your presence with Fueler Journey from the very beginning, hence It’ll be delightful to know things from your point of view today

Tell us about yourself, your background, and what you are doing currently

Hey, I’m Sweta from Kolkata working at Questbook as a Software Engineer - I did my B.tech in Computer Science and M.Tech in Technology and Development. I’m mostly found being curious about Web3 and Blockchain Development.

And it’s my honor to be here - I know Fueler since it was KiwisMedia. Riten (Founder of Fueler) was my college junior so Fueler is really close to my heart because I’ve seen Fueler growing from just an ‘idea’ to a full-fledged product

What motivated you to get into Software Engineering?

I might not know the exact moment when I felt like Software Engineering is the one for me, but I always found it fascinating ever since I was in B.Tech. We all have that one curious kid in our class questioning everything - how software is getting built, how coding works… I was that ‘kid’

Later, more into that now my specialization lies in Product Development.

What went into landing your first few opportunities - Was it tough?

Initially, I thought if I would just learn the skill, that’ll make me capable of doing the job well, until a point when I realized I’m only learning things by watching courses and I couldn’t track my progress, so I decided I need to go all in and actually do something in order to see the needle moving forward.

When you’re passionate about building something starting just with an idea - you don’t wait for opportunities to knock on your door, you just start thinking out of the box and create opportunities for yourself.

Learning → Implementing → Proof of work is all I needed to land opportunities.

What role does Proof of Work play in your career? How have you used it so far?

OMG!! Proof of Work has played a tremendous role in my career., other than the fact it has helped me land so many good opportunities, it has made me so much more confident about my skills.

It has made my interview rounds so much smoother, I didn’t have to worry too much about tricky questions during interviews because they already knew - she has already done it and is trustworthy because they've seen my Proof of Work already.

How else do you leverage your Proof of Work?

When you have a strong portfolio filled with powerful proof of work:

1. You become irreplaceable wherever you are
2. You can land any opportunity wherever you go

I have landed a couple of freelance projects using my Proof of Work, but landing this job in Web3 using Proof of Work is my biggest win so far

What are the biggest challenges you've faced and obstacles you've overcome? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?

I absolutely didn’t like going through live coding rounds and more to that I hated the idea that the company ghosts you after the interview.

If I had to start over I would build my Proof of Work sooner so I could cut off those coding rounds, also I would start to showcase my proof of work on social media so that I would get inbound calls for the opportunities from companies

What do you think about Fueler? Is it going to be a big thing in the future?

A hundred times!

I think they are ahead of time - the buzz around the phrase ‘Proof of Work’ has been around for a year or so, but they have been working on this idea for over 5 years now. They’ve launched the right product at the right time. And I firmly believe they have great vision about how they’re gonna take this ahead in the coming years

What do you love the most about Fueler?

I hate making resumes so I love how it builds your profile in just minutes and how it lets you put your Proof of Work in seconds followed by sending a link to the prospects.

Also I love the discovery page of Fueler where I get to see different projects and get inspiration. And how can I just forget Fueler’s Weekly newsletter? Filled with value and worth reading it all.

Storytime - What do you believe you did right when landing an opportunity using an example?

Hold my hand and let's think about this in black and white flashback when I was in a fellowship with UNICEF which was contract based where I used to get paid 60k INR per month

And my fellowship was about to end in June 2022 which was work from home.

Since it was WFH, I had the liberty to work on my Proof of Work side by side.

Until one day the manager calls me on 15th March 2022 and says “Sweta, you need to come to Mumbai, we cannot allow WFH for you anymore, we'll start from 1st April 2022”

I had some commitments in Kolkata so I couldn't go and wanted to continue working from home, because I had this feeling that if I take the decision of going to Mumbai… all my interesting side projects will never get my attention again.

When I told him about my situation on 22nd March, his words were “Then Sweta you will have to resign by 31st March” and hearing this the ground beneath my foot slept away

Now I only had a week’s time to land another job, that’s when 2 things worked like magic for me

1. My network (which I was maintaining on social media and other places)
2. My Proof of Work (which I was publishing on Fueler) Fast forward, my network introduced me to Questbook and I introduced them to my Proof of Work and now I am here months later enjoying my 18LPA job working from home ;)

What’s your advice to opportunity seekers who are just starting out?

Let me scream it out on the top of my lungs:

• LEARN FROM THE BASICS
• IMPLEMENT YOUR LEARNINGS
• BUILD PROOF OF WORK
• SHARE IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• NETWORKING IS IMPORTANT
• THERE'S NO SHORTCUT TO SUCCESS

Which is your favorite quote?

Sometimes I think a lot and forget to implement so…

• Think less, Create more

Special thanks to Fatima for covering this success story.

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