Mohammed Zeeshan A, aged 25, is a full-time network operation associate with a multi-national company. Every day, for a short period of time, one that lies outside his regular work, he is accustomed to being known as a coding instructor.
Zeeshan works part-time for a coding company based in Bengaluru, managing four one-on-one classes every day. Zeeshan is part of a growing tribe of coding instructors — full-time and part-time — that is sustained by an increasing demand for coding jobs.
Referring to research by GitHub, Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder, Scaler, an upskilling platform, says as per industry predictions, by 2028 there will be 80 million professional jobs for coding. “Almost every industry is becoming tech-first, so demand for expertise skills is only growing,” says Abhimanyu.
Vivek Prakash, co-founder of Codingal, says to gain a picture of the career options for programmers and coding professionals in teaching coding, his organisation engaged in a survey that connected with 250 teachers across India.
“It showed that 84% of the teachers felt online teaching platforms helped them monetise their passion for teaching coding and 75% expressed satisfaction with their income,” says Vivek Prakash.
He adds: “As there is demand for one-on-one classes that are offered online, we have a good number of programmers in our database who work on a part-time basis.”
Tier-two Indian cities have emerged as the hub for sourcing online coding teachers, with women coding instructors clearly in the majority, Vivek observes.
Upskilling platforms say coders with niche skills command impressive pay packets.
For instance, Python, which is widely used in web programming, automation, data visualisation and data science, is rated as the most popular language in the Mercer|Mettl Report 2022. And, being proficient in Java is the most in-demand job skill.
Abhimanyu says that even at the entry level, coders with the requisite skills can earn anywhere between ₹ 6 and ₹ 10 lakh a year.
“Earlier, recruiters would say they wanted people with a degree in computer science but that is changing. Companies are happy if they have the requisite knowledge,” he says.
To illustrate how companies are now usually comfortable placing skills over qualifications, Abhimanyu draws upon an initiative at Scaler, one that sends candidates to companies.
He says: “Our condition with the employers is that we would not provide details of the candidates’ academic background.”
