Pune man’s career shift from factory worker to full-stack developer goes viral: 'Messy, uncertain'

A change in direction came after a friend advised him to explore coding as a potential career option.

A post detailing the career transition of a Pune-based man from factory work to a full-stack developer role gathered widespread attention on X (formerly Twitter), after he shared a first-person account of his journey over the past 18 months.

The post was shared by Sambhav Wakhariya, who captioned it, “From a factory worker to a full-stack developer in 1.5 years of grind.” In the thread, Wakhariya described the circumstances he was living under roughly a year and a half earlier, when he was employed at a vegetable processing factory.

According to his account, he spent close to 10 hours each day on physically demanding tasks such as sorting and packing produce, with limited breaks and sustained manual labour. He added that ongoing financial difficulties had earlier forced him to discontinue his college education.

“I had dropped out of college because of financial issues. This felt like the end of the road,” he wrote.

A change in direction came after a friend advised him to explore codingas a potential career option. Wakhariya said that, using limited savings and financial support from his parents, he purchased a laptop and resigned from his factory job. Over the following months, he relied entirely on online resources to learn.

“I kept remembering something Elon Musk once said: Everything you need to learn is available on the internet for free,” he noted in the post.

From a factory worker to a full-stack developer in 1.5 years of grind. I’m not saying this to flex. I’m saying this because I didn’t believe it was possible either. 1.5 years ago, I was working in a vegetables factory. 10 hours a day. Packing. Picking. Standing. Physically… pic.twitter.com/pn30AaJ8LY

—January 2, 2026

Wakhariya explained that he began by focusing on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, completing the basics within a month before progressing to React. Rather than enrolling in paid programmes, he said he depended on official documentation, practical projects and trial-and-error learning.

His first internship, he added, was challenging and exposed significant gaps in his knowledge, but it also played a key role in building technical confidence. During this period, he also faced personal disruption when his grandfather suffered a heart attack, prompting him to temporarily step away from professional work. He later resumed by taking up freelance assignments.

Reflecting on the process, Wakhariya wrote, “My journey hasn’t been clean. It’s been messy, uncertain, and uncomfortable. If you’re starting from zero, don’t underestimate what 1–2 years of focused grind can do.”

The post prompted supportive reactions from other users on the platform. One user commented, “Inspiring story bro. Keep winning.” Another wrote, “That was really inspiring brother, keep going, sky is the limit.”