‘You don’t need a degree’: The words that changed a Zoho security guard’s life

Abdul Alim was working as a security guard at Zoho Corporation’s Chennai office when a manager told him something he says he still remembers: “At Zoho, you don’t need a college degree. What matters is you and your skills.” That conversation set off his path to becoming a software engineer at the same company, according to a LinkedIn post detailing his journey.

Alim, who studied only until Class 10, had left home with Rs 1,000, spending nearly Rs 800 on a train ticket before spending almost two months without steady work. He eventually found a job as a security guard at Zoho in 2013.

A senior employee, Shibu Alexis, noticed Alim during his shifts and asked about his background, learning he had picked up some HTML in school. Alexis began teaching him programming after his 12-hour security duties ended each day.

After eight months of evening lessons, Alim built a small application handling user input, which impressed Alexis enough to recommend him for a technical interview despite having no engineering degree. Alim cleared the interview and joined Zoho’s technical team as an Engineering Trainee in 2014, and has since risen to Member of Technical Staff after more than 12 years at the company.