From Zoho security guard to software engineer: Abdul Alim’s 12-year journey

Abdul Alim, who joined Zoho Corporation’s Chennai office as a security guard in 2013, is now a Member of Technical Staff at the company after more than 12 years, according to a LinkedIn post in which he shared his story.

Alim left home after completing Class 10 with just Rs 1,000, of which nearly Rs 800 went toward a train ticket. He spent almost two months without stable work before being hired as a security guard at Zoho.

While on duty, a senior Zoho employee, Shibu Alexis, asked Alim about his education and computer knowledge. Alim mentioned he had learnt some HTML in school, and Alexis offered to teach him programming after his shifts ended.

Over eight months of evening lessons following 12-hour security duties, Alim built a small application that accepted and visually displayed user inputs. Alexis showed the project to his manager and recommended Alim for a technical interview, telling him: “At Zoho, you don’t need a college degree. What matters is you and your skills.”

Alim cleared the interview and joined Zoho’s technical team as an Engineering Trainee in 2014. He has continued at the company since, rising to his current role as Member of Technical Staff.