Talent Over Degree! Leading AI Start-up Recruits 18 Year Old Delhi Boy After Class 12th, Introducing Mokshit Jain [Exclusive]

Students graduating from IITs and IIMs working at leading startups is not unheard of in India. However, what if we were to tell you that an IIT degree isn’t the mandate anymore? In this world…excellence continues to be rewarded. Meet Delhi’s Mokshit Jain. An ace coder, Mokshit is working for one of the world’s leading AI start-ups. His qualifications? A high school diploma!

That’s right. All of 18, Mokshit is working as a Design Engineer in Cognition, a US-based start-up interested in the field of Artificial Intelligence. And what’s more, he received this remarkable offer just months after his CBSE 12th Board Results! No surprise then that Mokshit decided to take a gap year to focus on his ‘career’ and job after completing his Class 12. Intrigued, we reached out to Mokshit to understand how he landed such an exciting job.

“I was already contributing to open source software for a long time, and had created a few libraries/projects of my own on GitHub used by thousands. It was this experience that really stood out to the team at Cognition. One thing led to another and after rounds of interviews I was offered the role in May,” Mokshit shares.

So was he a prodigy, a boy wonder? Did he instinctively know how to code? Well not exactly. “I got interested in computers when I was in Class 5 I think. There was this small software in which we were able to instruct the cursor to move left or right and draw basic shapes. It was mostly the aspect of doing art on a new canvas that got me hooked. And that interest kept growing but nothing really happened till I was in Class 9th. It was the year when COVID pandemic paralysed the world and suddenly I had too much time at hand.”

Online school gave Mokshit the time to pursue his passion but did he take any special classes?

“Well no. I started with free tutorials available on YouTube. Very soon I was able to cover a lot and then that was when I started delving deeper into the languages and started writing my own code.”

Soon enough, his family recognised his talent and chipped in with their support. Mokshit was relentless about seeking opportunities to further test his knowledge while expanding his own learning.

“I participated in a lot of hackathons. I was adjudged the Regional Runner Up and Global Finalist with honourable mention in the NASA SpaceApps Challenge 2022. I created an accessible 3D tracker and viewerfor the International Space Station that could be used on low compute devices like a feature phone without an internet connection. Liberty, the app, could also track and set a reminder for when the ISS would pass over your location. I also won the Apple WWDC Swift Student Challenge 2023. I was the youngest of the 3 winners selected from India for the challenge and among the 300 selected globally.”

While busy doing all of this, Mokshit also had time to focus on his studies and scored an exceptional 96.8% in his CBSE Class 12 with a 99% score in Computer Science and Chemistry.

Nowadays, he is busy with his work and has been given the option to work remotely while enjoying the benefits of being a member of the elite group of coders in the AI domain.

“Working with Cognition is just brilliant. I get to work with a very selective team of coders and all of them are just brilliant in the domain. We are talking about the best brains in the industry in AI. The company has just about 20 employees and recently got a valuation of US $2 Billion. It makes me extremely happy to be able to learn from such bright minds at such an early stage in my career,” Mokshit gushes.

Working is not all that excites Mokshit. His passion for coding has inspired him to bring a CodeDay chapter to Delhi. At the time of the interview he was busy coordinating and planning the CodeDay at IIT Delhi. As the Lead Organiser for the event, he was excited to report an unprecedented interest shown by high school kids across India to participate in the event.

“Coding is fun and it gets better when you interact with others. CodeDay helps me reach out and inspire other minds and I look forward to these two days!”

You wonder what is next for this young kid and if he has completely discarded the plans to pursue higher education. He quickly denies any such thing.

“I obviously have a lot to learn still and graduation is definitely on the table. It was just about prioritising and the opportunity presented me with the advantage of learning and improving my skill. So, for now it’s work but for sure next year I am looking forward to starting college.”

If well begun is half done, we only wonder how far Mokshit would go. As we wish him the best for his journey, which he has only just begun, we ask if he has any final words for the youth of the country.

“Oh, I am only 18 and I guess I still have miles to go. But I do want to ask my friends to believe in their abilities and be unafraid in exploring or experimenting. Reach out to people and talk…you don’t know which conversation or event might turn your life around.”