From Engineering to Engineering Code: Kumanan’s Unexpected Career Switch
Sigma School
18th July 2025
Before diving into code, Kumanan spent years working as a manufacturing engineer, optimizing machinery, streamlining factory processes, and troubleshooting hardware. But something was missing. He craved creativity, flexibility, and the satisfaction of building something entirely his own.
That’s when he discovered Sigma School. With zero prior experience in software development, Kumanan took a leap of faith. He enrolled in the full-time bootcamp, eager to learn how to build web applications from scratch. Fast forward to graduation, and he’s now the proud builder of a fully functional recipe platform powered by AI and external APIs.
We’ve all been there, staring blankly into the fridge, wondering what to cook with those last three ingredients. For Kumanan, this wasn’t just an occasional dilemma; it was a daily challenge. He realized many others faced the same problem, often leading to wasted groceries and uninspired meals.
That’s how RecipeHub was born. It's a web app designed to help home cooks discover recipes based on what they already have in their kitchen. Whether you want to search by ingredient, explore recipes from other users, or generate new ideas using AI, RecipeHub aims to make cooking easier, faster, and more fun.
To turn his vision into a working platform, Kumanan built RecipeHub using a robust full-stack architecture. Here's what he used under the hood:
The app features recipe filtering, bookmarking (favourites), AI-generated meal ideas, external API search integration, user authentication, and more, all built from scratch.
Like any real-world project, RecipeHub wasn’t built without bumps in the road.
One of the first major technical hurdles Kumanan encountered was dealing with multi-line input fields for ingredients and directions. Initially unsure how to handle this, he eventually learned how to split user inputs by line, convert them into arrays, and store them cleanly in the database, making both display and editing easier.
Another surprising challenge was deployment. While pushing his project to Vercel, his site kept failing to build, and he couldn’t figure out why. After countless failed attempts, Kumanan turned to ChatGPT, where he discovered Vercel’s "Logs" tab, a feature that shows detailed build errors. One quick glance revealed the culprit: a typo in a file name. With one corrected character, his project went live.
He also dove deep into responsive design, making sure the app looked great on any device, from wide-screen desktops to narrow mobile phones. He built dynamic layout components that adjusted based on screen size, ensuring a seamless experience across all platforms.
RecipeHub isn’t just a cooking app. It’s a testament to how far Kumanan has come. In just a few months, he went from writing reports in a factory to writing production-grade code, collaborating with mentors, and solving real user problems.
Through Sigma School, he didn’t just learn to code. He learned how to think like a developer, debug like an engineer, and build like a founder. RecipeHub is his capstone project, but it’s also his launchpad, proof of what’s possible when curiosity meets commitment.
💬 “I built something that people can actually use. That’s the most rewarding part of this journey.”
If you’ve ever thought about switching careers or building something that matters, maybe it’s time to start your journey, just like Kumanan did.