It was my first mobile phone that became the reason I am what I am today.
Sounds crazy, right? Let me tell you how it happened.
My Interest in Computer Applications was particularly lured when I was in 11th grade, and my parents gifted me my first phone. I used Whatsapp to send messages to all my friends. The User Interface and the application’s ability to send messages to people in real-time is what sparked my curiosity in technology.
If I go back to the 8th standard, I remember developing a similar interest and asking a senior about my various career options. My father is a government teacher, and my brother is a businessman, so no one was familiar with the field of engineering. My senior explained the right subjects to take and explained the various courses one can pursue in their bachelor’s degree. Right then and there, as an 8th grader, I decided I would become an Engineer.
I pursued my bachelor’s from Lovely Professional University, and all was good, but the struggle began when I started to sit for my placements. During college placements, and outside as welI, I had applied to more than 450 jobs, out of which I got through to 27 only to get eliminated in the first round itself. 27 out of 450, with no offers! It is safe to say that I was disheartened. Nevertheless, when I looked at the evident patterns of my interviews, I realized I lacked basic knowledge of primary subjects such as data structures and algorithms.
I got introduced to Scaler’s e-learning platform through a friend, but was not able to clear it in the first attempt. But when I did, I left no stone unturned and took full advantage of such a platform!
Because I was still job hunting, I had plenty of time in hand to upskill and reinvent myself. Aside from attending the classes, I would also give my day to working and solving some complex problems. On average, I spent 9-10 hours a day enhancing my skills and preparing for new interviews. After a while, I landed a job at Zetwerk as a SDE-1, but I still managed to give a good amount of time to Scaler.
One of my most significant worries, which I had also expressed to my mentor, was, “Even if I do land my dream job, would I be able to perform well there?”. My mentor told me that it was healthy to have such questions, which meant that I was self-analyzing. If I am constantly comparing myself to others, yes, it might make me feel bad, but it also means that I am self-interrogating and preparing myself for the market. And so, I kept going.
Today, after many interviews and many rejections, and learning from those rejections, I am a Development Engineer at Zetwerk with 3x the expected salary and preparing to become a Development Engineer Manager in the coming years. I know I will undoubtedly reach my goals with the consistency of practice and problem-solving I picked up at Scaler. I already have a notebook where I’ve maintained all that I have learned here, and I only wish to keep practicing and upskilling myself for the future.
If there’s anything special I’d like for you to pick up from my story, it is never to give up and never be disheartened by the shortcomings of life and your college placements!