Some kids have the privilege of saying they were average or above average during their schooling years – I was not one of them.
I tend to be overly critical of myself, which is why it was embarrassing for me to have some of the lowest scores among my friends. This was what school was like for me. Up until 10th, and even into my high school years, my marks fluctuated between the 55-60 percentages, which wasn’t very impressive, especially since I was a science student.
After completing high school, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So like every confused Indian student, I decided to try for B.tech. I gave multiple entrances like UPTU, AIEEE and IP exams. Eventually, I got a rank in UPTU good enough to get me a spot at ABESIT Ghaziabad. I was glad to receive the CS branch although I was quite unsure of what it actually meant. Once college started, I started to see the cracks in my already weak educational foundation. My college life was very much like my school life: filled with mediocre marks and passing days for the sake of it. In 4 years of my college life, I managed to bag an average of 66% overall marks. To make matters worse, I ended up with no job offers through campus placements.
This spell of unfortunate events sent me scrambling to a small institute in Noida where I learnt Java for 4-5 months and got my first job as an Associate Software Engineer at Birlasoft. My job involved more of the supporting tasks rather than actual coding. Instead of being happy for my peers who were building stuff, I was left frustrated at my job profile.
At this point, I had 1.5 years of experience and basically nothing to show for it. This was also a time when I started to explore the possibility of pivoting into a different role. After asking around, most of my peers suggested data engineering. I immediately started preparing for it for 9 months. After 2 years, I realised that I deserved better and left Birlasoft.
After Birlasoft, I joined Tavant Technologies as a data engineer. My tenure, however, wouldn’t last long. I was often lost at work and was also frequently corrected by my seniors and co-workers for my lack of knowledge in the field. Their tone was never condescending, but it felt odd to be the only person not being good enough. I worked 15 hours everyday while I was there but left after 8 months.
After Tavant, I joined Publicis Sapient, and even though the pay wasn’t the best, it was here that I met up with people who would open my eyes to the bigger picture.
I met people who educated me about high level product-based companies like Amazon, Google, Paytm etc and how much they paid their engineers. The salary figures seemed unimaginable. Motivated by these opportunities, I started to study Data Structures and Algorithms to ace these interviews. During this time I also found a friend who got a job in Amazon through an online coding course, which is when I also decided to not waste any time and sign up to a reputed institute.
Finally, in January of last year, I joined Scaler Academy. Straight out of the door, my expectations were exceeded. It was unlike any academy I had ever seen. They provided us with personal mentors and teachers who actually knew what they were talking about. The lectures were short but more than enough to explain the curriculum and improve learners’ programming skills. Within 4 months of their course, they had taught me 400 industry level DSA questions. At the end of my course, I started to receive interview calls from multiple Fortune 1 companies that I never imagined myself getting!
After I got ample knowledge about DSA and Designing I started giving interviews. After the second interview, I started getting an idea about what I needed to focus on. My mentor took my mock tests and helped me in getting ahead with different rounds of technical management. When I interviewed at Walmart, I cracked all the rounds very well. I did well in the technical round and then performed well in the design round, and then in technical managerial, I was able to crack it very well. When I joined Walmart– my learning curve started growing, and with acting as an individual contributor I also started leading an effort. I ultimately passed the interview for Walmart India and still work there as a team lead.
Today, the only message I can give to my younger self is to be consistent. If only I had stuck to a path longer, I wouldn’t have to suffer the consequences of my own mistakes. Be consistent, or it won’t be worth the effort. You will succeed as long as you are consistent.
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