If you’re an aspiring Computer Engineer or are already one looking to upscale your skills, it might not come as a surprise, but four years of engineering college really doesn’t cut it.
It is only when you start working into the real world that you notice that you may not be an expert at what you do and there’s a huge scope of learning that college simply doesn’t cover. With a dozen tasks and tight deadlines, work can get stressful and demotivating. Currently a Senior Software Engineer at Freshworks, my story is about fighting these problems head-on because failure is never an option for me.
My love for computers isn’t a newfound fascination. Computer Science has been my favorite subject for a long time. Watching my cousin who was an engineer working on her laptop was so awe-inspiring for me. Despite belonging to a middle-class family, my aspirations were always supported! I pursued my graduation from Gandhinagar Institute of Technology, where I enjoyed my subjects and learned about Java. While it was a truly amazing experience for me, life is not a cakewalk, and I undoubtedly worked hard to walk out of that college fully prepared to face the world.
For instance, I took up a private teaching job to support my additional expenses as much as I could. After coming from college I’d work on that job and then get back to working on my projects/assignments as well. To be honest, juggling all of this was definitely tiring but my motivation to do better was always bigger than any of this.
I have worked in four organizations so far, and each of them has thrown its unique challenges at me. My previous job taught me special security aspects of code, and the current one has taught me a new coding language altogether. Being able to fulfill all of my responsibilities at various jobs and deliver my personal best at all organizations has been my most monumental victory so far. I take immense pride in this fact. In times of stress, I’ve always had my pets to accompany me. My pets are all the street dogs I know. I always take out time even on the busiest of my schedules.
I spared all effort to become the best at my workplace, but that doesn’t mean I understood my work well. I wanted to upskill, explore, and train more than ever before. I would appreciate some of my seniors’ product decisions, but I could never see why they were taken. When I got promoted to a Lead position, the decision-making became so difficult to handle that I decided to quit.
While searching for courses to upgrade my knowledge, I came across Scaler’s webinar. Some words and terms used in the webinar went over my head, but I was still able to make some sense of it.
Once I joined, I was taken aback by the amount of learning I still had left to do. Although I was initially scared, my mentor always guided me to solve at least one question a day and watch at least one System Design video a week. I was advised to try every day consistently for a year. Sticking to that advice has helped me immensely. The helpful, academic, and upbeat environment kept me going.
After gaining enough confidence in my skills and talent by working hard every day, I sat for the placement of Freshworks. I was happy with my performance, in the interview itself, which eventually landed me my current job. I have a much better understanding of the work that I do now, and I have better aspirations for my future. I have always been interested in application design and architecture as well and now with this newfound confidence in my abilities, I am willing to make myself better in this dimension as well. I also wish to work at Microsoft or Google someday, now that I have the confidence that it is possible.
Ten years down the line, I see myself as a Staff Engineer or maybe even an Architect! I’m not sure. All I know is that the confidence I have gained through working on my skills has helped me dream without limitations.
Since now I know that I can achieve anything I put my mind to, I’m no longer afraid of the challenges and hurdles I may need to overcome to get to my destination.