One thing that I have learned in my journey is to always follow your interest. No matter how many challenges that might entail but following your interest will give you the ultimate satisfaction. Realizing my interest during graduation helped me complete two degrees simultaneously which did require twice the effort but even if given a chance, I wouldn’t change a thing.
I wasn’t entirely sure which discipline I wanted to pursue under the umbrella of engineering. Regardless, I started with mechanical engineering at Vellore institute of technology, Chennai. After studying it for just a few months, I realized that it wasn’t for me. If you are remotely aware of mechanical engineering you know that the concepts taught in college are outdated with less scope of applicability in the real world. While I lost interest in mechanical, I found a field that interested me. In my core curriculum, there was a mandatory course of competitive programming. I was fascinated by this course as I had discovered that a lot of things could be done by simply writing a few lines of code. You just have to use some syntax along with logic and voila! The work is done.
Simultaneously, I took up a course in computer science too. Since I was pursuing two degrees together, I had to work a lot more. During these degrees, I was offered an early placement in a good company. I was overjoyed at the time but I realized later that I somehow felt dissatisfied. I mean I was working well as a software engineer in that company and my basics were clear. However, I felt that my knowledge could be enhanced as there were a lot of things that required going beyond the basics.
I was looking for good opportunities but none came by as such. Besides, I wasn’t going to quit my job to learn. So I kept on surfing the internet until I came across a masterclass by Mr. Tarun Malhotra. I had attended other such seminars previously but nothing compared to the session he took. The quality of the course seemed quite good so I took it up.
During my course, I also had a mentor who gave me a lot of career guidance. He didn’t just give me basic information for better learning or cracking more interviews. He gave me insights about the market that he had gleaned through his experience. He also told me how HR people go about discussing your interviews and negotiating an offer. Due to this seniority and experience in the field, he gave me information that no one else had ever given me.
As opposed to 40-50 different subjects that we had to study in college, Scaler had included all the concepts relevant for interviews and working professionals. This was again quite helpful as I knew I wasn’t wasting my time learning something that I won’t be applying while working. I started giving interviews before the course got completed. After just a few interviews, I had a pretty good idea of what I should expect during interviews. Besides, Scaler also conducted a few mock interviews. These things helped me groom for the interviews that I wanted to crack.
I had multiple offers but I went ahead with CleverTap as I was offered the role that I knew would be helpful from a career point of view. I could have joined any other company but I weighed the amount of exposure and space for creating impact higher than the name of the company while making the final call. The package was attractive too as there was a 3 times hike.
I just think that if you have an interest in a particular field it can help you achieve any heights in that field. Your hard work and efforts will eventually determine your success but if you have your interest as a propellor, working hard will feel like a cakewalk.
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