I have come a long way from beginning my journey at a tier-III college and ending up at one of the leading fintech companies.
I first got intrigued by the tech industry in 8th grade. Computer labs were my only safe escape from the monotony of the other subjects in school. Despite my interest, I couldn’t score a good rank which is why I took admission in a tier-III college-IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad.
I knew the limitations of a tier-III college all too well. To make up for it, I didn’t compromise on any effort from my end. I started practising coding problems on various websites. This was supposed to be a motivating experience for me but it ended up becoming an everyday disappointment. The frustration of not being able to solve more than 1-2 problems would really demotivate me. My friends played a huge role in helping me sustain my patience as without any tangible returns, I often felt like giving up altogether. They would see me working hard and tell me that you are getting there, although slowly and steadily.
I think another problem was that a concrete learning environment was missing during my college time. While there was an impressive curriculum, there was no practical experience throughout my course. I tried to be completely honest and consistent with my self efforts. But, there is only so much that you can do on your own. I started working at a startup after my graduation and did learn about both: the field and my own capabilities. I could see that some concepts needed more work for me to utilise them fully. Despite my realisation, my job had disrupted my work-life balance. I mean no one can possibly sit down to learn after 15 hours of work. I switched companies to have at least some hours for learning.
After that, I finally joined Scaler and began learning. I dedicated a minimum of 3-4 hours per day for my course. I also realised that my learning in college was crippled due to absence of personal guidance. With Scaler, the availability of teaching assistants made solving problems much easier. For all my doubts, they would help me decipher the alternative ways of approaching a problem. As a result of our efforts during those 6-7 months, I saw massive improvement in the data structure and algorithms part as well as the number of problems that I could solve. I went from solving 1-2 problems in online challenges to solving 6-7 problems easily. Further, it was at Scaler that I got introduced to LLD and HLD. While learning system designs, I understood their importance in the interviews and how I had neglected them. But you know what they say right? Better late than never! Having a clear understanding of system designs and DSA helped me with my interviews and I eventually landed up at Salesken, after which I shifted to Paytm..
Throughout my journey, my brother’s role has been paramount. Being an engineer himself, he knew the difficulties of this field. I used to learn a lot from his early experiences in this sector. When I began with my B.Tech, he had just started working. Due to this, I used to get real-time knowledge of the current trends of the industry and what companies are expecting during the interviews. He was a great source of inspiration for me as I have seen him grow in this field. It was his growth that made me understand that learning never goes wasted.
I believe that you cannot simply take a long leap to directly reach your aim. It is the small steps that make the real progress. It does get frustrating at a few moments when you can’t see yourself making any significant progress but with patience and persistence, everything does fail into place.
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