With the right guidance, there is no mountain too big to climb.
I'm Himani Garg, currently at Intuit, and this is my story.
For a young girl growing up in Delhi, software and computers seemed like a world far, far away. Growing up, I loved gaming, and that was the beginning of my love story with computers. Once, I remember, I disassembled an entire CPU out of curiosity and then could not put it back together. That is how deep my love for computers ran.
I also remember arguing with my mother about her not enrolling me in dance classes, and she scolded me back by reminding me that I had forced her to enroll me in computer classes. I soon found myself to be one of the many young engineering aspirants and sought admission in Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women. Getting accepted in one of the very few all-women engineering colleges, that too a government college, was a lifelong dream come true.
The competition was extremely high, with all my peers aiming to top the class; this then led to the non-existence of a comprehensive coding culture. I was extremely inquisitive and tried out my hand at several different things.
I got hooked to coding in my quest for knowledge, but the coding culture became an impediment. But soon enough, I found a group of coding enthusiasts, and together, we started our journey into the world of competitive coding. Much to our surprise, we secured an all-India rank 1 in our first competition itself. From there, there was no looking back.
After this, I participated in several other competitions throughout my college life. I certainly believe that my peer group has had much to do with my initial venture into coding. I always knew I wanted to make a career in this field. As a researcher and backend developer, coding has been intrinsically connected to my work at my current company, Intuit.
Even during my college days and later, when I started working, I could sense the void brought about by the lack of a mentor in my life. I love mentoring because I never had a mentor myself, someone who could guide me about my professional path, someone who could advise me on my career decisions.
As a part of a project at my company, I was provided with the opportunity of mentoring women engineers from all around India, which was one of my early initiatives in mentoring, and to this date, it remains a project I am incredibly proud of.
My association with Scaler has been a long one; I used to myself practice on InterviewBit in my college days. So when they approached me with this opportunity of being able to mentor young coding enthusiasts, I was extremely elated as mentoring has always fascinated me in ways more than one.
The highlight of my mentorship has been witnessing the growth and progress of my mentees. Their stories have been so inspiring and have served as my motivation for furthering my efforts.
I believe this mentorship has helped me learn tremendously and grow as a professional. In all its totality, my journey as a mentor has been reflective of these words by Oprah Winfrey, “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”
