My walk to the IT Park
When did I get started with computer? It was after my 10th standard results. I told my father that “I’m interested in accounts, so I will opt for commerce in higher secondary” but it was readily rejected as expected. Very next moment he suggested biology group and peruse medicine as my degree. Followed by an hour long advice to explain what’s benefactor of being a doctor is. But I strongly objected it. Finally we negotiated for computer science group. Seriously that’s how I landed in computer science. Later, it eventually took me to the engineering degree too.
After making up my mind for the computer science + science over computer science + commerce, my dad signed me up for a C, HTML and Java (these were the predominant syllabus in the higher secondary course) at SSI, Anna Nagar. This is where I started to learn programming is possible with my desktop at my home. Now, I wonder my level of maturity which I had for my first day class at SSI. My faculty’s name was Joe and he was an engineer that’s all I know about him even today.
The night before my first day at SSI, I was very anxious, restless and nervous too. I was raised as a kid who fears nothing, other than my dad. But this computer science gave me the first stir in my tummy. I will never forget that feel, when I walked my step to the floors of the training institute I was dreaming of the infrastructure. I was expecting a bunch of people with very formal attire in front of the systems as seen in the films. But all those things were not there. I reached the reception and handed over my receipt to the lady who was seated there. She pointed a door to me and she told “classes had started few minutes back”. I took the receipt back from her and I walked to the door. Once again some sort of fright was holding me back.
I opened the door and asked for permission to enter the room, that’s when I saw my faculty Joe for the first time. I took a count of heads in the class, it was very easy. Including me it was counted 5. Joe sir shook hands and gave a seat. I was quite familiar with the faces in my class, most of them were from my school. He started with a short brief about him and continued with the introduction to HTML. My first day was quite peaceful after that.
As we progressed, we started getting assignments and assessments. That kept me busy for the rest of my summer vacation. Then, I discovered that “I’m good in programming”. I installed C in the desktop at my home to run the programs and show the output to my family. They were all quite happy.
Next two years passed, and the next round table conference happened at my home to decide upon my degree. I had too many dreams and aspirations. My first aspiration was to join defence or civil service. I was confident to tell my dad that “I wanted to enrol for BCA course at Loyola College”, so that I can have some time to prepare towards my aspirations. But this was also rejected in the conference and I was assigned to the engineering stream. This was decided even before the conference had started. Unknowingly, I was a stupid member seated. This engineering was decided as my degree by my dad, since he is an engineer from Anna University. There is an unwritten rule in India, a doctor’s kid must become a doctor, and an engineer’s kid may be a doctor or an engineer (at least). This rule was applied on me by my family without my consent. So this is how my plane was landed into engineering.
Choice of the branch in engineering, there was another conference at my home to decide on it. Unfortunately, it was also pre decided. I suggested for Civil/ Mechanical. But my dad came up with Computer science as the IT industry was booming in India. We had enormous scale of recruitments happening in Indian IT industry.
And the next bang for me was in the choice of college. Even more a bigger bang came in my way in the form of hostel enrollment. I was doomed by that choice at first, but later on enjoyed it to the core.
I was in the year 2005, I started my “Mission College”. And I was battling the engineering wars and I won at most of it in the years that followed. The ultimate goal of the Mission College was to capture “Campus Placement”. During my pre final year, our college management enrolled us in a special training program for tackling the various hurdles in the capture of campus placement.
The day came, where I had to face the campus placement face to face. In first few attempts I failed due to some technical problems at various levels. It was my 5th attempt, I settled down for a two and half hours aptitude exam. On clearing it, one and half hours of technical interview happened and I was asked to wait for the results. After waiting for an hour a placement co coordinator asked me to leave for the day. I was wrecked and started to move out. As I started, my friend came running to say “Machi, HR is calling you for the discussion”. I was confused but happy, I rushed to placement officer to know the actual status and it was worth waiting for an hour, I cleared the technical interview too. I somehow managed my temper not to thrash that coordinator’s face as that could force me loose all that I have earned till now. And I moved in the queue for leading to HR discussion. I was done with the HR interview at 5:30 PM and I was waiting for the final results. With a good morning note at 2:00 AM next day the HRs came out with final list of people selected in the process. And the mission was accomplished.
I rushed home to tell the news. My dad and mom came together to welcome me at the gate, they were extremely existed on the news. Then the next day my department HOD called us to congratulate on clearing process. He told it’s very hard to clear that company’s recruitment process. I felt proud of it. And then the days passed, I was done with the course and our college life came to an end in 2009. Even though it was my dad’s choice to put me in an engineering degree, it was painful for me to leave the college life.
During the last few months of year 2008, we got to know some strange terms like “global economy melt down”, “Jobs cuts in IT industry”, etc. After signing the offer letters I was quite confident of getting the date of joining, bit late than expected. The real thunder fell on to me then, we received our regret letters after 2 months of our last day of our exams. We gathered at our college to meet our placement officer, but of no use. The company’s decision was final, the offers was withdrawn. I was broken into bits, my dreams started dropping as tears that night. I and my family were completely clueless on our next course of action. Since we least expected this to happen.
My unemployed days were really irritating and dull. Yes it was the day when many small companies turned out of business and converting them as training institutions and placement training centers. My batch was a big catch for their hooks. I attended almost 50+ fake interviews and brain washing sessions to convince me to take courses with them. In the mean time I gave out interviews for skill sets which I didn’t have at that point in time. I even got some process executive job, basically non technical. But I wanted to do some justice to my passion, yes a technical job. My dad came up with an idea to invest my time and his money in a training program at NIIT. That turned my life.
At NIIT, I met few like minded people approaching life very positively, wanting to have a job. My batch was of size 6, comprising 2 boys including me. We shared a good camaraderie in our team. Especially with Lakshmikanth, many stretched days at the lab, cruising bike rides, project works and so on.
He was my buddy, during the worst days in my life. Off campus fresher recruitment of the IT industry picked up towards the end of the course. My buddy made it into CTS. I was happy for him, but even more worried for me. Few days later, my team mate’s sister who was working for Mindtree informed us about the fresher recruitment that was about to happen at Bangalore.
I travelled to Bangalore for the selection process. My friends were there in Bangalore for their training at Wipro, I stayed with them. I met them all after a long time. I reached a day before and was anxiously waiting. The next day, I some home managed to reach the place where the selection was about to happen. I reached earlier than planned; it was a pre university college at Field Marshal Cariappa road. I found a queue outside the gate. I walked to the last guy in the queue and check for the details and stood behind him. When I joined the queue I didn’t know that I was in a 500+ sized queue. Yes it was a very long queue to reach the panel which gave the details form. I collected the form and I randomly moved into room. I found my NIIT team mate seated in the room filling the forms, I sat next to her and started with my form. After which the aptitude assessment started. I was confident after the assessment. I turned back to my friends place after the day’s process. I was anxious to see the result in the mail. I got the mail by 10:00 PM, I was shortlisted. The next day, I rushed to same college for the technical discussion. I was very excited and my heart beat rose while I was in the queue to the technical panel. The technical interview went on well. I got a positive feedback from the panel. After the process I returned back to my friend’s place and we all partied that night.
The next day I started to Chennai, on my way back my dad called me to say that I was selected. I was happy; immediately my friend called and told that she was also selected. After 2 days, I came back to Bangalore to sign the offer letter. I joined in Mindtree, after 10 days of signing my offer.
So, this is how my IT life started.
After which there was lot of tough days and mammoth amount of learning. Enjoying IT life to the core in its own way.
