Episode — 1

PK from KEC is on air now, the very first session of the talk show highlighted various questions from different angles, perspectives, and mindsets. I feel very grateful to the audience for joining me in the initiative and participating with full enthusiasm. Below I am sharing some highlights of the show, various questions that I can relate to my story.

A glimpse of questions in the first session :

Sharing the highlights of several questions that were asked during the episode.

1. Is it the right decision to make a career in the domain or field which is different from the branch you have chosen for your studies? I always ask myself this question and think that how difficult this will be for me to make my career in another domain?
   If I relate that with my experience, initially, I did not like much coding, in spite of that I was more interested in creating meaningful things. When I got to know about the process of building software, it started fascinating me, and I began to take more interest in the process. When I saw my creations can be utilized by the world, I got more into Software development and things started happening accordingly. Coding from which I used to run away, then became a companion to make things happen. In my case, it was nothing out of my domain or field, but I think once you get the right fit that interests you the most, skills and other requirements start fulfilling accordingly, that worked for me at least..!! To add more to it, I can only say there are many people from different streams, following different career paths successfully. One of my teammates at ColoredCow is the design lead and he is from mechanical engineering and is successfully mentoring people across the world in product design.
2. How much knowledge of the subject should we have to start our career in that field?
   Sharing my experience, I wanted to pursue a career in Software Engineering and knew a very basic level of coding in C, C++, and python language (always used to think learning everything would make me the best). I used to do basic hacker rank and CodeChef puzzles. I came to know about how actually Software Development happens through ColoredCow during my internship, and I got to know it’s not about how much knowledge you have, it’s about finding the right mentorship and appropriate match in what you want to do. What I have experienced is that knowledge comes gradually with integrity in the field.
3. As a final year student, if I didn’t know anything about coding still, what are career options available for me in the particular stream?
   Initially, in my journey, I used to feel the same. I used to take a lot of loads that I can build logic, but I can’t code. During the third year, several thoughts use to come to my mind, whether the CS branch is made for me or not. I didn’t see Software Engineering would be my suitable choice of career to make. When I joined the internship at ColoredCow, the very first thing I understood is that it’s not actually about coding only. It’s about solving meaningful problems using whatever knowledge you have. Coding became a tool for me to build something and trust me I learned most of it during that time itself. From my experience, I would say, every career option is available to pursue if you are integrated with that. Until I explored the industry, I usually thought the same. I realized things that interest me the most can be achieved by Software Engineering. Once, I believed that I started building up my resume accordingly. Probably that’s what is required, exploring the area of interest and crafting your portfolio in the same. It’s never too late, but once you realize something, kill the delay and just go for it. That worked for me, maybe it can work for you as well.
4. Can you describe KEC and its beauty and what it meant to you?
   In terms of physical beauty, KEC is full of greenery, a wide campus with the beautiful architecture of buildings. It had acceptance for me, I never felt like it's going to be a 4-year journey, indeed it had a spirit of binding and connecting people. The college environment used to be very peaceful and calm, very supportive for deep thoughts. It has the power to connect people and bind them for eternity. It feels like whenever I would get to see KEC again, it would be the same attachment it feels while talking about it. I mean, the topic is too vast to be covered in words, but it gave lots of opportunities to think about building something, creating something. In the same quest, I used to visualize my dream career. It’s like when I am not surrounded by distractions, I can think more, that’s the very best thing about KEC which I used to feel.
5. How/when should I decide for further studies (M.tech/ GRE) after Graduation.
   Actually, I do not have a perfect answer to that question, maybe I never experienced that way, because whatever I dreamt about my career, I didn’t feel a need to go for higher graduation. To pursue my career as a Software Engineer, I felt an urgent need to get exposed to the real world, where Computer Science studies and principles actually get implemented, that’s where I started looking for an internship and landed in ColoredCow via CodeTrek. Since then, I worked to get better into that area itself. Our experts say that if there is a deep desire to research on core concepts of a domain, then higher education is preferred. Most of the people including me are not from IITs or other prestigious colleges, but some of us feel like we can get the IITian tag through higher education (even I felt that while exploring career paths for me). They mentioned it’s not about going to IIT or IIM for being successful. Instead of that explore your passion and start building your resume right after the moment you realize that’s what you want to achieve. I followed the same approach, started from less, tending to build more and adding more value to my profile.
6. What is the importance of failure in one’s success?
   To be very honest, I failed many times during my career path to get better. The very first incident, when I was given an event management software to build using Laravel, and I wasn’t well aware of PHP even. I accepted that it’s not my level and started working on basic PHP exercises. It’s not like, basic one went up in the blink of an eye. I tried making architecture for the project, got rejected the first time, and got feedback to get better. In 15 days, I was able to make the project architecture and it was a success for me. Then I started building the project, failing again in various reviews, got feedback, refined myself, and got better gradually. It’s not like I am perfect today, even at the present days, I fail at a lot of places, then comes the acceptance and the feedback loop, the iteration which helps me get better and better. Our experts say, there are two kinds of failures, one which is extreme where you have no control over things (maybe natural incidents), and the other where you fail, you get appropriate feedback and learning, you get better and better gradually. I believe making mistakes and failing makes you better.

Conclusion:

It was quite an interactive session and thank you all for the enthusiastic participation. All the questions seem quite natural and genuine. Waiting to hear out more from you guys. I will be meeting everyone on Thursday at 4:30 pm right here in PK from KEC, on the same link that I shared in the ‘announcement’ episode. I got to learn a lot many things from the first session and excited to take it forward with you guys.

All the questions are much appreciated.