Announcing My Future Plans

Talking about my studies, work and blogging. Also, a brief on Infodaily and the Journal of Knowledge podcast.

There is something that stood outside both my journal article as well as my graduation article, ie. What is going to happen? What is my future plan? What I am gonna do? These have been important questions I have faced ever since I got into the fourth year. Since it was a pandemic time, I didn’t meet many, and thus the eagerness amongst people was low.

Even I didn’t have a crystal clear answer. In the third year itself, I clearly didn’t want to sit for placements and not seek an IT job. I had lost interest in the course and also didn’t like IT work and culture much. So the idea of pursuing M. Tech. was out of the table. I was not too fond of a static corporate job. I am also not fond of business, finance or management, so I wouldn’t say I liked MBA.

A small throwback

When the pandemic was raging, and colleges went online. The situation was almost heaven-like for me. I had found relief in moving out of college stress and more time to focus on other things. Then after a brief break, the last year of bachelor life started online. I am a fan of remote learning, and I was sure that I didn’t want to go back to college at least till the end of 2020.

It is not that I hated the subject or the course or college, but something was not right. It might be because of the syllabus, the outdated stuff; it may also be how teachers taught, the university problems or even how the exams were. The college wasn’t also so great, and the campus wasn’t much active, activities occurred only on weekends that too rarely. So it was a monotonous college.

Till school, I was a person who was overdependent on the class; most of my studies used to be over in the class; after that, just reading once would have made me understand the subject well. In college, most of the lectures were very dull and I didn’t have proper materials. The only set of subjects I enjoyed was Mathematics, OS, POM, Business Economics, Life Skills, Network Security, Distributed and Cloud Computing.

Most of the students depended on online notes, slides, question papers etc. I became a self-learner; I experimented with different ways to chase down a subject. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I am not a great student; I didn’t have good marks, nor was I a prodigy in any subject. But I loved learning, exploring topics, finding materials to read, watching something informative, and gaining knowledge. Sometimes it's not about the subject but the teaching method that we find subjects hard or untouchable.

Coming back to my fourth year, I informed at home that I would not sit for Campus Placements; instead, I will try for JNU, one of Asia’s top research universities in various domains. I also brought a book to learn the syllabus for the Entrance Exam. It was a shock to me that my parents approved this idea of mine.

Also, I made a condition that I will sit for placements only on Non-tech companies. I made Byjus the company which I was aiming for. It's an ed-company that teaches Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Commerce, etc. to School students. I loved to teach. Even now I love to teach. Give me a maths problem, love to explain how to solve it. They also pay well compared to counterparts.

In my fourth year, I didn’t like lectures despite there being a couple of interesting topics. I used that time to do online courses on Coursera and Udemy. Also, I had decided to do an Honours degree, so I had to self learn one extra subject and two MOOC courses from Swayam-NPTEL. So apart from all these, I had to stay engaged with all these.

I didn’t attend the first few placement drives, but I saw some of my classmates getting placed; automatically, there was pressure on me directly or indirectly. Even my parents started getting infuriated for not doing it. Also, the chances of getting admitted to JNU is less than getting admitted to IIT. So situation forced me to sit for placements.

I honestly didn’t prepare for placements other than the tests which were provided by Training Cell. I did have good communication skills, so I was entirely dependent on that. My technical knowledge was below average. I just knew basic C and Python apart from the CSE syllabus. A lot of times, I didn’t even pass the test round. Once I got out a technical interview round because the questions were out of my scope and two times from the HR round for reasons I don’t know.

The saddest part of the entire stretch was I couldn’t get Deloitte and Byjus, the only two non-tech companies coming for placements. That was almost like Waterloo for me. Either I had to make sure that I should get into an IT company or I should secure my seat for studies. My parents asked me to get placed in at least one IT company and keep it as a backup option. I had to agree to this.

Despite the majority of my friends and classmates getting placed, the best part was that I never had to see or meet them. I never had to feel sad or inferior about myself because of that. Personally, I was calm and composed. I didn’t fear anything; my aim was only to get out of engineering as soon as possible.

I had my S7 exams in February-March held offline. It went fine per se; my faith was a bit restored in academics. I could learn even a week before and pass the exam. In April, the notification for Infosys pool placement came up. It is a well-reputed IT firm in India. I signed up for the same and also cleared the technical round.

The month of April was gone with concerns of second-wave while it was important for me due to state elections. In the last week, all of my family members were infected with COVID.

My interview was in the first week of May. I got infected with COVID-19 on May 1st. I attended the interview when I was sick. The interview was fine, not so good but I answered a lot of questions asked. A lot of programming and Linux questions were asked. I hoped to get a place at least here because this was one of my last options. The placement drives were also wrapping up.

When I was sick, had also encountered another interesting drive, that was from Cavli Wireless, a startup based in San Jose but has its important office in Kochi, India. It is a company that deals with IoT, Networks etc. The post is for Content Marketing, and the guide showed a lot of familiar topics for me.

I am an enthusiastic blogger on politics, IR, and Technology. IEEE and IETE made me an excellent technical writer. So, I applied here despite my pending Infosys status. I also loved digital marketing as I had my blogs, podcast, also had some practical experience.

The first task was a few writing and marketing questions. I was the only one from college who had passed the writing test. The interview was conducted by my school alumni and CMO, he was really joyful and chill. He merely looked at my Quora profile, Medium profile and asked me about my writing journey. He didn’t care about my marks or technical knowledge. He also gave me a writing an article task to evaluate my writing skills.

A few days after the submission, I directly got a response from them as a call. I was selected. They confirmed my recruitment and seat unofficially. After a few days, I was preparing for the second internals of my final semester. I got the news that I was also short-listed for Infosys. So I got two offers. I didn’t feel anything special, no excitement or anything.

I was then in confusion, from I don’t want to sit for placements to having two placements offers at hand. I wasn’t still sure what I was going to do. Both the jobs were giving similar pay packages, and I also didn’t have any time to think if I would accept and proceed with the same or not. I finally made up my mind and decided to opt for Cavli Wireless; at least I am giving importance to my passion and happiness. It wasn’t the highest paying job available, but that was something I wanted to do.

At the same time, time was running for me to make a decision with respect to what I will do after my engineering. As I mentioned before, I had the plan to write the JNU entrance exam, but given that there is no chance for me to get admitted, I had no option but to look for alternatives. Also, I had to decide what I would do with the job offer. My parents now favoured the idea of for opting higher studies at last.

I started to apply for various colleges and universities, which are backup options to JNU. I shortlisted some top universities for the same, mostly private. Even on the day of my birthday, I had to fill up forms and collects my mark lists. Meanwhile, I also had to prepare for the final end sem exams.

I dediced to work on a placement guide for Engineering students.

I had a plan to start working and go until I get admission somewhere, so I didn’t drop my job offer and started onboarding as soon as possible. The exams were okayish; I will cover more about that in my next journal article. I also had interviews to attend for various universities and confirm admission.

I was happy that I got cleared in all the interviews participated, and thus, I landed in a tough situation for deciding which one to finalise. I only had a limited time frame to confirm, so I had a hard time finalising it. I had to look into testimonials, talk to people, talk with alumni, etc. Thus, in the end, I am happy to announce that I was admitted to Christ University, Bangalore, for Masters in International Studies (IR with Area studies). An extended orientation is over, and the classes are around halfway now.

What does this mean?

I have changed my stream of learning for obvious reasons; I believe this course will help me attain knowledge, give me more time to explore, and steer my focus while enhancing my present skills, especially in Politics and International Relations writing and blogging.

With this, I also hope to increase the standard of my blogs here on medium and elsewhere. Essential lessons like going through research papers, news articles, especially from an academic point of view.

The classes have started already; the schedule is a bit hectic, the college seems a bit strict. Even if this is a full-time two-year programme, I believe I will have enough time for blogging and things I am passionate about. The campus is already open, and they have called for students to return, so it's clear that I will have to pack up soon.

What do I like and dislike here?

It has been a few weeks since I have been studying at the new University. What I like here itself is the reason that made me choose this place. The syllabus and the structure of the programme are beginner-friendly, especially for a person migrating from another course or those who don’t have a good academic background.

There are a lot of opportunities as well activities that can help you outside studies too. The main highlight associated here is the city of Bangalore, where the university is based. Coming to dislikes, I feel that the University is strict, and their schedule is hectic. Here Saturdays are also working, which really makes me uncomfortable. I will talk more about my new college and college life in a later article.

Did I leave my job?

I worked for two weeks helping the company full-time. After that, I informed them of my change in plans. I felt so sorry to my boss and the company for the effort they put into hiring and onboarding me. They were a bit disheartened at first because they had a lot of expectations and also had appreciated my works. I visited the office and made a plan. I agreed to do contract work with the company, moreover like a freelancer.

They offered me decent pay, at the same time, I could continue with my work and studies. Also, the payment hopefully will be enough to pay my college fees and look after my minor expenses. However, that will not suffice any of my costs if the college starts offline.

I did like a lot of aspects of the work. The company focuses on IoT and peripherals. IoT and smart devices excite me, and the fact that was writing blogs for the company, I understood that there are a lot of overlapping fields of interest. GPS, 5G, Supply Chain, etc., also have a lot of political and international repercussions; thus, I could easily relate with both fields and the interplay happening.

Why higher studies and not a full-time job?

In India and elsewhere, there is a perception that you must go for a job and get settled in your life after your bachelors. As per the 2011 census, only 4.5% are graduates, and those who proceed for postgraduate is minimal. Should everyone take the same path? I hope not.

I believe I have good aptitude in learning, understanding, and also good academic aptitude. At least that was the inference I got from four years of bachelors. I am also a big fan of self-learning and remote learning. I also like freelance and remote working.

Did I make the right decision? Only time will tell, I will get the result, by early 2023.

I am not a fan of corporate jobs. Also, I believe that if you are seeking to quit a company for sure then don’t join it. From studies to a job, this transition is going to be hard for many; also another transition back to academics if you’re opting for the same is again going to be hard. The more time you take to change and understand yourself, the harder it is going to be for changing your career.

Getting admitted to a job, onboarding, working, then checking whether this job is fit for you, then quitting, all of this is indeed challenging. Most people do leave their first job, and either changing jobs or opting for higher studies is the new trend. There will also be some inertia if you stick on with something, especially if it's a job that pays you well. You will stick along with money and not improve on your career.

So everything is up to you, and I have made a decision. There are no right or wrong ways of doing it. Just do what fits you the best. Don’t try to copy someone else just because it sounds fancy.

What about blogging?

It will be an injustice if at all I don’t address this here. Blogging is currently an important part of my life. There is no way I guess it can be separated from me. With new plans, the schedule might get tight. Currently, one post per week is my frequency. It is impossible for me to have it more frequently than that because of the amount of research and thoughts that are to be added to each article. Medium has brought a lot of good things into my life. I am also using this as an opportunity to announce that I have got 2000 followers on medium, that too, I gained 500 followers solely from this month.

Despite that, I have come up with Newscapsule for Fortnight starting from July and a monthly news capsule on medium. Every month there is also a podcast release and a technical article release. All these are the main focus. In addition to that, there are more exciting things in the plan. Stay updated to make maximum use of all these. I hope you all will support me in my venture.

To sum up, a new change, a new type of life, a new city and hundreds of things to explore at the same time lot of things to carry forward that I am doing at present. To everyone confused about what you want to do, remember that you should do what your mind says. Follow your passion and not copy someone else. Put value and happiness you get ahead of salary or mere monetary gain. (I am not asking you to stay underpaid). Have something beyond academics, have a passion, some activity, etc. I got placed because of my Quora and Medium profile. So anything will work for you.

I hope I have made a wise decision, and whatever be the consequences, I’ll have to wait and watch. Also, I hope you like my works and will continue to support me and my results. Stay connected for exciting blogs.

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