So what if you didn’t get into an IIT
Hello Medium
In the world of computer science, that I identify myself with, introductions begin with ‘Hello World’ (We don’t always talk in 1s and 0s). As this happens to be my very first post on medium, I couldn’t help the salutation up there.
Coming back to the the topic, this is a peek into my undergraduate journey which taught me a lot about dreams, career and the world. After some time-travel, I’ll boomerang back to the present in this post, hoping that a few readers might begin to feel a little optimistic.
Side Note: Since the title may seem a little out of context to readers from outside India, I’d like to take the liberty of clarifying that an IIT (or Indian Institute of Technology) is the equivalent of MIT or an Ivy League in the USA.
STORY BEGINS…
Back in 2012 (Ah! I feel old already), I was geared up for a change in my life. School to college was a big transition and I wanted nothing but the best. Like 5 million other students who were to take the national joint entrance examination that year, I had my eyes perched on one of the 9600 seats that the IITs all over India had to offer. I backed myself on my last two years of preparation and 7 years of topping the school. Little did I know about Murphy’s Law and the taste of failure.
Results arrived and I didn’t make it.
Because I had no backup plans, not only was I distraught but also stooped low in self-esteem. I began to think I was incapable. In India, cultures and societies have a little different perspective towards education. I wouldn’t say it hasn’t improved over the years but students still face a lot of peer pressure because getting an admit in a prestigious institution, especially the IITs is a matter of societal reputation for families. School toppers are almost always expected to crack the examination without accounting for their interests and goals in life. Engineering is still a big deal in India, it’s viewed as a necessity for a happy life.
Consequently, I ended up in what most people would consider a 2nd or 3rd tier engineering college according to national rankings. The only solace I had was my branch (or major) — Computer Science. I was going to study something I loved.
REPRISAL
After almost a year of bickering with myself over my failures, l came to the realization that this was not the end. I reminisced that I had harbored a dream in my childhood when I was new to the computers and loved tinkering with PowerPoint to make animations. That dream was to work in the Silicon Valley, see the birthplace of computing innovations for myself and make my own contributions to it. I said to myself, “I’m gonna go there, no matter what.” What followed were hours of introspection.
ACTIONS
I began to plan my semesters. I had developed an interest in digital illustrations and gravitated towards the Adobe Creative Suite. The idea of creating artworks digitally and animating them fascinated me (for I loved to sketch). The tools I wanted to work with weren’t a part of my curriculum. I realized that not all the courses that were offered in engineering would be helpful for me. Therefore, I switched to online learning. From software to languages and theoretical concepts to practical applications, I could almost find anything that I wanted to learn. I prepared a list of the available sites and began my training.
Online Learning (List updated with latest resources)
- Bitfountain.io — http://bitfountain.io/courses
- Code.org — https://code.org/
- CodeHS — https://codehs.com/
- CodeSchool — https://www.codeschool.com/
- Codecademy — https://www.codecademy.com/
- Codewars — https://www.codewars.com/
- Coursera — https://www.coursera.org/
- Creative Live — https://www.creativelive.com/
- Dash — https://dash.generalassemb.ly/
- EDX — https://www.edx.org/
- Freecodecamp — https://www.freecodecamp.com/
- GA Dash — https://dash.generalassemb.ly/
- Kelby One — https://kelbyone.com/
- Khan Academy — https://www.khanacademy.org/
- Laracasts — https://laracasts.com/
- Learnerstv — http://www.learnerstv.com/
- Lynda — https://www.lynda.com/
- MIT Open Courseware — https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
- Pluralsight — https://www.pluralsight.com/
- Seanwes — https://seanwes.com/
- SkillShare — https://www.skillshare.com/
- Skilledup — http://www.skilledup.com/
- Stackskills — https://stackskills.com/
- The Odin Project — http://www.theodinproject.com/
- Total Training — https://totaltraining.com/
- Treehouse — https://teamtreehouse.com/
- Tutorialzine — http://tutorialzine.com/
- Tutsplus — https://tutsplus.com/
- Udacity — https://www.udacity.com/
- Udemy — https://www.udemy.com/
Side Note: You can check out the article below in case you are looking for free resources to learn coding
My list may seem skewed in favor of coding courses, but if you scan them perhaps you’ll find courses on learning a guitar as well. My Top 5 however, were — Lynda, Codeschool, EDX, Coursera and Khan Academy. I focused my training on Adobe Creative Suite, Web Development and Theoretical Computer Science.
Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.
Keeping Beethoven's words in mind, I devoted my hours to gaining knowledge and studying trends in the industry while putting my leanings to practice. Fledgling steps aren’t the easiest though. My initial designs seemed like a mess to me and looking up artworks on Behance and Dribbble only dampened my spirits. However, I tredded on.
EXTRAS
While online learning was taking the forefront, I had to make sure I didn’t sacrifice my grades. Diligently attending the classes and sparing enough time for preparation before exams, helped me with my academic performance. I participated in extra-curricular activities such as inter college competitions on coding and public speaking and managed to win a few. I took them as a practice of communication and presentation which would help me in the longer run. By Sophomore(Second) year, I had engaged in a club(Google Students Committee) where I could get some experience working on graphics for print and web media, and organizing events. The second half of my Sophomore year was spent in preparing for GRE as I wanted to pursue my Master’s from the US. The time for hunting internships had also arrived by then and I began working on my resume by assembling my course and club projects. Reviewing my resume was essential to make sure it was tailored to the employers’ needs. Looking at the job descriptions helped me in planning the skills I had to garner before applying. Although I could not learn all of them, 60% of what the job required was my target. By the beginning of junior(Third) year, I started applying for internships and freelancing opportunities, sending 5 applications every week. I’ve captured the details of what goes into the preparations before applying for a job in another article, in case you are interested.
Internships
- Angel.co — https://angel.co/
- Glassdoor — https://www.glassdoor.com/
- Indeed — https://www.indeed.com/
- Internshala (India) — https://internshala.com/
- LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/
- Letsintern (India) — http://www.letsintern.com/
- Twenty19 (India) — http://www.twenty19.com/
- WayUp — https://www.wayup.com/
Freelancing
- 99Designs — https://99designs.com/
- Design Crowd — https://www.designcrowd.com/
- Freelancer — https://www.freelancer.com/
- Fiverr — https://www.fiverr.com/
- Guru — http://www.guru.com/
- Toptal — https://www.toptal.com/
- Upwork — https://www.upwork.com/
ESCALATION
After several failed attempts to get an internship, I finally managed to get a work-from-home remote role at a startup that I could do while continuing my education in college. Before starting the role I had taken my GRE to make sure that I had enough time to build work experience on my resume. It acted like a catalyst and my hard work started paying off. Thereafter, I went on to work with three more startups, working full-time during breaks and part-time during semesters. I also took the TOEFL during the second half of my junior year to complete all the requirements for applying to universities in the US. By the end of my engineering (Senior year), I was already working full-time with a start-up that had called me in to join the very next day of last exam. While waiting for my results of admission in the master’s program, I was offered 4 full-time roles (3 via LinkedIn and 1 via Campus Recruitment). Once again the universities I targeted were one of the best (CMU, UMD, UW, Indiana, Georgia Tech), but this time I had a fallback— job offers. I was adamant that I would go to the US only if I get to study what I want to. Human-Computer Interaction wasn’t well known in India, and US universities had one of the best educational programs to offer in the world. The only programs I applied to were MS-HCI. I knew the competition was going to be tough, this was a global level after all. I got rejected by all five of those listed above but finally, there was an acceptance email glowing in my inbox. RIT it was, not the best but certainly an improvement over where I was coming from. Above all, it was a dream come true. From a small city in India to the USA for pursuing higher education, sounds like a fairy-tale.
PRESENT DAY
As I type the final sentences of this post, hoping that some of you are still awake, I’m preparing for my upcoming UX Research Intern role with Motorola Solutions at Chicago, Illinois. I understand that this is an obnoxious amount of self-promotion and I usually don’t share much, but after talking to people, especially peers and juniors, I felt that there is a lot of despair among shining talents who are dragged down by competition. I just wanted to convey that behind every success there are a lot of failures, it’s all about learning from them. Get up from the ground if you fall, dust off and get ready to kick-ass because this is a huge world that has a special space for everyone. Never stop looking !
