IIT — The dream and beyond | Part — 1
Back in 2016, June 12th, I was glued to my computer screen anticipating my JEE Advanced results. I wasn’t particularly confident of getting a good rank and in turn securing a seat at one of the premier institutes of the country but then I had hope. A fortunate turn of events fetched me a seat at IIT (BHU) in the Department of Pharmaceutics.
In the week prior to the result declaration date, I was an ardent devotee who, like many during their troubled times, found solace in the almighty. It wasn’t that I believed my prayers would fetch me a good rank but it was for providing me with the strength to confront my family, taking the results on their chin. The last year wasn’t really kind on us — we are a joint family and my grandfather had passed away last June almost during the similar time, I had dropped out of a good college, my 12th marks weren’t up to the mark and although I had cleared a very challenging version of JEE in 2015, my rank then highlighted my laziness more than my capabilities.
I was fortunate enough to be amidst some special friends who in 2015, had not only got seats in the top IITs but also in the most sought after branches (read, Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics). I made it a point to sit and listen to them every time they came home during their vacations. It was definitely intimidating and every time they spoke of their experiences, I watched in disbelief. Their caricatures not only reflected how the “IIT” experience shapes individuals but also sowed dreams in my mind.
When I was accepted into IIT (BHU), I was grateful. The IIT dream was alive and kicking. I knew my peers would be phenomenal. I always longed to learn from the experiences of people — what drives them, what shapes them, what do they believe in, what makes them leave their bed every morning (well this was comical; more often than not what gets engineers out of their beds is the fear of failing a course because of lack of attendance :P).
On the eve of my departure for IIT (BHU), I met all my friends to seek some suggestions on how to make the best of out my time there. One of my long-standing friends told me what he had heard and has since never forgotten from his first year of engineering at IIT Kgp: The IIT experience will lead you into a forest, from where you will spend the next years finding and paving your way ahead. After almost six semesters, I’ve come to appreciate the aptness of the statement.
I’ve divided my experiences of the freshman year in college into various episodes.
Episode 1: The early days of the Freshman Year
I arrived at IIT (BHU) a verdant freshman, passionate about intellectual simulations, excited by challenges, and cautiously aiming for a branch change after the end of my freshman year (something which almost every IITian majoring in a non-core stream aspires). My major was Pharmaceutical Engineering, and I was no different.
Although I was fascinated by the elegant complexity of how a simple DNA double helix can dictate the creation of an entire human being or how a chemical structure built by organic and inorganic molecules spur your antigens to fight even the most life-threatening diseases, I was more of a generalist driven by execution.
As I spent my freshman year taking compulsory academic courses, there was always a part of me which always searched for opportunities to do something more. I was (and still am) embarrassed by my JEE rank. I wanted to prove that I was better than my undergraduate major and a rank I secured after completing a 6-hour exam.
To satiate my thirst for doing things and just confining my knowledge to the textbooks, I was very clear I wanted to do an internship — not something like content writing/marketing/operations but something which stretches my experience and helps me understand my core discipline better.
Episode 2: Winter Internship at Pfizer Inc.
With some networking and a bit of luck, I found my first lucky break. I was offered the opportunity to intern at one of the biggest biopharmaceutical giants (a Fortune 100 company) in the world. I was not sure of the profile or the team I would be working in. I had no idea what was in store for me.
I was supposed to work in the Supply Chain division, the stuff of mechanical engineers. I was literally clueless about what to anticipate. Turns out that was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
They say the first internship experience is always transformational. I was skeptical of this at first, but after staying away from family and friends, traveling long hours, wearing formals, working on things where you’re on your own, managing money, ensuring you sleep well and on-time so that you’re recharged for another grueling day ahead leave you as a changed person.
Working in a corporate teaches you a lot — in a big brand name you’ve got limitless freedom. There are dedicated researchers working on potential life-altering scientific breakthroughs; there are operational experts ensuring everything manufactured in the plant reaches the patients anywhere in the world in time, and then there are management consultants who are hired for the sole purpose of identifying bottlenecks deriving actionable insights subsequently.
While it is difficult to enter into a lab and ask a researcher to grab a coffee, it is easier to trace them down during the lunch break. The manufacturing experts, on the other hand, are inside facilities entering which would require you to dress like an astronaut first. Ironically, the consultants are the ones with a lot of free time, but it is incredibly difficult for you to engage in a conversation with them without being baffled by the enormous knowledge the have amassed or their $1000 suit (and they have one for every day of the week).
Getting the privilege to interact with as often as you like and come across several of them would not be listed in the perks/benefits section and won’t be a part of your internship job description, but it is imperative for you to understand and leverage this.
The colleagues and mentors at Pfizer were some of the best people I’ve met in my life. I managed to connect with them, impress them with my work ethic and built strong connections which I cherish even till date. I got a strong Letter of Recommendation from my team, and I was really content with what I had done.
Episode 3: The Hult Prize
It was towards the end of 2016 I received an email which read “Congratulations…”. I was returning to my hometown post my internship, and I was pleasantly surprised.
I and my team comprising of only freshmen were selected among 54 teams across the country as wildcards to compete in the national finals of The Hult Prize. Though the quality of the event has diluted over the last couple of years, winning the global finals (the prize money is $1 mn dollars, and it is held at the UN HQ at New York chaired by Bill Clinton) is considered equivalent to winning the Noble Prize for students.
I can write a single account describing my experience with the Hult Prize but I am omitting some of the deets as it is not relevant to the context of this blog post.
Owing to some misunderstandings, the team dissolved and I had the task of assembling a team which would want to compete with only six days to go for the event. As they say, everything happens for a reason. From being wildcards, we ended up winning the national finals beating teams from other IITs and IIMs. The panel of judges for the finals included a billionaire and many top executives of renowned MNCs (one of them is the COO of Microsoft India today).
At the risk of overselling myself; I would like to mention — at the time, I was (and hopefully still am) the youngest winner of the national finals.
As a privilege, we got the chance to represent the college and the country in one of the five cities hosting the world regional finals — Dubai, Shanghai, London, Boston, and San Francisco. After consulting some of the judges, we registered for Dubai.
The next challenge was raising funds for our trip (as this is a social entrepreneurship event the participants have to arrange for their funds until reaching the world finals). We were able to raise INR 225,000 from numerous sources to cover for the travel expenses and prototyping.
Given all our efforts, we were eager to win this round. The finals were held at Palm Jumeirah Hotel and we managed a podium finish becoming the only Indian team in Top 6 among 62 teams from 27 countries (the format of the event only reveals the Top 6 and the winners with nothing in between).
While we were left heartbroken, calling the entire experience as enriching would be an understatement. I am really grateful to have teamed up with Dhruv Goel, Dhruv Chawla, and Debjyoti Biswas. They taught me really important virtues of teamwork and always encouraged me to punch above my weight.
Hult was an incredible opportunity. The phase was filled with a lot of hustle and demanded you to fight outside of your weight class. The opportunities to build a network and leverage the platform to get noticed were something beyond what I could fathom. I wish I could rewind the clock and relive this particular phase over and over again.
Episode 4: The Gymkhana Award and a summer internship at Reckitt Benckiser
En-route to our Top 6 finish in the world regional finals of the Hult Prize, we participated in a lot of competitions — some for raising funds and some for testing our waters before the event. We managed to win a good number of them which culminated in me receiving a Certificate of Merit (called a Gymkhana Award) from the Gymkhana of IIT (BHU) (given to 2% of the college students).
I still am the only person from our college to have won a Gymkhana Award in the first year.
While the Hult Prize occupied the bulk of my second semester, I was still determined about securing a summer internship. The stint with Pfizer was with a cross-functional team. Though it gave me the exposure I sought, to consider a career in scientific research seriously, I required a serious hands-on exposure in an R&D lab. Fortunately, Reckitt Benckiser offered me the chance.
You can read about the details here —
Episode 5: Academics and Branch Change
I saved the most embarrassing part for the last (:P). While my freshman year was beautiful, I forgot to stick to the basic rules and invest in the course work. Though I stuck to the basics and attended all the classes, the osmosis of knowledge eluded me. The courses didn’t really ignite a spark within me and the results showed that. My CPI at the end of my first year mirrored my JEE rank — something that highlights my laziness much more than my potential.
I managed to end up with a meager 8.28 at the end of two semesters and my dreams of a branch change were shattered, or so I thought. Luckily I still managed to be in the top 10% of my branch and got the privilege of changing my branch. My academics restricted my options but I did have choices like Engineering Physics, Mining Engineering, and Material Science and Technology among others.
However, I loved the life-science industry and could sense a lot of potential there. Therefore, I trusted my gut and settled for Biomedical Engineering as my engineering major — something that would give me a multi-disciplinary lens to explore the healthcare industry.
I spent my freshman year experimenting and doing things which helped me get clarity on what was my calling. I learned how to —
- Read situations and people to adapt.
- Observe what people like to do and use that to build lasting relationships.
- Have the courage to step outside of your weight class and yet not give up.
- Be humble, humane and hustle at the same time.
These are things which no classroom can teach and are difficult to learn compared to learning a programming language or the concepts of your academic courses. Only time can tell if I made the just use of my time. For the time being, however, I would like to hope I did (maybe I could have done better with academics but what are we if not the result of our choices?).
It’s not common for me to be sharing my personal anecdotes here. I see my Medium profile as a collection of all my projects at the intersection of technology and business. A lot of people request me to help them but since I only have 24 hours a day and Medium offers a lot of flexibility, I decided to type down this article. I hope it helped.
I had a lovely time writing this as I got to go down the memory lane and revisit my freshman year in college. Keeping the length of it readable, I decided to split it into parts. The second part is in the pipeline and will be out soon. Watch this space to find out if I actually become something worthwhile. If not, at least you had fun.
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