In this blog post, I will explain my journey about being a college drop out to having a successful IT career. Every moment of the journey is precious and cherish-able.
College Drop Out
More than 10 years back I have given intermediate (+2) exams only to know that I have failed in 3 subjects (1st and 2nd year physics and 2nd year mathematics). After that I lost interest in studies and joined this yacht company as hardware installer without even preparing for college. I joined there on recommendation for salary of 1200$ per month.
I used to work there from 7 AM to 4 PM, 5 days a week. I used to wash yachts etc on top of helping them in installations. After shop I used to visit a close by bakery with another hard working boy (nephew) and used to enjoy baked items such as plum cakes. I worked there for 8 months and was never late to work even by a minute. I had no interest at all about studying and reading books.
This is a picture of a robot I built and designed using Unity, AutoCad, and Maya
Going back to college
At that time I decided to quit studies completely. But one of my family members suggested that I finish college to get a degree to save and pay rent. I'm going back to college to study Computer Science in August. – I plan to participate in Under Graduate clubs. Before I dropped out back in 2013 I ended up with an A. in COP3330 and was part of ACM (Academy of Computer Machinery). The college was in Orlando, FL. Due to lack of money and funds, I have struggled a lot in the past. I used to write in the math books, and it was hardly taking me any where. In one particular occasion my friends told me "if you do not understand it, then don't read it." That upset me a lot during that time.
I plan to teach the ACM club trades that I see future generations needing. I plan to teach them robotics and use the same tools that the defense company uses to power their robots. Everything is free and open source.
Foundation for my career
After many late nights and lots of coffee all my hard work has paid off. I am now sponsored by adverting companies and have created my own IT company.
While I am offering ideas to companies such as DARPA which is a defense company. I am usually busy drawing up the next state of the art military equipment. I am also active in different blogs such as Stack OverFlow. I think that in the future we will have it much easier. The technology for creating websites is getting more and more automated making the web development trade easier.
Some of the milestones in job hunt process
- Passing software tests that are given online prove it exams
- Competing in competitions thrown by companies like TopCoder.
- Final round in Satyam Computers, Wipro, Kanbay, Oracle, British Telecom etc
40+ company rejections made me explore further in technology – SQL, PL/SQL, Oracle internals, Data Modeling, Java etc. etc.
First Project
Almost a year after my graduation and being rejected by 30+ companies, I started creating my own websites and SQL databases. My first project taught me a lot about Object Orientated Programming and creating an automated web store.
After that I started reading books about Java once again and also joined institute called iNetSolv. This time, I became very good in couple of weeks time. Then I interviewed for Pointsoft for contracting position at Lockheed Martin.
Life Experience
Lot of people give up after minor failures in the life. But after failing in college to working for a yacht company. As my foundation was not so strong, I used to carry at least 3 to 4 books where ever I go to at least read a page. After college, I used to carry my desktop computer if I have to stay for more than a week at any place. I have read Oracle complete reference 4 times with in a span of month, Even after I got my first job, I have read almost 5000 pages of java material several times to understand the concepts. When people used to enjoy in pubs, I really enjoy reading and coding. As of now I have more than 10 IT certifications, expert level knowledge in many technologies and executed complex projects single handedly. I get permanent kick by solving problems where many others give up.
Here is the picture of 300+ people who acknowledged that they got certified with my direct or indirect involvement.
Now I am running Hollosight Illustrations, with 2 employees and expecting to grow to 10 in 2018. I enjoy both cleaning the shop and biking at the same level as nurturing my own company today.
Here are the details about Holosight Illustrations
- YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCFOy71Hex5u3_BcmJsiZWqg/featured
- Website: http://holosightillustrations.azurewebsites.
net - Support: http://holosightillustrations.azurewebsites.net/Home/Contact
-
Website Development: http://holosightillustrations.azurewebsites.
net - (plans 85.95$ for 31 days, 95.95$ for 93 days and 100.00$ for 185 days)
Message Future IT Students
I am not undermining the challenges many of students have today, especially those who work labor jobs int the evening.
- Instead of focusing on IT job as the only career option, explore all possible options.
- Do not let negative emotions such as stress and depression come to your mind.
- When you fail in job interview, self introspect and try to improvise on the skills.
-
Team up with friends with varied skills and start working on some real problems. You might end up as entrepreneurs.
- Couple of Solid Programmers
- Data Engineer
- System Administrator
- Product Owner
- I will be there to support you folks (with in my limitations) – mark my word, you are the potential wealth creators
- You might fail, but you will get lot of exposure
- Become socially active, go to meetups, participate in stackoverflow, become open source committers, mentor friends
I will write about skills I possess and projects I have executed in another blog!!!
Shows how life can turn! Optimism is the way ahead. Thank you for sharing your story.
I am waiting for this blog post eagerly since long time .Thank you for your post Sir… #Mitivated #GreatInspiration
Truly inspiring!!
Very impressive. Success didn’t come so easily,there is lot of determination n hard work behind that.Reading these blogs when you are in your lows will boost your morale.iam silent spectator of itversity. Thank you is small word to say to what you r doing to all big data aspirants. Good luck sir
You are awesome!! wish your good reach all .. I want tell am also one person benefited because of your videos to clear my exam !! HDPCD
Amazing. 🙂
You are inspiring! I am from Mechanical Engineering backgroung but due to circumstances, I joined Accenture in India. I was only person in the training room there who even doesn’t know what is INT or STRING. But after 5 years now I am a big data professional in USA, with good knowledge than before. I am good at C#, hadoop, spark, scala. As you said if we are persistent we can achieve our goals. I am even taking classes on hadoop for free, because as you teach you learn more. Your post today remainded me to stay on ground and practice!
🙏
Most motivation article for me. I am in same problem as I am rejected by most companies in final round as I don’t have good academics specially in 10th. This article of Durga sir motivates me and I’ll definitely push my boundaries and I’ll try to harder in my preparation so I can able to make offer letter in my next job opportunity.
Thank you Durga sir for sharing with us..
Really Inspiring and motivational!!!! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Very Good and inspirational. Gave me confidence that any thing can be achieved by ignoring minute failures.