Taxmann's Beyond IIT – How to Succeed without an IIT Degree

CONTENTS

JEE and Engineering Colleges in India

Career is a Long Game Tactics for Success

Tactic 1: Do well in college

Career journey: Sahil Garg

Tactic 2: Join a finishing school for engineers

Career journey: Sandeep Srivastav Vaddiparthy

Tactic 3: Get a Masters degree from a reputed college

Career journey: Ali Abbas Rizvi

Tactic 4: Work hard in any company that will hire you

Career journey: Richa Agarwal

Tactic 5: Build your talent stack

Career journey: Srinivas Peri

Tactic 6: Start early if entrepreneurship is your calling

Career journey: Rahul Prasad

Tactic 7: Network, Network, and Network

Career Journeys

The go-getters

Career journey: Kathita Goel

Career journey: Prabhu Konchada

Career journey: Disha Chauhan

Career journey: Silky Kedawat

The Geeks

Career journey: Lomash Kumar

Career journey: Dinesh Narayanan Kutty

Career journey: Divya Darbari

journey: Anmol Dhawan

The Storytellers

Career journey: Induja Rajendran

Career journey: Bhumika Srivastava

Career journey: Satyajit Menon

The Designers

Career journey: Vriti Bhargava

Career journey: Monika Khanna

The Entrepreneurs

Career journey: Tenzin Thargay

Career journey: Pratik Kumar

Career journey: Dhruv Mathur

Final Takeaways

CAREER JOURNEY

SAHIL GARG

SAHIL GARG

Sahil completed B.Tech Computer Science in 2020 from Manipal Institute of Technology. His first employer is Google. Sahil was a computer buff right from his school days and was quite certain about the stream he wanted to choose in college. He prepared for JEE quite seriously, but his score was not good enough for getting a Computer Science seat in an IIT or a NIT. Sahil joined Manipal, a decision he does not regret at all. In fact, Sahil’s story is about overcoming his dejection with remarkable focus and making the most of the opportunities at hand. He

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was quick to make peace with his choice and focused on doing well in college.

A POSITIVE MINDSET

Sahil had worked really hard for the JEE preparation –long hours, three years of coaching classes, the works. He even developed some health issues due to excessive exertion. However, he doesn’t regret the hard work when he looks back. He thinks the rigorous preparation taught him some important life lessons. He learned to build dedication and focus.

Sahil’s positive mindset is admirable. Not all kids can handle the disappointment of not getting a magic score in JEE despite being smart and working insanely hard. If we are pushing our kids to win a lottery like JEE, we should also groom them to accept failure without batting an eyelid and move on in life with conviction. In Sahil’s case, his familiarity with the software world through his father’s job helped. It helped him discover his passion early in his life and easily chalk out his Plan B.

In high school, Sahil really liked coding, building apps, and participating in hackathons. When he got selected in IITs and NITs for streams that were not his choice, he didn’t see a point in giving up his passion just for a better

DOING WELL IN COLLEGE

Sahil topped his batch with a 9.94 CGPA. But a high CGPA is not the only goal he had when he set his mind on doing well in college. For him, an important factor for selecting Manipal was the opportunity and infrastruc ture the campus provided for research, engagement, and personal growth. In his 4 years at Manipal, Sahil made full use of his after-class hours and gathered tons of learning and experience by participating in different clubs and student bodies. He founded and led the stu

tactIcs For succEss tag. If he did 4 years of something quite different, like Mining or Metallurgy, he would have come back to Com puter Science, which is his passion.

I believed that the opportunities I was missing, like not having a great tag or a great peer group, could manifest themselves in different ways even if I chose to study Computer Science in Manipal or RV College.

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dent chapter of Apple Developers Group and grew a team from 5 to over 50 members in less than 8 months.

Sahil did 5 internships during his undergraduate studies. Even before he joined the workforce, he had gained industry exposure from his internships in companies like Goldman Sachs, MakeMyTrip, and Microsoft.

In 2020 when the world went virtual, Sahil topped up his undergraduate studies with online courses on C++, Java, problem solving, and financial markets from MIT, Yale, and Coursera.

Believe that you too can do well. That’s the first step. Look at your undergraduate years as the best learning and growth phase of your life. Don’t feel guilty about chilling in the first year. But by the second year, make the most of the time and opportunities you have. Use your after-class hours well.

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Now that’s what I mean when I say that your top tactic after a JEE debacle should be doing well in college.

MAKING INFORMED CHOICES

Most of you will have to make a lot of choices for the first time after leaving school. Sahil too had to make quite a few important ones. For example, he rejected the idea of joining a non-CS stream in an IIT and chose to study in a private university – a university that in my time was the choice of anyone who could pay for a seat.

I probed Sahil about his choice of college. Why did he not choose RV College instead of Manipal? Wasn’t it less expensive? Did it not have a higher rank? Was it not in the same city where he lived?

How did Sahil make these tough choices? Sahil connected with lot of people—seniors in his school, friends, family friends—to understand what he was getting into. In the end, the decision was based on his passion and aspirations. He tried to make an informed choice about where he would be happy to study and live. He had information and the gut feeling that studying in a residential campus like Manipal, away from home, would help him grow a well-rounded personality.

GETTING HIRED BY GOOGLE

Sahil joined the Google TV team in Bangalore just after completing his B.Tech. Since Google didn’t come to the Manipal campus for a recruitment drive, he applied on the career portal of Google. He recommends reaching recruiters on LinkedIn and participating in coding chal lenges. For college students today, hackathons and coding competitions are a great opportunity to get noticed by recruiters. Most of these competitions are online

If I have to advise a junior about undergraduate studies, I would say that the branch or domain of study should be given the most importance because that’s what you will be learning and working on for years to come. Talk to professors and students about the quality of campus life, the activities you will be able to participate in – they are critical for your growth and well-being.

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now. So students from any college anywhere in India now have the opportunity to participate in them.

Sahil recommends working beyond the college curriculum to solidify programming skills, especially fundamentals like data structure algorithms and OS fundamentals. There are lots of resources on the Internet that aspir ing programmers can use to strengthen specific areas of knowledge and test their proficiency. Sahil had taken several courses from well-known platforms to enhance his knowledge.

Some of the online coding competitions are focused on recruiting new hires. There are sites that keep track of these competitions. Seniors from your college might post about openings in their companies. Make sure you are part of communities where you get updates about these opportunities.

One of the big decisions Sahil took in 2020 was to give up his seat in the MBA programme of IIM Bangalore and join Google. He is interested in management but decid ed to get some more experience in technology and the Internet industry. As always, he had consulted his trust network and made an informed choice.

I am quite certain that Sahil’s journey will be interesting to watch. I hope he touches many lives with his confi dence, verve, and talent.

I genuinely like learning. So I would sign up for courses whenever I had some time; I would read articles and blogs on different topics all the time. Others might prefer to do these things just in time for a test or an interview.

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Don’t let your university, your company, the city you live in affect your overall motivational level. Believe that you can do wonders. Succeeding or failing in an exam, choosing a college – these are just milestones in your overall career.

Anubhav

Azad.