DON'T FIT IN A BOX, BREAK OUT OF IT & BUILD YOUR OWN

YOU ARE NOT DEFINED BY ONE THING, BUT YOU ARE A CULMINATION OF ALL THE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE, IN PAST, PRESENT & WILL BE DOING IN THE FUTURE 💪🏻 !!

I'd like to start my first story blog with this thought, as I'm a strong believer of manifestation. This one thing that you create your own reality, I've experienced this not once but many times since the moment I got aware of my thinking, subconscious & Universe, LOL meant to say when I got aware of How this world actually works.

I've always thought this since I was a kid that you will always be needing someone to guide you, to help you get where you want to be, but with time I've realised that people are always in their own race, no one is competing with each other, people are actually competing with each other's illusion or what we call as now REALITY, and you are creator of YOUR OWN REALITY.It may look flashy to you, but under the hood when you look closer, there are things which they don't show you, maybe they are going through a difficult time, maybe someone's resetting their whole belief system & starting from zero, you never know what other person is going through unless you see them closely & realised at the core they are the same person like everyone, TRYING TO FIGURE OUT.

One thing I've always wanted to do was write freely like this, but I don't know why I've never started that, maybe over the time I've started to believe that it doesn't matter in the long run. But when Tarak texted me to ask if I want to share my story, that moment something shifted, maybe I can do this. So here I am pouring myself, my story in this blog, without any glitter or hustle, cause not everything needs have that oh-factor to make people believe.

One thing I've always wanted to be clear from the start while crafting my thoughts while sharing my story is, it's your own story, OWN IT LIKE YOU'VE LIVED IT.

So, let start with WHO I AM ?.
I'm currently in my early 20s just like every other person I wanted to be an Engineer since I got to know about this term, but in my teenage I just know I want to be an Engineer,I need to have a B.Tech Degree (be a Graduate) What kind of Engineer, it's still unclear 😬. Things started getting fast forward, I got into college, made a few friends, competed in the same race of getting a JOB, got one .
NOW WHAT ?? The innate ability to break & build things was something I knew I has it since childhood, the curiosity to know each and everything about how things are MADE & WORK helped me till now to work cause whenever my father was building something I was never the one to sit around idle, I was always glued to what he was doing, building or repairing, to look closely is something I do till today also. I think my fascination with gadgets & Technology started when he bought a Laptop, the one where he downloaded the first game of my life, the infamous SERIOUS SAM.

Did I mentioned I was a curios kid but with innate skill of jump scaring out of nowhere during an action & killing game. So one place where I was the spectator not a leader is when my younger brother play games, and I just watch it like a young kid with sparkle eyes & yelling out of blue during games 😂.

Now, fast forwarding to today, I'm an ENGINEER, yeah A SOFTWARE ENGINEER at a Telecom Company, in Cloud, DevOps & AI domain.
Cloud was something which intrigued me since I started college, but never got the time to explore deeply during my college Days, but maybe life has given me a chance to explore it now like "Heyy Kid, here's something you wanted to explore, now do this".

Believe me, when I say I'm never the one who learns things in traditional way, like finish full end-to-end course, I just can't complete a course in one sitting, I need to have a box where I can build & break as many times I like to get to the rock-bottom of the thing I'm learning, that's what I always believe I have not learned this fully till I get to experiment it fully.
Knowing something theoretically is different, but actually building something open a whole new possibilities.

Now, lets get to the technical skills I'm currently exploring are Terraform, AWS, Azure, building Pipelines, learning about best practices in DevOps, Cloud & AI. Building step-by-step practicals, trying out implementations, exhausting my Claude token with my always URGENT never-ending doubts, reading people's story on Linkedin, Instagram, Whatsapp channels, trying to understand how other's journey inspires me & what technical I can learn if they are in the same industry as me.

Something I've seen during my corporate life since last 1 Year is the Women representation in STEM, it is comparatively low, be it on ground level, or at Organisation Level, us as a Woman needs to go 2-3x times hard on themselves compared to men, cause we believe our work will get us that visibility, but what actually gets the visibility is the VOICE. If are not Vocal in your thoughts & action, poeple don't take you seriously.
During my initial months in corporate, I was quite a yapper yet timid, but one thing I knew that I need to be vocal about my thoughts and look around how things work in my Team, but I've also realised over the time people are not always working with you, even if it looks like they are working with you. The Corporate Ladder will always be there, but what gets you ahead in time is your skills, you network & your core competency which sets you apart from others, if people are not aware about your competencies, they can't vouch for you when the time comes, this is something you have to do YOURSELF, be your own MARKETER.

If you are someone getting into tech-industry, AlWAYS NETWORK, this is your biggest advantage, it doesn't needs to be loud, but networking works in even smallest ways, talk to your college-peers, alumni's, ask for their advice, what they did, what worked for them & where it went wrong, maybe it will work for you. But you'll get to know things when you work, network & collaborate with people.
The Company I'm currently working in, the one thing which helped me a lot to get here, was that I talked to people who were working there, luckily enough, they were my college-seniors(at that time alumni), it helped me shape my strategy & position myself as a potential candidate in front of the recruiting panel, but what landed foot in the door was my own preparation,BELIEF & a bit of LUCK !!
But, I always give credit to UNIVERSE, don't know WHY, but sometimes, a bit of luck everyone needs.
So yes, a right advice & direction always helps, not in every step of the journey, but it helps get right on track to acheive your GOAL. Had I now known, how hiring process works at my company, maybe I would've lost that opportunity, who knows, I may have been rejected If I have not prepared strategically ?

The lessons I learned along the way, is if you are someone in TECH, always keep learning the current trends, if you want to be in the industry, make one niche your specialisation, get knowledge in other niche also. Breadth helps you transition quickly, but depth sets you apart in a crowd. Always maintain a T-point in your skillset, two niches sufficiently skilled, but one should dominate by depth & help you stand out in hiring processes.
Also, work on your speaking skills, always try to explain things from a POV that a person who don't even know 0% of your industry is able to understand it quickly, it will always help you deliver a efficient pitches & it will get compounded in a way to help you in INTERVIEWS, HACKATHONS & COMPETITIONS, even in your CURRENT or FUTURE role also.

Over the time I've known, the advice someone gave me earlier, is that believe in the version of you that you know, not what people tell you, cause people will always assume things about you & assumptions don't define you.

At the end of the day I believe, you are the most important PROJECT you'll ever work on.So make it MEMORABLE, laugh more, worry about few things less, and if you think something is out of your reach, maybe it's not. Maybe you are looking from only one side, look closely & then you'll realise, things have always have a way of turning around, you just need to find that POV, that loophole. For me that Loophole is when you work upon yourself, Life adjusts itself around your goals & beliefs in ways you've never Imagined.

I hope next time, you read something I've written, it'll be a Tech blog or maybe another story. Till then, All the best & Keep believing !!