I
considered myself as an above average student who moved through life following
the Herd and plotting my career moves accordingly.
In terms of
my education I was privileged enough to finish my middle school in one of the
more prestigious schools of my time PSBB in a city called Chennai where I
managed to rank maybe in the middle of class.
From
Chennai I moved to what was called the IT hub of the county at that point which
was Hyderabad where I finished the rest of my schooling all the way up to my
undergrad. Here I made a few choices which while are not really bad choices but
were not in-line with what I wanted to study.
I am
divulging this information to give you a general idea of what drove me to
pursue a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic and Comm engineering at Vasavi
College of Engineering. At Vasavi I was again following my peers towards what
seemed to be the way the herd was headed. Always taking the safe bet I never
really pursued what suited me the best.
The next
step I took in my Career was what changed my approach towards education and my
acumen towards solving problems. I decided to study abroad and finish my
masters in a related field which meant I moved to the US to finish my masters
in Telecommunication from George Mason university.
The move to
US changed 3 main things in my approach to education & life:
1) My approach towards what I learnt in
a course moved from being focused on how much I scored to being focused on how
much I added to my repository over the duration of the course.
2) Learn to be independent and push
yourself to be as self-sufficient as possible.
3) Communication is Key in any form of
life and learn to control every factor possible going into conversations. Let
it be a conversation with your Peer or your Boss or your Friend.
I think
this should be a move that every student should make if they still have the yearning
to learn and become more independent.
The dilemma
still existed in me it still felt like I was lacking the edge that would make
me stick out of the herd which I so earnestly followed for 23 years of my life.
Don’t feel like I didn’t get good opportunities I worked in both small scale
start-ups to the largest health care initiatives this world has seen in Obama
Care.
So it wasn’t
for the lack of opportunities that was contributing to the feeling I had of not
having enough attributes that made me view myself as being a prime resource to
any activity I pick up. I realised that my calling was more towards pursuing a
career outside the daily grind of a 9 – 5 job and work in a capacity which
enabled me to lead and make and bigger impact in my contribution to which every
career path I will be choosing next.
This is
what pushed me to pursing a pseudo MBA that would enable me to lead a project
or apply myself in a more managerial position who is tasked with overseeing a
project. With working in organisations of different scales and different
protocols I had accrued an impressive base knowledge of almost every technology
to a point where I can sit in a room with any Engineer and exchange ideas
within a few minutes on the problem at hand. With my reluctance to push for a full-fledged
MBA I made the choice of breaking my “Herd-Mentality” which I had developed
over 23 years and moved towards applying for a professional certificate in
Strategic management.
At Harvard
I have so far finished 2 semesters and I am now 2 months away from graduating
and it has taught me a great deal more than I imagined. With this I have now
realised the benefits of a MBA from a top ranked B school which is going to be
my next step in helping realising my full potential. I tell you this to discuss
the slack you might receive for wanting to study when many around you have
settled down to what they feel is their cap. It is important to remember if you
have the passion to increase your repository of knowledge you should pursue it
and everything around you will eventually fall into place. So far ever since I
made the dive to push myself to keep learning I have not looked back since and
have never regretted my decision. Whether or not my efforts will be rewarded is
something the future will reveal.
