Mom, I want to become an engineer. Little Sargam screamed
Mom was happy but she didn't want just another engineer in our family. For some context one of my uncle is a civil engineer and another is electrical engineer
I was a really bright student during my early days. I began to take studies seriously and eventually passed my high school with the best grades.
During my high school, I found software engineering something that could be really good something for me as I loved computers and I had to get a job. So, why not just combine both? I was scared, like we all. I had many thoughts going on my head. I would question myself everyday, will this thing that no one in my family or even not a lot people from my country has even done. Still I tought why not give myself sometime and at least try doing that.
So, it all began, drumroll music beings, I loved what I was doing. I knew nothing about programming still I was in abyss. I studied about C programming language. It felt like I could talk to someone finally. Also, as a bonus you will get to tell your new friend to do anything and how ever many times.
I enjoyed doing all that slowly but surely I learnt languages like javascript, python, cpp and others... There I learnt learning a language wont matter unless you can use a framework (it's a magical tool for wring so less code to do a lot of things). So, there I learnt about react, express and mongodb. There that was a breakpoint. Little Sargam had grown, he could build basic ugly looking vernuable apps but could get something done.
When I had to go to college, I choose the one that was 2500km away from my home to pursue my engineering degree at Bangalore(people call it the silicon valley of India). I was over the moon when I came here. It was all rainbows and butterflies when I came here. It was a huge metro not something I had ever seen. People use to tell, if you hit a stone in Bangalore there's a decent chance that it will hit a software engineer.
Few months passed by, I use to love this place. I also had made a handful of friends while I was in campus. Slowly but surely I was in more love with this place than I had ever. But in all this there was something that was getting compromised. My learning towards tech. I knew a lot about coding than most of my seniors at final year know at all. That still holds true today as well. I was stagent I didn't improve. Looking at surroundings there was noone that would even laugh at joke I used to crack. Things were getting bad and I was too. My passion for tech was vanishing or I can say I was becoming someone whom I never wanted to be!!!
As time went by, I found a youtuber named Harkirat. He seemed very smart, had almost a decade of experience in tech. His videos seemed something I would enjoy watching. I began building small but improving day by day.
One day, one of my friends, he asked me a question that hit me really deep. "You know everything thing anyone asks you about, any techstack any framework doesn't matter. But why are you still not doing a job or an internship?" He was right! I thought job is something that will come to me not something I would strive for. I was dumb at that time and still am today.
The question hit me so hard. I stopped any nuisance that didn't benefit me from doing something that will get me either an internship or a job. Days and nights turned merely into one. I lost the track of time and went so hard I was completly cut of from the world to do this one thing that will change my life. Meanwhile, Harkirat launched a cohort(a batch of students where the community improves everyone) I took it. There a lot of things happened but Harkirat maintained the source code of a few projets that where relevant for the community at that point. He told go and contribute to projects. I was in the grind mindset. I thought if this is the bet that can let me to know someone by whom I have been inspired by. I will never let this go. I began create some features and fixes in the projects. I did almost 20-30 such fixes in the span of 3 months. Little known, I had been working as a backend intern while I was doing all this. I still had 24hours in my day but optimized so much that I would get all this done very easily.
Then, one day Harkirat himself messaged me asking whether I would want a gig(his definition of job). I was astonished, I could not control myself. The person whom I yearned to be messaged me. I replied yes. He connected me with the founder I had an interview and finally Sargam got into remote job from the real Silicon Valley.
It just feels like yesterday but more than year have passed since I got the job. It was an internship initially and then they liked me and it converted into part time job. Little Sargam's dream of becoming an engineer was fullfilled. I have learnt a lot faced a lot of problems and resolved them as well in the last year. I really improved myself a lot balancing job and college but my health has fallen a lot. I would want to improve myself on that aspect.
A lot of people call this a "dream job" or at least something they will be satisfied with. A lot of people even tell me I have done so much in my early life. I always reply to all those with just a plain smile. For me I am just getting started. I have much bigger dreams, I want to live a independent life in diffrent parts of the world, build a solution that will help many and maybe on my way I would find something that will help me sustain my life on the way too. More importantly I want become someone whom others tell "I want to become like him".
This blog was a roller coaster to write. If you liked reading this blog, please share your feedback at hi@sarg.am. I would love to read and reply all your emails. Have a nice day or night!