A Story My Teacher Told That Changed My Career

The Story

I was studying 10th standard at Chandra Matriculation HR School when my computer science teacher told us about Bill Gates, and how he built Microsoft and became a billionaire from it. I was already interested in computers and programming. That story is what made me decide.

I was an average student. I scored 82% in 10th, 67% in 12th and 70% in my degree. But I liked maths and I liked programming, and solving problems has always been my strong suit.

So I picked Computer Science and Engineering. I joined KGISL Institute of Technology, which comes under Anna University Chennai, in 2014 and completed my B.E. in 2018.

Smart India Hackathon 2017

While I was in college I got the chance to participate in Smart India Hackathon 2017. Our problem statement was Secure Copier, a software to prevent data leaks.

The rule was that only an authorised pendrive could connect to an authorised system. If an authorised pendrive was connected to an unauthorised system it would format automatically. If an unauthorised pendrive was connected to an authorised system it would format automatically and the system would not detect the drive at all. Either way the data could not leave.

We developed it using Visual Script for the hackathon and won 2nd runner up. After that we got selected with funding to build it into a product. The funding was 3 lakh with a stipend, we were working for the Ministry of Defence, and our mentors were from BEL Bangalore.

I was the team lead and I was the one actually building it. The other team members participated but were not much help. We tried building the real product in Java and a few other things, and we never got it to a working product.

What I Took Away

I picked this field because of a story told in a classroom, and the hackathon is where I found out that wanting to build something is not the same as being able to build it. I needed a lot more practice before I was any good.

This is Part 1 of my career journey. Part 2: The Gap Year That Changed Everything covers what happened after college, the friend who stopped picking up his phone, and the six months I spent teaching myself Django.