As We Leave #26: Improve, Bit by Bit.

Aman Gautam is a Y17 graduating student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He talks about the challenges he faced and his journey through the 4 years of his undergraduate degree.

Disclaimer:- The views presented below are the author’s own and are not in any manner representative of the views of Vox Populi as a body or IIT Kanpur in general. This is an informal account of the author’s experiences at IIT-K.

I belong to a small village but was brought up in an environment that always taught me to dream big. 

The first time I heard about IITs, was when I was in class 12. Post which, I undertook a year of JEE preparation, and got enrolled in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IITK (though I was getting EE at IITK, I was inspired by the movie 3 Idiots 🙂 and was interested in machines, so I took ME). I had spent a year in Kanpur city during my JEE prep, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to visit IIT Kanpur even once : (. So, when I first came to IITK, I was very excited. My parents were often told, “tumhare bete ko ek acchi job milegi, college se nikalkar” (which did become true later :)). But since I belonged to a lower-middle-class family, getting a job was a great moment of happiness for me and my family members.

However, during the time of document verification, an event took place that really changed my personality. Someone (I guess he was a part of the administrative staff) said to me, “Sir, yahan survive karna mushkil hoga aapko, so ready rehna for struggle”. I don’t know why he said that to me. Maybe because I belonged to a reserved category? But at that time, I ignored him. However, whenever I performed poorly in my academics, I would think that maybe he was right. I would then feel inferior to others and would underestimate myself. Luckily, I had a chill roommate in my first year. Whenever I talked to him, half of my stress would disappear!

Besides, personally speaking, whenever you feel inferior to someone due to academics, talk to a friend who is nearly the same, or less intelligent than you are. You will surely be relieved to some extent!

Breaking the language barrier

I enjoyed the orientation program and loved the “Bap/Bhai” culture. Life was super chill till the orientation program, post which, the real struggle began. The first week of academics passed by and pretty much nothing had gone into my head. I was a bit stressed and the one reason behind this was the language barrier (as I had studied in a Hindi medium school, I had never been instructed in English properly). 

The Counselling Service helped me a lot by conducting lectures in Hindi. I also started following other people’s suggestions — reading English newspapers, watching Hollywood movies/English web series (which I didn’t initially enjoy). But watching such content, with subtitles, really helped me understand my professors’ lectures better. The problem reduced gradually but persisted till my 2nd year. I ended up completing my first year with an average CPI, without failing any courses; this really boosted my self-confidence 🙂

A sweet memory of my birthday party with my bhais (most of them are cool) and Bapu (pseudo; actually hamara baap koi aur hi tha but care koi aur karta tha, that’s why 😛 :’) ) 

Be an exploratory wolf!

I hadn’t explored much in my first year because I had a fear of letting my CPI fall below the threshold of any scholarship (which never happened :’), my bad)

I had really liked aeroplanes since my childhood so I couldn’t stop myself when the Aeromodelling Club was introduced to me. Here, I learned about collaborative and team-building skills from my seniors (in the black t-shirt) and other team members, and made exciting memories and connections with some amazing people!

In my second year, I explored other fields and joined the Summer of Code 2018 (SOC), IITK (no selection criteria at the time). This was a learning curve for me. I would definitely recommend this to first-year students too. If Web/App development interests you, you will get a broad perspective out of this. Here’s one of my sweetest memories, captured in a photograph:

Up until then, I had explored most things, except ‘the mechy ones’, so I joined the Robocon Team in my third semester. Here, I met an amazing group of people (don’t have a team picture though :’)) who were all extremely passionate about making bots. I still can’t forget the handful of night-outs that were carried out before a submission deadline!

I must reiterate one thing — if you are enthusiastic and have the curiosity to learn, no one will ever refuse you. So, without any hesitation, join whichever club/team excites you! Not only will it give you exposure to working in a team (which matters a lot), but would help you build connections with seniors. 

In fact, only later did I realize this, but working in the Robocon team became one of the main reasons that helped me get placed. Now, you may wonder how the core work of the Robocon team helped me bag a software profile? Well, maybe it was just about the teamwork skills.

Coping with Internship failure

I had gotten a taste of both core and non-core tasks, but I was still unable to choose a profile to prepare for, so I ended up applying for both the profiles in the internship season. Guess what? I didn’t get any internships because I performed averagely in both core and non-core profiles’ tests. As getting an internship is relatively tougher and more competitive than placements, it requires you to be good at at least some skill. Thus, I felt like a failure after not getting an internship. However, though I was worried and felt insecure about my future, I realized it was time I decided which profile I was good at and should aim for. 

I would think and question myself a lot. I had always gotten below-average marks in my departmental courses, how could I perform well in a core profile? I’ve now understood that such a mindset was merely a consequence of not getting an internship in a core profile. At the time, my coding skills were limited to ‘mujhe coding me loop hi likhna aata hai bas’. But finally, I made the decision to apply only for coding profiles, regardless of the difficulties.  

To others, I would suggest — take a firm decision about your career as soon as possible because then only will you get sufficient time and have more focus for preparing for placements. 

Struggle for the placement

After the 6th semester (March’20, when the lockdown started ), ek senior ki entry huyi in my life (though I never met him in person :’( ), who really helped me make the decision of pursuing coding, even though it was a very challenging task for me. So, if you want to see what ‘struggle’ looks like, here’s my attempt at describing it:

Many times will come…

…when you’ll hate the journey you have chosen.

…when you will be close to giving up.

…when you will be wanting to quit.

It is in those moments that you’d need a person who has already been through the same struggle. It is those people who are going to remind you why your current struggle is worth it. 

He was that person for me. Whenever I felt frustrated, he’d always motivate and encourage me. Many a time, I found the journey very challenging, but I continued my hard work with the same energy for 4 months and ended up getting placed in a decent startup. I still can’t forget the day before the interview. I was really nervous and that’s when I was told something truly motivating by my senior, “Bhai, ye samajh, kal tera hi din hai, tujhe to company le hi jayegi!“. I ended up getting not one, but two offers the next day :’). It was the happiest day of my life. After that, I felt very relaxed and all my worries disappeared.

A message for my juniors

“Enjoy and explore as much as possible in your first year. Continue with at least one of your favourite clubs/teams/extracurriculars in the second year. Then push yourself hard to get yourself an internship or placed in your third/fourth year” (may be wrong for some BAKAIT people though :)). 

After you’ve given your 100%, it’s fine even if you get below-average marks in most of your courses, or feel inferior to your competitive colleagues sometimes, or even if you don’t get an internship! For there can be many internal thoughts which may bother you, but stay confident and improve yourself, bit by bit.

Overall, these four years were amazing and filled with unforgettable moments. Thanks to IITK for transforming me completely and connecting me to some really amazing folks.

Cheers!

Written by: Aman Gautam

Edited by: Tulika Shukla, Namgyal Lhamo Dolma