I led a very comfortable life up till the age of 14, living in Dubai and enjoying school life to the fullest. Fate knocked on our doors back in 2004 and uprooted my life as I knew it. Before I could figure out what was going on, I was told to say goodbye to my friends and pack my bags. My dad was forced to transfer to Afghanistan to manage a new Pepsi plant that was commissioned in Kabul. As a result, our resident visa was no longer valid, and my family had to shift back to India mid-year. It was difficult to get inducted into a school mid-year, but we somehow managed to do so and I secured admission into a school in Vadodara. It was a paradigm shift for me since I had never experienced life in a typical Indian school. But I remained undeterred and made my way through the vagaries of school life. I remember how I felt after my 1st failure- not being able to secure admission into an IIT back in 2010. And like million other students in the country, I had a difficult time accepting my shortcomings. Nevertheless, I gave another shot at securing the coveted seat at an IIT but failed again. I initially felt lost but eventually came to terms with my destiny & took this beating in my stride. I secured admission in PDPU with specialization in Petroleum Engineering. Things started to look brighter and I felt confident in my prospects. I even bagged a job offer from Halliburton during campus placements. But the celebrations were short-lived. 2014 marked an upheaval in both my personal life and career. My parents got divorced due to long-time differences that could not be reconciled and I lost the job offer since the oil market crashed on a global scale, which affected recruitments at Halliburton as well.
After Graduation, I looked for off-campus placements while preparing for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) test. In the meantime, I secured a job as a sales engineer at an engineering consultancy in Vadodara that offered multi-disciplinary engineering and design (3D modelling and simulation) solutions to international clients in the energy sector. I figured that my best bet would be to pursue a masters degree in Petroleum Engineering from the USA. I was able to crack GRE and succeeded in securing admission to Houston University. But due to family responsibilities, I decided to scrap my plans for higher studies.
One of the more subtle factors influencing this decision was the fact that I was starting to like my job role in sales and marketing. I realized that this role brought out the best of my abilities and I thus decided to continue working with the consultancy. Subsequently, I figured that an MBA degree would strengthen my understanding of businesses and thus started preparing for entrance exams to major business schools. Managing both work and study, I cracked the entrance exam to NMIMS and secured admission to the business school. I credit my success to my mentors in school, college and work and my family for sticking by me and believing in me all the time. The path is laid out for me now and I have every intention of grabbing the right opportunity when Fate knocks on my doors again.
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