The Turning point

I’m a staunch proponent of discovering what you love doing that is career convertible, sticking to your instincts and not getting swayed by external factors till you find yourself waking up each day, excited to go to work. Typically, when you navigate through that process, there will be a pivotal point or a story that you can refer back to as a testimony. I wanted to capture one such story, my very own, in this article with the aim of providing some level of motivation to young engineers that are starting out their career or anyone who introspects and feels it is time to switch their career path.

The workshop

It was junior year of my Mechatronics undergraduate degree, when I was burning the oil on thermodynamics and kinematics of  machinery projects, needless to say my concentration was in mechanical engineering . I bumped into a flyer for a five day workshop on embedded systems organized by the electrical and electronics department.  I was intrigued by the hands-on training part that involved developing a line follower robot and competing against other teams’ robots. Me along with three of my friends decided to participate in that workshop, and that decision was a pivotal point in my life. 

During that week, I witnessed  the magical fusion of tightly coupled electronic hardware and software. I was amazed and thrilled at the endless applications  and influence it would have in virtually every domain of engineering. That's when I decided the area of specialization that I was going to pursue, which was in embedded electronics and firmware. As an icing on the cake, we won the competition at the zonal level and got selected to participate in the national level final rounds at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Here is the video of our winning moments, that we got to capture.

The unforgettable train journey 

The final round was a few months later. This time around we had to develop a maze solving robot which demanded a much deeper knowledge of the domain. We took it up as a challenge and started working on it right away, developing the necessary skills to build the robot. The road was not a bed of roses, with many sleepless nights, late evening part-time training courses and scrambling around for electronic components and assembly parts.We had major technical challenges even the night before the 3 days/ 4 nights  train journey to the northern part of the country to participate in the final round. The train was scheduled to leave at 6:30 am and here we were over a conference call at 5 am debating if we should even board the train with all the issues, as it was going to be financially overwhelming for us as students.

Finally, we decided that it is the ‘journey’ that matters and not the end result. We got onto a moving train, spent the entire three day train journey  working on the robot, finally being able to get it up and running. We lost the competition due to some gaps in the algorithm but the whole experience made a lasting impact in our lives. Each of us found various paths to kick start our career in the concentration that we were passionate about, one that brought meaning into our engineering lives. It was a rough path with numerous obstacles along the way but above all, our perseverance triumphed.

From a simple line follower robot to helping enable a world changing idea, in retrospect I’m thankful to everyone who played a part in this incredible journey - my professors, mentors, employers, colleagues, friends and family. 

Bottom-line

Work is going to consume the major part of one’s life. It is imperative that we enjoy the work we do. In any other aspect of life we tend to be more cautious in making choices, but we succumb to societal coercion or sometimes even our own greed when it comes to choosing our career, which then puts the rest of the work life down a vicious spiral. 

While it might take more time, effort, patience and sacrifices along the way, fixating on your areas of interests while choosing your next project or venture will prove to be rewarding in the long run. Do you have a testimony or a story to share that you reminisce looking back at your career journey?  I would love to hear from you!

"The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle" - Steve Jobs

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