If you had met me after my 12th board exams, I probably would've been talking about movie trailers, VFX breakdowns, motion graphics, and title animations, not algorithms or APIs.

My dream wasn't Silicon Valley.

It wasn't FAANG.

Heck, I didn't even know what a full-stack developer was.

I wanted to become the person behind those insane movie intros, production house logos, and cinematic animations you see before a film starts. That was the dream.

There was only one tiny problem.

Dreams are expensive.

Animation schools cost far more than my family could realistically afford. Reality politely knocked on the door... and then kicked it open.

So engineering became Plan B.

“Sometimes life doesn't reject your dream. It just changes the route.”

Around 2022, everyone suddenly became a career expert.

• Take ECE.
• IT has no future.
• CSE is impossible.
• You'll regret this.

I lost count of how many people confidently explained my future to me.

One career advisor even convinced my father that Electronics & Communication Engineering was the "safe" choice.

Safe?

Maybe.

Mine?

Definitely not.

For the first time, I ignored advice from people older than me and trusted the one person who had to live with the decision...

...myself.

That disagreement caused plenty of arguments at home.

Looking back, I'd probably lose that argument again.

And I'd still choose CSE.

Eventually, after counselling, I secured Computer Science Engineering in a Tier-3 college.

Not my first choice.

Not the prestigious campus I'd imagined.

Not the dream beginning.

I won't lie.

I spent my first year wondering whether I had already fallen behind everyone else.

Most classmates weren't there because they loved technology.

They were there because somebody else had chosen it for them.

• Parents.
• Relatives.
• Neighbour uncle with "20 years of experience."
• You know... the usual.

Finding people who genuinely loved building things felt harder than passing the semester exams.

“Wrong environment. Right decision.”

That first year taught me something no classroom ever could.

Your college doesn't decide your future.

Your circle does.

And I hadn't found mine...

...yet.

Then, my second year happened.

And everything changed.

One day, I met a senior named Vishnudhasan.

For the first time since joining college, I met someone who genuinely loved Computer Science, not because it promised a job, but because he genuinely enjoyed learning and exploring new technologies.

That was something I hadn't seen before.

Our conversations slowly shifted away from marks and semester exams. Instead, we spent hours discussing technology, design, software, and the future we wanted to build for ourselves. Looking back, I don't think Vishnudhasan changed my career.

He changed the way I looked at it.

Through him, I discovered Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC).

Honestly, I had no idea what it was.

I just knew there were people who loved technology as much as I did.

That alone was enough for me to apply.

Fortunately, I got selected as the Design Lead, and without realizing it, I had finally found the kind of community I'd been searching for since my first semester.

Funny enough, I joined because of design...

...but I stayed because of the people.

• Workshops became weekends.
• Hackathons became learning grounds.
• College suddenly became a place where I actually wanted to spend my time.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed another interesting person.

Tharun.

The funny part?

He had been my classmate for almost three semesters.

We barely spoke.

Turns out, the person I had been looking for was sitting just a few benches away all this time.

We connected almost instantly.

The same curiosity.

The same excitement whenever a new framework, language, or technology was released.

Instead of wondering whether something was difficult, we were more interested in understanding how it worked. We spent countless hours learning together, experimenting with new tools, sharing ideas, and constantly pushing each other to become better engineers.

Looking back, those days shaped the way I learn even today.

They taught me that learning becomes a lot more enjoyable when you're surrounded by people who are just as curious as you are.

Just when I thought college couldn't surprise me anymore...

my phone rang.

It was Vishnudhasan.

He told me there was a startup looking for someone who could work on both design and development. He simply asked,

“Interested?”

I didn't even need a minute to think.

I said yes.

Looking back, I had no idea that one phone call would completely change the direction of my college life.

Until then, my world was mostly classrooms, hackathons, and side projects.

Now, I was walking into a real startup.

Everything felt different.

People weren't building projects for marks.

They were building products because someone, somewhere, was actually going to use them.

That was a new feeling.

I joined SpotKwik, a Silicon Valley-backed startup, and suddenly I found myself surrounded by people who had already been through the journey I was just beginning.

Every conversation taught me something.

• Sometimes it was about design.
• Sometimes it was about solving a problem in a simpler way.
• Sometimes it had nothing to do with software at all.

Those small conversations ended up teaching me more than I expected.

The biggest lesson wasn't a programming language or a framework.

It was understanding that building a product is a team effort.

Good ideas came from discussions.

Better ideas came from listening.

During my time there, something exciting happened.

SpotKwik was acquired by Omnia, a Silicon Valley-funded startup in the United States.

As someone who had only recently stepped into the industry, watching that happen from the inside was surreal.

It made me realize how fast things can change when the right people come together with the right vision.

By the end of that journey, I wasn't just returning to college with another internship on my résumé.

I came back with more confidence.

More curiosity.

And the feeling that...

"Maybe I really do belong here."

When I returned to college after my internship...

I wasn't the same person who had left.

Something had changed.

I had more confidence.

More clarity.

And for the first time, I wasn't constantly questioning whether I had chosen the right path.

Around the same time, Google Developer Student Clubs became Google Developer Groups (GDG).

Watching the community grow made me think about something.

A year ago, I was the student looking for direction.

Now, I wanted to become the person who could help someone else find theirs.

So I applied for the Google Developer Groups On Campus Lead role.

Honestly...

I wasn't thinking about the title.

I was thinking about the people.

The same community had introduced me to mentors, opportunities, and friends who completely changed my college life.

If I could create that same experience for even a handful of students...

I knew it would be worth it.

After a series of interviews, I got the news.

I had been selected as the Google Developer Groups On Campus Lead for my college.

It felt unreal.

Not because it was a Google program.

But because I was now leading the very same community that had once helped me find my place.

The rest of that year was a blur - in the best possible way.

• Workshops.
• Hackathons.
• Late-night planning.
• Community events.
• Meeting students from different colleges.
• Listening to their ideas.
• Helping them build theirs.

Every event taught me something new.

Not just about technology...

but about people.

Some juniors walked in with the same uncertainty I had during my first year.

• Curious.
• A little lost.
• Not sure where to begin.

Seeing them slowly gain confidence reminded me of my own journey.

And that's when I realized something.

Leadership isn't about standing in front.

It's about making sure no one has to figure everything out alone.

Looking back...

becoming a GDG Lead wasn't the biggest achievement.

The people I met along the way were.

By this point, something interesting had started happening.

I wasn't actively looking for opportunities anymore.

Somehow...

they kept finding me.

It all started with small freelance projects.

One client became two.

Two became five.

Before I knew it, I was working with businesses from places I had never even imagined.

The best part?

Someone was actually paying me to do something I genuinely enjoyed.

That feeling never gets old.

For the first time, I wasn't asking my parents for money every time I wanted to buy something.

It wasn't a fortune.

But it was mine.

And earning that first income through my own skills gave me a different kind of confidence.

Around the same time, my phone rang once again.

It was Vishnudhasan.

At this point, I should've just assumed that every call from him was about to change my life.

He told me about a new startup called Praskla Technology.

One of his seniors, Pranesh Kumar Baskaran, was building a company from scratch with a vision of connecting Germany and India through technology.

Then he asked me a simple question.

“Do you want to be a founding developer?”

I don't even remember thinking about it.

I just said...

Yes.

Joining Praskla felt completely different from everything I'd done before.

This time, I wasn't joining an existing team.

I was helping build one.

Every day brought a new challenge.

• Sometimes it was designing a product.
• Sometimes it was discussing ideas with clients.
• Sometimes it was helping teammates solve problems together.

No two weeks ever looked the same.

As the company grew, so did my responsibilities.

I slowly moved into a Technical Project Lead role, where I wasn't just building products anymore - I was also helping junior developers, reviewing ideas, and making sure we built things the right way.

Looking back...

I probably learned just as much from the people around me as they learned from me.

“Teaching someone else forces you to understand your own work even better.”

And somewhere between client meetings, late-night deployments, and countless cups of coffee...

I stopped feeling like a student.

Without even noticing...

I had started becoming an engineer.

By the time I reached my final year, placement season had completely taken over the campus. Every conversation somehow ended with interviews, offers, or salary packages. It was exciting to watch... but I wasn't in a hurry to accept the first opportunity that came my way.

Over the past few years, I had already turned down a couple of offers. They weren't bad opportunities, but after everything I had experienced through internships, freelancing, startups, and community work, I knew I wanted my next step to be something that truly challenged me.

Then came Touchmark Descience.

Right from the beginning, I knew this wasn't going to be a simple hiring process. It started with the initial screening rounds: behavioral assessments, aptitude tests, and MCQs. Every stage reduced the number of candidates, and every time I received an email saying I had been shortlisted for the next round, it felt like another small victory.

Then the real challenge began.

The technical interviews started, and with every successful round came another one waiting on the other side. Before I knew it, I had reached the final stage. By then, I wasn't thinking about the package anymore. I was simply focused on giving my best, one conversation at a time.

A few days later...

The email arrived.

“Congratulations. You have been selected.”

I read it twice...

...just to make sure it was real.

A 15 LPA offer.

For many people, that number would probably be the headline.

For me, it represented something much bigger.

It reminded me of the boy who once dreamed of becoming a VFX artist, worried about joining a Tier-3 college, questioned whether he had made the right decision, and slowly found his people along the way. Every conversation, every late night, every opportunity I said yes to had quietly brought me to this moment.

Standing there with the offer in my hands, I couldn't help but smile.

The destination wasn't what made the moment special.

It was finally realizing how far I had come.

Looking back...

maybe all those wrong turns had been leading me exactly where I was meant to be.