When I was in my teens, I always wanted to become a computer programmer.
How did it all start?
I got exposed to programming at an early age. During my summer vacations after finishing grade 4, my dad enrolled me in a course at the age of 10 at a small institute in my hometown Bhopal. We had kids of all age groups from grade 4 to grade 10.
We were taught the programming language BASIC and algorithms. Since I was an introvert, I loved sitting in front of a machine and working on programs. It didn’t involve interaction with people.
I remember being the best student in that class; the teacher complimented me for doing better than kids elder to me. My dad bought me a computer while I was in grade 9 - He was doing well in his business and could afford it; You will realize why this was important as you read further.
After concluding my boards for grade 10, I enrolled in NIIT for a 2-month summer course. They taught us the COBOL programming language. Apart from studying in class, I used to probe the advanced functions of COBOL at home. I used to get fully absorbed in programming diverse used cases for hours together.
When we presented our final project simulating an accounting program, the faculty openly applauded me – “He is a science student, and look how nicely he has created a program on accounting.” As for me, I just loved it as it used to take me to a state of flow.
Then as it happened, I got busy preparing for competitive exams and earned admission to engineering college. There we learned the basics of the FORTRAN language, again my computer teacher was impressed by my skills.
What was my plan?
So, taking up programming as a career was an obvious choice since it was my interest. Programming to me was what music is to musicians; I loved it.
I had intended to travel to Bangalore and look for jobs. I desired to join an IT firm and evolve into a programmer. I was convinced I could crack any aptitude test for becoming a programmer.
Why did the plan fail?
But my destiny had some different agendas for me.
During the last three semesters of engineering college, my dad suffered considerable losses in his business in my hometown while I was away. And by the time I graduated and came back to Bhopal, he had to shut down the factory completely, and we were facing dire financial problems.
I wanted to enter a 6-month programming course or go to Bangalore in search of a job which I would like but couldn’t as I was the only earning member of the family at that time. So as soon as I came back, I had to start earning to support my family.
In 15 days, I joined a large consumer durable firm in Bhopal, a job I never liked but had to participate in as there was no scope for programming in Bhopal during those days.
I appeared and cracked an aptitude test and interview with a large IT firm but couldn’t leave Bhopal since the salary offered was the same. I worked in consumer durables for five years and then switched to banking.
How did it impact in the long run?
I was very disheartened during the initial phase of my career, but then more meaningful goals in life started emerging. I got married, joined a bank where I just loved working, bought a car, bought a house, and life started taking a new path.
If I look back and scrutinize, I have gained specific skills because of my early orientation to programming. I can confidently say that I possess these skill-sets – Problem Solving, Logical Thinking, Ability to work patiently, Desire to learn, Creativity, Understanding of users’ needs & some amount of Self Discipline.
Or I can rephrase and articulate that since I had these skills, I was good at programming.
Work doesn’t feel like work when you do what you love. I have loved what I am doing for many years because I have employed my core skills in practice. Efforts to learn something new that you love are never wasted because you can invariably use those skills for work of similar nature.
Well expressed !