Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Seize it (IIT Life)

It might be taking things too far but nevertheless its good to know and one should always keep this at the back of his/her mind. People have a tendency to look at the success stories only, maybe rightly so and thus its always good to be on that side. The point I am trying to make and which few realize is the days at IIT can shape your future ahead. There is a tendency to get into relax mode once you enter IIT. Those two years of JEE make you feel so. Little do we realize we have decades to go and a lot more to achieve before you relax. Taking time off is never a bad idea. But getting off the track is. Its worth pointing out that most of the IITians that are making it big may not have realized the point I'm making here and may not be the best examples to prove my point either. But they must be doing some things right. They must be doing something different.

Things that you should focus on while you are at IIT should definitely include networking, preparing yourself to work on your risk taking abilities and reading. I would say with changing dynamics across the world there are a lot of opportunities so you should be aware about them and figure out your strengths. But some qualities are just common in all successful people.

People who making it big soon after getting out of IITs atleast in the initial five years mostly focus on businesses. Be it their own startups, trading or private equity the skill sets are not hardcore technical or based on engineering but on the qualities that I mentioned above. Agreed there are some very good opportunities in tech as well but they are pretty limited to Comp Sc graduates. If you are in any other department and just too impatient to make it big just after graduation you have to develop in those areas. The other careers either have a long gestation times or have small payouts.

Being in IIT is a huge advantage. I do not want to say that exert extra pressure on yourself in your college days but be aware that you have to start thinking big and prepare yourself in a way to get there because while you are in IIT you have all the resources, are in the network of best minds you will find and exposed to a lot of areas at one time. The opportunity is tremendous. Don't limit your dreams and constrain your efforts only to regret later. The cost of working hard later is much more and tedious. The differences between people, the return on efforts and ambitions gets huge. Thinking ahead is the best preparation for the future.


Laptop