i studied electronics and communication engineering in my bachelors because i wanted to keep my options open. during the course i found myself drawn to specific subjects (and chapters) like electromagnetic theory, fourier analysis, communication systems, digital electronics, numerical methods, C programming and data structures and algorithms. these weren't just subjects to pass - they made me curious about how things actually work.
i got introduced to programming in my first semester and had this amazing lab teacher who explained everything patiently from first principles. i didn't grasp everything immediately, but i understood some important concepts like what headers are, how variables work, and how pointers function.
in second semester we had numerical methods, and for its lab we had to solve mathematical problems using C programming. this is where i really started getting the hang of writing programs. while my classmates were memorizing solutions, i was never good at that approach. so i had to understand each problem deeply enough to model it into a C program. this was when i first wrote programs entirely by myself and scored an O in the lab.
in my third year i joined GATE coaching classes to prepare for IIT entrance. there i met some amazing teachers who made me fall in love with learning. they had this way of anticipating questions and explaining concepts that filled me with confidence. before that, whenever i studied any subject, my mind would generate lots of questions and i always thought i was missing some basics. but at the coaching institute, the questions that used to rise in me got answered naturally during their teaching. this confirmed that my learning technique was correct - the questions i had were valid and yes, somebody could teach in a way that addressed them proactively.
in my final year of engineering, i cleared the aptitude and coding rounds at accenture and got placed there. but i quickly realized i wanted to do software development, and the role involved mostly manual testing. so after understanding what i really wanted to build my career around, i made a decision to leave and focus on learning computer science properly.
i developed a comprehensive plan by researching online and prepared a nine month curriculum for myself. i had this strong drive to learn web app development, data structures and algorithms, database management, networking, and operating systems fundamentals.
i decided to tackle both DSA and development simultaneously. it was challenging doing both, but i kept pushing because i had this deep drive to master these skills. in DSA i followed a structured approach - arrays, strings, linked lists, stacks, queues, hashmaps, backtracking, dynamic programming, trees, graphs, bit manipulation. recursion was tough initially, but once it clicked, everything started making sense.
for development i chose the MERN stack since it was in high demand. i started with HTML, CSS and JS fundamentals. i took a comprehensive full stack course on Udemy by Angela Yu - she's an excellent teacher and i completed that course methodically. although it wasn't enough for real world development, it covered all the bases so i could explore further without feeling overwhelmed.
i built lots of mini projects using vanilla JS. i followed traversy media on YouTube and recreated many of his projects. i also completed the 30 days of JS course by Wes Bos, which had many engaging projects. my interest was naturally gravitating more toward development because i found it more engaging, but i maintained progress in both areas. i solved around 200 DSA problems starting from scratch, and built 5 full stack projects plus numerous smaller ones.
i took this leap because i believe in building strong skills - if you can learn and build things, someone will want to work with you, and if not, you have the skills to create value independently.
after 9 months of full-time study, i started looking for opportunities. a startup hired me based on all the projects i had built. they needed someone to build their MVP, and even though the founder was non-technical, he could explain requirements clearly and i could translate them into working code. there was no designer on the team, like most pre-seed startups, but i built their website alongside two other part-time developers.
we also had a web application to build, and i contributed significantly to that as well. this experience gave me huge confidence and validation of my skills.
then i started interviewing more broadly and got a remote role with a US-based startup. i joined mainly because i connected with the founder and was curious about startup life.
there i got to work across the entire stack - designing, frontend, backend, scripting, deployment, setting up CI/CD pipelines, and configuring servers on AWS. it was the kind of comprehensive experience you get at early-stage startups. we worked intensively, sometimes late into the night with the whole team on calls, pushing to meet critical deadlines.
there i worked intensively for a year and a half, learning constantly and taking on increasing responsibility as our product and clients grew. we often worked late into the night with the whole team on calls, pushing to meet critical deadlines. as the codebase expanded rapidly, we faced the typical challenges of fast-growing startups - technical debt, system stability issues, and the constant pressure to ship features quickly while maintaining quality.
after this intensive period, following my 9 months of self-study and 9 months at the first startup, i hit a point where i was completely burned out. i had been in high-performance mode for over two years straight. my engagement dropped significantly - i started showing up late and taking frequent time off because i honestly had nothing left to give. management understandably needed consistent performance, so we had direct conversations about the situation. while they valued my technical contributions enough to offer freelance opportunities and discuss me returning after i recharged, i realized i needed to step back completely to recover and figure out how to work sustainably long-term.
after taking time to recharge and reflect, i'm now looking for an organization where i can apply all this experience - the deep technical skills, the startup agility, and the full-stack versatility - in an environment that values both high-quality engineering and sustainable work practices. this experience taught me the importance of recognizing my limits and maintaining sustainable performance rather than burning out from giving everything at once.
what excites me most is the opportunity to work with teams that understand the importance of building robust, scalable systems while maintaining a culture that supports continuous learning and growth. i want to contribute to building products that matter, using the comprehensive skill set i've developed across the full development lifecycle.