Career Question: Post campus life

How is the transition from campus life to free market economy outside it?

The short answer is- It isn’t straight forward. But, in all honesty, I happen to make this conclusion in retrospect; for it mostly appears pretty seamless  even though it isn’t-, primarily because you are too excited and occupied by whatever Job or Work you start to pursue, and to a lesser extent you enjoy the joy of first-time financial independence.

I came out of IIT-Delhi about 2 years ago, and as it usually happens, I got a campus job which immediately got me busy and all occupied. Sooner than I knew, I was taken in by the corporate machinery, slotted into the place they had allocated for fresh graduates like me. For all the things I deeply value from this opportunity that I got right out of gates of academic life (and there is no way I could have been taught/prepared about that stuff at any school),… the thing that irked me the most was that: it totally robbed me of the bigger perspective for what I wanted to see for myself in terms of life, career and fulfillment.

What I ended up doing about it is not the purpose of why I write this, but rather-how we can conduct and position our self in our maiden journey on these free market currents; and how to make it across without major compromises.

There is a pretty old saying related to this question:

First, The world asks, who are you? If you don’t know, it tells you.

It is a great quote, almost poetic, but most of us know, it is rarely possible pinpoint  ‘who are you’. If you do know, I think you are being naive. ‘YOU’ is a continuously evolving concept dependent on the experiences and processes you undergo. Its not about cementing your identity rather setting sail to flow in the direction which concurs to our positioning, values, aspirations and talent (in that order).

Coming to the thing about this campus-corporate-transition. Steve Jobs’s Stanford address to graduating class of 2005 is the most popular address to any graduating class ever. “Stay Hungry, Stay foolish” he evangelized, which almost became a cult motto and explanation for all misdirected, misinformed career moves by students world over. However, it is obvious, his message is sometimes lost in translation. Such words can serve as rocket fuel to vision and aspirations but interpretations of a vision statement do not give us ground level direction and actionables needed to constantly correct our course.

Sometime ago I came across a fellow IITian, graduated almost a decade ago from IIT-B, doing amazing work on this own product now. We happen to discuss keynote speeches at graduation functions, I was amazed at the recollection he had of his own, considering I have vague memory of mine (obviously wasn’t much inspiring). He told me about certain Prof Milind Sohoni who wrote a letter to his class on this occasion. Following part of his letter is specially worth sharing, and am sure is relevant even today for all graduating students.

“…Truly, the world now, and especially India, presents you with an enormous number of opportunities. Of course, there is a variety of corporate research and development jobs. My own preference however, would be to look at the challenges offered by the public sector, infra-structure companies, and self-employment opportunities interacting with these institutions. Banks want secure networks, railways want train describer systems, revenue departments want geographical databases. In fact, everyone wants to utilize scarce resources efficiently. Small companies are mushrooming in all sorts of places, which address these requirements and do great business. No big names and no slave labour, but creative independence and good work.

One thing which irritates me is the baggage of insecurities our graduates carry in their heads. This clouds their judgement of what is a good job or a good opportunity. Will I get a job with SUN or HP? Will my chances improve, if I work in networking, and so on. In effect, it converts us into a herd of very nervous sheep going into collective hysteria. After all, irrespective of its poor utility, the price of gold will be as much as you all collectively decide, hysterically or with a clear head. It is patently obvious to me is that `they’ need you more than you need them. Only when you realize this can you be free and attain your true potential. Bad employers judge you by how well you do what you are told to do. Slightly better ones may appreciate you for what you do without being told. Both these employers are placing you lower down on the creativity ladder. The more creative top rungs of product conception and specification are reserved for others. Judge your employer by where he places you in this ladder, and not by the brand-name or the money. …”

This happens to be the most practical advice I have ever recieved(albeit, not directly) and I am sure any one who has reflected upon their journey since coming out of academia will feel the same to some degree.

Personally, I would like to add that- it is quite often the case, regardless of our talents, we undervalue and consequently underemploy ourselves for long periods of time; and this is mostly because of our insecurities to go out of the market machinery, we constantly fear that anytime the music might stop and we would find ourself out of chair to sit.

Sometimes- all we need to understand is – the chair is there to be created…

Prof. Sohoni’s complete letter is available here