It is said rightly that "Hard work pays Off ", but how? Let me tell you my story...

Flashback 🎥

Before we begin let me take you on a flashback back to the end of the year 2020. I got placed on campus in an MNC in December. Then in February, we had our internships based on my CV and interview they put me in the big data domain out of all the candidates of my class selected in that company I was fortunate to get a developer role at the beginning of my career where everyone was given software testing.

Fast forward to the internship I have been converted to Full time for a client based on my performance. There my seniors told me I have more potential and need to get into some higher CTC job. This was my transition period (there is a story in between that will cover in some other blog).

The Job Offer 📜

After a rough phase of rejections and interviews, I got another job at my dream company (current) as I knew about its work culture the tech they use and professionalism in February 2022 (you might be thinking wait we are back to February. Haha, yes it is where my story starts again). Before applying to this job I had no clue of what this job role expects and what is the CTC, and I had a low time when I was about to quit applying to jobs and seeing rejections. But, this habit of trying one last time saved me.

My interviewer was impressed with me during the interview and we were giggling and chatting the whole time I knew I cracked it and I cracked all 4 rounds of it.

When the offer letter landed in my email I was shocked to see the offer...

It was 132.75% more than my previous CTC, it was only possible because of the hard work I did in the past and trust me it is compounding. I was happy and told this my parents. Even though I got my offer letter and was attending a work call simultaneously I made sure I finished my task first before sharing it with my Manager.

I told my Manager about it and he was shocked that I made something that people make in the company after 4 years and the role I was offered. He tried his best to retain me but they were over budget. He let me go and wished me good luck which made me quite emotional as it was my first job and I loved this team to work for.

The Resignation 🌱

After, the talk I put down my papers and then I was released from the company in a week. After a week more I had my joining meanwhile I was chilling and doing the formalities and picked on a new course in python from an ed-tech platform thinking I will be working on Big Data. But, god has different plans.

Twist 🪢

I joined my present company but I was given the role of Java Full stack Developer, I was shocked and numb about what to do. Yet I signed up for this as well because at a point in time I wished to become a Java full-stack developer and it seems I was manifesting it but wasn't expecting it because I started loving Big Data.

Had rigorous training for a month and appeared for multiple assessments later I was certified to work there as a Full stack developer. I made up my mind by now this is my fate and I will make sure I will nail this opportunity. As "when life throws stones at you, pick them up and build your strongest foundation out of it".

I learned ✨

• Java

• Springboot

• MVC

• JSP

• Hibernate

• Sonar cube

• Junit

• Spring Security

• HTML

• CSS

• JS

• NODEJs

• Spring Cloud

• Servlets

• Microservices

• DevOps (a little bit, as I had some familiarity previously)

in a month and a half trust me it wasn't that easy but I did it.

Full Stack Dev Experience 🚀

We were on a business pool searching for projects, and there was a critical requirement in it I hoped in and joined it as an SME. They were struggling with it for 15 days, it took me a while to understand the application's behavior as it was 15 years old (older than spring boot). Later, in the first two days, I figured it out and finished it by the fourth day and helped them with client requirement analysis they were happy and I left off for the project search again.

In 7 days, I landed a project, where three projects were fighting for me because of my hands-on experience. Not gonna lie, they are big product companies (I can't name them).

Here, I had my first client interaction who was a principal engineer there he took my interview and yes I was able to answer his questions and they hired me for their project.

I started with the onboarding process and had an opportunity to lead my team in the absence of my team Lead where others were senior to me in my team then too. It was a difficult job managing people and handling client escalations but I managed to do it.

Then after some time, we got handed over our tasks which initially took 2 weeks to finish since the business scope and work were not clear to us. Then we paced up and I started taking leads and encountering different bugs and knocking them one by one and reached a speed where I finished the same job in half day (I was just trying to test my highest speed to finish my work). But, all this took a toll on my health had some spine issues and fat due to the long sitting hours habit I developed. I started walking and standing whenever I got a chance to avoid over-sitting.

Then, I applied to an ideation competition in my organization for which I was recognized. Later, I applied for a program where only 1% of employees get selected across 48 countries and yet again I made it through it as my market leaders, and seniors believed in me and nominated my name for it and I got selected for the year 23 awards.

Cut down to November we had our hike cycles and I got to know I made a total of 152.75% in a year since I left my previous org. My CTC is even more than my teammates working for a long time than me. But, I reached here and was able to help them with their problems only because of the hard work I did in the past. Whenever I look down on my past I have seen myself working and grinding to strive in this competitive market even being from a non-it background and will forever.

"Cuz once you are a software engineer, you are a learner for life..."

Seeing, my hard work even my client decided to give me a dedicated MacBook Pro for work which is my dream laptop and I never imagined I will get here.

So, once again I can conclude saying hard work pays off if you know where to put your energy into.

Take Aways 🎁

• Never say NO to an opportunity

• Hard work pays off, not instantly but gives compounding returns

• Work will never end, take some time for your health. As it is said health is wealth.

• Have a go-getter mindset. I can, I will.

• Stay grounded and practice gratitude. Universe is listening ✨