Try to utilize every opportunity

Ramya Sharon Rathod
Associate System Engineer,
IBM India Pvt Ltd., Bangalore.

I would like to suggest few things which I practised, and those things which actually brought a difference in my life. I feel it is always better not to depend on All-In-Ones, practise to learn the concepts from the textbooks. The next suggestion is not to neglect your projects or technical presentations. Give in your best, as it is the only area wherein you can implement whatever you have learnt throughout your four years course. Also try to utilize every opportunity you get to improve your communication skills.

I was born in Hyderabad and as a child, I had the privilege to attend various schools at various places owing to my father's transferable job. I was an average student till 3rd but then things changed in 4th std and I stood 1st in school not only in the general academics but also in the General Knowledge competition (more commonly known as PCM) which was conducted throughout the town. My family moved to Jalgaon (Maharashtra) when I was in 5th std. I used to study really hard but always ran short of 2 or 3 marks. Finally, we were transferred to Nagpur (Maharashtra) where I studied my 10th std and I topped in my school the St. Ursula's girls high school.

College life:
I completed my intermediate in Narayana junior college at Hyderabad. I joined B.Tech. in Marri Laxma Reddy Institute of Technology, Dundigal. We were the first batch of the College. I was very active in class. I never really had any difficulty in communication or vocabulary. But then, I was timid, I never liked to come out and speak in public before people of equal or higher qualification and it was our English lecturer Mr. Neela Panda who instilled the confidence in me and gave me an opportunity to anchor for our College fresher's and there was no stopping after that.

Active participation:
I actively participated in the Intra College sports, worked as a co-ordinator in organizing Inter college sports meet. We as a team successfully coordinated state level and then National level technical fest (symposium) 'ZAVTRA' in the year 2007 and 2008 respectively. This included not just paper presentation but various other events such as the Coding contents, De-bugging contests, Managerial contests, Technical writing, Technical quiz, Modeling games, Puzzle contest and so on.

Project work:
The activities which improved my understanding are the Mini and Main Projects. As I was questioned on these projects at large during my interviews. I have seen students purchasing projects which are readily available in the markets and enjoy the time they are allocated for completing the projects.
Nothing comes easily and we struggled day-in and day-out to complete the project. I had many sleepless nights as the deadline was at hand. We had least resources then. It was altogether a new technology, and reasonably no one to guide us. We had to search for the resources and finally when it was done, it did turn out to be best and the one which was most liked by our HOD.

Selection into IBM:
The first company I attended for interview was Satyam in the 3rd year of my B.Tech. This being the first company, our college tried to train us and prepare us for the interviews. However, I couldn't clear the last round in Satyam. Then I reoriented myself and attended the campus drive of L&T Infotech. Only 20 people were selected and only 2 people were from my college which included me as well. Yet, due to the effect of recession which every company had to face, they communicated to candidates that they will not consider us until the year 2010. Meanwhile, we were through with our BTech exams and I came out with distinction and soon after that we had IBM's campus recruitment drive in July. The selection process involved Aptitude testing, Group Discussion, technical round and finally, the HR round. On that day, nearly 350 - 370 students had appeared and 32-37 were selected and I was one among them.

current job role:
I am Working as an Associate System Engineer at IBM India Pvt Ltd., Bangalore. The key job role is 'Application Developer Migration', which is one of the most coveted and sought after job responsibility for most of the experienced people as well and the scope for which is developing at a very fast pace worldwide.

Published date : 25 Sep 2010 07:28PM