Mystory@Ravi David Ullah: How I chose my course and career path – Challenges and learnings

Mystory@Ravi David Ullah

I loved Commerce and wanted to develop a business-oriented mind, so I chose to study Commerce. I studied hard for my boards and got through to the best college in India, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. The real struggle began afterwards.

Before I share my story, I want to say that I feel I would have done much better had I started studying from day 1.

After taking admission, I joined at a reputed BPO. Life was challenging as I had to prioritise my personal and professional life to get the best possible outcome.

When I entered the second year, my office shift timings changed from 1 pm to 10 pm to 5 pm to 2.30 am, which was a bolt from the blue. Life became troublesome as returning from the office around 3 am and getting up for college at 5 am was difficult. I somehow manage to sit for my third semester.

I knew I was not prepared for it and just took a chance. I got the biggest shock of my life. Guess what? I failed miserably in 6 out of 7 subjects.

How I managed to rise after falling

At work, I was handling a team of 50 members working with me. I was managing my family smoothly, as well. But it was difficult to balance work and studies and I did not know what to do about it. Finally, I decided to give up studies and focus only on work. It was not the right decision that I had taken. One day, while crossing the road of Park Street, I came across our college and thought why I gave up so easily. People die to study in this college and I would be a fool if I didn’t utilize this opportunity.

One night, I had a terrible dream. Someone asked me what I would do if call centers were to shut down. I had no answer as I only had a 12th standard certificate with little value. I took a decision overnight that I would study and complete my Graduation.

The next day, I walked in to the Vice Principal’s office with a letter requesting for re-admission. Thankfully, my request was met with a positive response. I am thankful to Fr. Dominic Savio for accepting my request. That day, I decided on my target - first to achieve 100% attendance and then to pass in all subjects.

Since I could not ignore my job either, I requested my manager to shift me to part-time and it was granted. After a few months, I sacrificed my lucrative job and joined Learning Spiral as a tutor. Believe me, it’s truly said, “God helps those who help themselves”.

I was regular in college, as I knew the importance of the internal marks. By God’s grace, I managed to achieve my target of 100% attendance along with an aggregate of 60% in my 4th semester exams. I would like to request my friends to be regular in college and try to get maximum marks in their internal assessment.

I would like to thank one of my professors, Prof. Arijit Ghosh, who helped us with extra classes and if was only because of him that I passed in Maths. Still, I had a long way to go. With the third year exams coming near, I had to prepare for it, current semester and all of my arrear papers. (one of 1st semester, 6 of 3rd semester, 3 of the current 5th semester and in total 10 papers) and it was the biggest challenge for me to pass in all of them.

Hard work paid off

After 3 months, when I came to know the result of my 5th semester I was in tears but happy. I had bagged 10th position in the morning batch and 18th rank in the entire BCom department. I had targeted to be in the top 10 list and was very glad to see myself there. The next good news came after 2 weeks when I got the results of my arrear papers. I passed 9 out of my 10 papers. I fell short by few marks in Maths. With the final semester ahead, I was preparing for my project on BPOs and my experience in this profession. So this time, the challenge was 2 practical papers and project presentation along with 1 arrear paper of 2nd semester. I worked hard once again.

After 2 months I got my results. I had scored 74 percent in aggregate with 91 percent in my project. I sailed through my arrear papers as well. I was now just one paper behind my Graduation dream. I gave my best and discovered that when you give your heart and soul to something it becomes possible. In spite of so many failures, I secured an Honours degree in BCom (Marketing).

I want to convey one message. Don’t give up on anything. If you don’t have the resources, trust yourself and your potential; it would build the required resources with time.

About the Author:

I am working at Ambuja Neotia Group as a Sr. Executive, Marketing, since the last five years. I am a Graduate with an honors degree in BCom (Marketing). I’m interested in writing motivational stories and videos.