Mystory@Devesh Lathi: How I made my career- the challenges and successes

Mystory@Devesh Lathi

Before I give you a word of advice, let me provide a brief description about my background. I hail from a small town of Nagda in Madhya Pradesh. I completed my schooling from here. After that, I pursued engineering at one of the top engineering institutes in India only to realize that my actual calling in life is educating students.

Do you know: Of all the students who pursue engineering, 85% students don’t work in the field they graduate in. As you go through this article, you will understand the relevance of this fact.

Whatever said and done, I must tell you that the four years of my engineering gave me a great learning experience. Not only did I learn technical engineering subjects but also life skills like dealing with people & failures, developing long-lasting friendships, sharing and caring. Apart from being the most memorable years, college also helped shape my character and personality. As you embark on this journey of college education, I wish to share 3 things with you:

1) Take initiative: Always be the one who makes plans, leads projects and organizes events. Grab the opportunity before anyone else does. In my case, I was very lucky to get an opportunity of being the leader during the sports-meet at college. My batch was the first one of Bioinformatics Engineering at the college. Naturally, since we were the opening batch, we had no seniors to guide us. In the second year, I quickly identified the opportunity to take the lead. I was the one who took the initiative to form the Bioinformatics Volleyball and Football team. I took charge to gather all my batch-mates and juniors, and organized selection and practice sessions to identify the good players. I took the responsibility for training them and managing other logistic issues. This not only helped me develop leadership and team building skills but also brought me recognition in the college.

2) Participate: Of course, not everyone can lead all the time. At times, you also need to be in the back seat and let someone else take charge. Enjoy being a participant. Support your leader and team mates to perform well. Participate in whatever opportunities you can find. Participate in making a group presentation, marketing of events, operations, sports, music, drama and whatever that comes your way. While doing all this, also learn to prioritize things. Make sure that you are doing the right thing at the right time.

3) Study: Most engineering students join the college with a got-to-achieve-something kind of a fire in them but gradually, their performance starts degrading with every passing semester. Just think about this for a moment: most students, who study in your class at college, have a similar academic background and equivalent caliber as you have. Still some do very well and land up in amazing jobs while others have a very hard time passing in every semester exam. Why so? Is it that some are more intelligent than others? No! The only reason why some students perform well is that they take their classes seriously. They attend classes, make notes and bunk classes less frequently. Remember, you are here to study and do something good with your life. You are here to learn and become a professional. Don’t waste this precious time. Take ownership of your education.

Remember, you have limited time but a lot to do. These years of graduation will determine the future course of your life. Whatever you do, always keep learning. It is not necessary that you will end up in a job which is related to your field. It is highly likely that five years down the line, a Mechanical Engineer ends up developing software and an IT Engineer is dedicatedly teaching the underprivileged kids at a village. Whatever you do after graduation, make sure you make the best of it.

About the Author

Known as the Quizmaster among students, Devesh Lathi loves teaching Quantitative Math. He has trained students for tests such as SAT, ACT and GMAT. Having worked closely with a leading career counsellor, he has co-build ed-tech products - SATgym & Next-Genius. In the process, he has developed a good understanding of undergraduate admissions in American Universities. Recently, he co-authored a book titled India’s Top 100 Common Sense Puzzles.