As many students, I came to united states to achieve my dreams, soon releasing that the amount of knowledge that i had was no were near to the ambitions which i wanted to achieve. I literally would not be able to write code for the fibonacci series. Also, failed miserably in academics and to cope up with the pressure was day by day getting worse. I was left with a choice of quitting everything or to do something about the situation. I was never serious about studies but those times it was my choice to not study. This time i wanted to do something and something inside me felt very bad when i was not able to converse with my peers about a particular problem because of lack of knowledge. My GPA that semester was 2.7, looking at all this i realised that there is a positive side to this whole situation everything possibly which can go wrong has already gone wrong only way from here is probably a straight road or hard climb.
I settled for the climb, started googling "How can a noobie learn coding", asked my friends what to study and how to proceed. Eventually, started setting targets, waking up early (personally this thing was most impactfull), solving daily questions on leeetcode, reading and understanding concepts from Cracking the coding interview. The college and subjects felt easy, a sense of confidence was born and also got a opportunity to interview for ADP, clearing all the rounds and was waiting for the offer and COVID happened, yup it got cancelled. Felt sad, but I had gained lots of knowledge following the routine. Finally, one good news my GPA that semester and all after that was 4.00. Moreover, landed internship at firm it was unpaid but the opportunity was really good and my mentor(CEO of the startup) helped me a loootttttt!!. Taught me the correct way and told always to test the code. It went great and now i had developed skills through my routine and the internship, people started to ask questions, came for help, etc. It really felt good that i was able to acheive this small thing and gave me great joy.
As now people were aware of my skills, one of my professors recommened me to another who wanted a Research Assitant for the a project which was basically a google grant thesis on Computer Vision and machine learning and after interviewing i got the position. My happiness bounced back from the roof to floor and again back to the roof. From being so near to QUITTING everything to getting job as an RA really boosted my confidence.
Like everyone i applied to many companies and suffered many rejections. But like every masters kid i wanted "The Amazon", the dream of joing the FAANG. Started working more and more on myself , doing 10 sums everyday on leetcode, till now i had finished CTCI like 20 times.
5 days ago, i recieved the email which i had been wanting, dreaming and doing every possible thing to get it. Offer from the amazon for SDE. And trust me it feels so good and gives you a greater sense of achievement and pays for all the self doubting and low points which you got during this Journey.
I shared this (sorry for the cribbing) because i have seen many people feeling low and no doubt the whole master to job situation is very tough but you keep on trying, trying again and you will get what you dreamt of its just a certain amount of threshold which you need to beat , it is different for everyone but equally tough. No matter what the hardship, at the end you will laugh and feel nostalgic.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, THEY WERE MY LIFELINE!