Engineer By Choice

Prerna wrote this article titled ‘Engineer by Choice’ on 18th September 2022, but she didn’t publish it anywhere.
Here it goes –

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I have never been asked “why engineering?” unless in a job interview. It makes me think – is it really that conventional? Is being good at mathematics and scoring socially acceptable percentage in boards, the national answer to – why this is my life?

You see engineers out there who always have justified reasons for not continuing their career as an engineer. I appreciate the courage of that realization.
But how often is a person who has reached office early today to not miss a production deadline, asked or given a platform to speak about why they chose to do this?

Thinking of a solution, developing it, making it work and seeing it blend into people’s lives to add ease, is reason enough for sticking around until you get through all the dead ends.

All the jokes about the eight tiring semesters, deadly vivas and countless assignments are something every engineer and no-more-an-engineer relates to, but it is seldom discussed that a person who has reached this level in time management and handling pressure may not know the solution yet, but definitely knows how to get there.

Being good at what you do, being consistent at being good and trying to be better doesn’t seem easy to me.
Not because our parents didn’t agree for an alternative career, not because its easy money and not because it’s booming, but primarily because we wanted to solve problems.

Not every engineer takes away the same amount of knowledge with that degree but the one thing that we all learn from wanting to get into an engineering college till we get out from one is importance of ease!

– Prerna Sharma (18th September 2022)

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I completely agree with Prerna, it is not easy to be an engineer, especially if you want to be a good engineer.
Prerna worked really hard at being a good engineer, the best she could be.
She would wake up as early as 4 AM to study at least 15 days before any exam or close to the day of a viva/test. She worked very sincerely on all her submissions and presentations.
She created study plans from time to time and adhered to them, no matter what.

Some selfies from her hostel study sessions and pictures she took of her study areas, where all the magic happened!

गरदिश में चमके वो टूटा तारा ✨

A lot happened during her 4 years of engineering –

The lockdowns due to first COVID wave started around March 2020 and forced us all to work/study from home. Our mother (Aai) is a teacher and she had to start developing mobile video content for her class.
Harshali and I were working from Pune at the time. Prerna helped Aai with the video creating and editing everyday, along with managing her own engineering studies.

Prerna’s study desks at home. Changed to the second one in 2021.

Prerna and Nanaji are very close. There are many stories I want to write about them.

Harshali got engaged in July 2021 and married in February 2022 and I got engaged in July 2022 and married in January 2023.
Prerna worked with us on everything – from online selection, shopping, creating playlists, finalizing venues, creating guest lists, attending to guests, performing on stage to being the best bridesmaid ever!! So much to write on that as well later, some of our best memories!

All of this and more (both good and bad) happened during her engineering. She managed it all like a pro!
She helped us all at every turn – good or bad and very graciously so.

Prerna scored a perfect 10 pointer in 3 semesters and graduated college first in her class with a CGPA of 9.46
Muggles like me can only be awestruck and speechless about grit like this.

She also cracked 3 internships during her engineering –
▸ Daily Tech Suggest
▸ Buzzzest
▸ and TIAA

She got a pre-placement offer from her internship with TIAA in July 2022.
Her title on the offer letter is – Trainee, Software Developer.
But she has kept her LinkedIn headline as ‘Computer Engineer’, I think now I understand why!

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