How did I end up in my current Job
I was frustratedly sitting in my room in my small claustrophobic house in Bangalore, scrolling on Angelist when I came across Fyle. It looked interesting with some mild research, so I clicked on apply and went back to scrolling again.
A few years back before this, I arrived in Bangalore looking for a job. I think then, it was me and Sahana’s (now wife - then girlfriend) plan to shift away from Kolkata and see the world out there. The idea was I would move to Bangalore and join some company, post which she would also move here and find a job.
I had no clue how even to start searching for a job - used to follow leads from a bunch of websites to figure out where to go for walk-in interviews. Then there was an exam called elitmus which qualified you based on a bunch of aptitude-related things I got a high percentile and got an offer to apply to my previous company which I ended up joining.
Sahana arrived in Bangalore after a few months and she started looking for a job. I used to check her email every morning to see if she got the offer. One day it arrived but the location was given at Kolkata. She moved back after a few weeks. That was the first time I cried after becoming an adult.
I and a couple of colleagues from my company found an apartment to move into. But after staying over there for a few months, I got badly ill with a chronic disease which surfaced.
I moved out and shifted to a small house - I had a ton of food restrictions due to my illness which made it tricky to live with colleagues. Staying alone was painful.
I had to be on the medicine for 6 months - I couldn't sleep or eat properly because of it. As a side effect of the medicine, I gained 20 kgs and got osteoporosis.
I considered moving back to Kolkata more than once, but Sahana said that I could do much better than what I was currently doing. Since I was staying away from her, I couldn't go out much, couldn't eat or drink for pleasure due to the illness, and might as well channel my energy towards work and my career.
Once I got Siva’s email, I submitted the assignment and went through the interview with Kavuluru and Abhishek. One fine evening, a few days after, I got the offer.
Thrilled, I went to my current company and handed in my notice.
Last week of my notice, I was pacing myself to join the new company when a fever crept in. Now taking leaves would mean that the notice period will get extended so I decided to fight it out. For 3 days I went to the office with a fever, taking a paracetamol every 3 hours.
But the fever just grew and grew, at which point, my grandfather who was visiting me at that time, took me to a hospital. I was admitted immediately.
The next day, they discovered I had gotten Scrub Typhus, some rare bacterial fever. Its mortality rate was higher than mass killers like dengue. The good thing was that I responded properly to medication and the disease was cured.
The bad thing which happened was that the progress I had made towards my chronic illness was all lost, and I would have to do it all over again. 6 months more of no sleep, bland saltless food, and mobility restrictions since I was a fall risk.
But at that point, I had stopped caring so much about illness. The new job was there in front of me, and I had all the time in the world now to make my mark.
Gone were the days when I was just following the path of least resistance. My current company worked out very well in this regard - I have always been rewarded for the effort that I have put in, which showed me that if I pushed hard, I would grow faster.
This never really stopped over the years and now, I am still here.