The Wandering Years (2005-2013)#

I wasn’t one of those kids who struggled in school but excelled at something else. I was just… average. Below average, honestly.

I barely scraped through my 10th and 12th exams. When all my peers were getting into engineering colleges, I couldn’t secure a seat anywhere. This was 2005, back when engineering colleges in India actually had standards. Not getting in felt like a verdict on my entire future.

So I did what people do when they’re desperate: I pivoted. I joined a B.Sc course with Computer Science as one of my subjects. Maybe this would be my path.

It wasn’t.

I failed semester after semester. By the time I was done “trying” to get that degree, I had accumulated over 15 arrears. I never actually graduated. That failure became a shadow that followed me everywhere.

In my desperation, I tried everything. Vocational courses in electronics. Animation. Design. Nothing stuck. I would start something with hope, struggle through it, and abandon it. Each failure compounded the last, like layers of sediment burying whatever potential I thought I had.

By 2013, I was 26 years old and at my lowest point. I had no real job, no marketable skills, and no clear direction. In the environment I grew up in, academic credentials and stable careers carry enormous weight. Without those, I felt like I had little value to offer. I questioned whether I had any future at all.

A Family Crisis#

Then came another challenge: my father lost his job.

We were a family of four. My younger sister was 23, and in our cultural context, that meant we needed to arrange her marriage. That is not just a cultural milestone; it is a financial commitment. Weddings require resources. Setting up a new household requires resources. And now our primary breadwinner was without work.

The pressure of that moment was intense. I was not just dealing with my own struggles anymore. I was watching my family face a difficult situation and feeling like I had little to contribute.

But difficult moments can also bring clarity. For me, that pressure became a catalyst for change.

In late 2013, I made a decision that sounds simple but was incredibly hard to execute: I would stop overthinking. I would stop waiting for the perfect opportunity, the right timing, or some divine intervention that would tell me what I was “meant” to do. I would take any job that came my way. Anything.

The Grind (2014-2020)#

It took until April 2014, after countless rejections, but I finally landed something. It wasn’t glamorous. It was a small startup that “just wanted some help.” That was me - I was “some help.”

The work environment was toxic. I’m not using that word lightly. It was the kind of place that chews people up and spits them out. But I had made a promise to myself: I would do anything I could to improve my skill set. So I did.

I tried my hand at designing. Testing. Coding. If there was a task that needed doing and I didn’t know how to do it, I learned. The hours were brutal. The pay was barely enough to matter. But I was moving forward for the first time in nearly a decade.

By 2016 - after almost two years of what I can only describe as professional slogging - I got my first real designation: Frontend Developer. I joined BookMyShow, the ticket booking platform. The environment was better, though the pay still wasn’t great. But I didn’t care about the money. I just wanted to improve.

Those four years at BookMyShow changed everything. I went from being someone who barely understood JavaScript to leading frontend architecture decisions. I learned how to build systems at scale. I learned how to collaborate with designers, product managers, and other engineers. Most importantly, I learned that I could do this—that I was capable of building things that millions of people would use.

When I left BookMyShow in 2020 (pandemic-related reasons), I was drawing a salary of ₹1 lakh per month. I was leading a team of 18 frontend developers. And for the first time in my adult life, I was having the time of my life.

The Breakthrough (2020-Present)#

The pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of people. For me, it opened doors I never thought I’d walk through.

In 2020, I joined Walmart Global Tech. The jump in compensation, responsibility, and professional growth was staggering. Today, I make ₹46 lakhs per annum.

But here’s the part that still feels surreal: I still don’t have a university degree. Those 15+ arrears? They’re still there, unresolved. The seven years I “wasted” after high school? That gap is still on any timeline of my life.

None of it mattered.

And the story keeps getting better. I now have a German work visa and will be moving next month to join the engineering team at HelloFresh, one of Europe’s leading food tech companies.

What I Learned#

If you’re reading this and you’re in a dark place—academically, professionally, or personally—I want you to understand something: The degree and the gaps in your career are not a big deal if you can move past them and improve yourself.

I know that sounds like one of those motivational quotes people share on LinkedIn. But I don’t mean it as inspiration. I mean it as practical fact.

The tech industry, and increasingly the world at large, is moving toward a skills-first economy. Can you build things? Can you solve problems? Can you learn and adapt? Those are the questions that matter now. Not whether you graduated summa cum laude. Not whether you had a linear career progression with no gaps.

I spent seven years after high school without much direction. Seven years of trying different things, failing, and trying again. At the time, that gap felt like a chasm that would define me forever. I worried those years had made me permanently unhirable, that I had fallen too far behind to catch up.

They didn’t define me. They were just years. They’re behind me now.

Moving Forward#

If I could go back and talk to my 2013 self, I would tell him this: The only thing that matters is the next step. Not the degree you don’t have. Not the years that felt unproductive. Not the expectations you feel you failed to meet. Just the next step.

Take any job. Learn any skill. Move forward, even if it’s an inch. Don’t look back. The rearview mirror will only show you what you think you should have been. The windshield shows you what you can become.

And sometimes, what you can become is better than anything you planned.

If you’d like to know more about who I am today and what I am working on, you can read more about me.

This story was originally shared as a Reddit comment on r/Chennai in response to someone asking if there was any hope left in their life. The original post can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Chennai/comments/u682op/is_there_any_hope_in_my_life/