So it was the year 2012, I think.

I was a 3rd year CS student at BITS Goa, who had skipped all the CS classes in his undergraduate degree.

This is how it all started: I had reached my class late. It was the first class of Computer Programming 1. And the professor, who was probably the best professor in BITS Goa, threw me out of the class.

I had low CGPA, but a high ego. I think I did not attend a single class of CP1, CP2, OS as well as DSA.

I had given up on programming. I wanted to do something business related. After a mandatory CS internship after my 2nd year, I was wondering what to do in the summer of 2012, after the end of my 3rd year.

I had tried to do a startup, but I was more playing the startup game than actually doing anything with it.

Then one night changed my life.

I still remember that night. I had gone up to this guy’s room. He was sort of a friend. Someone who got straight As. He had an 8 point CGPA. The BITS grading is on the harder side of things. So he was quite good.

I remember a discussion about our plans for the future. I am not even sure why I was discussing it with him. I was a 6 pointer. An average student who skipped all his classes and spent his nights playing FIFA. I spent more time on DC++ than textbooks. I was the last person that someone with a career in mind would want to chat with.

So this person told me that he had been sending out emails to professors for months now for his 3rd year summer internship / 4th year practice school (the 6 month internship that all BITS students have to do). I think he had contacted more than 100 professors by then.

Again, I don’t remember all the details. And there are a lot of details that you forget over time.

But I have a recollection of the take-away: I was an idiot who had skipped all his classes. I had to work much harder than someone who was already a good student and had crushed his undergraduate CS classes. If that guy was working so hard for an internship, I had to work harder.

I got very lucky. I got an internship at Redbus. It was thanks to one of the first cold emails I ever sent out. But I learned never to take anything for granted. And I promised myself not to leave anything to chance. I had no right to. Nobody owed me anything. I had to work for it.

I get so many emails / Twitter DMs from people who get discouraged after a few non replies. They stop sending out cold emails. They don’t put effort on each reach out. They start applying with the one click feature on LinkedIn. And then get upset when most companies choose the IIT + IIM + work ex over them.

Remember: Nobody owes you a job. Not getting a response to your cold email? Maybe send out a 100 more. And don’t stop till you get your shot. You will have to work a lot harder.

P.S So what happened to the guy I talked to? He eventually got an intern under a Prof who worked at CERN. And I ended up selling bus tickets in the north east. So it worked out for both of us.