“You have an engineering degree and a complicated Master’s degree and you are a writer?” is a puzzled look on many people’s faces that I used to see (now my world is more used to it!! 🙂
They are ever so baffled as to why I am not the pen tester, the Security analyst, the Security engineer or why I am not donning the other hallowed Security or Java titles!!
In 2011, just out of graduate school in the US and returning to India, I was hunting high and low for an appropriate job in Information security or Java. The word “Information security” was relatively unknown in the Indian job scene then, even though “Java” was all around.
My children were very young then – one was just around 9 and the younger one was around 4. I was not planning to leave them and go to work for long Indian hours! (yes, inspite of the chapter written earlier, I had chosen “children” over career!! 🙂
Finally in 2012, as I was surveying the Indian scene and after applying and re-applying for jobs through various portals, one day, I got a message from a person on LinkedIn.
“Would I be willing to work with them on Java by starting to make e-learning videos?” (I was “Sun Java certified” – so that helped )
I was super excited and I said a “Big Yes”!! 🙂
But I had no idea what “e-learning videos” were and that “writing” was even a career in 2012…. as I was stepping out of a looooong motherhood journey and a nasty foot surgery!! All I knew was Java and Information security and knew that I had to make career in it!! 🙂
As I would be working entirely remotely, this person patiently taught the fine nuances of writing and making e-learning videos through calls and videos. Even when all seemed to be going well, there was an initial business hiccup that seemed to throw the whole thing off. But the trust of the same person made sure that the deal did not break off.
My writing career took off after that and I did write for a number of leading organizations and many of them did very, very well. Soon, I got opportunity to write for many other companies and writing did not seem like a hobby or a part-time job. It was my main career now! I started my own technical blog and started writing personal articles too!! 🙂
Now when life takes you through the writing path, away from the traditional pen tester or software engineer roles you just embrace it since you enjoy it so much!! To the person who stood by me and shaped my writing career, Thank you, Thank you!! 🙂
Now I write on all my favorite topics in Information Security and personal topics to my heart content!! Cheers to the person who started it all whom I have never seen!!
Has anybody stood by you and placed trust in you when things are not going well? Don’t forget to thank them!! 🙂