My evolution as an engineer

Origin story

I grew up in the city of Secunderabad, in the southern part of India. It’s an easy going city and a melting pot of different cultures, languages and mindsets. Yes, a city in India is just as diverse as the country itself. One of my strengths, that I incorporated from living in this city, is that I can look past a persons physical appearance and go deeper very quickly. And that has paid dividends in more ways than one. Both professionally and in my personal life.

Growing up I was a curious and introverted kid. I spent a lot of time thinking and less time speaking, which incidentally made me a great listener. In retrospect, that probably made a lot of people think I was smarter than I really was! But, I was insecure about my ability to understand complicated things, given that my grades never reflected the aura of intelligence. That resulted in me developing, which I later come to learn is called, an imposter syndrome.

That also resulted in something very positive, and something that defined a lot of choices I made in the years to come and defined how I approach learning. I realized that I needed to put a lot more effort into simplifying complex topic, in other words breaking it down, thinking of it as an accumulation of multiple steps and each step joining together in this wonderful symphony of understanding! Eureka! I just learnt how to learn! Unfortunately, the education system was not designed for people like me, so that never reflected in my grades at school but it hasn’t stopped me setting ambitious goals for myself, to this day.

I hope you see where I am going with this. All the above defines me as a person, but it also defines me as an engineer and how I deal with and solve tasks. When faced with tough problems, feeling insecure or unsure about our ability to solve it, I would say, is part of the fun of being an engineer. The adrenaline rush of finally figuring out makes up for all those negativities, and you want to do it all over again, and again, and again.

I hate programming!

That was my opinion about programming when I was 16 years old. For me programming back then was, Java, web development and typing in front of a big white box on a black and white screen. And universities and training institutes, bootcamps to the newer generations, were producing a lot of programmers. Which turned me off, I wanted to do something different, again a recurring theme throughout my career! Of course, my opinion has changed once I realised programming was a means to solve a problem but as a 16 year old I did not want anything to do with programming.

I think this has something to do with how programming was presented to me as a kid. And something I reflect on when i want to teach my son something new.

Engineering and early career

My curiosity as a child led me to do some interesting things. Some examples are, making my own formula of homemade insect repellent, gathering used firecrackers and burning them in a heap, lead to a burned eyebrow, designing a homemade electrolysis experiment because I loved the bubbles that formed! The craziest of all, and something that should come with a disclaimer of do not try this at home, I opened up a AAA battery, and found this tiny grey thing. I thought, “what happens if I put this into the electrical socket, just to be safe I’ll hold it with pliers. The rubber on the handle will protect me.” It was a dumb thing to do, but I mitigated the risks as best as I could, didn’t I? Still dumb, but could have been dumber.

In retrospect, it feels like my choice of studying B.Sc in electronics was a choice of my subconscious mind and not so much to do with my hate for programming. The first code I ever wrote was in embedded C, to blink an LED. But that was not all, I also built the circuit myself on a breadboard. That experience felt powerful! I can take these seemingly inanimate things and make them do something by programming! Wow wow wow! I fell in love. I knew at that moment what I wanted to do and me being where I was wasn’t an accident or an involuntary decision at all.

During my masters education in Sweden I networked a lot and built relationships with people from a very diverse set of domains and education backgrounds. That helped me broaden my idea of what I want to do after I graduate. One such experience was getting together with some students from the Chalmers school of entrepreneurship for a startup hack event. By then I had two options in my mind for my future career, go into research or work on a startup idea. I love the idea of research, learning new things and applying it to new and challenging problems. But I also like to move fast, try and experiment in quick iterations and build elegant solutions. After getting a sneak peak into the startup-world it felt like home and a fit for all the my creative and engineering needs.

So when the opportunity with Cellink was presented to me, I took it without thinking twice and probably one of the best decisions of my life! It was an intense experience, something I will draw from the rest of my life, but it was also the most lärorikt, literally translated means learning-rich or filled with learning in swedish. I would say I joined just in time to see an evolving startup first hand. The transformation from validation to a high growth phase. Right in time to experience the sacrifices, compromises and mistakes that we engineers make in those intense environments.

Finally…

When I look back on all these past experiences, education, jobs. I realise I as a person haven’t changed. But I have become more confident in myself, my abilities, my convictions and my methods of learning and problem solving. I no longer feel like an imposter, because I am exactly where I need to be. And it’s just the beginning!