4 Years, 1000 Lessons: The Story of My Bachelor's Journey

“Sometimes, you only understand the path when you’ve walked it to the end.”

When I began my bachelor’s journey, I thought it would be simple. You study hard, get good grades, build a few projects, land a good job, and graduate. But as with most things in life, it didn’t go according to the script. This post isn’t a highlight reel. It’s a story of detours, self-doubt, moments of clarity, and unexpected victories — the kind that don’t always show up on resumes but shape who you are.

It started with ambition. In Class 11, I joined FIITJEE. PCM + CS. I was excited, fuelled by the kind of energy only students dreaming of IITs have. Initially, I did well. Prateek sir’s weekly tests felt like puzzles, not punishments. My marks were consistent, and I believed I was on track.

Then came COVID.

Online classes blurred the lines between home and school. I lost discipline. Days turned into weeks, weeks into terms. I kept thinking, “I’ll get back on track soon.” But I didn’t. My JEE score tanked. My world, which was so tightly wrapped around that one goal, came crashing down.

I wish someone had told me that the exam wasn’t everything — that college counselling mattered, too. I later found out I could’ve gotten into decent colleges purely based on my board marks or JEE rank. But by then, that window had closed. Instead, I landed a seat in a semi-government college in Ghaziabad — AKTU-affiliated, B.Tech in CSE with a specialization in AI.

I joined with mixed feelings. A part of me was still grieving a dream that didn’t happen.

The people there were good — a couple of students in the batch were excellent coders who cracked GSoC and went deep into web3 communities, and they built a real coding culture in the later years of college.

I made some of my best memories in the hostel. Evenings were for cricket, nights were for last-minute study marathons — usually mechanical, chemistry, or electronics (painful combo, trust me). Mess food? Uninspiring at best, so off we went to roadside dhabas for a proper meal. Those late-night walks, the mid-sem chaos, and the shared sleep deprivation somehow made it all feel like home.

In school, I had chosen Computer Science as my 6th subject. That decision gave me a huge advantage. While my peers were wrestling with their first C programs, I was already building projects and participating in hackathons.

Still, it didn’t feel like enough.

By the end of my first year, I had a sinking feeling. My college wasn’t pushing me. The semester system was bloated, with back-to-back exams and outdated material. The checking was arbitrary. Even when I learned something, it didn’t feel like it mattered.

And so, I did something bold: I decided to switch colleges.

I heard about JIIT Noida allowing lateral entry directly into the second year. I gave their test. I cleared it. And just like that, I pressed reset on my college life.

But life rarely hands you clean restarts.

JIIT welcomed us — on paper. In practice, lateral entry students were treated as outsiders. We were placed in a separate batch. Clubs had already closed their recruitments. And as a day scholar, I didn’t even have hostel bonding to fall back on.

For the first few months, I felt invisible. People around me had already found their tribes. I was still looking for mine.

The real gut-punch came academically.

There was a sharp shift in the coursework, in what was expected of students, and in the level of the exams — they were purely practical and numerical, nothing like my previous college. I scored 4 out of 20 in my first internal exam in Data Structures. I’d never seen a single-digit score before. It was humiliating. But it also lit a fire.

I studied like never before. I stopped relying on spoon-fed content. I read books, solved problems until concepts clicked. By the next internal, I scored 19.5/20. And in finals, 29/35.

It wasn’t just about the numbers — it was proof that I belonged.

One thing I liked about JIIT was its Project-Based Learning (PBL) model. It wasn’t always perfect — yes, sometimes it felt forced — but it gave me a chance to build things instead of just writing about them. I made it a point to code every line of my projects myself. No copy-pasting, no templates. From Flask-based APIs to frontends, I wanted to understand the stack, not just use it.

This hands-on mindset bled into everything I did.

That same year, I also completed the Foundational Level of IIT Madras’ Diploma in Programming and the Modern Application Development course. These gave me the base to dive deeper into backend development.

I had found my groove.

The second year wasn’t all lows, either. I landed an internship at CRIS — the technology arm of the Indian Railways. I gained industry experience early, working on three different projects from scratch, one of which was deployed live.

Could I have aimed for GSoC or open source that summer? Maybe. But this was a fruitful experience in its own way: I saw how work gets done inside a government organisation. There was a heavy workload, no fixed hours, and everything felt disorganized. It biased me against that kind of corporate environment — and taught me what not to do.

By the time I entered my third year, I had a clear realization: trying to do everything at once was simply unsustainable. So I made a decision. Instead of pouring hours into textbooks daily, I’d focus on project building, DSA, and practical work after classes. Studying could wait until just before exams. This wasn’t about neglecting academics; it was about prioritizing what mattered most to me at that stage — learning by building.

That mindset was tested thoroughly in the fifth semester, arguably the toughest stretch of the entire four years. It was packed with four 4-credit core CS subjects, like Operating Systems and COA, plus four lab courses. It was intense, but it was also a chance to explore the practical depth of core CS. I ditched the standard lecture slides and went straight to books. It took more effort, yes, but it built a narrative in my mind — a sense of continuity in learning that PowerPoint presentations just couldn’t offer.

In our OS lab’s project-based learning component, I ended up writing an article on Python’s Global Interpreter Lock (GIL), which caught the eye of our professor. That small moment of recognition meant a lot — it validated my decision to focus on understanding rather than rote learning.

Since I’d chosen to study only during prep leave, I made sure to be mentally present during lectures. I didn’t panic during exams, even though preparation time was short. I read books not to score marks but to actually learn. It reduced my stress and let me attempt the exams with a calmer, more curious mindset — which helped, since the exams were logical and application-driven.

That semester wasn’t just about academic struggle. I also became a core member of GDSC (Google Developer Student Clubs) at my college. It opened doors to a whole new world — I met people beyond my classroom, built friendships, and explored new perspectives. Conducting events and workshops turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences. Later, I even got to interview juniors for the club — a hilarious and humbling experience that taught me what not to do in real interviews (lol).

Amidst all this, my parallel online degree from IIT Madras was going smoothly. For my college PBL, I worked on a hardware project — a smart pet feeder — which sparked my interest in hardware and introduced me to the iOS Shortcuts app for the first time. For our minor project, we experimented with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to build a chatbot — my first steps into LLMs and AI.

This journey wouldn’t have been half as enriching without the friends I met that year — people equally dedicated, curious, and invested. Together we built projects, tackled labs, and carried each other through the rough patches. College taught me that while many are just looking to hop on a moving ship without rowing, finding someone who’s willing to paddle alongside you is rare and invaluable. No one knows everything in college, but having a learning mindset — and someone to share it with — makes a world of difference.

Looking back, the fifth semester turned out to be one of the most fulfilling periods. I scored a 9.4 SGPA, made new friends, and grew in unexpected ways.

As winter break approached, I considered applying for a short-term internship. But after some reflection and advice, I realized a one-month stint wouldn’t offer much long-term value. Instead, I invested that time in upskilling — diving deeper into Python, sharpening my C++, and rigorously practicing data structures and algorithms. That simple decision set a strong foundation for what came next.

The sixth semester was my playground — I wanted to build something that felt inspired. Around that time, I stumbled upon a Twitch streamer, perrikayal, who was using EEG headsets to play video games. That blew my mind. I soon discovered that our college had a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) lab. My friend and I borrowed an EEG headset from there and started experimenting. Eventually, I managed to play Fortnite directly using brain signals — but I wasn’t satisfied.

So, for our minor project, we went all in. We decided to build Smooth Moves — an iOS app that let mobility-impaired individuals control automations (built in the iOS Shortcuts app) using brain signals from the EEG headset.

Here’s the twist: neither of us knew how to build iOS apps. I didn’t even own a MacBook. But my friend did, and we made it work — we’d stay back in college after 5 PM, working together on his MacBook. I’d do the EEG integration and signal processing at home, and then we’d meet and build the app interface in college. The project took one month of research and about three months of building, but it turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever worked on. We learned so much — and to top it off, we received a perfect grade.

That project wasn’t just a technical milestone. It was proof that when you’re driven by purpose and curiosity, limitations turn into stepping stones.

After the semester, I interned at a Bangalore startup, SwiffyLabs, over the summer — unpaid, but worth every second. The people, the learning, the vibe. It was magical. It reminded me that money isn’t the only currency. More importantly, it shifted my perspective on corporate life: I came to value the power of a good team, a healthy work culture, and meaningful work.

Toward the end of my sixth semester, placement season began. In a moment of impulse (and fear), I sat for a company and got selected for a one-year internship + PPO.

Initially, I was overjoyed.

But slowly, reality set in. The PPO conversion rate was close to 0%, the full-time salary was nowhere near what they’d mentioned in college, and worst of all — I was debarred from sitting for any more companies.

My heart sank.

But I made peace with it and focused on learning. I worked on Spring Boot services, Oracle DBs, and debugging legacy code in Pro*C. I wrote real APIs. I sat in testing cycles. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was experience.

In the evenings, I built myself. I assembled my first gaming PC. Bought a road cycle. Completed deep learning courses. Read research papers. Got better at asking “why?” instead of just “how?”

As 2025 began, I shifted gears. I set a goal: be placed by the end of June, before my internship ended. It was time to get serious. I dived headfirst into interview prep — brushing up on data structures and algorithms, revising my fundamentals in OOP, DBMS, OS, and computer networks. Every evening, after wrapping up my coursework and internship responsibilities, I dedicated a few quiet hours to prep.

In February, I landed my first interview, with a startup. I was excited, nervous, hopeful. The interview began fine — then came the DSA round. I chose to solve the problem in C++, thinking it would make me look more “prepared” for the typical placement scene. But under pressure, I fumbled. Syntax errors, time pressure, and self-doubt crept in. I couldn’t complete the problem. Afterwards, the interviewer said something that struck a chord: “Given your experience, I expected you to go with Python.”

And he was right. I had spent years building projects in Python, using Java in internships, exploring AI through Python libraries. Nowhere in my story did C++ feature prominently — so why was I forcing it? That conversation made me stop and reflect. I realized the value of playing to your strengths and being authentic to your own journey. I didn’t need to master every language; I just needed to be really good at one.

From that day, I committed to Python. I restarted my DSA journey from scratch and worked through the entire Striver Sheet in Python. Day after day, I chipped away at it, one problem at a time. Slowly, things started making sense again.

Sometime after, I received an interview call from Google for the Web Solutions Engineer role. I had prepared extensively, but the interview leaned more towards SQL than what the recruiter had indicated. I didn’t make it past the first round. It stung — it was a big opportunity — but I chose to take it in stride. It was one of my first real interviews, and it came with lessons that helped me grow.

In April, life took a detour. I went to Allahabad to appear for the SSB — the Service Selection Board — for the Indian Army. It was something I’d always wanted to experience. Over several days, I was tested mentally, physically, and emotionally — truly pushed to my limits. It changed my perspective in ways I didn’t expect. It made me realize that interviews, rejection, failure — these are small things in the grand scheme of life. If you want something, go for it. Don’t overthink. Don’t be afraid.

I returned from SSB with a clearer mind and a stronger resolve. I ramped up my prep — coding daily, revising subjects, managing my final-semester coursework, and finishing my internship deliverables. It was a grind, but I kept going. Still, the interviews weren’t coming. Applications went unanswered. Referrals were slow. It felt like shouting into the void.

But I didn’t give up.

Eventually, through a referral, I got a chance to interview with Groww. I gave it my all — and this time, it clicked. I got the offer.

Suddenly, things started falling into place. SwiffyLabs, the startup I’d interned with in Bangalore, reached out — they wanted to hire me. Around the same time, I interviewed at Goldman Sachs, and those rounds went surprisingly well too.

And just like that, from having no leads at all… I had three offers in hand. Three.

T_T

It felt surreal. Months of hard work, failure, realignment, and quiet hustle had finally started to pay off. More than the offers themselves, it was the journey that mattered most.

Now, standing at the end of this four-year odyssey, I think back to that 18-year-old who thought life was a straight line — study hard, get good grades, land a job. He would be shocked at how wrong he was.

But I think he’d also be proud.

Not because of the resume I’ve built or the skills I’ve acquired — though those are nice. But because I didn’t quit. I adapted. I rebuilt. I allowed myself to be humbled, to try again, to ask for help, and to keep going even when it was easier to stop.

This post wasn’t about highlights. But if there’s one lesson I’ll carry forever, it’s this: you don’t have to have everything figured out. You just need the courage to keep figuring it out.

Things manage to work out in the end — you just have to keep learning and enjoying the journey.

Before ending, I’d like to express my gratitude to my parents, to my mausi — who has supported and guided me at every step of this journey — and to my friends, who’ve been there since the beginning.

Thanks for reading.

If you’re a student who’s feeling lost, I hope this gave you some comfort. If you’re about to start college, I hope it gave you perspective. And if you’re somewhere in between, I hope it reminded you that your story doesn’t have to follow anyone else’s script.

— Aryaman (a.k.a. screamg0d from the batcave)