How I landed in research.
My journey from being apathetic to studies to being a full-time Ph.D. scholar [2014–2020]
It’s true, I never thought I could ever see myself in research. To be honest, I never knew what it meant; but, as the title says, I did. Today, when I look back, I get a sense of accomplishment. The journey has been full of struggles, yet very interesting with couple dramatic turning points, so, I thought why not start my blogs by just sharing this story.
I have always been a computer science enthusiast, but not a fan of studies. I took a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an MBA in finance and marketing. Like a normal person, I was quite content with my education and had no plans to study more. I had no particular love for studies and never ever planned to continue in academia. However, to the contrary, I got my first job, in 2014, as a teacher for Python programming to higher secondary kids in a CBSE affiliated school. Just for the record, by that time no university course taught Python. I knew the essentials of C/C++ and no matter how much I hated studies, I had to understand and learn Python myself to teach the kids at school. Once I got the knack of it, it became an enlightening experience. I had heard the saying-“study done to teach someone is the purest of all”, it was then that I experienced it. My concepts became sharper with time and I enjoyed the classroom teaching.
A year passed by and it was going great. Then came a BIG turning point in my life. In 2015, Microsoft’s R&D wing at Hyderabad, India was looking for few people who could help them with some basic tasks of data analysis. They were planning to launch Cortana (the Windows virtual digital assistant) in India. I got the chance of writing the test due to some well wisher friends, and was lucky enough to get the chance. I was selected as a part-time Consultant and my job was to perform data preprocessing, cleaning and segmentation. To be honest, initially I didn’t realize what I was doing, what will be its use or how is it so useful for a giant like Microsoft that they are ready to hire people and pay for it. I didn’t know anything about the bigger picture I was a part of. I was working two jobs at a time, that meant 12–14 hours a day! Parents were a big support and their blessings made me do such wonders. It was a tiring process indeed, but, unknowingly I was getting prepared for what was to follow.
One day I came to know that a recent graduate kid from my neighborhood got selected for an MS program from an US-based university. I take it as another turning point of my life where I started thinking of higher studies. I just started exploring about that university. While going through the pages of their computer science department, I got stuck at the word ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI). Quite fascinating it was. Again, I knew nothing about it, but it remained with me for a good time. I discussed the possibilities with a friend, who guided me towards higher education (Ph.D.) from abroad. I looked at the possibilities and procedure to apply to some universities. It meant preparing SoPs, LoRs, research statements (about which I had no idea at all) apart from clearing GRE and TOEFL while doing a 12-hour job.
Exactly, I asked the same to myself. Exams like these go heavy on fees if your country’s currency exchange rate is weaker than US dollar, and demand good preparation. It was not fun but a serious decision. However, the idea of higher education in AI had all my attention. Ultimately, I reached the final decision- what the hell! let’s do it! And guess what? I did it. Cleared both exams well enough to cross the eligibility lines of my dream colleges in US and Canada. Somehow, may be due to lack of relevant masters degree, I didn’t get through for Fall 2016. However, I just wasn’t prepared to drop the idea of studying AI. I applied for a master’s program in computer science in India and got selected. I decided to grab as much as I can, push my boundaries beyond my comfort zone to learn about AI in these two years, and again apply for Fall 2018.
I resigned from all jobs and joined full-time master’s program in 2016 and within 20 days of joining found myself a mentor who had good experience with AI and Natural Language Processing. It was then, I realized that both my jobs and those 12 hour work schedules were preparing me for this day. I was now subjected to the full-view of the bigger picture I mentioned earlier. To my surprise, the AI and NLP community were mostly using Python as main programming language and I had some (very little but significant) experience in data analysis and pre-processing.
For these two years I didn’t take a single day off. I wanted to make every single second count. I used to hop on my computer in the research lab between lectures and during free hours and used to read.. read.. and just read. I found all that Google had for my search query and read it. I struggled a lot with research papers, but eventually got the knack of it. Used to reach department at 8:30 am, discussed things with my mentor at 9–9:30 am, studied until 11 am and then attended lectures until 5 pm, again studied till 7 pm and then joined evening diploma classes for an hour and half and finally returned to my hostel dorm by 8:30 pm. 12-hour schedule everyday (even on the weekends) for 2 years gave me great research insights and I completed my master’s with good merit and a 6-month thesis work on Machine Learning based Sarcasm Detection in Hindi and few publications. It doesn’t sound like much but for an average student like me, who hated studies more than anything, this was huge!
Yes, I again applied in universities from US and Canada for a Ph.D. for the Fall 2018 term and no I didn’t through, yet again!
So, I continued my Ph.D. in the same university with the same mentor I had for two years. Currently, I’m in the third year of my doctoral research which focusses mainly in Natural Language Processing, Quantum Computing and Deep Learning, and I must say it has been an amazing journey. I had to struggle way more than I expected, but I didn’t stop and kept learning from my mistakes as I went on. I’m still on the same path and aspire to make a career in corporate research and development in coming future.
Moral of the story:
- Anything is possible if you genuinely and honestly make efforts towards achieving your goal. Distractions and disturbances are stones in your way, it’s your decision if you want to focus on the stones or the destination.
- Not everything makes sense instantly, trust His plans, keep on working hard. Everything happens for a reason.
… and there can be many more, depending on which part of it speaks to you. So, this was my story from 2014–2020. The intention was not to brag, but just to motivate anyone who’s facing failures or struggling in any way or may be hesitating in starting off a new journey. I believe if I can do it, you can do it too. If the above story inspired you or motivated you a little bit, please let me know by leaving a clap on this post. Thanks for being a patient reader!
