I am not quite sure if I should consider myself lucky, intelligent or hard working. Where did it all change? Was it me who triggered a drastic change in myself or did the environment change me? These are some of the unanswered questions, I will live with.
Thinking back about school days, I was a shy and average student. But I somehow managed to get first division in tenth grade and second division in the high school. Future looked very scary to me. I remember the days when I, together with my friends, use to go to different institutions to explore what we really need to do. In this quest, we visited ILM (former name of UMT) and to be honest, few things attracted us about ILM; affiliation with a recognised university, free course books and a possibility for my friend to get admission with a pre-medical degree. So we applied. During the interview, interviewer gave me an honest advise that I should not waste my parents money and I should go back and improve my high school grades and then come back. What!?
After some days, I went to check my name in the admission list. It was in the waiting list on 14th number. This is the time when you can ask for miracles. Thanks to the intelligent pupils who were above me in the list and had decided not to take admission. So I got admission.
I started getting good grades and in most of the courses I was among the top 5 students. I finished my degree before time and was the first one in my batch who got a job. This is the mystery part.
I worked in different software companies all the way from junior software engineer to senior software engineer between 2000-2004. In the meanwhile, I did my Masters in computer science in the evenings. I got the top CGPA in my batch and also got second prize in an internal software competition.
I, then, moved to Sweden to do my Masters in Quality Management from Chalmers University of Technology. It is one of the best universities in Sweden. During my studies, I got a chance to do one year of internship as a Junior Process Analyst in France.
I came back from France, presented my thesis and got a job in Volvo Construction Equipment in Sweden. There, I work as a Process Leader and my main responsibility are process management, improvement in our division. Quality is a vast field but my main interest is around process improvement and customer satisfaction. In a meanwhile I came to know that there is a PhD opportunity in service management area. I thought this is closely linked to customer satisfaction which was my interest. So I started it and now I am working in collaboration with Volvo Construction Equipment and Mälardalen University as a PhD student but also keeping my Volvo employment.
One observation you could see is that I have changed my fields quite a few times, starting from computer science to quality management and then to service management. My stance is that this is not the most recommended thing to do but if you have a self-confidence that you could easily grasp the field and contribute then you could go for it.
Today I see my batch mates and feel proud that alhamdulilah all are well settled in there fields. The bottom-line is that institutions are a good platform to polish our skills but then its our own goals and will that helps us to excel in our career.
