PRIYANKA VERGADIA: So I grew up in a little town
called Ujjain, which is in the central part of India.
And I was into studying a lot more than sports
and those other things.
The desire to study hard came from just the background
of where my parents had come from.
My dad's side of family was full of engineers.
All his brothers were engineers.
My dad was in Indian Railways.
He was a mechanical engineer.
So I was very obviously fascinated by oh,
how do trains run?
And how do engines work?
I am Priyanka Vergadia.
And this is my journey to becoming a Google Developer
Advocate.
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Coming into ninth grade, it was very clear
that I wanted to be an engineer.
I decided to come to the US to do my masters.
And I wanted to change the focus a little bit
from electronics to computer science
because that's kind of where I was seeing
most of the job opportunities.
We had to take out a significant amount of student loans.
So for me, it was a huge responsibility
in terms of risk.
Like, after doing your masters, six months after,
you have to start paying that loan.
So you have to make sure you get the job.
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PRIYANKA VERGADIA: They basically
put everything on the line, like all the savings that they had.
That just kept me motivated and pushing through as much
as anything else.
As soon as I graduated, I really wanted
to see my parents because I didn't see them for two years
when I was studying.
So I paid for their ticket to get here.
And they spent the graduation with me,
which was a really proud moment because they had never stepped
away from the country ever.
And this was the first time they were
sitting in an international flight coming to see me.
And I was very proud to be able to give them that experience.
They did say that we don't have to do this because it was still
a hard time because we had to still pay
the loans and everything.
I was very determined.
I was like, I'm not walking the graduation without you.
And I wanted to do that for me, selfishly,
because I would not want to walk without anybody
in the stands looking at me.
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PRIYANKA VERGADIA: From there, I tried being a sales engineer.
And that's kind of how I explored
this whole different area of working in the technology
and software industry but working closer
to the problem statement, working closer to the customer.
That interest grew from just helping one customer to another
to another into creating videos and helping
a broader set of developers and customers at the same time.
And then I was like, this is great.
I want to do more of this.
And that's kind of how I transitioned into being
a developer advocate.
I enjoy being closer to what developers are feeling,
what problems are they facing?
How do we help solve them?
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PRIYANKA VERGADIA: The advice I would
give to a 16-year-old girl in India
is to just follow your passion and follow your dream.
It might look like it's far fetched.
But don't let it stop you.
Coming to the US, studying with a huge amount of loan
at the back of my mind was hard.
But if I didn't take that step, I don't think I would be here.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
So dream it.
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