So hello everyone. First of all,
Thank you so much for your wishes.
Many people told me that
they really want to learn about my promotion journey,
but before that, I really want to share about my rejection.
Because I think rejection has helped me make who I am,
and especially rejection from all the FAANG
Companies has actually changed my life. So before starting
I want to share an example. If you think about apps
like Instagram, WhatsApp,
and Apple. You try to
imagine your life
without these companies.
Because the reality is that all of these companies, their founders
also faced rejection in real life.
So that they can
form these companies.
For example, the founder of WhatsApp Jan Koum.
He actually got rejected from Twitter and Facebook. Because of which
they could form WhatsApp that we use like every day.
And not just this. Even Instagram's founder
Kevin Systrom turned down Mark Zuckerberg so that he can
form Instagram. And everybody knows about Apple.
Steve Jobs
Actually got fired from his own company.
And in the end,
after getting fired, he opened a new company "Next Computers",
that company,
and his second company,
helped survive,
Apple when
Apple crashed. So basically the point is that
you think that when you get rejected you feel like you are losing an opportunity.
It's a setback,
but in reality,
if you are losing a small opportunity but it's a stepping stone to get or to grab a bigger opportunity that can change your life.
And it can change the world and it can actually help
you make a better career.
So for that reason, I want to share my journey.
How rejection has helped me change my life. But before that
I really want to share one of my experience from
Harvard Business School. If you remember I met Arpit over there and he shared with me
about Lee Finance.
How Lee Finance
helped him finance his
Education.
And I really want to share with you another product by
Lee Finance called LevelUp,
and I'm so proud to say that I'm partnering with them.
So basically LevelUp is a product that will not
just help International students in the US survive,
but actually thrive in the US.
And I am actually hosting a live session with Yudi J
about careers in the US,
with a hiring manager and a software engineer.
Because I have personally experienced both these things.
And I am so happy to share all those steps
about careers in the US.
And most importantly,
their career board is only for international students.
And as you know that my placement was through hackathons and career fest.
Similarly,
on LevelUp.
First of all,
they have competitive coding challenges on data structures and algorithms
where you can win up to $500.
And their job board is especially for international students. So whichever opportunities you'll get they'll be updated
with H-1B and all the Visa requirements for you all.
And LevelUp by Lee Finance is an excellent resource for all the international students.
Especially for making their careers thrive in the US.
And we both have a common goal to help all the students.
So I'm so proud to partner with them.
And you all can sign up for the session with the link in the description below.
And I'll see you on the 26th of March.
Now,
let's talk about the three reasons why I think rejection
from FAANG companies actually changed my life.
Number one is freedom and brand value.
And brand reminds me of my 11th grade.
When we were preparing for JEE in 11th, 12th - Physics, Chemistry, and Math.
We didn't know anything apart from these.
We didn't know which major to take in college.
Which type of engineers do we want to become.
What is our passion?
But,
We just knew one thing - to give two years of
our life to Physics, Chemistry, and Math.
and to get into IIT.
We only knew about the brand and no one had actually visited the college.
Before thinking about that brand.
Similarly when we talk about the FAANG companies.
In college, we don't know whether we want to become a Full Stack developer,
Data Science Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer, Deep Learning Engineer, Android Developer, IOS Developer
We don't have this exact knowledge.
Our main goal is to do Data Structures and Algorithms properly,
so that we get placed in a FAANG company.
So this brand value is overhyped in my opinion.
And also when you do go to a FAANG company, I have seen that
you don't get enough freedom as compared to a growing company and even
even the remaining 490 Fortune 500 companies.
Leaving the top 10 maybe you can get better freedom in the rest.
In the growing companies. I'll tell you an example.
Let's talk about Android.
We all use smartphones and in them the most common libraries,
Even though Android is owned by Google.
But the most common libraries, the apps they are using. They are made by Square.
If you google libraries like Retrofit, okhttp, Dagger 2
These are all very good
Libraries that have been acquired by Google. And similar libraries
Google has acquired them under their control.
For example, they converted Dagger to Dagger 2.
And these libraries are made by those companies whose name you haven't even heard.
Called Square. So basically what I'm trying to say
is that if you talk about the
top companies that doesn't mean that
the best developers are there.
Best developers can be there but not necessarily the most Innovative.
Most creative.
And most free to make any kind of feature developers.
For example,
if you talk about Apple,
Apple's CDO - Chief Design Officer left Apple and
he took the position of chancellor at Apple.
In 2019 Jony Ive left this position as a chief designer officer.
Because he also realized that if I create designs today then those are kept on hold for 2-3 years.
I have to wait for so long to get my design
out of the door.
Because if a company could profit more by postponing a design
then why would they pursue a design quickly.
They will hold on to it.
So for that reason in the big companies, their structure is ready from the beginning.
For the next 3-4 years.
So they can restrict your innovative abilities to maximize their profits.
And if today you get an idea that in iPhone 14 I want this kind of camera and I can make it, if you work for Apple.
They will also say that let's keep it for iPhone 16,
or we will just keep with the features
we already have planned for iPhone 14.
So for that reason, I personally think that since I got more freedom
to do what I want to,
I was able to take more responsibilities such as leadership,
stand-ups.
I have learned such skills that you can't even learn in an MBA.
I'll give you an example. I was talking to a friend yesterday.
He did an MBA.
One of them are from India
amd one from the US.
It doesn't matter because the skills are the same.
I was asking him/her that do you know that if today you want to start a start-up
What kind of start-up you will do?
Will you do a proprietorship, private limited?
Or else, there are many more.
There is LLP, LLC, LLC-A class, LLC-C class that is in the US.
So I gave them these options?
They said they didn't knew about this.
Why didn't they know it? Because they hadn't been taught this in MBA.
They told that they had been taught how to be a better employee,
how to be a better strategist, finance, accounting.
But if they want to start a start-up they don't even know
in which category will their start-up come in.
If they want a single person or partnership with 2-3 people.
So at the end of the day, they have to learn a lot of skills on their own.
But I can say it confidently that since I have the time to
be free. Since I had the time to think freely
and to be creative. I was able to
learn much more. And I didn't had to restrict myself.
I want to make this feature
I want to change how people use this device.
I can think about it.
Suggest to my product manager and get it out. So
this freedom,
actually changed my life.
And taught me so many important things that I maybe wouldn't
have been able to learn in a FAANG company.
Now, the number 2 reason is growth.
Many people already know about this.
For example,
if you go to growing companies
You have more ways to grow yourself as an engineer.
Not just skills-wise but also financially.
If your company generates 400-person revenues more then
in a start-up, you get more rewards as compared to big companies.
So for instance Apple's market cap went from 2 billion to 3 billion
that doesn't mean that your salary will increase as well.
But this ratio can be higher in terms of earnings in a growing company.
If you get equity in a growing company that
could be more worth it.
Even though you cannot predict the future,
but if you know that the company you're working for has
growing potential then your growing potential can be bigger as well.
And as I told you the skills
that are management, MBA related.
I learned them on my own by handling more tasks.
It was a bit easier in a growing company as compared to an already grown one.
And the number 3 reason is
when you work for a growing company and you keep
switching out your roles.
If you're working for a growing company, sometimes you have more work.
You have more flexibility to take more responsibility.
So because of that you
get to know your potential. Where do you stand?
So if you want to move to a different company,
you will know that if I take this responsibility I can do it nicely.
You actually know the exact worth
that if you are being paid this much
then how much will you earn in the next company.
Because you're already used to changing roles.
And you're very very flexible.
Even though you can do that in FAANG. You can change roles easily.
But what I'm saying is that the responsibilities that you can take
in a growing company and ones you can push out of the
door. That probability is
more in a growing company. So because of these
overall reasons. Actually, I think changed my life. And made me a
better engineer and one more important reason that might
not be valid for you.
That is also about doing something on the side.
So,
everyone can't do only one full-time job.
Some people like me like to do 2 jobs, 3 jobs.
But to get freedom rather than a warning to
be fired.
from top companies. I don't want to take any names.
But if you check how many people got fired or warned not to have
a YouTube channel.
If they're working for FAANG companies.
They have to take permission about each and every word they speak about their company.
So these things that actually restrict your creative abilities, that
I think is not worth it for me personally. Because
when I think about anything,
what I want to do.
I really want it to be out of the door as well.
And because of that I think becoming free and becoming free to do
anything I want to just changed my life.
So that'll be it for today's video.
If you want to know about my journeys like a promotion or
if you have questions about anything else.
Please feel free to drop it in the comments below.
And I'll see you guys in the next one.
Thank you so much for watching.