Tuesday, the 4th of June 1996, little Harry had just arrived at the launch site with his grandfather waiting for Ariane 5 rocket to lift off and to bring laurels to the entire European continent. The count-down had already begun with the Senior Engineers and Scientists doing some last minute checks. The lift off was only a few seconds to go. Little Harry, sitting on his grandpaa’s shoulders, had his binoculars ready to capture this memory with him for life.
“3.. 2.. 1.. Lift Off”
There were claps and cheers and the spectators hugging each others as they saw another Ariane series rocket fly into the space same as it’s predecessors and do wonders. The sound of the lifting rocket was deafening for many but their excitements saw no limit.
A few seconds passed and the rocket started tilting to one side to adjust it’s postion.
37 seconds of flight. KaBOOM. Probably, the rocket had registered it’s name in the one of the most expensive confetti ever. 10 years of hardwork and 7 Billion dollars came burning down to earth and so did the tears came rolling down the little Harry’s white skin. He saw the blast and the rocket coming down and so fell down his dreams of becoming an Engineer one day.
Who was to blame for this ? What caused it ?
It was a programming mistake that had been overlooked by the Space Agency. Today the Integer Overflow Exception is something every Software Engineer is aware about. In short, when an integer number reaches a very high value, some weird things happen to that number in a computer. This is what happened to the computers onboard the Ariane 5. Avoiding that little error back in 1996 could have saved Billions of dollars. Most importantly, it could have saved the tears and the tumbling dreams of little Harry.
This is the level of responsibilities a Software Engineer has upon him/her.
Fast forward to 2021, the Ariane 5 blast is said to be one of the most expensive coding mistakes programmers are often taught about.
Many stories like these inspired me to be an Engineer in the field of Computer Sciences so that I can also contribute and make the world somewhat a better place. I started taking interest in the subject in school and within no time I found myself being the topper of the subject in the entire school and getting appreciation in the assemblies. Coming from the world’s largest school, topping the subject was inspiring enough for me. Fast forward a few years and I was in college sitting on a table with more than 15 fellow students sitting in a Hostel room reading for the exam next day. That hostel room had students few of which had arrears (back) in a few subjects, had failed in some subjects and others had low attendance with little hope of getting a job in the final year. This set of people consisted of people who had tried a startup and failed at it; others set up a website but failed to get enough daily views which eventually led to shutting down the website. We had also tried Smart India Hackathon but that year the entire ministry wasn’t selected for further rounds. We had almost assumed that whatever new we try, it’ll eventually fail…
Comes 4th year in college and the placement season begins. We had registered for the placements with no sight of where we would be in life be after an year. Many companies visited the campus. We saw new records being published by the University each day but we didn’t lose hope. Fast foward again an year, the students in that hostel room went ahead to bag the Top 5 Superdream offers in the entire college ranging from Paypal and Avalara to Amazon and Expedia to name a few. Note, these were the students who had arrears in college but the only thing which made them stand out was their never exhausting enthusiasm to learn whenever given a chance and their aim to be clear with the basics. None of these students, including me was a 9 pointer.
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s normal to suck at something. And actually it’s very important to fail at something because that would mean you tried something new. “One who never failed at anything, never tried anything new.” The only way to excel at something is to start by sucking at it while constantly striving to improve yourself.
In this more than ever connected world, students must stay away from distractions. All notifications should be turned off in the phones. One problem solving a day, keeps last minute tension away. (Although you wouldn’t be asked real world problem solving in University exams and would rather be asked theory, and probably this is why we failed so many times in those exams. Yes, this is an excuse we give ourselves 😛 )
Becoming one of best Software Engineers is easy given that you know WHY are you doing it and what would the world miss out if you decide not to persue your dreams.
Qualifications would be a normal B.Tech. degree from any college and you can apply to any on/off campus opportunities in various MNCs and Startups.
Focus should be on knowledge rather than certificates. My folder containing all the certificates was not even opened during the job interview.Â
Geeksforgeeks, Leetcode and Github should be your friends. Choose any programming language and excel at it, like really.
“Aim to the moon, always. Aim to the moon, even if you fail, you will hit one of the stars.”
Utkarsh Paliwal,
Software Engineer, Avalara R&D
