“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity,” says
Jatin Chotaliya, who joined a CORE company right out of college. 3 years into Ambetronics Engineers Pvt. Ltd., he quickly rose
to the position of Project Manager and currently works on In-vehicle networking
systems of India’s first indigenously designed sports car. What interests us is
how did he start his career as an R&D engineer after his BE from Mumbai
University.
Why did you
not join IT services?
I got selected on campus by HCL technologies. But, I was
not keen to do a desk job or write endless lines of code. Moreover, I chose to
pursue engineering in electronics because I loved hardware electronics. I
decided not join HCL.
How did you
get your current job?
I realized in my second year that core companies hardly
come for campus placements. I was determined that I will not join an IT
services firm and waste my four years of engineering. So, I started talking to
seniors and friends who worked for core industries. Many suggested internship
was the way to go. I tried couple of companies, none entertained me. They all
wanted to know if I have done any projects!
I decided to make a project. Since, I wanted to get
into automotive industry, I built a datalogger. I took this project to the
company that had refused to give me an internship. This time, they not just
entertained me, they recruited me! That’s my story!
Three tips
you would give for engineering students who aspire for a core job
1. Identify your favorite
industry. It can be automotive or electronic products or manufacturing. Narrow
down companies in that area. Thoroughly study the company website, their
products and solutions, follow their blogs and media reports. Also, stay
updated with current trends in that industry. Primarily, get to know the industry and the company as
if you are already working!
2. Make a prototype or a proof of concept to improve an existing
solution provided by that company. The improvement may be incremental. You do
not need to innovate to a great extent to catch their eyeballs. If you do manage a game changing innovation,
world is at your feet. I insist again, make projects.
3. Lastly, as many of us
assume, making projects is not expensive. With the open source revolution,
almost every tool and software has an open source alternate. All you need to do
is break the INERTIA.
All the Best!
