A little positivity

“After my MTech in Electrical engineering, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. In my mind, the only plausible career option was to teach but I did not know where to start the job hunt. Eventually, my hostel warden, who also happened to be a principal at a college in Assam, offered me a position in his college. I really enjoyed my role as a professor but it also made me aware that in order to continue as a full-time professor, I would need to get a doctorate. This motivated me to join IIT Dhanbad for a PhD. The journey was a roller-coaster ride, to say the least, but it also opened my eyes to my own potential.

Accepting rejection is one of the biggest lessons one can learn during their PhD journey. There were instances where my paper got rejected nine times in a row! Although the publishers did understand the novelty of my work, at the same time they expected a level of complexity that was beyond my scope. In order to introduce those complexities and expand the horizon of my work, I had to seek mentors apart from my current supervisor. I would like to think it was a blessing in disguise. It changed the game for me. I was able to understand things that I wasn’t aware of, about publications and scientific communication and it ultimately resulted in the acceptance of my first paper. It has either been the smallest positive result sometimes or a positive mail in my case, that kept me going through the journey.