Nanda Ganesh Kumar Nakka

When did you get your first Big Break? How did you get it? How did it go?

I got my First Big Break after completion of my post graduation. I found a relevant training institution and spent 4 months in a learning the course. I have given many interviews. I have got the job in one of the companies. I have joined with very basic package of 5k Euro per year. The take away is that all the above is the journey. I did not mention the struggles, I have gone through this journey. I have no guidance from anyone 10 years back. Just persistence, determination, focus and sheer will. I have learnt all the required skills while working in the first org and moved on to bigger organization with good hike in salary. Kept moving on since then growing technically and career wise.

What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome to get to where you are now professionally? How did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was to let go of my laziness and next one is lack of awareness. I had to overcome to settle in faster after my graduation to lessen the burden on my father. So I have a strong determination and perseverance to get a job and settle in faster. I did try different jobs initially to pay my accommodation and food bills. Analyzed my skill set and understood that I need to pursue post graduation in my domain to get a better understanding of the subject. So that I can make my career out of it. After my post graduation I had to move to another state and learn the course and attend the job interviews.

When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?

When I was a student during my B.Tech Engineering, I am very much interested in my core subject of Electronics and I always did my labs perfectly. Learned the Tools and programming languages part of the curriculum and few outside of the curriculum purely based on my interest. Biggest helping point or driving strength for me was to work on my academic projects on my own without anyone's help where I need to learn Embedded C language and designing circuits and soldering all the Electronic components on to the PCB on my own. I had to develop my project as well as my fellow classmates. One good thing was that I had computer access since my 5th standard starting with pentium processors and using floppy disks due to my uncles Internet cafe. Having good computer skills was really helpfull all the way through my academic and career for a quick grasp and understanding the software applications and tools. After that in my post graduation, I have learned new programming skills of verilog and system verilog and deep knowledge on VLSI.

What is the most useful piece of career advice you got as a student, and who gave it to you?

I think I never had such good guidance or faculty who are technically good and also no one really cared about students career at that time. My Graduation happened in a small town. Its a new Engineering college I had to join there due to my father's compulsion. All the Engineering faculty were just can't get a job to settle so they turned out to be faculty which is easy for them at that time. There were two Head of the ECE departments through out my 4 Year engineering, who helped me indirectly by being very strict and no guidance. So, I had to sort out things on my own interms of projects, labs, career guidance. One piece of career advice I have for my own is not to depend on anyone and don't wait for someone to guide you through out your life. One should have self understanding, awareness and clarity of what to do and how to do it. Be more self reliant and never ask for career advice from others because something worked for others might not work for you. Each one has unique situations growing up and career journey is different for everyone. Just spend some time on yourself and think deeply what you want to become and how.

How did you start building your network?

Network really didn't matter for me. I was never dependent on anyone for anything. Just think and plan and go forward. But there are ways you can build your network. There is a professional platform like LinkedIn. None of my classmates from school or Engineering are in my working domain so no network for me there. If you have then its good. At my time the social network is zero for career point of view. Now we have unlimited social and professional networks, just have to create accounts and build it. Attend conferences and summits related to your career interested domain happening in and around your city, state or country. If your college or university from where you graduated is so big then just contact the alumni from LinkedIn and start talking to the professionals who can guide you.

What is it like when your job gets tough?

I believe the job gets tough at times, but that teaches you how to handle stress and the people who makes your job tough overtime. That's an never ending story in the working place. Tough times at job tests your patience and gives you more experience and skill to handle the tough situations better next time. *Life is a process of learning that's what I believe. Tough or easy doesn't matter. You need to keep going but never give-up* - Nanda Ganesh Kumar.

What is the one piece of career advice you wish someone gave you when you were younger?

Never take career advice from anyone. If you did then just don't assume that if you follow that advice, you will end up succeeding because he or she did. Just keep the advices to be advices and practically you need to grasp the content and map their advice to your reality and see if it works for you or you give it a try and don't go blaming the person who advised you. you take a decision, that's your full responsibility. You only know about yourself and where you stand in life. What is your strength and what you can achieve. There is a phrase in my home country " Never try to imitate a fox just because its clever" Everyone has a different way of looking at things and different perceptions and different career paths and hurdles they come across. We cannot take career advice from someone and later realize its not working for me. You plan and do your own research and hard work to get to your goal. You write your own story, don't let others take the credit in your success. It should be your hard work and your success. You take full responsibility of your decisions even if it works or doesn't. If you take career advice from someone then you will blame the outcome if it is not in your favor. I never looked for any career advice from anyone but I have felt at times in my career where I should have done some research before but that's life. You do your best and there is also time which you are bound to. It may not happen exactly as you have planned to be. That's life.

How did you pick your career? Did you know all along?

I did plan my career after I took my Engineering in Electronics and Communications all along. I didn't initially settle down for the core job, I had to struggle for months working in different jobs. Luck does favor the bravery and hard working at least for me it did. So I have ended up working in same domain that I have done my engineering course and I am happy about it.

In layperson terms, what do you actually do at work?

I am a chip design engineer with 10 years of experience. In the complete cycle of Chip Designing, I play a crucial role as a DFT Engineer. My Role is to add test logic to the design, test the design, validate the design using the scripts and EDA tools like Mentor graphics, Synopsys and Cadence. In more simpler terms, I make sure the chips that are designed from my current working Org are fault free and are capable of diagnosis and refurbish able post manufacturing.

Did anyone ever oppose your career plans when you were young or push you in a direction you did not want to go?

I wanted to be in Army, military or Defense until my college and Plus 2 which is 12th Standard before going to Engineering. I was interested to do BSC or any degree for 3 years and parallelly prepare for Police officer exams. But my father ended up registering me to Engineering as all his friends kids are pursuing engineering so he wanted me to do the same. It was shocking for me as I have no idea till then about engineering and that's not part of the plan growing up for me. But I like challenges and has no other option as my dad has already registered me to the Engineering and I have to go through it. But after accepted to pursue engineering, I liked it.