Please tell us about yourself!

Hello, I am Aditya Chaturvedi. I am a IIITA alumnus from 2015 batch. I was from Information Technology batch. During my college days, people knew me more as the guy to call when the internet doesn’t work. Gaming community knew me as F@LCON. Currently, I am working as a Software Engineer for Amazon in Bangalore.

What was your first impression about the college?

The first time when I arrived in college, I was fascinated by the campus. The buildings, the well maintained gardens, the hostel, it all felt amazing. Just in a few days, I fell in love with the atmosphere around. It was first time I was interacting with people from different places in India and being part of the community felt great.

Best experience in college?

For me the best experiences in college involved sitting on the divider which ran through our boys hostel campus at 2am at night enjoying tea and snack with friends. We used to have a lot of fun and interesting discussion which made the hours fly fast. This was my regular favorite in college. Other than this, the most interesting experiences were as a part of Audio Lights Club (renamed the Acoustics and Media Society) and INDEM. The fun and frolic was all there, specially during Effervescence.

What was the best thing you did in college which helped you grow in your line of work?

One thing I always wanted is to learn things that help me bring my ideas to life. This aspiration quickly lead to me learn web development when I joined college. After class hours, I used to spend few hours everyday to learn HTML and PHP and soon I was creating my own website, writing small apps, a dummy twitter etc.

This aspiration grew more when I started understanding how I can share my creations with other people. This lead me to become curious about web servers which subtly drove me into the field of networking. I joined the INDEM club and learned as much I could on how the Internet works. Along with this, I was also a member of Geekhaven which provided me a platform to write apps for various events around the year specially during effervescence. This exercise of applying computer science to make products soon became a habit.

I started looking for applications for things I read and learn which made learning far interesting. Whether it be Software Engineering or Automata, my primary goal used to be to understand where and how it will be useful. Till day this practice helps me in my day to day work. A few days back I used state machines in automata to help explain User interface interaction design to an intern I am mentoring at work.

During exams, I never bothered to finish the course. On retrospect, this turned out to be fruitful because I gave sufficient time to comprehend whatever I studies before moving on to the next topic.

Aditya Chaturevdi And His Team Conducted IIITA’s First Mozcafe

How was your learning experience in GSOC?

GSoC (Project Link) was a fantastic experience. During my time, the road to GSOC was completely unexplored and we (I, Rahul, Jatin and Charul) were kind of the first passengers to explore this land. We had no idea on how to start and what to aim for which lead us to explore different options. We started reading blogs and articles and chatting on the GSOC mailing list.

With hard work and luck we all were able to get selected for the program. It was very exciting. We all celebrated it by sharing some sweets (I remember vaguely) in the football field. GSOC was a the perfect fit for me because it gave me opportunity to apply my knowledge to real world problems. I was fortunate to work with Mediawiki foundation (which powers Wikipedia) and work together with one of their senior engineers.

I learned how professional software development is managed specially when everyone is working remotely. There was no office, no labs, no teams, no hierarchy, just some passionate individuals working together for the good of all. GSOC taught me about Git, Bug boards, importance of documentation in code and outside, gather requirement from users before building a feature, how to get consensus about conflicting points and most importantly how to ask for help when in trouble. The last point helps me till date.

When working in a professional environment, it is a skill which must be mastered because the challenges will be hard and individual capacity is limited. Knowing how to be a team player brings the best out of you.

What was your stepping stone towards your success?

I believe the stepping stone for success is the simple idea of working towards something you like without worrying too much about the future. I think what worked for me is that I was never obsessed with placements and used my time in things I enjoyed. This belief made me use my time and energy in college clubs like INDEM and Geekhaven, learning new programming languages and frameworks and going past the traditional “competitive programming” domain which was the norm of the day.

(Interviewer’s comment: It still is the “norm”, though the tone set by seniors like Aditya sir himself has seen an upward rise in the number of students moving past “Competitive Coding” and exploring new avenues in programming.)

I believe everyone has aptitude towards something unique and if all tried to master the same thing, then the percentage of failures will be higher. Therefore, it is important to recognize your aptitude and utilize it constructively.

What is the best thing about working in Amazon?

A: One thing that Amazon thrives on is the open work culture and ownership. Amazon has an environment where hierarchy is mostly symbolic. Here, anyone can question anyone. The concept of “follow the senior guy” is generally frowned upon here. Amazon expect people to do work on their individual level and do not accept things on authority.

This makes the environment a lot more open for youngsters because it provides a sense of valuableness. The other good thing about working in Amazon is the fast pace software development cycle. Unlike many other companies, all the ownership of software development fall upon teams of two or three. From taking requirements from the customers to deploying and testing code is handled by the team owning the software. As an engineer this practice helps growth by exposing the person to all aspects of the process.

Best places to learn according to you?

What engineering college quickly teaches a person is that one does not need a teacher and a classroom to learn new things. I believe every student, consciously or unconsciously, realize this phenomena after the first semester and it is brilliant because it makes you the master of your own learning. To improve learning the simple formulae is to leave your comfort zone and fail a lot. Failure is the best teacher. One who doesn’t fail hasn’t taken sufficient amount of risk. So move fast and break things.

Things you shouldn’t miss in college?

Fun. Fun. Fun. And I cannot emphasise it enough, Fun is a no miss. College life is special and short. Use your time judiciously. Memories and friends last longer than few extra pointers. Find your friends, your passion and most important yourself. College is a time to explore and break free.

Do things you always want to do. Gain different kinds of experiences, learn new things, meet new people, understand them and their ideas. Use your college to not only grow vertically but as well horizontally. A balanced approach in college will prepare you well for the future. Do not over do anything. Also, don’t waste your college time intoxicated, it is already very short.

Sunburn At effe 2K14

What is your next career goal?

I haven’t planned anything as of now for my next career goal. Frankly, planning is a myth for me. My long term dream is to start a company of my own and I believe the dots will just connect somehow. Entrepreneurship is inline with my approach to look to bring ideas to life. Another reason for going towards this path is the gut feeling I have towards doing something which helps take the country forward.

I feel we have been very fortunate to be educated from one the prime institutes of the country. It is incumbent upon us to contribute towards nation building so that the less fortunate also get a chance to grow and attain a better quality of life. It is true that we are a nation of the poors. Lets try our best to make this false for our future generations.

If you would like to talk to me about anything, reach out to me on facebook. All the best!