There has been a lot of doom and gloom, particularly in the job market. New graduates are worried whether they will get jobs, people are apprehensive about the economy.
Amid this doom and gloom, Linkedin user Shrikant Singh, who urged against the doom and gloom. In a post that has gone viral on Linkedin, Singh remembered a time when campus offers had receded in 2009 in IIT (after the fall of 2008).
He noted that the knocks that life gave the batch of 2009, changed their mindset, even admitting that they were lucky. He wrote to the Class of 2020 that they were the ‘chosen ones’, telling them to buckle down and grind it out.
Read his full post below:
I graduated from IIT in 2009 at the peak of recession. My campus offer had been receded & I was angry & afraid. In desperation, I booked a one-way train ticket to Bangalore hoping to crack something somewhere. Finally, I secured a contractual position at GE for a stipend of Rs 10K p.m.
I bought a second-hand bicycle for 500 bucks for my daily commute and shared a 3 BHK with 8 guys. 6 months later, my contract was not renewed, and I was out on the streets once more. In short, life had been super unfair to me. Where was the preferential treatment I was entitled to?
Why was I oiling my cycle’s cranky chains rather than traveling the world? Why me? It’s been 10 years since then. I survived and so did the class of 2009. Our mindsets changed; failure replaced our brash arrogance with forced humility. We never took anything for granted. The class of 2009 reinvented itself & picked up life survival skills. We were lucky. No other batch could ever appreciate life the way we did.
Class of 2020, you guys are the chosen ones now. Some of you will lose jobs/face salary cuts. That truly sucks; but believe me,you will savor every success henceforth. Your lives & careers are just getting started. So buckle down & grind it out. Good things await you all! From one survivor to another Cheers!
Who is Shrikant Singh?
According to his Linkedin bio, Shrikant Singh is the Business Head – Personal Computers at Appario Retail and Program Head Appario’s B2b Business. He was earlier associated with Amazon.
I currently serve as Business Head- Personal Computers at Appario Retail and as Program Head for Appario’s B2B business.