I started my career at Amdocs in Pune after finishing my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Uttar Pradesh Technical University. It was a high-paying job with good perks. I had a clear career path in the company. They even sent me onsite to the US and I got promoted to a Sr. SME within 2 years.

I started feeling stagnant after some time. I spoke to one of my friends and I learned that he was preparing for higher studies. I also got motivated and joined Dilip oaks academy to prepare for GRE.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue on the technical side (MS) or move to the business side (MBA), so I decided to apply for Masters in Information Systems, which offers a flexible curriculum and allows taking multiple tracks such as software development, technology/management consulting, business analysis and analytics.

I got admission from multiple universities and I decided to pursue master’s program from Carnegie Mellon University because of its brand reputation. It was a very tough decision for me because I am from a middle-class family and it was not easy to convince my parents.

Also, leaving a well settled job during recession period required a lot of courage but I still decided to risk everything. It’s been more than a decade since that happened and this all feels like yesterday, time flies so fast.

I came to the US in 2009. It was a very different life from both personal and professional fronts. In the personal life, there was no help from anyone for the household chores.

On the professional side, I was overwhelmed with the flexibility of the course structure. When I was in India, I remember I had always followed people when it came to professional decisions. During high school, I chose PCM (Physics/Chemistry/Math) following the footstep of my friends. After school, I decided to give entrance exams looking at everyone around me. And similarly, I decided to come to do masters for the same reason.

I never really thought what my passion was and what I really wanted to do in life. But this highly flexible curriculum forced me to think about my career path.

My first semester went a little chaotic, where I tried different courses from different tracks. During second semester, I desperately wanted to get an internship so that I could start paying off the debt.

I wasn’t getting any calls for the internship, so I kept on revising my resume. I remember creating more than 200 versions of my resume. And at the end, my persistence paid off and I got an internship at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which changed my life. I was given the option of choosing between business analysis, software development and analytics. And that’s when I figured out what’s my passion was.

After coming back to the university for the third semester, I knew my path and instead of looking at what people around me were doing, I was able to make my own decisions. I also got a full time offer from Bank of America, which further relieved my stress. Additionally, I experienced different cultures that broaden my perspective of the world.

In hindsight, I am glad that I took the decision of leaving everything to start a new chapter of my life. I have learned that the most important thing is life is to find your passion and have a purpose in life, which you only get after trying different things.

I believe what helped me overcome the dilemma between continuing with the job and pursuing higher studies was to think about the worst case scenario, which in my case was to come back to India and look for another job. Also, I gave a thought for where I wanted to be in the next 5-10 years, and growing in the same company didn't appeal me that much.

Don’t be afraid of taking risk and making mistakes in life because that’s how we grow.