This story is being prepared
Wajid tried for the civil services because it was what his father had hoped for. He gave it one attempt, and then gave it up.
“I found it very theoretical,” he says. “I can’t be that consistent.”
What he wanted instead was something he could practise: something he could build, break, and simulate at home until he understood it. That turned out to be networking.
What the full story covers
His tickets to Bangalore were booked for April 2020. The lockdown arrived in March and cancelled all of it. What followed were six months of waiting, and a fear he names precisely:
“A gap. I was afraid of the gap.”
The opening came in the last week of September. He was on the floor at SonicWall by December, working technical support in the routing, switching and security queues, and was promoted the following September.
He talks candidly about that first month at work: being frightened of his own cases, and handing them straight to colleagues rather than attempting them. And about what changed: “At the end, there is no help available. You have to do it by yourself.”
He also talks about the manager round that got him hired, where he was asked how he deals with stress, and declined to give the answer he knew they wanted to hear.
“You should tell the truth.”
While you wait
Wajid’s full story will be published on this page. In the meantime, you can read Mubaid’s story, a conversation about rejection, direction, and what happens when somebody finally tells you the right thing at the right time.
