Overview

I am Rohit Chakraborty, from India, working as a Software Developer since July, 2018. I was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

School Life

I got admission in Cambrian Public School, Kanke Road, Ranchi in March 2000 for KG standard. I still have faint memories of rainwater drops leaking through asbestos roof, making our notebooks wet! But things improved rapidly. Buildings were renovated and we moved to a stunning three storeyed building in 2003 when I was in standard 3. By 2008, we got a basketball court and by 2010(standard 10), we got almost all the classrooms fitted with whiteboards and projectors. Over these years, I enjoyed the privilege of being a known face to all teaching and non-teaching staffs, after all, I had been a consistent topper. I got favors to participate in various inter-school events and competitions. I always cherish the rich and diverse experience that I witnessed there as a toddler to a teenager.

I cracked the entrance test and got into Dayanand Anglo Vedic (DAV) Public School, Unit-8, Bhubaneswar in March 2011 for the next two years. This was a very tensed phase of my life. We had been suffering from financial constraints since a decade. I had to crack the All India Engineering Entrance examinations (acceptance rate of 0.0002%) in 2013. I didn't make it to the first three rounds of counselling(seat-allotment) based on the test rank. For participating in the fourth round, we had to pay an advance fee of ₹40000($667 approx. at that time, twice the amount of our family's monthly income) without any guarantee of getting admission. I decided to take a year drop(adamant to get admission in a tier-1 college) and try next year for the same, which few of my friends did too. Next year came in no time and soon we started analyzing closing ranks for the last year, when I found that I could have comfortably got admission last year if I would have participated in the fourth round! Alas! But this time I got a seat in the third round itself, which I surrendered to participate in the fourth round to get to a better place. Finally, I was very ecstatic to find a seat in Computer Science & Engineering at National Institute of Technology, Agartala, India.

College Life

The best phase of my life started in July, 2014 at National Institute of Technology, Agartala that would last till May, 2018. My maternal uncle arranged my entire education fees and one of my paternal uncles bought me a decent laptop (HP 15-r033tx notebook).

First year had the maximum number of subjects (common to all engineering branches). Most of the time it went on making new acquaintances, friends and awareness(both good and bad). It was my first time in such a huge campus and a large hostel. I also got friends from various different regions of India and abroad. I got started with Chess and Table-Tennis, borrowing raquets and balls from friends.

Second year was actually our first year in our own major discipline. Most of us (me included) were enthusiastic to start/become part of a software project, of course, with little awareness! The motivation was to have few lines in our resume to apply for interships. Many of us actively participated in various club activities. Well, our projects never got completed and so did our internship applications! But, we did learn many valuable things which prove to be beneficial even today. For few months, I got a company of 3-4 friends for running the half of our campus perimeter(3 kms approx) daily in the evening.

Third year came with little awareness and suddenly the focus got shifted from wandering around projects to competitive programming and quantitative aptitude. This time, the motivation was to crack coding interviews. We also had our final year academic project groups and guides decided. This year, we also witnessed few aspects of politics, voted our representatives for GymKhana(kind of student union) and the most sought after Training and Placement Coordinators. By the end of third year, I got selected for a 15 day workshop at International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. It was one of the top colleges for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research in India(it still is today) and few of our faculties were undergoing PhD under Professors of that college. Those 15 days were just awesome.

Even before the start of the final year, we had a company visiting us for placement. Thanks to our Placement coordinators! I was disappointed to get rejected in the technical interview, not being able to perceive what went wrong. The interview panel was also not interested in sharing constructive feedback. But after 2 days of self realization, I could see a bunch of mistakes that I made! A month later, a better company, Oracle, arrived with better offers where I didn't repeat the mistakes which I had made previously. It was a sense of awe and great relief to know that I was selected. The rest of the year went enjoying and helping friends with their interviews. Now, the only target was to get our project work published in some research journal. It finally got published in 'Computational Intelligence in Data Mining – Springer, 18 August 2019', much later than I left college and started working at Oracle.

Professional Life

Oracle paid for our travel expense (from Bhubaneswar to Hyderabad for me) and our one month stay in a very decent guest-house. That was probably the most luxurious month for me. We got an extensive(and exhaustive) training for that whole month and then came the unwanted moment - we had to leave the guesthouse and find our own accommodation. With the help of our seniors, we got a good deal for a Men's Hostel. Next two years went quite smoothly and I learnt various technical and life lessons from my collegues. Then came the pandemic - COVID-19. I moved back to Bhubaneswar and continued to work from home.

Please visit the Career Timeline page for more information about my professional journey and work.

Future

In the near future, I see myself continue to grow and become better as a Software Developer. My long term goals include exploring and investing in some secondary passive income sources, leading a balanced and happy life and helping others in their journeys.

Things That I Care About

I care about the sustainaibility of our environment and conservation of natural resources. I make sure to use a polythene bag more than once and avoid single-use plastic containers whenever possible. While purchasing a product, I always tend to give more preference to the ones that support this cause.

Social and Political Views

I don't have any strict inclination towards any political ideology. However, I oppose discrimination of any kind and I give more preference to quality than quantity in general.

Entertainment

I like to go for morning walk/jogging/exercises. I seldom watch movies. My favourite movie genres are science fiction, adventure, investigation and thriller. I like to spend time exploring YouTube for technical, historical and current affairs content. I also like cooking on weekends.