Voices from Within

Hello world,

Happy New Year 2014.

Back again. Its been a long long time.
And lots of things have happened. Finished grad school, got married, started working, been around - and settling in with life.

How are things at your end? Hopefully, I should come back and tell you all the stories!

cheers
Vinodh.

Howdy !!
How are y'all doing?

Been a long time..  a whole lot of things have happened and I've partly written about those. Will try to  finish those posts in the next few days. I can't wait to share it!

Very many things to share... Hopefully, I'd finish all of this on time.

The Accident

The Super-crazy sem
Ok, in January, I decided to take life head on. Decided to graduate in 3 semesters. But still had quite a long way to go.
> 3 graduate courses to do
> 2 undergrad courses with exams
> be a TA for a introductory Java class of 180 students
> Take a supervised teaching course
> Since I'm graduating, search for a full time job. (was travelling to the bay-area everyweek for interviews)
>And keep in touch with loved ones at home.

Needless to say, I was quite busy and didn't have much time to do anything else and guess what
I did it all. I completed my coursework and projects on time and applied for graduation! yay!

Graduation
I know, I'm not doing justice to any of the important events here. But, I wanted to tell the story.
It was a pretty spectacular event and my brother few in from NJ to celebrate with me. I wore an oversized fancy black robe and walked across the stage, got my hooding, had a few photos clicked, raised the champagne glass.. in all was a very memorable happy day.

The job search
Well, this was easily the most stressful part of the whole ordeal. Planning to graduate without a job(leave alone a dream one) is super risky here. Since I'm on a Student Visa, the I20 will expire on the day of graduation and I had to file for a OPT or H1B inorder to stay in the US. Well, I tried everything, prepared whatever I can, read every bit and attended a total of 18 interviews. Yes..18!!
And most of the initial ones were rejections. The companies, failed to see why I'm switching from VLSI to Machine Learning. I was constantly trying to read and prepare for the bigger companies later on.
During the spring break, I gave 4 interviews in 7 days and got 2 of them. VMWare and Bloomberg offered me good positions in Palo Alto and NYC respectively. These were good. But not good enough. I didn't take the trouble to come to UT to join these.. And then I cracked a start up in Dallas. Lymba gave me the position that I wanted NLP/DM but the pay was way too less.. So, it was either VMWare or Lymba... And then on Mar 28, I interviewed with Google and cracked it!!! Yes.. Google!

And I'm starting on Monday, Jun 11. Super excited.

Well, I missed another major event. It is special on its own and didn't want to merge it with this post. More about it next time.

Be awesome!
vinbot@google

Hi folks,

The exams are finally over. The projects are done and the reports are turned-in.
This means.... I get to sleep everyday... yay!
And whats more,  I'm on a 4-week Indian vacation right now.

The days are magical. Starts with filter coffee, lovely morning breakfast (the malli idlies and crispy dosas..), the juices and soups, and the amazing lunch. Chennai is known for its fresh seafood and combine it with my mom = wow; the afternoon nap and the evening snack. Life is so good.

Prompts me to think, why? why did I leave all this?

Hope you guys are having a good time in this Holiday season.

cheers,
The V

Hey Guys,

How are ya'all doing?

I have been really busy these days. Even forgot about the usual Diwali post this year. Hope you guys had great fun. I had a pretty good time myself with the UT diwali group. Got to eat some good Indian food on Diwali night.

Ok, this is a quick post to mark one of these little things that make us smile. I haven't gotten to listen to a lot of tamil songs these days. But, happened to listen to this and got hooked on ever since. Playing in an infinite loop these days. This almost beats our "O Vennila" from Kadal desam.

"Sara Sara" from Vaagai Soda!  - Lovely!

~Vinodh

Last week was eazily the bussiest week ever. Juggled multiple assignments, missed sleep for days and finally ..... my robot did not even win the penalty shoot out competition.

I guess the work itself, is the reward!

Reminded me of my undergrad days, where we slogged for 2 months on a robot design, went all the way to Mumbai (unfunded) and came back with empty hands!!
Oh life, you and your ways!!

-V

What if!!!

Hey Guys,

Hope you are doing great!

This is a customary post to mark my birthday, last friday. This is when I try to look at the year gone by and my plans for the future. And, thank you all for the wonderful wishes. Had a great day.

Can't believe I'm 28 already. I was thinking about all the other paths, my life could have taken. The possibilities seem unbounded. We only to live a tiny slice of the range of possibilities.

I think, it finally comes down to the choices that we make and in a way, people we meet.

Read a quote somewhere - "Who you'll be in 5 years depends on people you meet and books you read!!", I guess, I'm in pretty good hands!

Cheers,
-Vinodh