Sunil Jaramboor Nagesh has always had a passion for the written word and says that if he had not gotten into engineering, he would have surely tried his hand at journalism. Though he eventually enrolled himself in Sri Krishna Institute of Technology, Bangalore, he decided to pursue writing as well, and tech writing at that. “I love playing with the latest electronic gadgets and today I get paid for what I enjoy doing,” says Sunil, who is part of the editorial team at a popular tech news website, FoneArena.
The 20-year-old is proud when he says that the game-changing moment in his writing career happened when he got a call from GSMArena, which is one of the biggest tech blogs in the world, over three years ago. He recalls, “I used to first write for a US-based publication that had just started operations in India. Unfortunately, in just eight months, they shut down. Since I loved technology, I decided to approach publications in this area. For a month, I did not hear from anyone.” And then, GSMArena got back saying, “We are not looking to expand our team, but since you are very young – we just want to know what you have got to offer.” After two years of contributing reviews and interviews for GSMArena, when he decided to move on, he had over five job offers waiting for him. “They were all ready to hire me despite the fact that I did not have a degree in hand yet. It was a morale booster in a lot of ways,” he smiles.
Though there are many financial perks associated with his job, SJN, as he is called at his workplace, doesn’t do it for the money. “Work makes me happy. I don’t work because of the financial benefits I get, I work because I enjoy it,” he says in a matter-of-fact way.
A third-year engineering student now, he lists the upsides of working in the tech industry. First, he gets to play with the latest gadgets even before they hit the market. But most importantly, he gets to hobnob with the top brass from various multinational and billion dollar companies, and he considers this invaluable. “Work has taught me a lot of things. I have evolved, which I don’t think I could have done by just being a student. The real education for me is when I travel.”
His interests, at present, lie in writing and if allowed, he would have dedicated his complete attention to that. But he concedes, “I still go to college, thanks to my parents, to earn a degree.” With engineering, there are inevitably a lot of examinations and so he gets around to studying when exams are round the corner. “But to be honest, I am not a nerd,” he confesses. On the contrary, one can see him working every day, sometimes in the college library too.
A typical day of his is a lot of fun. “I wake up early in the morning and head to college. As soon as I am home, I enter a whole new world. I take some time out in the evening to meet my friends. Once my nap time is over, I am in front of my Mac again.”
Outlining his long-term goals, he points out that he wants “to be a chess player and not a chess piece.” He explains, “I want to be an entrepreneur. I have some ideas, but there are some financial risks around it. I am not ready yet, but I am working towards reaching that level where I can go for it. I hope, I can get there soon.” For some of his blogs, https://www.indiblogger.in/blogger/68299/ . svetlana@newindianexpress.com