Colleague

The email landed in my inbox like a digital lightning bolt. "Offer of Employment – [Your Name] – AI Engineer." My breath caught. I reread it, then reread it again, just to be sure. This wasn't just an offer; this was the offer. The one from a company whose innovations I'd admired for years, whose products redefine industries, and whose name is synonymous with cutting-edge technology. I had done it. I was going to be an AI Engineer at a top tech giant. It feels surreal even now, typing this out. Just a few years ago, the idea of working at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence, shaping the future with algorithms and neural networks, felt like a distant, almost audacious dream. Today, it's my reality. And I want to share how I got here, hoping my journey can inspire yours. 🧠 The Spark: When AI Became More Than a Buzzword My fascination with AI wasn't a sudden epiphany; it was a gradual immersion. I started with the basics, intrigued by machine learning algor...

The Ultimate Return on Investment When I first walked through the hallowed halls of business school, my mind was a spreadsheet. Life was a series of calculations: the cost of tuition versus the projected salary increase, the number of networking events to attend for maximum ROI, the optimal study hours required to land in the top percentile. My five-year plan was meticulously crafted, and nowhere in its color-coded cells was there a line item for "fall in love." That would be an inefficient allocation of resources. Or so I thought. Then came Strategic Management, and with it, Ananya. Ananya wasn't just smart; she was a different kind of smart. While I was busy memorizing frameworks, she was deconstructing them. While I saw Porter's Five Forces as a rigid model, she saw it as a conversation starter. In class, her hand would shoot up, and she’d ask the one question that made the professor pause and the rest of us scribble furiously in our notebooks. She had this laugh t...

It was the kind of week every college student dreads: mid-terms looming, caffeine levels critically low, and a project deadline that felt less like a finish line and more like a cliff edge. Mine was a particularly complex coding assignment, and I was drowning in a sea of syntax errors and logic bugs. That's when Sarah walked into my life, or more accurately, into the computer lab, looking just as stressed as I felt. [Image: A slightly messy but cozy computer lab scene, two students (one resembling the narrator, one Sarah) are hunched over laptops, surrounded by energy drink cans and textbooks, with a soft glow from the screens.] We were in the same advanced algorithms class, but I'd barely spoken to her. She was quiet, focused, and always seemed to have her act together. Today, however, her usual calm was replaced by a frantic energy as she wrestled with her own project – a complex data visualisation that refused to render. "Everything okay?" I asked, probably soundin...

The air in the corporate waiting room was sterile and intimidating. The only sounds were the soft hum of the air conditioner and the frantic beating of my own heart. I was there for a final-round interview, a role I desperately wanted. As I mentally rehearsed answers to questions I'd found online, the door opened, and she walked in. She had a calm confidence that I envied, clutching a file just like mine. She gave me a brief, polite smile before taking a seat opposite me. We were rivals, competitors for the same coveted position. The tension was palpable. Her name was Priya, I learned, when the receptionist called her in first. I watched her go, feeling a strange mix of relief and anxiety. When she came out twenty minutes later, her expression was unreadable. Then it was my turn. The interview was a blur of technical questions and personality assessments. When it was over, I walked out feeling drained but hopeful. Priya was gone. I figured I'd never see her again. A week later,...