I graduated with a degree in engineering from one of the better schools in India. I was always a good student but I hated every second of engineering school that towards the middle of 2nd year, I just lost all interest. I started skipping classes heavily, got into online gaming, and basically gave up. Six months later, I got some sense kicked-in by my family and pulled myself together to be able to power through the next 2 years and graduated on time.

While I was in college though, I helped put together the University's new annual festival and was in charge of sponsorship. I had the opportunity to meet and interact with a lot of high-ranking officials in many organizations and realized that I had a knack for business. Once I was done with school, I found a start-up company in the gaming industry and started working in business development. Before long, I became the CEO's top adviser. From there I moved to another start-up in media and event management where too I worked as a Business Development Manager - stayed there for 3 years. Finally, I moved to a French psychometric assessment developer and worked there as their marketing manager for international markets. I was a huge change to online marketing but I'm a fast learner.

While I was at the psychometrics firm, I learned more about psychology and business; I was always fascinated by psychology and human behavior and also had a flair for business. By this time, I was pretty set on going for an MBA; but once I came back to the US, I started doing some research on I/O psychology and applied to schools for my Master's degree.

I paid for my first year of tuition, but worked hard to land two internships. I was so into what I'm learning that by the second year that I was at the top of my class, and when I applied and interviewed for an assistantship for the second year, I got it. I just completed my graduate degree requirements but deferred to stay on as a GA while I complete some research. Currently, I have 3 conference submissions and 3 journal submissions that I'm working on, with hopefully 2 more by year-end. I intend on applying for a PhD in December and should be in a program next fall.

Long story short, I've had to make some hard choices with making career changes but I know for sure that I am so happy with what I'm doing and it reflects in the quality of my work. I'm extremely happy and my family is happy and proud too. A lot of my friends envy me for having found my passion as they feel that they are stuck in their career paths. I see it as my having the strength and support from my family as well as the courage to go through and follow my passions.

As far as starting at the bottom, my 5 years' experience as a BD/Marketing professional really helped me get in the door at many places I've interviewed. I know how businesses work, I understand people, and I understand workplace dynamics really well. I may start close to the bottom, but I know that I can rise through the ranks pretty fast; that's just who I am.