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Sometime back opened my Inbox to see a mail from a software company I had never applied to. I studied computer science in college; but that doesn’t qualify me as a software engineer. Am not too sure if every so-called software engineer is a coding-whiz, but I know I’m not. The job profile read – Java Developer. 

Around the same time a couple of school kids next door wanted me to help them in writing C programs for a project. I tried wriggling out of it with a couple of tried and tested excuses; none of them seemed to work. I cursed my horrible luck and got down to working with them. Thankfully Turbo C’s blue screen said “No errors Found”.

If there something that gives me creeps after solving calculus problems, it has to be coding. During my three of undergrad I suffered from what was known as *coding-phobia*. A Prof used to mock at my programs saying they could use my programs for the debugging competitions; nobody would ever be able to solve them.

Either ways I wasn’t very fond of coding. I walked into that institute wanting to pursue their Journalism course, but fate had other plans for me. A couple of years into the battle with C, C++, Java and the likes I figured I wasn’t meant to code, I decided I’d rather jump out of the IT bandwagon. When the 50 women in my class were all planning to join either IT companies or masters in IT or get married; two of us decided to join Management courses, one was a wannabe Investment Banker and the other a wannabe Marketing whiz. For the record, neither of us are pursuing what we wanted to.

Then came around the MBA; struggle with Finance, goofing up an Economics paper, truck loads of case studies, finding my feet, dealing with corporate, flunking a Man-Ac paper, Anna Univ’s paper correction and reevaluation and more mumbo-jumbo. Even whilst all this was happening, the time to choose the right job was thrust upon my already pressurized brain. I was dead sure I wanted do something that was interesting and not numbers related.

Here again, I was goofing up interviews, screwing up the last rounds, missed my chance of being absorbed into the Internship Company and then purposely screwing up a Big-Four Audit Company because I did not want finance. There was one sexy IT company offering something called; Functional Consultant, dint make the cut and settled for something called Market Research.

I assumed it was the right choice, because I dint have too many choices up my sleeve then, if you had known me during the first few months of 2010, you’d surely empathize. I still wanted go on a wild goose chase; I applied to companies for Client Servicing knowing pretty well that their package was half of what I would be earning. I saved up money for a British Council Course, my mom promptly made a Fixed Deposit of it.

Some people think I’m a numbers person because my dad is an ex-banker and a Chartered Accountant and mom is a banker. Most of them don’t realize I was made differently. People still raise their eyebrows when I try to explain Market Research; most of them confuse it with a BPO. A few of them are upset that I’m not a banker like my parents. Most of them think I should simply join some good IT company and settle down.

Talking about IT companies being safe havens for girls, my best friend walked into their Bandwagon as a Technical Writer or Instructional Designer. Am sure the oldies are very happy about her choice. While we were discussing the companies hiring, she mentioned about a company in Udupi paying a fancy sum luring people into doing market research on Computer Games.

How I wish these guys would do some solid research on Makeup, beauty, food, healthy eating and what not! Trust me; I can talk in depth about crème amplified and a frost lipstick with the ease of a connoisseur. I will be more than happy to identify the Total Available Market for Lindt or Ritter. I can yak nonstop about how good flaxseeds are for your health!  If only they did…