Disclaimer
Hi all! How are you today? Thanks in advance. I have been thinking about sharing my story with you for a long time. Please share with me your thoughts and feedback even though it’s a little boring. That really matters a lot to me. You have no idea how much I love to hear from you.
Childhood
There is a place called Trichur, a district of the state Kerala in India (which is also known as “God's own country”). This is where I was born. My childhood was not that good, as we didn’t have enough money for living. My mom struggled a lot to make each day liveable but we were happy together. We played so many things, games which are unknown to the new generation. Thank God I was born in the 90’s. If I would have been born now, I would have also followed the same mobiles, tabs, and computer games and wasted my childhood.
In the year 2007, I passed my HSC from GHSS. The years 2005 to 2007 were very glorious for me thanks to all my girlfriends. You all deserve a lot of appreciation. Coming back to my life, I have two elder sisters, and as mine was a poor family, my parents were not able to have all of their children graduate. Eventually, this chance came to me as was I born a boy. Hence, I was chosen as a warrior to solve all of the financial crises and other problems as well. Finally, I joined Engineering with my friend Ajay, as he is the one who boosted me to select engineering. Thanks Ajay.
Engineering College
It was an average college, since there were not many facilities. I was a back bencher, but somehow managed to only pass the exams. Please note that it is my story; there were students who were scoring 100 out of 100. I must say that, apart from study, the college was fantastic, we had full freedom. What are all the things you will do when you get full freedom at that age? As a result, studies were postponed to just a day before the exam. We enjoyed ourselves even if no one had any money in their hands. Now, even if we have enough money, we are unable to enjoy things that much. Again, I must say thanks to all my friends who made those days wonderful. I didn’t have a particular dream in my mind during those days. The only goal I had set in my mind was to get a job as soon as possible. Finally, I got my Engineering degree in 2011 (luckily with no arrears).
Internship at HCL CDC, step towards a job
In a wink, four years passed. Finally, I became an Engineer (with no job). There was not even one campus recruitment in my college. How does that sound? After all, it doesn’t matter where is your life taking you, what matters is, how you face it.
![How you see yourself]()
How you see yourself
What matters most is how you see yourself.
A few days afte graduation, I managed to get a job in a hotel as a receptionist, where I was forced to spend almost 15 hours a day. Even though it was not related to my degree, I desperately needed a job. The only thing I required was money, no matter how little. Usually the wok timing was 8.00 AM to 11 PM and in between, we were allowed a tea break and a lunch break. I could do that job only for two months and I resigned. Even if I was going for some small jobs during my school vacation for 100 Rs per day (not even 2$), that was the moment I got such a huge amount of money in my hand (6200 RS). My two months’ salary felt really good. I was almost running to catch my bus to go home, as it was a hectic two months without seeing my parents. I bought an umbrella for me before going home, and I gave all the remaining money to my mom. Can you guess how that moment felt?
After few days I went back to coding (in my 12th class, I took Computer Science, I must thank my computer science teacher Jisha here. She is the one who taught me coding. In my Engineering classes, doing codes was very rare), I joined a .NET course at HCL CDC Trichur, Kerala. There, I learned .NET and I taught a few students there in my first mentoring program. Thanks to all HCL CDC members for giving me this opportunity. I started my professional career there. I got my first reward as a Certificate of excellence, my first professional award.
Joining C# Corner
In 2012, I came to know about the communities and how people are helping each other in our professional world. I joined C# Corner, which was my first step towards a community contribution. As you all know starting things is pretty much easy, continuing is not. There was no participation from my end for another two years, I got buried in my office work.
In 2014, I logged into C# Corner again and started contributing to the community. There, I received a very warm welcome from all the C# Corner family members. I really appreciate that. Many thanks to C# Corner. From 2014, I was in the monthly winners list of C# Corner several times and my articles were selected in ASP.NET as the article of the day. These things really motivated me to contribute more.
In Jan 2015, I was awarded as C# corner MVP; my first C# Corner MVP award. I was really happy and I was given a chance to be a part of C# Corner's annual conference as a result. This was the place where I got to know about the Microsoft MVP program. I had set my goal towards becoming a Microsoft MVP.
In the year 2015, I started my own blog and joined DZone, where I have been selected as MVB (Most Valuable Blogger).
In Jan 2016, I was awarded the C# Corner MVP for the second time. I was super excited to see my contributions were recognized. Thanks to all my readers. I kept contributing to the communities like C# corner, Code Project, DZone, MSDN, ASP.NET, Stack Overflow, Tech Net etc.
2016, April 1 was the day in my life which I will never forget. There is a saying, “Patience pays off”. It is true, I got rewarded for my patience and hard work. I will treat this as one of the greatest achievements in my life. I felt proud to be a part of such a great community. I was super charged to read the mail received in my mail box, saying that I had been selected as Microsoft MVP. I was screaming like anything. For a few minutes, I forgot that I was in the office.
Effect of being a Microsoft MVP
The ensuing days were fantastic, each day my inbox was filled with the appreciation mails and congratulations from my colleagues and friends. Many thanks to my employer, Customer Analytics India, the motivation you have shown is much appreciated. My image was published in my company website. I felt proud when I saw that. That was cool, right?
![Sibeesh Venu CA Employee]()
Sibeesh Venu CA Employee
As an MVP, I was given a chance to be a part of Product Group Interaction (PGI) events, organized by Microsoft. I met lot of wonderful techie professionals and learned a lot from them. I was recognized in the crowd, which was really new to me. I enjoyed it and am still enjoying it. It is a great feeling, when people ask you some suggestions or help. I really improved myself, when giving suggestions or help. You will learn a lot in this way.
Let me introduce myself
Name: Sibeesh Venu
Number of years in industry: 5
Microsoft MVP award category: Visual Studio and Development Technologies
First Microsoft MVP year awarded: 2016
No. of C# Corner MVP award: 2
Technologies worked: ASP.NET(C#, MVC, Web, Web API), Microsoft Azure, SQL, JavaScript, Angular JS, JQuery and WordPress
Hobbies: Writing, Blogging, Drawing
You can find my achievements here
Social references
Present
It all went well. Now, I am in a position to solve all my financial crises and other problems, as my parents wish. I have been doing that for almost five years now. Thanks so much to my parents for making me who I am today.
Career advice
I’m neither an expert nor a guru, but still, I would like to point out some do’s and don’ts, which are drops, I learned, in the ocean.
Do’s
- Try to be a master in at least one technology you love. Talk, write and answer about that technology you love.
- Always get to know what is happening in the industry, try to be aware of the technologies released each month.
- Be passionate about the technologies.
- Always participate in all the local user groups (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus…)
- Whenever you are given an opportunity to work or experienc something, never miss that chance. It can be in your office or in any crowd. Be confident and take that chance, it will do magic.
- Last but not the least; always love your family and take care of their needs. This will give you the strength to move on.
- Adjust your time/calendar for your career and family, work life balance is very important. Isn’t it?
Don’ts
- Never run behind awards or title, these will automatically come to you, but it may take a little time. There is a quote “Never worry about the delay of your success compared to others. Because construction of a palace takes more time than an ordinary building”.
- Never do anything disrespectful to others. There are three things you cannot recover in life: the moment after it’s missed, the word after it’s said, and the moment after it’s wasted.
- Be you, and maintain it. Never pilfer what others have done.
- Never miss the best of our life, family.
Conclusion
Did I miss anything, that you may think is needed? I hope you liked this article. Without your help and feedback, I would haven’t reached where I am today. Thanks so much. Please share with me your valuable suggestions and feedback.
Your turn. What do you think?
A blog isn’t a blog without the comments, but do try to stay on the topic. If you have a question unrelated to this post, you’re better off posting it on C# Corner, Code Project, Stack Overflow, ASP.NET Forum instead of commenting here. Tweet or Email me a link of your question there and I’ll definitely try to help, if I can.
Please see this article in my blog
here.