UPES girl, specializing in Big Data, secures INR 50 LPA package from Microsoft

UPES student Muskan Handa

Muskan Handa, a final year student of B.Tech. (Hons.) CSE Big Data at School of Computer Science, UPES, has received an offer of INR 50 lakh per annum from Microsoft

Muskan Handa, a final year student of B.Tech. (Hons.) CSE Big Data at School of Computer Science, UPES, is on cloud nine these days and she has every reason to be. She has received an offer of INR 50 lakh per annum from Microsoft.

In fact, so impressed were the interviewers with Muskan that she was selected straight for the final interview after the initial round.

“I performed well in the first round. So, they asked me to appear straight for the final round. Within 24 hours of the final interview, I got a mail saying that I was selected as SDE-FTE (Full-time Software Development Engineer) in Microsoft,” Muskan says.

Her journey, however, has not been easy. She says that during her initial years in college, she found the pressure difficult to handle.

“It took me some time to understand how things worked and what made me happy,” she says.

Muskan says that her biggest life lesson has been to realise that in order to succeed, she needed to compete not with others, but with herself. “I was competing with people who were better than me. But slowly I realized that my competition shouldn’t be with someone else but myself,” she says.

Muskan says that she decided to do a few tasks daily that would improve her skills and benefit her over time.

“My mantra is to always stay humble. Be good and you’ll win for sure,” she says.

Born and brought up in Saharanpur, Muskan credits her family for being her pillar of strength.

“My mother is a teacher, and my father is a businessman. My parents have always supported me and motivated me to study hard. My maternal and paternal grandparents believed in me when no one else did,” she says.

Muskan credits her mentors at UPES for this huge achievement.

“My sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Training and Placement Department and all the staff of UPES for their efforts in imparting quality technical and aptitude training. I am very grateful to them for helping me make the most of the opportunities that came my way. So far, it has been an immense pleasure for me to be a part of this prestigious university. I have learnt great things here under the stewardship of excellent teachers,” Muskan says.

A firm believer in self-discipline, Muskan says she didn’t let her motivation levels affect her studies.

“I don’t believe in motivation personally, because motivation is not constant,” she says. “Sometimes, you are motivated and sometimes you are not. But if you have the discipline to perform certain tasks daily, you will do it without any motivation. So, discipline is greater than motivation,” she adds.

Muskan advises youngsters to inculcate self-discipline.

“Don’t lose hope. Have discipline. I believe in quality rather than quantity. I was a beginner too and needed to grasp things quickly, but I also had the fear of missing out on topics or skills that might be asked in interviews or tests. To beat that, I focused on developing one skill at a time instead of 3-4,” she says.

She also adds that one should not be afraid of people’s opinions.

“Don’t be afraid of people and their opinions. It is even scarier to get to the end of your life and realise that you let people rob you of the life experiences you were supposed to have because you were scared of what they thought of you,” she signs off.