TWO MONTHS WITH TCS AND FARAZ NOMANI OF BATCH OF 2016 OF SRMS STOOD QUALIFIED FOR 75% HIKE ON HIS PAY PACKAGE. WHY?

“At SRMS education is not confined to just academics”

Faraz Nomani spent the major part of his formative years in Bareilly. He completed his high school from Modern School with a Merit Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Class XII. A passion for Information Technology saw him take part in innumerable programming and IT quizzes since quite early in life. Interestingly his first introduction to his present employer, TCS, happened in high school and later in college as well! “I was involved with many TCS competitions be it the TCS IT WIZ during school, where I was the regional finalist, or Code Vita during college,” he says.

Nomani’s driving force has always been his eagerness to excel. “It keeps me on my toes and helps me give of my best. Merit Scholarships in school and college are just one aspect of education and I was determined to acquire the leadership qualities and management skills that cannot be learnt from books.” This is what made his journey at the Shri Ram Murti Smarak College of Engineering and Technology (SRMSCET), Bareilly so special.

“At SRMS education is not confined to just academics. We were given a glimpse of the professional world right from our very first day,” says the young man who explains that being one of the best private colleges, SRMSCET was naturally among his top preferences. The fact that his aunt, a doctor at SRMSIMS, recommended it also helped him in his decision. The ability to take students away from the daily conundrum of a big city was a point in the institute’s favour. “The campus has all the facilities that a student requires. Its peaceful environs play a huge role in helping students focus on their development,” he says.

“SRMS taught me many things… I learnt to take life in its stride; to take competition in a healthy sense; to respect the rules and never stop asking questions. In the modern world where instant gratification is characteristic of the youth, SRMS makes you live by traditional values,” Nomani emphasises. Talking about the long hours of study the young man is of the opinion “that the college gets us ready for the corporate environment where long working hours are a way of life.” In fact as he explains, “Students from other colleges find it very difficult to adjust to the corporate world because of that. Our long study hours give us more time to interact with our teachers and our classmates, share ideas and have intellectual conversations.” This being said Nomani believes that student clubs also play a great role at the college level because “they allow you to pursue your passion. I was heavily involved in the LAN Gaming Committee, the Cognito Quizzing Club and was also an active competitive programmer.”

These activities certainly came handy when he was picked up by TCS during their campus drive at SRMSCET. “During my training, I took part in an internal competition which was related to ideas to change the world. My idea was among the top 15 within TCS all over India, and so I was called for an extensive internal interview for a transfer to CTO (the Corporate Technology Office in Chennai), which is the R&D wing of TCS. I was among the few who were selected,” he explains proudly.

The CTO office which is also known as the TCS Innovation Lab is a place where some of the best minds in the field work. As Nomani details, “My office is situated in the IIT-Madras Research Park so we work in collaboration with Ph.D scholars and IIT professors. I have had the opportunity of meeting some great personalities in the computer science field, most notable of whom was Jeff Ullman, a Knuth prize winner and a Stanford University professor.” At this point the young man recalls his favourite SRMS professor, Amit Shukla, who taught him Compiler Design and the Design and Analysis of Algorithms. “These became my favourite subjects. Some of the things he taught me I am still using in my current work at the Innovation Lab. As a token of thanks, when I met Jeff Ullman I got his autograph for Amit Sir as he used to teach us from Ullman’s book!”

Nomani, whose current role is Developer at Enable R&D, TCS says that working in an innovation lab gives him the flexibility to work at his own forte, take risks and work with new state-of-the-art technologies. But it also has its own challenges.”

Poised for a hike in his pay package by about 75%, which will be reflected after the completion of his training, Nomani recalls the inspirational words of one of his professors at SRMSCET by which he tries to live: “Your work is your pride.”