Goutham Kumar Yadavalli (2019) : Voice of Amazon Engineer from 19 Arrear

Dear Reader's

I failed a total of 19 courses while I was pursuing bachelor’s in VIT from 2015 to ’19. 

Maheswari ma’am was my proctor for the 4 years that I was at VIT. I still remember my first semester when I failed 4 out of 6 courses. It is mandated by the university that the proctors call the student's parents to discuss the results if the students fail courses. 

Many professors would be angry at you and talk bad about you with your parents, but not Maheswari Ma’am. She was just disappointed that I’m wasting my talent and she told my father exactly the same.

In fact she is so supportive she asked my parents not to scold me but to encourage me to concentrate on studies. Luckily I have supportive parents as well. She has the ability to see raw potential in a student and she encourages them to use it.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I have caused her numerous problems, once I messed up so bad that she had to apologize to university vice chancellor for my mess-up on my behalf. I’m a problem child all along and ma’am NEVER got angry at me, just disappointed. 

Not just that she’s an excellent professor too, I was in her microcontroller class and I thoroughly enjoyed her teaching. Believe me, I only say that about a handful of professors. 

However with her motivation I was able to finish my bachelor's under 4 years and received my degree. I got placed off campus and took my first job. Then I moved to a different job. Then I moved to a different country to do a masters degree. Then I started a company and sold it for profit. Now I work as a Security Engineer securing softwares and systems at Amazon. All of this is because of her support through my bachelors. 

I’m forever thankful for what ma’am has done for me and I hope she continues to touch people’s souls like she did mine. 

Best,

Goutham Kumar Yadavalli.

Class of 2019, VIT.

I'm a Security Engineer - II at Amazon. My team is one of the core teams that creates the strategy and builds controls to secure the infrastructure of the whole of Amazon.