Making the Right Choice: How I found the best path for me
About dropping my Masters and following my intuition.
As a web application developer at Zoho, I had been working on a Figma competitor for about 4 years. I was interested in furthering my education and decided to pursue a master's degree in computer science. I considered universities in the US, New Zealand, and Australia, but the cost-to-return ratio was too high. I even got multiple offers, including one from the University of Auckland, the highest-rated university in New Zealand.
In the summer of 2021, I chose to study in Germany due to their no-fees policy. I received offers from multiple universities and selected the University of Bayreuth to pursue my master's in computer science. One of the criteria for my program was to pass "Theoretical Computer Science" within the first year in order to continue my studies.
As someone who loves the practicality of developing code and projects, I found "Theoretical Computer Science" to be a difficult and vague subject that delved deep into the theoretical side of computer science. Despite my reservations, I decided to give it a try. After studying hard and giving it my best effort, I failed the exam. I had also taken another course on Python programming for data science, for which I had given considerably less effort and aced the exam. At that point, I realised I wouldn't pass this theory-heavy subject no matter how many chances I got.
I had two options: either give the exam one more go and hope for the best, or look for a job. I didn't know I could directly jump to full-time employment from a student visa, but I decided to try provided that I already had the necessary experience as a developer. I started applying to job postings on LinkedIn and, during my first semester holidays, I got two offers - one from Liqid, a fintech company based in Berlin, and the other from William Hill, an online gaming company based in Poland.
I quickly accepted my offer from Liqid and waited a few days to hear back about converting my student visa to a work visa. To my delight, I got the good news that I could do so. I started at Liqid in November 2021 and I'm confident that dropping my master's and joining Liqid was the best decision I've made in my life.
Although it was a difficult decision with lots of self-doubt, it ultimately led me to an opportunity I'm incredibly excited about and grateful for. For a long time, my goal was to pursue a Masters degree. I had spent a lot of money and time trying to achieve it, but this experience made me realise that sometimes, the path we think is best for us may not be the right one. It is important to listen to our intuition and be prepared to change direction when necessary. Life is often unpredictable, and we should be open to change and not be afraid to deviate from our initial plans if we feel it is not the right path for us.