1988: A curious, restless and carefree child was born
When I was five years old, I was a curious, restless, and carefree child living in a farmer's house in rural Maharashtra. I had a hunger to learn and explore the world around me, which led me to dive into a well one day, assuming I could already swim. I floated for a while, but soon found myself struggling to stay afloat. Luckily, my father saved me from drowning. A few days later, I was already a nimble swimmer.
2006-2009: String languages = "C, C++, Java"; System.out.print(“Hello world” + languages);
When I finished high school, I was bored with studying theories and felt like I needed a change. So, instead of pursuing arts or science, I decided to apply for Computer Applications (BCA) and started learning the magic of programming languages. Out of all the languages I studied, I developed a crush on C# and ASP .NET. In my final semester, I teamed up with a classmate to work on a project assignment. We chose to create an E-classified website portal, which was an unusual choice for an academic project since medical software was the norm. However, classified ads were a topic I was passionate about, and I was determined to create a unique and functional project. Using C#, AJAX, and ASP .NET, we created a front-end design with a whole lot of user and back-end admin functionalities. Not only did we receive good grades for the project, but we also received appreciation from our teachers and classmates.
Falling in Love with Programming
The great recession, Aug 2009, was the period when I passed my graduation, and getting hired as a fresher was the task of moving mountains. No company was willing to hire freshers. I was even rejected for call center jobs. As a routine, on a sunny morning, I was looking through newspaper ads hoping to come across relevant job openings; however, what I stumbled-upon instead was an interesting story titled 'Net, Net, Internet'. The story covered how people were using the internet to share and learn ideas through blogging and forum websites. Young kids in town used Orkut, Myspace, Twiter, Hi5, and likes of platforms to connect with people whom they never met. All this fascinated me so much that it led me to join an agency that primarily focused on providing Search Engine Optimization services (SEO) where I learned how to optimize webpages for better search engine as well as how to cheat search engine crawler.
We would boast about the website ranking in search engines and not share our secret tactics. Have you heard about 'Link wheeling?' It's the one of those techniques that I am not proud of practicing.
From Agency Work to Sports Marketing Analytics
In 2014, I was working with multiple agencies but still felt like something was missing in my career. One day, while scrolling through LinkedIn, I stumbled upon a job opportunity at Repucom, a sports marketing analytics and intelligence firm. Although I didn't have any experience or much knowledge about the sports business, the prospect of designing and delivering digital intelligence for sports franchises and sponsors was thrilling.
To prepare for this new challenge, I studied global best practices, user manuals, and experimented with different solutions to answer sports business queries. Over the past six years, I have employed digital intelligence to transform the way sports franchises engage with fans, athletes, and sponsors.
Now, I take pride in greasing the wheels of the sports and entertainment business with my digital intelligence skills. Working in this field has not only fulfilled my career aspirations but also allowed me to combine my passion for sports with my expertise in digital marketing.