Failure Resume – Rahul Parwal (Ongoing)

Our successes are often visible, our failures are often invisible.

Anuj Magazine, FailQonf 2021

• Failure is NOT the opposite of success, It is a part of it.
• Social Media posts often turn out to be an indirect form of virtue signaling.
• Few people have asked me questions like: How come I make everything work for me? Well, the reality is quite opposite. It’s just that most of our failures are not visible as part of our portfolios, resumes, and social media profiles.
• Last year at FailQonf 2021, I was really touched by the talk of Anuj Magazine at FailQonf 2021 on Failure Resumes.
• I resonate with Anuj’s concluding thought from this talk that Failures should not be hidden in any authentic culture. Failures must be normalized.
• In order to normalize failures in life, I am writing my own failure resume and would continue to add more time to this list as life happens 🙂 I have now realized that failures are a part of success.

Academic Failures:

• Failed Mathematics Examinations in Class VII, 2007.
• Failed Computer Science Programming (IP) Lab in Class XI, 2011. Later passed due to grace marks.
• Did not clear IIT JEE Examinations Cutoff, 2012
• Got 81,000 Rank in AIEEE, 2012. Could not secure any reputed NIT, IIIT, or other government engineering college.
• Missed BITSAT Entrance Examination (For admissions to BITS College) Cutoff by 11 marks, 2012.
• Failed to get Computer Science & Engineering Branch at MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur, and RTU, Kota.
• Secured just enough marks to clear the GATE 2016 Examination, and was not eligible for any PSU-related job.

Co-Curricular Failures:

• Got speechless in front of the entire school during a poem competition in Class IV, 2004.
  Impact: Did not participate in any other public speaking or audience-facing activity for my entire remaining school life.
• Could not learn any musical instrument despite getting into multiple instrument classes during the summer holidays, 2002 – 2004.
• Started learning Tabla in school for 3 years (2006 – 2008) but could never make it to the morning school prayer music team.
• Could not learn (or master) basketball, and volleyball due to inconsistency in school days (2009-2011). The other fellow mates were essentially a lot better at it after a couple of seasons.
• Landed in the top 10 for Mr. Fresher Contest (2012) but could not win the final contest.
• Did not win UDYAT – Summer Training Contest at College Level, 2015. Was one of the finalists.
• Was nominated by the college for an inter-college debate competition at Poornima College of Engineering (2015). Could not secure any position.
• Nominated for the Best Boy (2016) College. The jury did not select my nomination for the position.
• Dropped out of german classes at ifm engineering due to irregularity in doing self-study and homework, in 2020.

Job Hunting Failures:

• Could not clear Infosys Entrance Examination on Day 1 of the Placement Season at JIET Jodhpur, 2015.
• Could not clear Round # 2 of Appirio, 2016.
• Could not clear interview round with Intelizign, 2019.

Papers Rejected:

• “How to lead without a title” at TestBash Leadership 2022, Ministry of Testing.
• “Testing is Applied Epistemology” at EuroStar 2022.

Professional Failures:

• My automation demo failed while giving a demonstration to the customer’s VP (2018). It was the most liked demo of the project and was given to almost 10 stakeholders before and after that meeting and it never failed ever before / after.
  Impact: Did not give any other demo for the next 6 months. Took failure as a personal failure.
• Did not win the Rising Star 2022 Award at EuroStar Conference. Was in the top 5 finalists.
• Could not get any sponsor for my Bug Advocacy E-Book (2022). It was one of my most hard-worked passion projects.

Other Failures:

• Severe Allergy Attacks due to constant ignorance of cold, and cough during college years (2012-2015).
• Vestibular Migraine / Vertigo due to overwork burden and pressure during my ending tenure at Capgemini (2019)..
• Could not learn to cook or ride geared bikes.
• Lost 2 Lakhs INR in a Solar Scam.

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