Every student in India who is appearing for entrance examinations and board exams right now, or has cleared these exams in the past would have faced some
hardships or failures. Students would have also heard or read 'don't let failure stop you' type motivational quotes and advices. But it takes a real life story to make you believe in these quotes. One such story is an Indian-origin tech leader who shared her journey of failing IIT twice to working at tech giants such as Google and Microsoft. Priyanka Vergadia, who (as per her LinkedIn bio) works at Microsoft as Senior Director, Forward Deployed Engineering & Advising recently took to microblogging platform 'X' (earlier known as Twitter) to share her life story and motivate students about not giving up due to some failures in life. Vergadia, who is based in California, shared that in the beginning of her adult life, she "failed IIT twice. Took loans I couldn't afford. Started as a Quality Engineer while my friends climbed faster." She shared her journey of how she did not give up her dreams and kept pushing to the way of success despite failing the IIT entrance exam twice. Also Read | JEE Toppers Reveal Why Coaching and Mock Tests Matter Most Sharing her life story, she revealed that she decided to become an Engineer from IIT in 2000, and prepared for it for four years. However, she failed to get into IIT in 2004, and the same happened for the second time in 2005. Following this, she "reluctantly took admission in another engineering school", which was Shri. G. S. Institute of Technology and Science (as per her LinkedIn profile). A year later in 2006, Priyanka started preparing for grad school in US, and "ran around trying to get a loan to go to grad school" in 2008. After graduating with an engineering degree in India in 2009, she then moved to the US for grad school at UPenn in 2009 where she "started from scratch in a new country". In 2010, she "Struggled landing an internship, while all my friends had one" but managed to get an internship at a startup in the same year. She was promoted to permanent staff in 2011, but "struggled through tech career beginnings as a QA engineer" in 2012, and "doubted if I belonged, took a leap into customer-facing engineering" in 2013. She kept working at a company from 2014 to 2017. "Really felt like I'd arrived in my happy place—solving new business problems every day with engineering," she shared. It was in 2017 when she found a job with Google. In 2019, she found a role called DevRel, "found my love for learning out loud" and "launched some cool zero-to-one products" in 2020. She then "became a published best selling author" in 2021, and "led Developer Advocacy for North America at Google Cloud" in 2023. A year later she found a job at Microsoft as their "lead Developer Strategy for GTM". In the past one year, she "earned Wharton MBA, launched another best selling book, took the TED stage while building and leading a team with multi-billion dollar impact." Talking about her journey, she shared that "the entire time, one truth kept me going: I had to believe in myself before anyone else would." "Failing IIT twice felt like the end of the world. But it wasn't my destination—it was just the beginning," she added. "From a "Not-IIT" engineering school to leading developer strategy at the world's biggest tech companies wasn't about being the smartest person in the room. It was about showing up consistently, learning relentlessly, and never letting failure or fear make my decisions. Don't give up on yourself. Your timeline is your own. Dream! Dream big! You can only achieve what you can imagine..so don't hold back," she shared.
