Last week I wrote a blog about how I started my video production work in Sweden and @erikah gave me some advice, which I am grateful for. Erika mentioned the WorkLife community and then I thought I'd write about my early days in Sweden, how I started my career, how I launched my brands while looking for a job, and how I upgraded myself.
So, this is the first blog in a series I am publishing today.
Which university did you study at?
This is a question I get asked quite often. Earlier, when I used to tell the truth, people did not believe me. Now I tell the truth in a different way, so people still think it's a joke.
At Iqbal Academy Scandinavia event, I was asked if I had attended Jawaharlal Nehru University by Prof. Dr. Heinz Werner Wessler of Uppsala University after expressing my views as a guest speaker.
In my opinion there is a difference between getting an education and having a degree. As far as education is concerned, I am still a student. It is my habit to learn something every day that is related to my field. I try to keep myself up-to-date on it.
So the question was, where did I get my education?
Most people who are influenced by my work ask this question. And my answer is always that I studied at the Stadsbibliotek (Stockholm Library). Well, no one believes me, but this is the truth. And there is a big dramatic story behind this fact.
My journey from web 1.0 to web 2.0
I moved to Sweden in 2004 and as soon as I got here I registered my name with an employment agency. And they sent me to several companies for interviews. But I failed to get a job due to my lack of Swedish language. And then I started looking for work in restaurants, cleaning and moving companies. Someone told me that there is an Indian restaurant in the city that needs a dishwasher. I reached this restaurant and asked for work. Coincidentally, the owner of the restaurant was there at that time. First he looked me from head to toe and asked if I had ever done this work before. I said no but I can learn quickly. He immediately asked another question about my skills and education. I thought that this work has nothing to do with my qualification, so I better avoid this question.
Image by Achim Thiemermann from Pixabay
I was lost in thought, then he said, "Look, we need a handyman to wash the dishes and we don't have time to teach. If you tell me what your expertise, maybe I can help you. Then I said I have a diploma in software and I am a web and graphic designer. The man smiled and pointed to a man sitting on the front table and said, "Go to him, he needs you."
Taking sips of coffee. This person was busy working on a laptop. I hesitated about how I could go and talk to anyone like that. The owner of the restaurant went to him and said something to the person and then the man who was working on laptop called me. Whatever showable projects I had done, I showed him. All of my work was on the web 1.0
He said I want to create an online tailor store.
Image by Mikes-Photography from Pixabay
In which the customer can choose the collar, cuffs, buttons after choosing the fabric of their choice, then add their measurements and make the payment online. This order will be saved in the database so that the customer can modify or reorder it.
I listened to his whole idea and told him that I couldn't do it because I had no experience with dynamic web. The man gave me his visiting card and said:
I know you can learn and call me when you are able to work on this project, I am not in a hurry I can wait 3 to 4 months.
I took this matter lightly because my entire focus was on getting a job as soon as possible. After a few days and an unsuccessful job hunting, I headed to the Stockholm Library to find out what this Web 2.0 thing was all about.
After three months of reading PHP and MySQL books in the library, I had created a demo of my first e-commerce website, an online Tailor store.
This person paid more than I expected for my work. And also offered me an assignment based job in his IT company.
Thus began my Web 2.0 journey. After that I worked a lot. But this was just the beginning of the journey.
I Learned That With Dedication And Efforts We Can Accomplish Our Goals.
It was a great learning experience for me when I realized that with dedication and hard work, we can achieve any target we set for ourselves. This was a very valuable lesson for me, as it showed me that nothing is impossible if we have the will to succeed.
Disclaimer
As I mentioned in my intro, from the last 2 decades I have been active on social media, google mapping and reviews, youtube and thatsup. I will share my own past interesting content from these channels, but all my upcoming content I will share on hive.blog first.