How can I enhance my career prospects?

What are the career prospects for a B. Tech in IT working for 2 years in a software firm?

• I am a usual guy you will find these days in India. An IT engineer  working for s/w firm since 2 years.While in college i had perception that i would be working in development and would create/learn new things and would spend life growing on hierarchy like that.But now where i am in here, i really feel this is just menial and product specific work and initially i worked nicely but now i am loosing interest in it.I realized i could use my full potential if i believe that i have to spend my whole life here rather than thinking sooner or later i would leave(Because of poor appraisal structure).So i decided to move to any field given that it is permanent and provides me with meaningful work.Tried some switching in reputed mnc as fresher but missed, given ssb interviews 2 times conference out and 1 time screen out and still trying (as i believe i can live upto my potential in defense and pursue an masters degree without loosing job).Faced 7 rejections in last few months overall from potential Job and service prospects (some due to my mistake and some i am yet to figure out).Its really frustrating now and each day feels like a burden to carry.I really want a final settlement or Title of work\knowledge upon which i get to work completely.Could you please suggest me what i should do and what career prospects do i have..like if i should go for some masters or an government job or switch in this fields, go for start up or what ?

• Answer:

  Before I even start answering your question, few things to clarify. >given ssb interviews 2 times I know few of my friends who cleared SSB third or fourth time. So that is perfectly fine. >7 rejections in past few months This number is nothing: Rejection (failing to clear interview) is fairly common, you don't realise it because people mostly share success stories. They don't tell, how many interviews they failed before even clearing one. If one has never failed in interview, either the person is out-of-the-world genius, or that guy never tried to go out of his comfort zone. Guess which is likely? Also, many times I have learnt more from a failed interview than a successful one. Not saying this is always the case, but failed interview sometimes give you an immense opportunity to learn about gaps in your understanding about technology or in your attitude. Now I will try to attempt to answer your question. I am in IT industry for past 9 years and I see this industry as very rewarding. Not in terms of package, or designation. The field itself. It has so much opportunity to learn, to grow, to dive deep. I have seen, no matter how deep I go, still there are depths to uncover. I am still trying to connect thousands of dots to get a complete picture. Over big timeline, two years industry experience is nothing. Many people feel the same way as you do. If you keep ignoring this, you might get used to it. Trust me, you will. But do you want to do that? You have a potential. How many people try for SSB, after getting into IT industry. In past 9 years, I haven't encountered any. You didn't ask this question as Anon user, shows something about you. So, what is my advice? Life is fun. Start enjoying. Form a group, go for trekking or something else. Eat, exercise and sleep a lot. Don't make your weekends boring. Read books (there are a lot of them in every field you could imagine). Be inquisitive. Learn a lot. You have not mentioned which field of IT you are in. But, be inquisitive. Dive deep. Set some goals. If you are developer, start going for code jams. Learn new languages (Erlang, Go, Haskel, Clojure). Read technical books/articles. How Kernel works, how is memory managed, Database, Networks, DSAL, anything which interest you. Don't bother if it is not directly related to the field you are working in. If not working already, set some goals to work in top-notch product based companies. Try with full passion. Eventually, all things will fall into place. Going for masters in not a bad idea. But you should be excited about it. Just don't do it in a vain. NOTE: It is difficult to suggest further in terms of career perspective, because I don't know which field of IT you are working in and what technology. And where you are working, a service based or a product based or a core tech company. But I think you got the idea. Hope it helps.