Zuarinagar, Nov 8 (TNN): A 21-year-old BITS-Pilani, Goa campus student, Krunal Kishorbhai Patel, has landed a whopping Rs 1.4 crore starting annual salary package with Google at its headquarters in California. The campus placement will see him join them as a software engineer next October.
The prodigy, who is currently chasing a dual degree — BE (honours) in computer science and MSc (honours) in Mathematics at BITS, will be based at Google's global headquarters at Mountain View, California, US. "I couldn't believe it for a few seconds when my recruiter called me to present the offer. It was the best day of my life," says Patel, who is expected to join the company on October 5, 2015.
Google had conducted APAC test for students who would be graduating in 2015 from different universities across Asia Pacific and Patel placed 2nd in India and
8th overall.
Hailing from Rajkot, in Gujarat, Patel finished his schooling and higher secondary studies at Atmiya.
As a child, he took a liking to mathematics, and besides being good with his academic grades, he cleared the Regional Mathematics Olympiad in 2008 and was selected for the national competition.
"I was not quite bothered about placements till my third year at BITS. I had no clue as to what companies are looking out for. But, I made sure I kept my grades high and focused on learning as many things as I could to update my knowledge about computer science and mathematics," says Patel, who has so far scored well in both courses at college with a CGPA of 9.4, and cleared GATE 2014 with an AIR of 10 in computer science.
Google would expect a lot from an employee who would be earning a starting base salary of roughly around 8,750 USD (Rs 5.33 lakh) per month, but going by Patel's approach, the techie seems to be unfazed by the demands of such a huge job profile. "I think my grades and ranks have impressed my employers and I am looking forward to any challenge thrown at me. Surely, it would be a tremendous learning experience at Google. It is going to be a huge task since the products I would be working on will be used by a much larger community and I am looking forward to this experience of a lifetime," he added.
The prospective crorepati admits that when some of his friends would spend their free time playing video games or engaged on the social network, he would be busy solving programming puzzles or listening to peaceful music. He is not very religious but would like to dedicate his achievement to his parents and friends who have stood by him through his ups and downs. "I have failed many times in my last four years at BITS in various aspects and they have helped me rise up again and again, "he reveals, adding that the faculty and competitive peer network at BITS, Goa campus, has helped him develop himself both as a person and as an engineer.
Patel would now be role model who many aspiring computer engineers would like to emulate and he has a word of advice for them, "Keep exploring new areas in computer science and work hard on the one you find interesting. Practice programming really hard. Do as many projects as you can and most importantly keep your grades up."