It’s Master Thesis time!

A master thesis(or Masterarbeit) is THE concluding step to my master's course.

Towards the end of my 6-month working student role at RUAG Aerostructures, I started applying for various master-thesis roles at various companies. My skills were more polished than before, I now had some working experience in Germany and more importantly, I was more confident about myself as an individual.

During my final month at RUAG, I did not have a master thesis role secured anywhere, and an anxious Nishant had struck back. I applied for a lot of positions around my skill set with no success for a while. At this point, I was missing home. FOMO! Is that the word? My sister got engaged back home and I could only virtually attend that, on top of that, there were just about 25 days left of my working student job contract. I had finished all my credits a semester prior. If I didn’t start writing a master-thesis next semester, I would have absolutely nothing to do here.

One thing that I was not missing was… ADVISORY! While hanging out with my university friends and seniors, finding a master-thesis or an internship was a very popular topic.. after a few drinks.

“You should work under a professor, you’ll secure a good grade”

“Bro!!! Target Start-ups. The learning curve is insane”

“DON’T apply in big companies, it’s pointless”.

Well, I had always considered myself to be a rebel when it comes to illogical advice.

Robert Bosch GmbH is one of the top companies in Germany. Moreover, I had always resonated with their Projects, Products, and Research. One fine day, I went to their career webpage and sorted out all the Master Thesis positions that my skill set and interests could fit into. After numerous resume updates and cover letter editions, I applied for a few of these positions. In about a week, I received 2 interview calls. I always wanted to work for Bosch but also had known that what you want can be very very different from what you get. These interview calls served as the ultimate confidence booster and enhanced my motivational drive. I knew I should not mess this up.

After appearing for these interviews, I got a confirmation for one of the positions in about a week. I was happy, but I wasn’t as happy as I thought I’d be. Why? The title of the master thesis, “Web Application Demo for Planning Fatigue Tests” was quite alien to me.

Have I ever created a web app? What are fatigue tests?! Why did they hire me?! I was partially confused but then I thought about it from a broader perspective. I had the necessary skill to create a web application, and that was THE task. “Fatigue tests” was just the content.

If you create a beautiful, strong, and sturdy basket, this basket can hold oranges, apples, car keys, comic books, wine glasses, and whatnot.

It was a Python-based role, a skill about which I was always confident. On top of that, my supervisor informed me that this app would potentially have some IoT inclusions as well. Another one of my keen interests.

Was this role 100% made for me? No. As crazy as it sounds, it doesn’t make sense to me to stay put in this world of never-ending technical skills. In a world that I’m familiar with, anything could be possibly interesting inside it. It’s just a matter of spending time on it and finding out why.

Even though in the first month, I felt lost in a lot of aspects of this thesis but giving it more and more time and focus did the job for me. I eventually started understanding. I was able to answer a lot of “what’s” and “why’s” that I had the day before.

As someone not from a mechanical engineering background, it was tough to understand the “content” but I had to play to my strengths at this point.

Now, it has been 5 months working on this topic and I feel very much attached to it. The topic feels like something that I can talk about, discuss and explain to others. I still can’t understand a lot of mechanical engineering involved in this thesis but what I can understand very well is, well, the thesis.

I learned about web app development, a little more programming, a lot more mechanical engineering, but most importantly, how and why we write a thesis.

In conclusion, it’s been a pleasure and a surreal experience working with a name like Bosch.

Thanks for reading!