“My success has been driven by the many technical and non-technical skills I picked up at NU”

Boudhayan Gupta, Class of 2017, graduated with a BTech in CSE (Computer Science & Engineering). Today, Gupta is making a mark for himself as a software developer at SAP SE’s global headquarters in Germany. Looking back, he believes that the multi-disciplinary education he received at NU, especially the exposure to social sciences, and the non-technical skills that he picked up along with the technical prowess, have played a big part in his success.


“Sharing my experiences at NU with all of you is a chance for me to relive all my pleasant campus memories.

At first, when I arrived at the campus, I felt somewhat isolated in a place like Neemrana, a tiny town tucked far away from home, and without any friends or acquaintances. With time, though, I made friends and also spent a lot of time with the faculty. Then, I began to enjoy the absolutely stunning campus.

My on-campus experience was a little shorter than that of other students, unfortunately. That’s because I barely spent a month on campus in my last semester as I was travelling to multiple international conferences and preparing to emigrate to Germany. I did my Industry Practice in Germany and have been here ever since.


My first full-time job was as a software engineer at a financial services firm, PPRO Financial Ltd, based in Munich, Germany. PPRO is a payment processing company, and my job was to write integrations with alternative payment methods.

I am now working at SAP SE, at their global headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. As a software developer, I am working on one of the core compute engines for SAP HANA, our flagship in-memory database platform. My job involves an extreme focus on reliability and speed at the same time, which makes this particular development role very challenging and interesting.

My career success so far has been driven by the many technical and non-technical skills that I picked up at NU. While technical skills are a function of the curriculum and the amount of work we put in, non-technical skills need greater engagement from a student. The ones I found most relevant were:

• Mental health awareness: Self-care, maintaining proper work-life balance. Listening to your brain and taking a break when you need it is important.
• Emotional intelligence: Reading people’s emotions, and recognising your own emotions too, is important for success.
• Presentation skills: Collaboration is important, and communication and presentations skills are critical for achieving effective collaboration, especially in my field.

I hope that more and more students at NU will pay heed to social science courses even if they are studying engineering. They should focus on learning the subject thoroughly instead of concentrating on grades alone, and they should learn to take calculated risks that will propel their career ahead.