STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
I am curious person by nature always pondering over different things; I am passionate about areas requiring a logical approach. Right from my childhood, science has always intrigued me. It always prompted me to question, explore, experiment, and understand. When I was in Secondary School I was gifted a book by my teacher "Outer Space or Bust" by "Gennadii Chernenko". This book taught me to imagine, visualize and work hard. My nature to experiment prompted me to study Maths, Physics and Chemistry at Higher Secondary and finally ended up with one of the most coveted undergraduate program in Electronics and Communication Engineering at "SV College of Engineering"(college url), the best of such institutions affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University.
During the first two years of Under Graduate study I studied courses like Advanced Mathematics, Electronic Devices and Circuits, Probability and Stochastic Processes, Analog Communications and finally Electro Magnetic theory and Transmission Lines. These courses helped me gain a strong background in the fundamentals of Electronics, complimented by C Programming and Data structures and Object oriented programming which gave introduction to computer programming. All these courses were aptly complemented by the laboratory courses.
The next two years of Undergraduate study was application specific, dealing with Computer Networks, Computer Organization, Operating Systems, Microprocessors and Interfacing, Telecommunication switching and Radar Design. It was during third year of Under Graduation two things entered my life: A computer without Internet and Programming. My perspective on computers as mere entertainment device has changed, when it was affected by a USB worm. I struggled for few days and finally was able to solve the issue. Being a curious person I decided to dig deep, that's when I was introduced to the world of Computer Security. I was awed and appalled at Himalayan topics; slowly I started learning bit by bit and moved from Computer Security to Information Security. Instead of being a script kiddie, I tried to learn how those were written. In this way over the years I accumulated skills in Python, Java and UNIX with Ubuntu being my favourite.
Though focussed on Academics, I balanced life by participating in extra-curricular activities. I was member of campus LAN building team, which is tasked to build a LAN for new hostel block. Here I gained practical knowledge of Computer Networking. Apart from this I was on the management committee of "JOSH", annual college festival. Being obsessed with Information Security I gave presentations on "Remote Administration Trojans" explaining potential backdoors and need for secure browsing and Exploiting HTTP sessions with Wireshark.
In this ever-changing world of Engineering and Technology, where each day sees a new invention and each passing day makes them archaic, I want to see myself as a well educated personality and transcend new horizons. With the rapid technological growth it has become necessary to delve more and more into the subject and increase one's technical expertise to contribute towards innovative research. Also I do not want to feel complacent with just the basic knowledge. Further studies were always a priority for me but it was my belief that before that I must gather some valuable work experience in order to gain a larger perspective of the industry. In keeping with this idea I have joined Speridian Technologies (cpmpany url). My work experience turned out to be extremely enriching for me on a host of levels. Working at Speridian has sharpened my research skills. It has inculcated in me team spirit and the ability to interact and work with both colleagues and seniors in a proactive manner. It has also helped me in accepting the challenges involved to expertise new domain and new technology, getting familiarized to new concepts and has developed a sense of professionalism in me. All in all my days at Speridian Technologies have served in focusing my interest towards research and development.
While my present job at Speridian Technologies has helped me develop a thorough insight into project handling, the industry environment that I am currently in cannot quench my desire for research. I possess industry-hardened skills in computers, but I must build on these to achieve my goal of undertaking cutting-edge research in Cyber Security, Wireless Communication and Computer Networks. I therefore believe that I must return to the academic world for further growth.
I have obtained information about the facilities and courses after a detailed study of university websites and have decided to apply to your university for graduate studies. I have learnt that several professors are engaged in research in areas that interest me. I would consider it a privilege to be taught by such renowned faculty. Your university offers an invigorating environment which will give a platform to explore my interests and a definite direction to my goals. I resolve to approach the program with enthusiasm and hard work and use the opportunity to advance my learning optimally.
My only suggestions would be these:
1. You go right into your background, but you need to start with a. What kind of degree you are seeking, and b. Why you want it? This may require you to use some of the information from later paragraphs about your desires for a research career.
2. You list all of your classes as evidence that you've studied such-and-such area. Instead, because grad schools will probably see what classes you've taken, just name two or three.
3. In your extracurricular paragraphs, what is an LAN? Also, what is JOSH, what kind of festival? What did such extracurriculars entail? This is a good place for you to talk about other skills you have, instead of just your computer knowledge.
4. Be more specific about why you want to go to the graduate schools to which you are applying. Name professors and specific features of the programs.
Thank you Didgeridoo for your patience, your feedback helped me a lot .One final question does this SOP looks fine or do I need to change anything ? I would like to clarify a few things.
JOSH is the named of annual college festival.
PACE is a departmental association.
