Jacob George

After a month of work and just finishing my AI batch on Monday, I decided to go home for 1–2 days. It was a very happy at that time.. my first visit home as a professional.. and the journey truly meant a lot to me. My parents and sister were eagerly waiting.

I boarded a train after 6 PM, full of expectations. Everything went smoothly and, for the first time, my general ticket was upgraded to sleeper class after meeting the TT just before departure. I felt happy and called one of my best friend and my parents to share the moment. I completed all the tasks assigned to me while traveling. tired physically and mentally by then, but still, that joy made everything feel worth it.

Just as I was about to shut down for the day, during one last phone scroll on a Monday night, a message popped up. It was from my team lead, Ashly, who works as the manager of my department.

"Jacob, can you handle a SketchUp session tomorrow at Trivandrum?"

I had officially taken two days off, and to be honest, my health wasn’t great either. managed last session purely on the strength of a Dolo 650. But this time, things were entirely different. I was dealing with more complex responsibilities, and the situation felt critical for the first time…

The working professional who had been assigned to lead the session suddenly disappeared. No updates, no messages... he just vanished. The company tried calling him, messaging him, but he wasn’t responding at all.

I personally tried calling and texting him 3–4 times, but there was no response. There was no backup plan. And time was running out...

Ashly kept messaging me frequently, and after about 1.5 hours of back-and-forth, it became clear—there was no way to find another SketchUp trainer. The tool is less commonly used today, and very few engineers, especially in the civil domain, are well-versed in it.

But the real challenge was that this session was purely focused on Civil Engineering. SketchUp is a 3D modeling tool used to develop structural designs, mostly by designers and civil engineers.

And me? I’m a Computer Science graduate… I didn’t know anything about civil. Not even the basics.

Ashly told me that they would offer a decent package and other benefits. But honestly, money had no value in some situations. Some decisions demand more than that. In my mind, it came down to ethics.

Students from colleges like TKM and GECW were coming with hope—investing their time, effort, and a significant amount of money—to attend a session in Trivandrum and learn a new stack called SketchUp

That hit me hard.

This situation exposed the dark side of how some businesses I have a lot more to say about such experiences and the cheating that actually happens behind the scenes, but I’ll save that for a separate post later.

It didn’t feel ethical to teach something I wasn't even properly prepared for. It wasn’t just about standing in—it was about delivering value to students. But there was no other way. The only alternative was to shift the session to online mode, and even then, I would have to handle it—there was no backup.

So, despite all the hesitation, I forced myself to take the risk.

But this time, it was a huge one.

All I knew were the basics of civil engineering—maybe something from S1—and even then, I didn’t even have an instrument box to measure how many millimeters are in a centimeter. That’s how unprepared I was.

As the train passed Shoranur, another train to Trivandrum was heading in the opposite direction. The thought hit me hard.

Should I do this?

Every time I take a big risk, I think about it a hundred times.
But this time?
It was the 101st time.

I didn’t even know something as basic as the conversion from centimeters to meters—a fundamental necessity for any 3D design work.

But after a long internal battle, I made my decision.

I stepped out of my train at tirur leaving behind my upgraded sleeper class seat and prepared to head in the opposite direction, toward Trivandrum, with nothing but the will to figure it all out on the way.

The time was around 11:45 PM, I think. A night filled with immense pressure—and honestly, I was far from confident.

In Computer Science, it doesn’t matter whether it’s full-stack, Flutter, AI, IoT, or even robotics—I’ve handled them all upto 85 students in a single class. But this? Civil Engineering? That was a completely different battlefield.

I had just a few hours left before the session, and I needed to learn the very basics of civil engineering—all overnight. It turned out to be a sleepless night.

I was standing in a packed general coach… there wasn’t even enough space to stand properly. That’s one of the toughest things about Indian Railways general compartments.

And the irony? At that very same moment, I could have been asleep in my upgraded sleeper class, peacefully on my way home, spending time with my family.

But instead, I chose to face this toughest decision.

So, anyhow, I started preparing my mind with 101%.

Because for me, the most important part of doing any challenging task is preparing the mind.

There was no one to support me during the night… after all, it was midnight. I kept pushing through the hours, standing the entire time in that crowded general coach.

Around 4 AM, I received a call from home. They had been hopefully waiting to see me my first return as a professional.

But instead, all they could do was scold me. That moment disheartened me for some time.

But still, in my heart, I knew...

After choosing to take a risk, the challenges and problems that follow ..don’t really matter anymore. I had already stepped into it. Now, I had to face it.

That night, I spent sleepless standing the whole time in that coach—mentally preparing for what was ahead.

The next day arrived.
Still no rest. No sleep.

By the time I entered the academy to take the session, all I had with me was my mindset—my determination. Nothing else.

Ashly connected me with Devika, a third-year Civil Engineering student from CUSAT, who was an expert in AutoCAD, a 2D designing tool.

Up until the afternoon, she managed the session, teaching the students the basics of AutoCAD. But soon, the students began asking for SketchUp—that’s what they came for.

From that afternoon till Wednesday evening, it was my turn.

I had to teach SketchUp and also guide them through building a project during the final hours.

After completing her part, Devika left.

Once again, it was just me vs. me.

I barely knew anything more than the basics, yet now, I was expected to satisfy students who had each paid nearly ₹2500 for the course. The expectations were real, and the responsibility was heavy.

And above all… I was the trainer.
I couldn’t say, “I don’t know,” if a student asked me a doubt.

I had to figure it out, live, right there.. and make sure they learned something that was worth their registration fee.

With a do-or-die mindset, I walked into the classroom. The eagerness and curiosity in the students' eyes genuinely made me feel sad—because deep down, I knew I wasn't the ideal trainer to handle this session.

Still, I had prepared a basic PowerPoint presentation, just to get started. But since I didn’t truly understand the core concepts, the big slides were over within minutes.

To manage the time and keep them engaged, I tried switching the topic to web development, convincing them by explaining the importance of interdisciplinary projects.

But I heard one of them murmur about SketchUp again... and it hit me hard. To make matters worse, even the SketchUp installation wasn’t working properly on my laptop.

That’s when I realized—starting tomorrow, I would need to take this seriously, no matter what.

I asked Ashly again if there was any chance of changing the resource person, and the answer was 100% no. The professional who was originally assigned to take the session had once again failed to show up, despite committing to it earlier.

Ashly even suggested I handle the session online. But I thought—ethically, how could I do that? These students were eagerly waiting for an in-person trainer. How could I just shift it to online and disappoint them?

After the session, I returned to a lodge—the same place I had stayed during my Infosys interview. Again the nostalgia.

I remembered the sleepless night after the aptitude test of 13 december 2024, the hours of interview prep with the help of Rahul Sir and Vineesh Sir, and the 40+ students who had qualified. We all sat on the long steps, taking turns—at 2 AM, 3 AM...

With a deep breath, I entered the lodge again—this time, exhausted, physically and mentally. My health condition was getting worse, but I quickly prepared what I could and fell asleep.

I woke up very early

And as I sat there, I thought about the responsibility I had taken on,
the risk I had already chosen,
and the commitment I had to keep.

I started the next (today) morning by refreshing everything I already knew, and reminded myself to put in extra effort. Even though I had only 50% preparation, I walked in with 100% mindset.

And then something incredible happened.

The session went far better than I ever expected. By the end, I was even able to assign them an advanced 3D project using SketchUp.

During i writing this im travelling back for my next batch Bw Before concluding, I gently asked them,

“How would you have felt if this session had been in online mode instead?”

Their answers… and the feedback I received through the forms… deeply satisfied me.

Those third years of Civil will carry the rest of this story forward.

because I’m not the kind of person who shares stories to highlight myself. This isn’t about showing what I did… but about what I became.

The past 48 hours… I’m still learning, still improving, and still growing—day by day.

With that, I’m ending this small story.

A chapter I know I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Thank you.