Why am I not taking a coding job at 22?

This is the time when all of my batchmates are aiming for their dream companies, getting placed, and celebrating. I am so happy and proud of my friends, and I help a bunch of them clear the web development rounds whenever I can. But me? I am not sitting for on-campus placements.

I am at a point where I know, if I prepare hard for interviews, apply for companies coming on campus, and if I can excel the interviews, I would be placed for around 15+ lakh per year salary, which is considered a great starting package in the system. But still, I am choosing not to go down that road.

This might seem like an insane choice. Spending around two lakhs on coaching in classes 11th and 12th, and then 16 lakh for education in an expensive college like BITS, it would seem like an obvious decision to take up a high paying job and enjoy* life, finally. So what's wrong?

I could list multiple reasons and talk about my plans and what I am currently doing, but why not a job right now? For me, the answer is simple - getting a job is an easy path.

Working in a fast paced startup? Juggling multiple things, managing application architecture, squeezing performance out of the code till it bleeds, following industry-standard practices, setting up frontends, backends? I can do it. Seeing startups and companies who need engineers who can work on that stuff, I feel safe in a way about getting a job like that.

Starting codedamn or any business or any risky activity today seemed like an obvious choice. Why would you want to sit for placements if you were in my position? 22 age, no real responsibilities of the world right now, have a rough idea of what the company should be and could become, and always have a safety net of taking up a small job, in case everything fails. This is the time to be massively risk oriented for me, shoot for the stars, and try steering the direction of my life as I want.

People are sheep and most are risk averse. Even if a few are in a position to take the risk and do the thing they always wanted, with family support and no financial problems, still, the FOMO of not getting a job their friends have is huge. Take risks - it's the cheatcode to win. You may fail to hit your ambitious goals taking risks, but without it you'll definitely fail. Do it for yourself, nobody else is doing that for you.