A Postcard from Arpit

A Postcard from Arpit Ramganj Mandi → JECRC Jaipur (B.Tech CSE) → Unacademy → RAS Enforcement Officer, Jhalawar

Hi,

Let me start with something simple.

I grew up in Ramganj Mandi — a small town in Rajasthan. My father runs a business. We’re a regular middle-class family. I’m not from a big city. I’m not from a powerful family. I didn’t study in a famous school.

Today, I’m a Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer, posted as an Enforcement Officer in Jhalawar. I wear the white government car badge. People stand up when I walk into a government office. And every day, I get to do work that actually changes things for people in my home state.

If I could do this — from where I started, the way I started — trust me, you can too. But the path was not straight.

Class 10 — the kid who dreamed of being an IAS officer. I was a good student in school. Not a topper of toppers, but solid. And somewhere around Class 10, I started dreaming about something big — I want to be an IAS officer one day.

Most kids my age were dreaming of engineering or medicine — because that’s what their parents talked about at the dinner table. My dream was different. And I held on to it quietly.

Step 1 — JECRC, Jaipur (B.Tech, Computer Science). After Class 12, I joined JECRC, Jaipur for a B.Tech in Computer Science. JECRC is a good college, but it’s not IIT. It’s not NIT. It’s the kind of college a normal, hardworking small-town kid actually ends up in. And that’s okay. Because your college doesn’t decide your life — what you do inside that college does.

At JECRC, something unexpected happened. I fell in love with app development. I started learning, experimenting, building apps from scratch — coding through nights, debugging, shipping things. Computer Science wasn’t just a degree anymore. It was something I was actually good at and excited by.

You discover what you love through doing, not just thinking. Don’t wait to "figure out your passion" before college. Go to college, try things, build stuff, fail at stuff — and your passion will reveal itself.

Step 2 — The alumni seminar that changed everything. In college, we had an alumni seminar. A senior who had cleared the civil services came back to talk to us. He stood in front of a hall full of B.Tech students and described what his work was actually like — solving real problems, helping real people, working for the country.

Something clicked. The dream I’d had in Class 10 — the one I’d quietly held on to but pushed aside while I focused on coding — it came roaring back. I left that hall a different person. I love technology and building things. But what I love more is the idea of being someone who serves people through public office.

The seminar didn’t give me a dream. It reminded me of the one I already had. A small lesson: the people you meet in college matter more than the textbooks. Go to seminars. Talk to alumni. Ask seniors what their work is like.

Step 3 — IT jobs, then Unacademy. I graduated, and got placed in good IT companies. Decent salary. Stable life. The kind of job most of my classmates would’ve stayed in for years. I left. I joined Unacademy — the ed-tech startup. I wanted faster growth, sharper challenges, and to be around people building things at scale. For a while, Unacademy gave me exactly that. But the civil services dream wouldn’t leave me alone.

Step 4 — The hardest decision: leaving everything to prepare for civil services. This was the scariest step. I left Unacademy. I left a comfortable career path. I left a salary most engineers would be happy with. To do something with no guaranteed outcome — prepare for civil services.

Let me tell you what nobody warns you about this kind of decision. When you leave a job to prepare for an exam, you don’t just leave a salary. You leave a part of your identity. Suddenly, when someone asks "what do you do?" — you don’t have an easy answer. Family members worry. Relatives ask uncomfortable questions at weddings. Through all of that, you sit at your desk and study. Day after day. Sometimes for years.

And here’s the most painful part — my MPPSC CSE result is still pending. I haven’t officially "failed" yet, but I’ve also not officially passed. So I had to keep going on faith, without knowing whether any of it would work. But I kept going. I sat at the desk every day. I studied. I gave exams.

And then — I cracked RAS. Rajasthan Administrative Service officer. Posted as Enforcement Officer in Jhalawar. All the doubt, all the nervous evenings, all the conversations where I had to defend my choice — worth it.

What my life looks like today. As an Enforcement Officer, I deal with regulatory and enforcement matters in Jhalawar district. The work is real, the impact is immediate, and the decisions matter. Some days are paperwork. Some days are field visits. Some days you’re standing up for a system that needs to function for ordinary citizens.

The respect. This is the part nobody captures in salary numbers. When you’re a government officer, people listen to you because of what you represent — not who you are personally. You carry the weight of the state. That’s a heavy, beautiful responsibility.

❌ What people believe: "Government job = big money, less work." ✅ The truth: It’s actually the opposite. The money is steady but not flashy. The work is real, demanding, and constant. If you’re choosing this imagining a comfortable office chair and an easy life — please don’t. But if you’re choosing it because you want real responsibility, real impact, real service — then you’ve chosen one of the most meaningful careers in this country.

What I want every Class 10 student to know. Three things, then I’ll stop.

1. You don’t need an IIT tag to win. I went to JECRC. Hundreds of thousands of students go to colleges like JECRC every year. You are not "less than" the IIT kids. You just need to work harder on building real skills — coding, communication, discipline, curiosity. Your college decides your starting line, not your finishing line.

2. State Civil Services are a beautiful, underrated path. Everyone talks about UPSC and IAS. Very few people talk about state services — RAS in Rajasthan, MPPSC in MP, UPPCS in UP, KAS in Karnataka. These are also competitive, but the competition is smaller. And once you clear them, you become an officer in your own state — working with the people, language, and culture you already know.

3. Believe in yourself. Dream big. Be courageous. I came from a small town. Tier-2 college. Left a comfortable job to chase a dream that took years and a lot of uncertainty. Every step of that journey required me to believe in myself even when nobody else fully understood what I was doing.

People around you will say a lot of things. "Yeh nahi ho payega tujhse." "Real job le le." "Big city mein settle ho ja." You will hear all of it. Some of it from people who love you. That makes it harder, not easier.

But every officer, every entrepreneur, every successful person you see today — they heard the same things. And they made the same choice you’ll have to make. Keep going. One day, you’ll make it.

That’s the whole message. That’s all I have for you. Now go.

— Arpit · RAS Enforcement Officer, Jhalawar

Here’s the honest map — for state civil services

Pick any stream — but build the curiosity habit

Any degree, from any college you can reach

Both are honorable. State services are more reachable.

Prelims → Mains → Interview

Don’t leave your job until you’re sure