They say that there no expiry date for dreams, and a viral post on LinkedIn by a software engineer from Bengaluru is a testimony to the same. While most of the society believes that a person should start settling down in life once he reaches 30, Sathish Kumar became a part of the Indian Army at the age of 39 years by becoming a lieutenant in the Indian Territorial Army.
His example can serve as an inspiration for many who wanted to be part of the Army, but could not do so for various reasons.
In the post, he writes: “Looking around at the fellow interviewees, a good chunk of them were under the age of 30 and there I was, at 37 years, one of the oldest to have showed up. Self-doubt started creeping in whether the interview was merely a formality and I would be rejected based on my age alone."
Find the post here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-i-became-army-officer-39-years-sathish-kumar/
Major takeaways from post:
Written Exam: Spread over two papers of two hours each, the exam tests competency in Mathematics, General Knowledge, Logical Reasoning and English.
Interview: The interview panel, headed by an officer of the rank of Major General and two officers of Lt Col rank along with a psychologist, assessed every application over a few standard questions –
- Why did I want to join territorial army?
- What did I hope to gain from becoming an officer in the territorial army?
- How can I utilise my current experience in corporate and contribute to the army?
Services Selection Board (SSB):
Post-interview, the count was filtered down from 2079 to 816 which was further split into batches of 200. Each batch was allocated a different reporting date for SSB. 172 candidates reported on day-1 at 21-SSB Bhopal. Six long hours and one screening test later, that number was pruned to 16. Over the next four days, assessors evaluated all of us on leadership, teamwork and rational thinking based on various tests of situation reaction, group obstacles and personal interviews. SSB is a lifetime experience, in that a lifetime of learning is put to test over five grueling days and only very few get recommended.
Setback:
Four out of sixteen were recommended at the end of the conference on the fifth day of SSB. The army doctors have stringent guidelines for evaluating the candidates and all four of us were rejected for a host of reasons. We were also given an opportunity to appeal the rejection at military hospitals of our choice. I chose the command hospital in Bangalore and cleared the medical in September 2020.
Documentation:
Next up was the documentation – gazetted officer verification, police verification, State Intelligence Department verification. In hope that all the documentation would complete in 4-6 weeks, I was looking forward to be commissioned as an officer by Dec-2020.
Success finally:
I finally received the commissioning letter in April 2021. I was assigned to 118 Infantry (TA) battalion of the Grenadiers Regiment.
For more information, one can check the website: https://www.jointerritorialarmy.gov.in. They are currently accepting applications till August 19.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here