His story reminds one of King Bruce and the Spider. Many attempts and several failures could not diminish this IAS officer’s will to succeed.
Currently posted as Sub-Collector of Padmanabhapuram in Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Koushik H R’s willpower and motivation is the stuff of inspiration.
He made five attempts and cleared the Civil Service Exams twice. In UPSC CSE 2018 he was selected for IRS and in 2019 he got Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
He was working as a Tele-communication Engineer for a US-based firm and was set to travel to Canada when he quit his job to pursue his passion.
“I started my preparation after quitting my job and yes, I had to try many times. But do you know, on the very first day of my preparation, I wrote on my study table ‘Koushik gets IAS’,” Mr. Koushik shared while speaking with Indian Masterminds.
PRIME FOCUS
For the boy from Chikmagalur district of Karnataka brought up in Bangalore, civil services was always a dream.
Every time he did not make it, it was hard, but nothing could dent his motivation and spirit. “That ‘Koushik gets IAS’ could not be denied. I knew I will get it, just a bit more effort and time,” said the 2020 batch officer.
While preparing, Mr. Koushik focused on what not to study. He says it is important because there is a flood of materials available on the internet. “Therefore, one should follow the rule of one book and multiple revisions,” he added.
He also solved a lot of questions with the help of test series as well as previous years’ question papers. “This improved my answer-writing skills and gave me confidence,” he said.
MOTIVATION
In all his attempts, Mr. Koushik’s prelims scores were high and he cleared them easily. He did not, however, clear his interview round on his first attempt.
He analysed his every failure on the way to writing a success story of his own.
“If we keep on repeating the same mistake, we will end up getting the same results. So, one should start working on mistakes,” he said.
He also used to watch the training videos of LBSNAA to keep himself motivated. “I used to keep myself away from negative thoughts and even people who demotivated me,” he said. One thing that boosted his confidence was the thought that he was getting closer to his goal.
TIPS FOR ASPIRANTS
Sharing some tips with Indian Masterminds for those preparing for the civil services, Mr. Koushik said:
- Don’t come to UPSC with fancy dreams. UPSC preparation takes a lot of hard work. Aspirants should mentally prepare themselves
- A major decision would be choosing the right optional as one launches the preparation
- Finalise minimum sources per subject and focus on revision
- In case of any failure, analyze what went wrong.
- Solve as many previous years’ question papers as possible.
Mr. Koushik has been garnering praises just six months into his posting. As Sub-Collector of Padmanabhapuram, his initiatives are focusing on tribal and senior citizens’ welfare. His workshops are making people more aware of their rights and duties.
