How a grad student from Chennai made it to Microsoft

Nivedita "Nive" Punayur Rajasekaran came to Full Sail, a private University in Florida, from India, to pursue her dream of working in the video game industry. Now Nive works as a Production Partner Manager at Microsoft and is putting the knowledge she gathered as a student to the best use.

Nive grew both personally and professionally during her time as a Game Design Master’s student and sought mentorship at every turn while consistently pursuing ways to further her knowledge. The grad familiarised herself with gaming engines like Unreal and Unity even before her first day of classes was conducted. And, through the relationships she built on campus, Nive found something special at Full Sail.

"Everybody welcomed me like it was my home," says Nive. "Being an international student, I always had that worry inside. But whenever I reached out for help, everybody was ready to lend that hand and teach me new stuff."

Serving as Vice President of the International Student Society and fostering relationships with grads and faculty outside her degree program, Nive became a master of networking.

"I didn't know the meaning of 'network' back then," she says of her first few months at school. "But I could see so many successful grads shining out there in their own way."

Nive may have attended Full Sail because she wanted to create games, but the grad quickly found her passion for leadership. "I want to change the lives of differently-abled kids, make new devices or games, and put in a lot of creative ideas," she says. "I need to be in that leadership role to communicate [those things] to people."

Microsoft was not only impressed with Nive’s technical and leadership skills, but also with her overall demeanour.

"All of these skills made me more bold and outgoing in my interview," she recalls. "My boss was like, ‘I knew it. I knew you were that bad-ass woman.'