I always joked that I was here before I was really here.
Before I joined TrueType, my friend had a Polaroid of us pinned to her desk. It’s still there. Now, I’ve added one of my own. Back then, I had no idea I’d work here. But here I am, with a quiet, full-circle moment that makes me believe some paths find you when you’re not even looking.
For the longest time, preparing for the civil services exam was the goal; everything in my life revolved around it. I shaped my life, my entire being around it. I truly believed cracking it would define my worth and everything else would follow. After pouring three arduous years of my life in it, it still didn’t happen, I couldn’t crack the exam.
At first, the failure felt like a collapse. But something unexpected helped me stay afloat: my curiosity.
All my life, I had loosely identified with this one quote, but never with the latter part of it –
“Jack of all trades, master of none – but oftentimes better than master of one.”
I was always the curious one, the one with trivia at every dinner table, the one who knew a little about a lot. Everyone would laugh about how I had a fact or anecdote for every occasion. That became my thing. Naturally, why civil services felt like the perfect fit – it celebrated generalists. Every day of my prep felt like opening a new gold mine of knowledge.
When the civil services door closed, I didn’t retreat – I navigated. Instead of letting the disappointment define me, I chose to reconnect – with new possibilities and with parts of myself I had long sidelined. My curiosity, once solely academic, became my compass again, and my social nature, which had taken a backseat during the solitary grind of exam prep, came alive.
My curiosity, once poured into textbooks, found new outlets. I leaned into my instincts and that’s how I landed a research internship in public policy, a space where I could think critically and connect dots. From there, I entered the world of HR consulting, where people, behaviour, and strategy came together – I found myself thriving.
Each experience, whether in research or consulting, reminded me that the skills I’d once dismissed – curiosity, versatility, people-sense – were not distractions. They were directions.
In today’s world, it turns out, being a jack of all trades is like being a navigator in the sea of ideas and content. It’s the most powerful tool in your pocket: a compass. When I was lost, it helped me adapt and explore new terrains. Well, isn’t life all about making lemonade with the lemons thrown at you?
That’s what makeshift means to me. Not giving up, picking up the pieces and staying open to possibilities. Saying okay, not this, but maybe something else.
At TrueType, as a social media manager, I use them daily. Whether it’s managing content calendars, backend workflow flow or coordinating across teams, my adaptability has found its place. What once felt scattered now looks like versatility, and soon, being a generalist stopped feeling like a flaw.
Slowly, I started relating to the entire quote. How being a “jack” actually helped me, in work and life. I still respect mastery. But I also value adaptability, the kind that lets you grow and reinvent when life doesn’t go as planned.
About Salonee Bhave – I love films, geopolitics and photography, and I have a curiosity to learn more, another reason I started working with the creative community.