Before becoming an engineer, I had already built a life that could easily belong to three entirely different people, a mathematics Olympiadist, a skilled guitarist and cajon player with a strong track record, and a competitive water polo athlete. Looking back, my career didn't become complicated; it simply continued a long-standing tradition of excelling at entirely different things, often for no apparent reason other than genuine curiosity and an inability to sit still. Btw, I'm Mehrshad Eskandarpour, and based on both my academic background and professional experience, I think it's fair to say I've been in a long-term relationship with wireless communications networks. My journey began in Control Engineering, but after just one semester of getting lost in block diagram feedback loops, realizing that no combination of PID gains could stabilize me on that path, before all of my poles migrate into the right half-plane, I discovered that the unpredictable world of wireless communications, where I can spend hours tackling radio interference, network stability, and communication network optimization without even noticing the time, offered exactly the kind of challenges I actually wanted to solve. So I switched to Telecommunications at Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), scoring 22.5 out of 20 in Signals and Systems and 21.6 out of 20 in Electromagnetics probably had something to do with it, too. Four years later, by the time I graduated with my bachelor's degree, I had authored and co-authored 11 research papers, earned the unofficial title of "the student with the most papers," and completed 27 teaching assistantships across 8 courses. And apparently, I also held the record for the most TA experience, but let's pretend I didn't just mention that. Along the way, I collaborated with more than 10 professors and served as Head TA for most of them. From wireless networks and 5G to reinforcement learning, cryptography, and AI, my research interests kept multiplying until choosing just one became a research problem of its own, one I still haven't managed to solve. And because being a student, researcher, and teaching assistant simultaneously wasn't quite enough, I decided to get my hands dirty in the real world. I started with an internship at the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI), where I learned the fundamentals of network cores and switching before joining Irancell Labs. At MTN Irancell, I worked on network configurations across four major regions of Iran, keeping networks operational and investigating alarms that seemed personally determined to ruin my peace. I'm currently working at MCI (Mobile Communication Company of Iran) known as Hamrah Aval, focusing on LTE/4G telecommunications network optimization, where I finally developed a practical understanding of strictly increasing functions: my responsibilities keep growing, while my free time approaches zero. Somewhere along the way, I also became an AI and Programming Instructor at Irancell Academy, delivering 260 hours of instruction across four classes in just three months. Then came another plot twist. I applied for master's programs for the 2026 intake, received an admission offer from Finland, Belguim, Italy, and decided to turn it down. Not because I suddenly lost interest in studying abroad, but because I still had a few unchecked boxes on my life's to-do list, and I had a feeling some of them might stay unchecked forever if I left. So I gave myself a few more months to tick them off before they became permanent residents of my "someday" list. Apparently, even my unfinished goals have deadlines. In the meantime, I decided to fill the gap between my bachelor's degree and my next round of applications for a master's in Telecommunications by pursuing a master's in Computer Engineering, specializing in Computer Systems Architecture, at Shahid Beheshti University. Somehow, I even became a TA there before officially becoming a student. At this point, I'm starting to suspect I may have misunderstood the meaning of filling a gap. There's a particular reason for that decision, but we'll get to it. Meanwhile, in August 2026, I joined Farmad Company as a Project Manager, taking responsibility for wireless sensor projects for data centers and solar-powered infrastructures. The publications, teaching experience, hands-on engineering work, and responsibility of managing technical projects didn't happen by accident. They took years of persistence, sacrificed weekends, unreasonable ambition, and a slightly unhealthy refusal to give up when things got difficult. Looking back, I'm particularly pleased with two decisions: always giving everything my best shot and making sure my engineering degree never came with an Azad University logo. No offense to its medical graduates and nurses, though. You guys are cool. The engineers, on the other hand... well, let's not ruin a perfectly good ending. One required years of effort; the other somehow still makes my personal list of achievements. And no, I'm not accepting any more responsibilities, unless they're exceptionally interesting or related to chess.
