Growing up in Lucknow, I was a mischievous boy with no grand plans for my future. I wasn’t very academically inclined, and was just interested in playing and scoring passing grades in all subjects.
My father was a medical officer and was stationed in a village close to Lucknow. He would visit us every weekend, and the three of us — my mom, my sister, and me — looked forward to his visits. As a deeply spiritual person, he was associated with the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar mission, and spent a lot of time doing social work.
He firmly believed that each one of us owes a responsibility towards society, and that we should always find time to give back to the community, no matter how busy life got. Even though I was too young to really understand his teachings, I often tagged along with him and my mom to the mission.
It was much later that I realised the importance of having the positivity that comes from such deeds and environments. I was in 9th grade when my carefree life took a turn. I started getting severe headaches, with such intensity that I couldn’t do even my day to day activities. When the doctors couldn’t diagnose anything even after multiple tests, it became a cause of major concern. These episodes were scary enough for me to start taking life more seriously.
With my ongoing treatments, I began focusing on my studies. After completing my 12th grade, I took a year gap to prepare better for the JEE entrance exam. It was my coaching sir who insisted that I take up Computer Science instead of mechanical engineering. I decided to trust his advice as I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do myself. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t get into a good college and took admission in a college in Ghaziabad. The college was decent, but it focused more on academics than staying current with the industry.
My first year was full of enjoying life away from home. It was in my second year that I got introduced to coding through a close friend. Initially I just started coding for fun, but with time, it became a passion, and I started participating in competitive coding. A year later, the same friend told me about Interview Bit, and we decided to give it a shot.
And much to our surprise, it surpassed our expectations. There was a lot of coding material online, but the way everything was streamlined on the platform was a big help. Before joining Interview Bit, we struggled with figuring out which topics to cover, and how to go about it. But with IB, we finally got the proper guidance.
When placements started in our college, we knew we had to find better avenues to improve our chances of getting better packages. Our college guaranteed placements, but not placements with good CTCs. Scaler Academy’s referral program sounded promising, so I joined the Academy, not knowing at that point that this would take me closer to my goal.
When I joined Scaler, my coding profile was decent, and I felt confident about the questions I knew. But my first mock interview was an eye opener — I realised I was under prepared, and still had a lot to learn. I owe it to my mentor and my Teaching Assistant, Ravi Sir, who inspired me to not get discouraged, and work harder. Ravi Sir was always there for me, and went above and beyond what was expected of him.
I spoke to my instructors at Scaler Academy, and they encouraged me. They trusted my potential and asked me to work on my skills so that I could land at a much better place. It was a tough choice, but I took a leap of faith and refused that job offer. For the next two months, I fretted over whether I had made the right decision. I kept interacting with my coordinator, Krupali Ma’am, and sent emails to Ajay Sir, constantly seeking guidance and support. They were always patient with me, and calmly dealt with my fears and uncertainty.
Two months later, I cleared the interviews and landed a job with Zeta, one of the portfolio companies of the Directi group! Finally all my hard work paid off. And I sincerely thank Scaler for helping me achieve that.
The training they provide is never just by the book; it revolves around working on your weak points and constantly working on it. The teaching assistants give detailed feedback, right down to the mistakes that you make in your thought process while solving a question. But most importantly, they focus on ensuring that your performance in the interviews truly shows your potential to the interviewers.
Having experienced this, it came as a shock to me when I read the articles that accused Scaler Academy of cheating the students. They complained about not getting referrals in their expected timeline, but nobody spoke about the valuable training we received at Scaler. Neither did they stop to consider that sometimes it takes time to find the right fit, especially with batches of students waiting to be placed.
I wanted to bring this to light so that students who read those blogs don’t end up believing one side of the story, and miss out on a great opportunity.
I am incredibly grateful to everyone at Scaler for doing such great work. They always strive to give their best to each student. They often remind me of my Dad’s philosophy — to remember our duty towards society and give back in any way we can.