Have you heard of Shaktinagar? I wouldn’t be too surprised if you haven’t. It is a small town in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. The reason I am saying this is to inform the reader that it is not wrong to dream big even if you are someone from outside of the big cities.
I was born in Shaktinagar and completed my entire schooling there.
From the very beginning, I had a strong liking for everything related to computers. So, even though the other subjects such as physics and chemistry didn’t appeal much to me, the fact that I would be able to learn about computers was the reason I decided to pursue science.
Although I did take up coaching for the engineering competitive exams, after a point, I realized that the IITs were out of reach given that I wasn’t doing well in subjects other than computer science. A lot of my peers today would probably have faced the same because of how the education system functions.
I started using platforms such as Codechef during high school itself, and because the goal was to have an engineering degree, I managed to get admitted into one of the mid-level institutes run by the state government. What followed was years of self-learning, finding a friend who wanted to do the same, before realising that getting a job on the product side would still be a difficult task.
We had known about InterviewBit earlier and when they came up with Scaler Academy, we were among the first to apply.
Why?
Because it looked like we would finally have a definite path to follow and hopefully at the end of it, arrive at a measurable outcome. In fact, we did a fair bit of our own research – my friend Mohit and I – figuring what would be taught and who would be teaching us.
It felt incredible to know that we would be learning from people at some of the best technology companies out there. These people who have personally cracked the jobs before and know what it takes to be there – that certainly was a large part of the reason for choosing this.
I think people also don’t realize that apart from just the upskilling, the students receive constant bouts of motivation from everyone at Scaler. From the teaching assistants to the mentor, everyone is always trying to make you feel that you can and will do it. And though I can’t talk about everyone else, it certainly helped me on a deeply personal level.
Whenever you are stuck at any level, there are always multiple people to talk to, and seek help from. When one is alone and faces such problems, it is likely that they would skip the problem and move on.
That is a big barrier that Scaler Academy helps us break. You are never alone in your journey.
Even the way Scaler has curated the learning process for its students, I think it is something that others can take a leaf out of. It is just the perfect mix of everything and maybe it has to do with the fact that experts have created it out of their own experience of dealing with a broken system.
Currently, I am working at Lido Learning and though the near-term goal is to learn the A-Z of full-stack development, I wanna lead a team and build world-class products going forward.
To conclude, I would like to thank everyone who helped me through it all, especially Abhimanyu sir, my student success manager Moitreyee ma’am, and my mentor Alok sir. I shall always look back at Scaler as a launchpad that helped propel myself towards my dreams.
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