Joining Scaler Academy Was The Best Decision Of My Life

Himanshu Babbar
5 Min Read

As a child, I knew I wanted to take up something in science and when the time finally came, it narrowed down to engineering. But streams? I had no clue. Among the streams that I saw were available, computer science and information technology seemed to be among the ‘trendy’ ones.

To be fair, when I did take up CSE, it was largely because everyone else was also taking it up. I had no idea what was in store. It’s just computers, I thought. I had played some games, used MS Office to prepare some presentations and that was all.

The idea before I joined college was that it would be a lot of fun. The way they show in movies, how everything is chilled out, I genuinely thought engineering would be like that. I thought after studying diligently for three years and scoring well in my 12th boards, I would finally have some respite. I had even planned to drop a year to study exclusively for the competitive exams but I was so done that I let that plan go.

Oh boy, reality hit me hard when the classes finally began. They started teaching us programming. I realized most of the others around me had had computer science as a subject during the last two years of school. On the other hand, I had to start from square one.

Combine it with me wanting some rest, and my grades took a beating. It was only in the third semester that it finally dawned on me that I needed to do something to be able to get somewhere. I couldn’t keep slacking. In fact, to even be able to sit for the campus placements, you need to have a certain level of grades.

I studied diligently from thereon, and somehow made up a fair bit. I practiced some problems on my own, studied a bit and cracked an interview at a start-up in Noida.

But then, Scaler Academy happened. A friend came to me with information about the course. Funny thing is, both of us gave the entrance test and while I ended up passing, he didn’t. I quit the start-up 10 days into joining.

Before that, I had managed to get a job at one of the services companies as well, and still had that job offer in hand. When I joined Scaler and saw that there were people who were far better than I was as my peers, I got scared. I’d not be lying if I said I wanted to quit the course and take that offer instead.

But I am thankful to that same friend for supporting me and asking me to stick on. DS Algo had been a nagging problem for me, and I said to him this was going to be my last chance to learn it properly.

I can safely say that joining Scaler was the best decision of my life on a professional level. They have catapulted me to a higher level. It wasn’t just about coding, which obviously improved a lot, I feel those few months helped me better my cognitive skills as well as be part of a very strong and helpful network that I now know I can always tap into.

As a person, I have always been someone who wants a bit of guidance. Otherwise, what happens is if I reach a dead end, I abandon things and not pursue it any further. At Scaler, you always have someone and that makes a difference. At least for me, it did. Be it a teacher, your mentor or even a peer from your own batch, if you get stuck, there is somebody to guide you through.

A particular point I’d like to highlight and talk about is that the founders are so accessible. When I joined, I had thought I’d only get to talk to my mentor or the teaching assistants, but Anshuman sir and Abhimanyu sir changed that perception completely. Apart from them, I’d also like to thank Devanshu Singh, Yash Singla, Siddharth Taneja and Moitreyee Mahasweta for their guidance at various levels.

I currently work at BharatPe, and I feel grateful to be where I am today.

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