Scaler Diaries: Gagandeep Singh Ahuja’s Journey to Razorpay

Veerangana Singh
5 Min Read

Always be on the lookout for opportunities. This habit of mine has made me receive amazing learning and work avenues which have eventually helped me grow in this field. I have about 1.5 years of working experience in this field with my current job at one of the leading fintech in the industry.

My zeal for grabbing opportunities helped me join Scaler too. Initially, we used to practice problems on InterviewBit. Then, after the launch of the course, I joined the first batch of Scaler. One of the things that motivated me to join the course was the availability of postpaid plans. You know how after a certain age, you don’t feel like putting any financial burden on your parents. This was the case for me too. I mean my parents have been extremely supportive throughout my journey in helping me decide on different work avenues and allowing a space for healthy professional discussions. Yet, I was uncomfortable with the idea of putting any financial burden on them.

Apart from this, I feel that some things are just far beyond your control. No matter how much effort you put in, some things do not turn out the way you might want them to. Before even working in this field, I knew that I wanted to focus on CS. But due to cutoff requirements, I couldn’t make it to the CS program. I was crushed at first but then I knew my best bet was focussing on things that I could control. I started coding towards the end of my first year at Thapar University. I didn’t shy away from putting in extra hours to satiate my interest.

While Thapar ranked pretty good on tier systems and coding culture, there were fewer placement opportunities as compared to CS engineers. Opportunities for interviewing with good product-based tech companies were minimal yet eventually I did intern with OYO. This was one of the biggest difficulties that I have faced in my journey because I knew I was capable and I was ready to put in extra effort too. But not getting opportunities to exercise my skills to the fullest was very disappointing. This is why I have taken up any good opportunity that came my way to date.

Even when I started with Scaler, I won’t claim that it was easy to manage Scaler with my college. I had fully packed weekdays and sometimes, weekends too. A typical day began with attending all the college classes and working on my course afterward. I prioritized attending all the college classes so that requirements for self-study were reduced and I could give enough time to Scaler.

Scaler’s course not only increased my learning but also helped me realize the scope of this field. I remember a few instances very fondly. Once, there was a hackathon going on. Mr. Pragay Aggarwal gave an overview of high-level design and taught how to make an application like psyche. I had developed quite a few applications of my own before Scaler, but this made me realize just how easy developing applications is if your thought stream is well trained.

I remember this particular instance very vividly as gaming was one of the major areas of my interest. It was gaming that brought me into this field. I was a gamer back in my school days and I often thought how awesome it would be if I developed games for a living. My childish dream clung to me in my college days too. I developed quite a few games in my first year. But with more and more knowledge came enlightenment too. I realized that the real goal should be to develop products that serve a bigger purpose for the users. That’s how a gamer’s dream matured into a software developer’s work for good.

In the end, I would just like to recommend you, folks, to focus on things that you can control. For instance, you can’t control your tier and college beyond a certain point. But you can maximize your growth by focussing your efforts and energy where it’s required!

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