I feel that my journey and the difficult circumstances I came out of, can serve as the guiding light for others. Mentoring most certainly gives me an unexplainable sense of satisfaction, as I am able to give back to the community in my own way.
Coming from a humble background did not act as a deterrent to my dreams, it empowered me to dream bigger. I am Prince Sharma, currently working at Amazon. I spent my childhood and completed my schooling till Grade 10th in my hometown Katihar in Bihar, after which I moved to Ranchi to pursue higher studies. My school life was quite like that of any other student, and I spent my time exploring new learning avenues.
Growing up, my source of inspiration were my cousin brothers, who were successful engineers, and I was always fascinated by their work. Whenever we used to visit our uncle’s house, they were always glued to their systems, and I would wonder whether they were actually working or merely playing games. But, once I was introduced to computers at high school, and started learning a basic coding language, a spark was ignited within me. At that time, little did I know that my professional life would revolve around programming.
I moved to Dehradun to pursue my Bachelor’s engineering degree in Computer Science, at ICFAI University. My college time was memorable, I have some fond memories. As for academics, the third and fourth year were rigorous. My seniors at college made me understand the importance of basics, and I think their advice was instrumental in paving the path for me, in terms of my career.
The 2009 recession caused a dearth of jobs, and I was one amongst several aspirants vying for limited vacancies. I moved to Delhi, in pursuit of better opportunities. This phase of life made me realise the importance of skill development, and I focused on building my soft skills foundation. It was a struggle nonetheless, but I emerged victorious, as I grew exponentially as a professional.
One day, out of the blue, I attended an off-campus interview, and finally, my hard work paid off. I can safely say that the interview was the turning point for my career. I joined Wipro as a project engineer and worked there for four years. In my tenure, I worked as a developer and then moved to automation testing.
I joined Amazon in 2017, and I am currently working as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer. I serve as the flagbearer for all the quality assurance initiatives taken up by the company. Our team also extensively researches advertisements and their sources. The work fascinates me, and newer insights that I gain everyday, which help me grow as a person, are my biggest motivators.
What drew me to teaching and mentoring was the fact that I could facilitate others’ journey with the help of my own experiences and reflections. If I would have gotten the kind of guidance that is available today, I would have scaled greater heights of achievement. I feel that my journey and the difficult circumstances I came out of, can serve as the guiding light for others. Mentoring most certainly gives me an unexplainable sense of satisfaction, as I am able to give back to the community in my own way.
As for my introduction to Scaler, it started with my membership of InterviewBit as a platform. I used InterviewBit extensively to practice problems, which eventually helped me crack several interviews. Then, I was contacted by the team regarding the mentorship opportunity and from there on, there has been no looking back.
My mentoring experience at Scaler has been pretty awesome. I have had the opportunity to engage with a bunch of extremely intelligent and brilliant people. I feel that the detailed analysis that Scaler provides about every mentee, actually helps the mentors immensely in understanding the background and qualities of the mentees, and work with them accordingly. The teaching assistants and instructors are also great, and their support is instrumental in the mentees’ successes.
At times, when the mentees feel overwhelmingly frustrated, and think that they are stuck in a particular situation, I always tell them about the situations in my life, and how I overcame them; it helps them feel motivated and makes them understand the power of resilience. I feel that as humans, there is no way to learn better than to learn from the experiences, mistakes and failures of others. One must keep faith, especially if they have mentors to guide them through tough times.
My advice to aspiring coders, is to never get disheartened because of rejections. Rejections are a part and parcel of the journey to success, if you never get rejected, you would not be able to understand the value of success. Every time you fail, you learn something, so the key is to keep trying, for success comes to those who never give up.