Story of our Scaler Ajitesh Kumar in his own words! "I was born and brought up in Jamshedpur. For a long period of time, we had no financial support since my father is not alive, so it was very difficult for me to complete my B tech. My uncle helped us with my fees. When I was in 10th, 11th standard, I needed to focus more on science and had to sideline computers. I didn’t like it because I love computers but had to do it as the marks required for getting admission in a nice college depended on it. I always loved coding, I got my first computer when I was 6. My father couldn’t afford the computer that time but somehow he managed to arrange 20k to get that computer. It’s still at my place, nobody uses it but it is there. I prepared for IIT but couldn’t clear it in my first attempt. I took a drop, then tried again but couldn’t succeed. I realised somehow, it was not meant for me. I chose to do engineering because everybody else was doing it. I got to know about the better options other than engineering a little later. I took admission in tier 3 engineering college but I knew I couldn’t settle for on-campus company placements. At my college, we were told only basics which didn’t interest me. We were only focused on getting a pointer around 8.5 so we could sit for companies during on-campus placements. Everybody was focusing on getting a 9 but I preferred focusing on getting an 8.5 and using the remaining time for coding. I always had this feeling that I could have done better so I started focusing on how I can make the best out of what I have got. Post-graduation, I joined TCS, Bangalore via on-campus placement. But I was inspired by my friends to practice competitive programming. Many of my friends had practised on the IB platform and got selected for big companies. I used to practice on IB, so I took the entrance test for Scaler Academy when the batch was launched, but couldn’t clear it in my first attempt. I practised harder and took the test again and got selected. The curriculum is designed in a structured way. I got full support during my classes. During the 4th month of the program, I was referred to several companies. I got rejected by some, after that I got really serious about it. During my interview at Amazon, they analysed my profile on how I wrote the code if I was able to cover all the edge cases, also the time complexity of my solution and its optimisation. They also focused on how clean I wrote the code. I took a lot of mock interviews to increase my confidence to present myself better. It’s not just about how many questions you can solve, it also depends upon your profile when it comes to applying for a job at top companies. Today I have a job at Amazon! My mother doesn’t know much about Amazon, she knew I got a good job just by knowing about my CTC. I am grateful for everything, for my rejections, for the guidance, for all the efforts I put into it and efforts that everybody else put into me. Even now I haven’t stopped coding. I still watch the lectures at my Scaler Academy account. I am trying each day to hone my skills in order to give my best at my job. I would like to thank the entire Scaler Academy team wholeheartedly, thank you for what you are doing." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To get notified of all the new videos, subscribe - www.youtube.com/ScalerAcademy?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about Scaler Academy - www.scaler.com/?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=youtube_default Scaler Academy: Sucess Stories - www.scaler.com/success-stories Read inspiring stories of Scaler mentees here - www.scaler.com/blog/tag/scaler-academy-experience/ Follow us on Linkedin - www.linkedin.com/school/scaleracademy ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------