Despite coming from a university affiliated with the University of Mumbai (MU), Karan Kumar struggled to find a job after graduating. He claims it wasn’t his college degree, but online coding classes that helped him land a job at tech giant Amazon.
“No company comes to my university for on-campus recruitment, so I would default to being unemployed,” said the 23-year-old Mumbai native who earned a degree in computer science from a tier-3 college in Mumbai. To find a job, Karan decided to learn coding through online platforms. He didn’t have a laptop and used to visit cyber cafes.
Karan, a tier-3 technical college, claims he was turned down for internships and job offers because he wasn’t from a tier-1 college or didn’t have a “branded degree.” “I applied for many off-campus jobs and internships during my engineering but never got shortlisted for interviews as students are usually rejected in the shortlist process by companies if they are not from tier-1/2 colleges like IIT/NIT to be. So I had to work really hard on my coding skills to stand out from the crowd,” Karan said.
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He resorted to online skills courses to learn to code. While studying at university, he participated in as many coding events as he could. He got an all India rank of 12 in Google CodeJam (21’Quals) out of 60000+ participants, a rank of 72 in Facebook Hackercup (21’Quals) out of 30000+ participants, a 6 star rating on Codechef, an international rank of 261 in Quora Programming Challenge 2022, and was ranked 17th by HackerEarth for its coding skills.
The hiring process today is not based on the traditional recruiting methods, it has changed a lot and now employers are looking for skilled candidates. It is critical for universities to incorporate skills and competency-based curricula into their programs to better prepare graduates for the challenges ahead in the business world
He got a referral to apply for a job at HackerEarth based on his performance. With this reference, he applied for a job at Amazon that he got to know through LinkedIn. After two-month processes of four coding rounds and one application round, he got his current job.
Karan claimed to be the very first software engineer from his suburb and said getting a job at Amazon was beyond his dreams and after learning about his roster, he burst into tears.
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“I think it is crucial for educational institutions to keep the latest recruitment processes in mind and to take care of the students in a similar way. The recruitment process today is not based on the traditional recruitment methods, it has changed a lot and now employers are looking for It is critical for universities to incorporate skills and competence-based curricula into their programs to better prepare graduates for the challenges ahead in the business world, Karan said.
Karan’s journey did not stop with his own success. Now he helps others to get out of poverty. He has selected a group of 20 students from underprivileged backgrounds and is helping them learn coding and other skills to land off-campus jobs.
Karan’s journey did not stop with his own success. Now he helps others to get out of poverty. He has selected a group of 20 students from underprivileged backgrounds and is helping them learn coding and other skills to land off-campus jobs.
“I teach them to code online and DSA via Zoom calls or Google measures weekly. If a student’s conversation is near, I also regularly attend sessions. I teach them for free because the motive is to help them find a good job and pass on the knowledge I gained during my journey,” he said.
Karan’s mother is a housewife and his father owns a small shop. He also has a sister who is pursuing BFM
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