September 14, 2022
When we were younger, getting into an IIT was the biggest goal for us. As we grew up - for some of us - getting placed at a tech company (service-based, MNCs, mass recruiting companies) was the goal. Now, thanks to edtech companies and social media, it seems that you aren’t “successful” unless you are working in a product-based company.
Coaching classes boast about their alumni securing a top rank in the entrance exam. They will promise you that you will also get placed in an IIT. They charge X lakh rupees. You sit and grind for at least a few months. You blindly memorize and practice a solution set. It doesn’t matter whether you actually understand the concepts or not, your goal is just to crack the exam.
In the end, only a marginal percentage of the candidates get placed in the IIT. You don’t. Guess who is blamed? You.
Now, we see the same trend with Product-based companies. An edtech company (coaching class) boasts that their alumni got placed in a FAANG company (an IIT). They promise you that you can also get placed in a FAANG if you pay them X lakh rupees. You sit and grind for a few months. You blindly memorize and practice a solution set (DSA, Leetcode, etc). It doesn’t matter whether you actually understand the concepts or not, your goal is just to crack the exam. In the end, again, only a marginal percentage of the candidates get placed in the FAANG company. You don’t. Guess who is blamed? You.
What students studying at coaching classes fail to realize - and what candidates who enroll in these bootcamps fail to realize - is that the game is rigged. You aren’t going to get placed. Know why? It’s not because you aren’t “smart”. It’s just - the supply is saturated. Candidates get selected on the basis of percentile - not absolute competence. There are limited seats for IITs or Product-based companies.
Let me preface this by saying: I have no problem with paid courses/bootcamps/Post Graduate online programs. I believe these programs are helping lakhs of students upskill, and more educated. Yes, I do have issues with bootcamps that charge lakhs of rupees, but in this essay, I want to specifically talk about their sales pitch. Chances are that you have heard it yourself, or perhaps one of your friends/family members has received it.
What they do essentially is they talk you down for having a service-based job. They promise you that, if you enroll in their program, you will get a 20 lakh job and a “100% job placement guarantee”. I’ll talk about the “100% job placement guarantee” in a second, but can we just talk about the fact that talking down to someone for having a service-based job is terrible. Service-based companies and jobs are the backbones of this country. Most of us - even the ones working at product-based companies today - started out with a service-based company.
This is perhaps the crux of this essay. These companies tell you that if you enroll in their program, you will get a “100% Job Guarantee”. And, surely, this is their biggest selling point, isn’t it?
What candidates don’t know is that this “100% Job Guarantee” isn’t actually true.
Let’s say the edtech company starts a program with 200 students. They teach you for 6-9 months, after that the placement process starts. Now, the “100% Job Guarantee” suggests that all the 200 candidates will get placed (assuming no student leaves or gets kicked out). Wrong. By the end of the program, only 30-40 candidates are left. They intentionally set difficult exams and set a condition that you are only eligible for the placements if you score a certain mark. And, btw, if you aren’t eligible for their placements, and somehow get a job yourself - you are still supposed to pay them. Yup.
I have interacted with students from tier-II, and tier-III colleges, and with professionals. I’ve heard terrible stories about how most of these people were duped into enrolling in one of their programs, being falsely promised a job guarantee in a product-based company.
Thanks to social media and these edtech ads, now everyone wants to work in a product-based company. Doesn’t matter what their background is - they have you believe that all of us can work at these companies. They are prepared to pay lakhs, grind DSA, and leetcode, just to get into one of these companies.
Look, I’m not trying to act as a gatekeeper. I encourage everyone - CS or non-CS background - to get into the industry. I just want you to understand the situation. Especially non-CS folks, who are completely new to IT. A software engineer is a software engineer, you can learn UI development, backend engineering and can apply to jobs. Yes, Data structures are Algorithms are the core fundamentals of software engineering, but can learn them as you progress in your career, you don’t need to cram a group of selected questions, this jeefication is toxic.
It’s easier to get placed in a service-based job. Get placed, work, understand how corporate works. Learn, build, collaborate. Later, you can move into a product-based company by yourself.
Lastly, I cannot end this essay without talking about the big reasons why people move to product-based companies. Better work culture, better pay, more growth. My argument is in no way negating these points. Yes, we need to improve our culture in service-based companies. And, there are people who genuinely want to work in a particular company, with a particular product, purely out of passion. This post was meant for students and freshers, who, due to lack of exposure, might fall into this jeefication of product-based companies.
