You Only Need 180 Days of Consistency

All right, let me set the context for the video. In this video, we're talking

the video. In this video, we're talking through what can you do in a span of 6 months to get decently good at a skill specifically in programming to crack an entry- level offer. This is something I

work on very closely now with a on-site program called Super30 in Delhi. This

year, Super 30 started 3 months ago. I'm

going to share the journey of 80 students that are here on campus going through the super 30 program. 25 people

who got placed in the last 3 months.

What did the people who got placed do right? What kind of expectations do you

right? What kind of expectations do you need to have? What is your skill level that is needed in case you're looking for a job in the next 6 months? And if

you're ready to overcome it, which is sort of the expectation if you're joining super 30 on campus here. With

that, let's get into the video. Why do I feel qualified to speak about this topic? Because in the last 3 months, we

topic? Because in the last 3 months, we have 25 people that have been placed for an average offer of around $1,800 a month. This is the list of the people,

month. This is the list of the people, their names, their offers, whether it was a remote offer or an on-site offer.

This year we also have hopefully international placements. There are

international placements. There are seven people that are going Malaysia on site for a fully sponsored trip. Um less

of a trip, more of an interview. And

hopefully some of these seven people convert. Um this interview is happening

convert. Um this interview is happening on 4th of December. But other than that, there are two NOA on-site offers, one Bangalore on-site offer, and everything else is a remote offer with an average

offer of $1,800 a month. The journey of super 30 usually is divided into, you know, six parts. the beginning that means what happens you know when students join the early challenges how does talent emerge how do we find people

figure out who to refer the placement stories that happen over time we have like on average one to two referrals a week if you maintain that frequency over a span of 6 months we can get 50 to 60 people placed that's the high level

number that we chase um the learnings in this process you know talking to people students the kind of mindsets people have you learn a lot of things I'm going to share those and finally you know what should you do over the next 6 months in

case you're planning for something similar back home. Um, how can you keep yourself accountable? Um, how can you

yourself accountable? Um, how can you find companies? Um, and more than that,

find companies? Um, and more than that, what expectations should you have when you're interviewing, applying, um, and you know, finally asking for an offer.

We'll start off with the beginnings.

Super 30 this year started on 23rd of August. This is a photo from our

August. This is a photo from our inauguration where we have people from uh, Super 30 as well as the school uh, program that we're running, which is a 4-year program. Early days are fairly

4-year program. Early days are fairly chill usually. Um one good thing that

chill usually. Um one good thing that happens in early days is u since when we're starting the school we have a lot of referrals but we don't have anyone to place because the school is starting. A

lot of people that come early are able to you know get a job early um if they have the skills. So I I think I have two examples over here of of Fardin and Dishant who just came to the campus and in a day or two were able to get an

offer because we had a pileup of companies to refer to and we didn't have enough students on campus to refer.

That's one good thing that happens initially but other than that it's just figuring out who's good who's not. In

the first one month, there's fairly decent attendance. We don't enforce

decent attendance. We don't enforce attendance at all. I think you're smart enough to, you know, if you're paying so much money, you're probably smart enough to know if you you should attend classes or not, if they're providing value or not. Um, there's generally a higher

not. Um, there's generally a higher attendance in the initial first month and then over time, you know, you're able to tell who's actually interested.

Some people go back home, some people fall sick, but generally, you know, the final batch strength right now and if I count is probably 50 people that come, you know, in a class amongst 80. So you

know that sort of already tells you it's very hard to commit over a span of 6 months even in on-site and in online it becomes you know even harder the real momentum actually starts in the second month onwards where you know people have done projects they understand the level

themselves they understand the kind of projects that we are building I'll talk through some of these projects very soon um but you know you can tell some people just ask for refund some people I would I don't say anyone doesn't feel challenged I think most people that come here feel I would probably feel

challenged with the kind of projects that we give to students because respect of how much coding you know there's a lot of you know code that you have to write a lot of edge cases that you have to deal with with the kind of projects that people do here on campus. The first

month is usually warm up very slow start people are adjusting people are moving some level of fun activities but you know the second month onwards people realize you know we now have less time so we really need to focus and get a job

as quickly as possible um it's easy to identify early movers early movers being people who are already fairly good and if we have a referral it's just easy to connect them in the first month other than that you know I think the third month onwards or the second month

onwards is where challenges come now we have good people waiting on one side a few people for example you know in this part I can think of our chaitan atar uh Manak and Palov um who I mean some of

them have been placed twice or thrice through us as in you know they got the first offer freelancing gig they didn't like an offer they wanted better offer um so one good thing that happens is if

you're really good um anyone can tell like if you're interviewing outside even through even if you're not interviewing through us you will probably have a lot of reachouts which is you know for most engineers really hard to get a very

common problem people struggle with this I'm applying for a lot of offers but I'm not getting any interviews Um I think you know most people that you see over here if they apply for an interview um they'll probably have higher probability of a reach out and you know they'll be

able to grab a few interviews a month um because of just the way they there are a lot of factors here the way they talk the kind of questions they ask their brain sort of is very first principles

so you know it's not necessary they know a lot of things from before uh but if you give them X they're able to figure out why G is one of the most you know underrated skills which is if you've

been taught X you'll be able to infer Y from Um, and you don't need handholding throughout. You might need handh holding

throughout. You might need handh holding initially, but over time you're able to figure things out yourself. And I think that that's something I'd find in these four people. It's like easy to place and

four people. It's like easy to place and find these people. That's one spectrum of people over here. The other spectrum is, you know, people I don't like talking to. You know, you don't there's

talking to. You know, you don't there's a very common airport test which is, you know, can I spend some time with this person on an airport for 5 hours? Um,

and you know, a lot of people fail that.

If they fail that with me, they're probably going to fail that with, you know, with a company as well. Um, then

there's of course a skill gap. A lot of people um probably already know you don't have they don't have the skills um but those people don't apply for referrals but then there is some set of people who you know um are able to build projects through AI and if that is you I

would urge you to fix that as well um I think it's easy to fake having you know decent projects in your resume um but unless you are writing code yourself you probably know your skills there's no point fooling yourself or you know the interviewer um even if you do get an

interview very low probability you're able to crack the interview if you've not really coded your projects yourself what we built so this is probably a scheme of u of the school. Okay. The

first project is usually some level of trading. In the in so 31 it was probo.

trading. In the in so 31 it was probo.

In so 32 it was XNS. Um both of these are you know mildly trade you know they're not exactly exchanges but very close to exchanges something like Zeroda or like trading applications. The reason

they are built is because they touch most parts of of backend infrastructure.

Um so you know there's a lot of uh services that you have to write. Um

there's a lot of new things to learn.

For example, what is candlestick data?

What are orders? Some finance jargon. So

it just becomes like a good litmus test for is the person ready to work hard or not. After that we've built more

not. After that we've built more projects like lovable is another one that we've built where also like there's like an easy version to build lovable and then there are a lot of challenges in building lovable depending on the

depth of challenges that you want to tackle yourself. A good example over

tackle yourself. A good example over here is okay you can use a blackbox like E2B to create sandboxes in lovable or you can build E2B from scratch. So one

student over here who actually got placed day before yesterday in the NOA onsite company actually built E2B from scratch. It was an immediate referral.

scratch. It was an immediate referral.

He I was in the class he showed me the project the company was building something similar immediate connect some negotiations and after that he was able to get a job. Um so it's one thing is to for an a project to be ambitious the

second thing is how deeply are you going in that ambitious project. There's a

video of uh lovable that I have on YouTube but that's very significantly different from how we've been doing lovable here because there are iterations. We do it over a span of 2

iterations. We do it over a span of 2 weeks. um most of the times people want

weeks. um most of the times people want to extract as much value from you know the classes so they'll do everything until the next point and we we dive into more tougher questions more tougher questions so I think lovable we did four

or five classes um to you know complete the project end to end um and those classes by the end were you know how do you create your own sandboxing environment how does E2B work under the hood things like these cool there are more projects if you want I can talk

through them um there are some Solana projects in the last month months we've been focusing on rust solana so primarily I think the last three months have been you know fullstack projects um one AI project like lovable if you do consider it it it an AI project and then

trading applications in it. Um nothing

crazy honestly. Um all of this is just you writing a lot of code um and not really rocket science. I think it's very different from you know doing research um or you know building a blockchain from scratch. It's like fairly simple

from scratch. It's like fairly simple technologies/klls that engineers are hired for um and that's you know that's what people are doing on campus.

Placement stats until this point as I've said median is 18800 average is 2,000 um 30% of the roles are from web three companies and in the last 3 months 25 is the current number. We're aiming for 50 to 60 which is an aim in the next 3

months. So by the time the batch ends,

months. So by the time the batch ends, we're hoping for amongst the 80 people around 50 to 60 people have been placed.

One very common thing that I'll talk about um and you know hopefully you uh resonate with it is a lot of people here it's really hard to get placed like a lot of people here and maybe you as well might be in your final year and might

not see an offer coming you know around the corner. You might be able to

the corner. You might be able to graduate. You might be about to graduate

graduate. You might be about to graduate but you might not have a great offer or you might have a 3 LP offer an offer that you know seems a little shady that might not convert. they might not send you an offer letter. They might delay the offer for 6 months. Um that's also

the case for a lot of people here. Um

and when you are in that scenario, I mean just know for a fact, okay, you only win in a negotiation. Um if you can walk away from the negotiation, which is not the case for a lot of people here and probably, you know, for a lot of people watching on YouTube as well. So

when that happens, when you do get a good offer, um try to just know, you know, your level and maybe try to get as in get a job as quickly as possible. Um

that doesn't mean you get a 30k per month, you know, full-time offer. uh

you're making you know I don't know less than uh what an entry level uh chaplasti would make in a sakari job not that um but you know if you're getting 8 LP 8 LP 12 LP that's not a bad start it's not

like this is the only offer you'll get um over a span of 3 years most people plateau at a certain point most good designers would probably plate to around 30 40 lakhs peranom um so eventually everyone's going to reach there some might start at 8 LPA some might start at

12 lpa some might start at 12 20 but your skill will eventually you know um make you reach your final offer in the next 3 years 4 years 5 years which is the offer that anyways make a dent in your net worth. Um, this initial offer won't. Um, so don't over optimize for

won't. Um, so don't over optimize for this initial offer, which is something I struggle with a lot over here because of, you know, a lot of reasons. Peer

compensation, people see other people make X, they're like, I should probably make the same. My friend is making X.

Um, or they just have an salary expectation. This is a good example of

expectation. This is a good example of this. This is the guy I've referred for

this. This is the guy I've referred for the first time. Um, which means the last 3 months, I met him a few days ago and he said I'm fit fit for this role. I

connected him. Very good interview. um

interview went extremely good which is why you know he he messaged me this which is should I negotiate for 1.5k to 2k a month which is a problem because I initially shared the comp range of this company which was around $1,000 to

$1,200 a month um they weren't really hoping to give more than that um when you know for a fact that's the comp range don't over optimize later I think you can play a hand at the end when you're asking for a compensation number

but the hand can go against you and if you can't really walk away from the table if you don't have something to fall back on this might just you know not work out the best though if you're getting 8 LPA at LPA over a span of 6 months if you started coding from

scratch or if you know basic coding you've graduated from engineering if you're really working hard for 6 months and you're able to crack an 8 to NLP offer great offer move on just get get that first offer work in industry for 6

months and then figure out um maybe this company makes you grow maybe you don't like it you leave maybe you find a better offer maybe you don't find a better offer and still leave um but getting your foot in the door is the most important thing um experience helps

so just keep that in mind for your very first offer realistic career starting points for me. I think this is pretty good. I went to a very good college. I

good. I went to a very good college. I

did computer science from there. I

graduated and got a day zero offer from an IIT. Yet my starting offer was around

an IIT. Yet my starting offer was around base was 21 LPA. So what we used to hit my bank account was 1.36 lakhs a month.

If you're getting a 10 LP offer, what's hitting your bank is 80,000 a month. But

someone who grinded really hard for 2 years um to prepare for J was able to also, you know, luck was on my side. I

was able to crack and got a day zero offer. if you're just 50,000 behind them

offer. if you're just 50,000 behind them per month and that's a pretty good starting point. Um from there as I said

starting point. Um from there as I said your final compensation number which you're plateauing is probably going to depend on your skill. Um so you know a lot of batch clients that I started with um are making twice as much as I make.

Some of them make half as much as I make purely based on skill. So the skill will eventually kick in. Um until then get that first offer move on. All right.

What provides uh I think basically if you want to create an environment like this at your place probably find friends who can keep you accountable. Try to

pick extremely intense projects unless you're a complete beginner. If you're a complete beginner then build a todo application you know go through the cohort go through YouTube videos and get comfortable with coding once you've done that you'll see okay you're not getting

a job you're probably getting you know very low paying internship the reason for that is today hiring is very strict um and no one needs junior engineers it's like really hard um to get a job or

an internship as a junior engineer people need skilled engineers to create a skill you need to show some intense projects more than showing some intense projects the learning that you have if you have built a lot of intense projects

um is what is going to lead to you know um you having the muscle memory to actually provide value to a company. So

building nice projects this is probably the biggest point which is if you can be accountable for 6 months I think everything else will be an outcome I think if 100 people start 90 people fail here which is staying accountable

here staying on campus helps for multiple reasons one you know there are consistent classes two there's a lot of peer pressure other people getting placed and three you can sort of see yeah I've paid an x amount to be in this program and there are referrals that are

happening if I can just work a little bit more hard maybe I get a referral as well um those are extensive motivators for accountability Generally if you have intrinsic motivation that's the best thing. Um if you can keep yourself

thing. Um if you can keep yourself accountable for a span of 6 months I think you know something is probably there by the end of 6 months and yeah peer pressure helps so you know try to file friends that you're competing with still a fair reality check like if this

is like one of the good programs in the country where people are running on site um still we started with 80 people in 3 months we were only able to get 25 people placed. So it's not very easy um

people placed. So it's not very easy um unless you're from a tier one college computer science um to you know immediately get a job without any skills. You have to work really hard um

skills. You have to work really hard um uh and you know other than the fact you having the right skills you have to you know get an interview hopefully get into the company probably in the right company. Uh so there's a lot of factors

company. Uh so there's a lot of factors that come into the play. So just keep that in mind. So if you're in your first year um probably start as early as possible. It's going to be a long

possible. It's going to be a long journey you know u before you get your first offer. Things become smoother from

first offer. Things become smoother from there. uh but getting your first offer

there. uh but getting your first offer is the tricky thing right now. So start

as quickly as possible. There's no point you know delaying this too much. All

right. Um one small case study is of a student who you know on paper felt great. Um it felt like he knew a lot. A

great. Um it felt like he knew a lot. A

lot of people were recommending him but when I interviewed him you know it was pretty bad. Uh by which I mean you know

pretty bad. Uh by which I mean you know I asked him to code a very simple problem he wasn't able to. Um and that becomes a challenge. Um because I think you as I said you yourself know yourself if someone asked me to interview for

Ruby on Rails today. Let's there's a million dollar offer and I get an interview. There's no point of me

interview. There's no point of me interviewing. There's very high

interviewing. There's very high probability I'm going to fail it in the first five minutes. So if you know for a fact you don't know a certain technology file NodeJS AI web 3. No point

interviewing for it. No point wasting someone else's time. You know jobs there are interviews over here. I was able to crack an interview. um probably just focus on the skills um and you know focus on getting good at that technology

and interview can happen at some point um whenever you feel confident yourself um and when I say confident I mean you can actually code things yourself um which will only happen if you've been you know consistently coding for a long

time and building ambitious products one very big problem right now u and you know you might probably feel this yourself is okay it feels like a can build everything that is probably you know mildly true mildly not true I mean

it can build a few things it's like very hard to productionize right so there's like lot of pros and cons of building a complete project through AI. The bigger

problem that comes from it is it's very hard to tell who's good or not based on a portfolio. Um to students or I know

a portfolio. Um to students or I know everyone probably just you know creates a rush project one two projects YouTube clones the problem that happens over here is again in an interview it will be very easy to tell you did not code it

yourself. Um so you're just wasting your

yourself. Um so you're just wasting your own time and probably the time of your interviewer as well. Um if you're not coding things yourself, you have a very long career 30 40 years. If you have to spend 6 months coding yourself and you

know doing something engineers were doing for the longest time, um I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Um

AI can become super helpful eventually.

Uh but right now in your learning phase for the first 6 months to a year when you're trying to find that entry- level job, try to code as many things yourself. Um use AI as a companion, as a

yourself. Um use AI as a companion, as a teacher, as a friend. But by the end of the day, if you're not learning something new, if you're just spitting out a lot of code on GitHub, um it will become a problem over time and in a year

you'll feel very lost. Yeah, it seems like I have a great profile and you know still I'm failing interviews or not getting reach outs and the answer for that is you know you've not really built a muscle. you've only outsourced the

a muscle. you've only outsourced the muscle building to an AI accountability factor if you can find friends people move in with them go to Bangalore Delhi I don't know find a place where you know it's easy to be accountable it's very

hard to be accountable ge so this we see this in offline versus online we also run super online but the kind of consistency people have in online probably because they have you know jobs there probably other reasons but generally also if you're behind the

screen it's very easy to get distracted versus you know if you're in a class sitting in front of a a teacher to if you can find friends offline line groups where you there's some accountability.

You're moving out of your house. Uh you

have a change of space uh before you start you know coding and you're probably keeping yourself accountable with a friend. What did you learn today?

Uh what are you going to learn tomorrow?

Uh are you blocked somewhere? And you

know every month every 15 days probably do a retro just to see your friend learn something new and you've also learned something new yourself. Accountability

again as I said is probably you know 90% of the game over here. Um there are some people who can't learn coding. That's a

very small number. Um most people can learn coding by working you know hard over and over again. Um so just keep that in mind. Uh and accountability is the only thing that matters. All right

to summarize super 30 2.0 started 3 months ago. It's a 6-month program. In

months ago. It's a 6-month program. In

the in the first 3 months we were able to place 25 people. These 25 people are people who have been building intense projects consistently over time. There's

very little luck involved if at all. Um

but mostly other than that they've just been coding a lot and thanks to you know some connections that we have we're able to connect them to a company and they're able to get a job. That's a path some of you might want to follow as well. So the

only advice over here is build ambitious projects. If you've you're building

projects. If you've you're building ambitious projects probably tweeting about them um and reaching out to founders getting an interview should be easy. Cracking the interview is the

easy. Cracking the interview is the tougher bit today because unfortunately I don't think enough people have the skills to write code yourself. Um

because unfortunately I think most people don't have the skills to write code themselves. In the end the core

code themselves. In the end the core philosophy is accountability matters the most. This is where if there's a

most. This is where if there's a pyramid, it's like the bottom of the pyramid where most people are not able to reach the next stage because there's just too many distractions. Then comes

the kind of projects that you're building, the kind of skills that you're gaining. And if both of these funnels

gaining. And if both of these funnels you're able to go through, um the last factor is luck in, you know, getting an interview, getting a job, and the kind of compensation that you get. But I

think focus on one and two, and three should just be an outcome. With that,

we'll end it. I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye-bye.

next one. Bye-bye.