Placement Policy

Handbook - 2022
FOR SCALER ACADEMY AND DSML BATCHES
 SUMMARY 1
Table of Contents OBJECTIVE 3
VISION 3
CAREERS TEAM 3
APPLICABILITY 3
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND 4
SHARING THIS DOCUMENT 5
CHANGES TO THIS DOCUMENT 5
DOCUMENT STRUCTURE 5
PLACEMENT POLICIES 5
Learner Profile Submission
Eligibility criteria
Basic Eligibility
Job Specific Eligibility Criteria or Expert Mock Interview
Skills Tested in Expert Mock Interview
Learner’s Consent to a Job Application
Code of Conduct
Accepted Offer and Additional Opportunities
Validity of Career Support

PLACEMENT PROCESS 12
Updation of Learner Profile
Marking Intent
Book ‘Expert Mock Interviews’
Job Application Procedure
Application Feedback
Preparation Support

PRE-PLACEMENT SESSIONS 19
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS 19
CONTACT SCALER CAREER SUPPORT 19
 1

Summary
This section summarizes key highlights of the new placement policy and significant
changes from the previous version.

1. Introduction of Mock Expert Interviews: To assess and prepare learners for

the placements, mock expert interviews have been introduced and they have
to be taken after course module completion. For example, after you finish
DSA, you must take the DSA interview to be eligible for placements.
Similarly, once you finish LLD, you are required to take an LLD interview,
and so on. For more details, check section ‘Eligibility Criteria’

2. Skills Tested in Mock Interviews: After analysing the skill requirements of

hundreds of tech jobs, we have identified must-have skills for which learners
should take mock interviews in order to become job-ready. These are:

For Academy: The important skills are categorised into 5 divisions: DSA,
Languages (Java, Python, Javascript), LLD, HLD, and Backend/Frontend
specialization (React, Spring/Springboot)

For DSML: The categories are: Python, SQL, Data Analysis, Machine Learning
(Supervised and Unsupervised), Computer Vision, Natural language
Processing.

Each job for which a learner wishes to apply will have one or more of the
above skills as ‘must have’ requirement(s). Learners are required to clear
For Scaler Academy and DSML batches
mock interviews of the ‘must have’/ mandatory skills if they wish to apply for
jobs. More details are available in this section.

3. Job Tracker and Other Product Changes: Post completion of a module, you
will be able to book a mock interview through the learner dashboard. An
expert (in that module/skill) will be assigned by the system. This expert will
interview you, rate your skills and provide feedback post interaction. All jobs
along with their details and ‘must have’ skills, will be visible in the learner
dashboard. If you have cleared mock interviews for the required skills, you
can apply to those jobs. The more mock interviews you clear, the more
eligible you become for jobs. More information on this is available in the
Placement Process section.
 2

4. Additional Job Opportunities for Placed Learners: If a learner has been

placed at a company, they can be referred to another company if the second
company offers 1.6X of the compensation offered by the first company.

5. Validity of Placement Support: The Scaler careers team will support all
unplaced learners in placements for the next 6 months i.e. post completion
of the course at Scaler.

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

 3

1. Objective
The Placement Policy has been designed to help Scaler learners understand the
policies and rules about the placements and career support and the process that
needs to be followed by learners to avail this support.

2. Vision
Scaler’s courses have been designed to upskill software engineers in
industry-relevant skills and help them gain an edge in their careers. While the
curriculum and its delivery have been designed to enhance learners’ skill sets,
Scaler’s career support program has been designed to help and guide them to
discover the right job opportunities, prepare for them and eventually join one of
such jobs.

3. Careers Team
Scaler’s Career team is a dedicated arm of the institution which works towards
connecting learners to top tech employers for various engineering roles. The team
supports learners in preparing for the job interview processes, by working closely
with instructors, mentors and other experts. During a learner’s job-seeking process,
the learner would be interacting actively with the career support associates or
recruiters, who will help them navigate the company's hiring process.

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

4. Applicability
This policy document applies to all the Scaler learners enrolled on any of the cours-
es provided by Scaler viz. Scaler Academy India and DSML India, and have opted to
receive career support from Scaler.

‘Learner’ or ‘Learners’ has been used interchangeably in the document to represent

a student who has enrolled on any of the aforesaid paid programmes
 4

5. Ways to Apply for a Job

Eligible learners can apply to job opportunities through multiple channels. These are:
1. Scaler signs up with tech employers and brings job opportunities to the
learners. Learners can apply to these jobs via Careers’ team recruiters (who will
reach out to them from time to time) or on the job tracker (accessible on the
learner dashboard). More details on ‘how to apply’ are available in the latter
part of the document.
2. Each learner is a part of a wider Scaler community of mentors,
Acquisition personnel, Scaler alumni, and peers with whom a learner can
connect and request job referrals in their respective companies.
3. The learner can apply to jobs externally via personal network or on the career
websites of employer organisations (eg. Linkedin)
4. Based on the learner’s profile, pre-vetted employers may reach out to the
learner directly in case the learner fits the employer’s job requirements.

6. Coverage of This Policy

This document is applicable/limited only to full-time career support. It does not cover
the policies of other forms of employment viz. part-time, internship, freelance,
project-based assignment etc. Further, this policy applies only to those learners who
apply to jobs via the Scaler careers team or the job tracker as mentioned in
(1) of the ‘Ways to apply for a job’ section (prev)

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

7. Points to Keep in Mind
The Scaler course and its career support program have been designed based on
research and to improve the career outcomes of its learners. However, Scaler does
not provide any job guarantee to any of its learners and this document is not an
agreement or commitment to provide a job to a learner.

The Scaler team is striving hard to help Scaler learners excel in their careers by
devising industry-relevant courses, assigning top instructors and mentors to guide
the learners and scouting the most relevant job opportunities.

It is the responsibility of the learner to utilize the resources provided by Scaler to

achieve the career outcomes that they aspire to.
 5

Additionally, note that Scaler has no influence on the job criteria, compensations or
interview processes defined by the employers and cannot act on behalf of any
learner in requesting employers for alterations in the same.

8. Sharing This Document

The rights to this document, its contents and its distribution solely belong to Scaler.
No other user of this document is authorized to make changes, republish or
redistribute the document, either as a whole or in part.

9. Changes to This Document

Scaler reserves the right to make changes to this document at its sole discretion. Any
major changes to this document will be communicated to the learners 15 days prior
to the implementation of the change.

10. Document Structure

This document is divided into two parts

1. Policies or rules governing learner participation in the placement process

2. Process and procedures which Scaler learners can follow to avail of Scaler
career support

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

11. Placement Policies
This sector details various prerequisites, eligibility criteria and policies governing
placements at Scaler.

Learner profile submission

Learners looking for career support are required to update their profiles and disclose
all the correct information in order for their candidature to be processed for various
job opportunities. The aforementioned information refers to details such as past
education, employment experience, salary, notice period, updated resume or any
other information or document requested by the Scaler team from time to time. The
learners will be able to enter this information in the learner portal. (Please check
more details in the ‘Process’ section)
 6

It is also important that the learner provide his/her information well within the due
dates defined by the Scaler career support team.

Eligibility criteria
The eligibility criteria for placements have two parts:

i) Basic eligibility: This defines the minimum module completion required to

participate in any company hiring process. The moment a learner meets the
minimum module completion requirement, they need to mark their intent for
placement support in the system. If a learner feels they need to complete more
modules and then avail placement support (to start getting referred to companies),
they can do so too. Marking intent acts as a signal to the careers team to start
referring the learner to jobs.

ii) Jobs-specific eligibility criteria: In addition to minimum module completion,

learners will be required to clear an expert mock interview depending on the key
skill(s) requirement of a job or a type of job (eg. SDE 1 in product companies). Only
after clearing, the expert mock interview(s) will candidates be eligible to apply or be
referred to a job which has the mock-interviewed skill as a mandatory requirement.

Basic eligibility
A learner becomes eligible for career support after completion of the following
modules1 depending on the course/track that they have enrolled in:
For Scaler Academy
• Advanced and DSML batches
DSA module of the Academy India program2
• NLP module for Data Science & ML specialization of the DSML (India) program.

The table below shows basic eligibility criteria and a rough timeline from the start of
the course. Please note that this is the minimum period required to finish the
module and it may vary due to holidays, voluntary course pause (by the learner) etc.

1.Basic eligibility criteria can change based on employer hiring requirements and such
changes would be communicated to learner well in advance.
2.However it is recommended that learners should complete their course for better career
outcomes.
 7

Batch Module completion for basic

eligibility (And minimum completion
time from the start of the course)

Academy India

Academy Beginner Advanced DSA (31 weeks)

Academy Intermediate Advanced DSA (23 weeks)

Academy Advanced Advanced DSA (15 weeks)

DSML India

DSML Beginner NLP (54 weeks)

DSML Intermediate NLP (46 weeks)

DSML Advanced NLP (38 weeks)

Jobs specific eligibility criteria or Expert Mock Interview

Each job opportunity has skills associated with it. These skills are mapped to the
modules taught in the Scaler courses. For example, an SDE 1 (Software Developer
Engineer Level 1 role in a leading tech company typically requires candidates to be
For Scaler
strong Academy
in data structures andand DSMLHence,
algorithms. batches
upon completing the required
coursework for a module (say DSA), candidates should have cleared the expert mock
interview (EMI) of the respective module to be eligible for the said Enginerring Level 1
job opportunities. The process to avail such mock interviews are detailed in the
‘process’ section of the document.

Skills Tested in Expert Mock Interview

All jobs will typically have one or more skill as hiring criteria, as specified by the em-
ployer company. Based on current industry requirements, you can prepare for these
five skills by appearing for a mock interview, after completion of the coursework for
these modules.
 8

Expert Mock Interviews for Scaler Academy course learners are

01. DSA
02. Languages (Java, Python, Javascript)
03. LLD
04. HLD
05. Backend/Frontend preference (React, Spring/Springboot)

Expert Mock Interviews for Scaler DSML course learners are:

01. Python Programming and DSA
02. SQL
03. Exploratory Data Analysis
04. Machine Learning Supervised
05. Machine Learning Unsupervised
06. Deep Learning Computer Vision
0 7. Deep Learning Natural Language Processing

Must Have Skills

Skills specified against each job, will be categorized as Must have, Good to have, Bar
raiser. Candidates are required to at least clear the Expert Mock Interviews for Must
Have skills specified against a job to be eligible for applying to that job. Additionally, if
a learner has cleared the Expert Mock Interview for any one or more of the above (5)
skills, they become eligible to apply to all jobs that require these skills. For example, if
For Scaler Academy and DSML batches
a learner clears DSA and LLD Expert Mock Interviews, the learner becomes eligible
for jobs where DSA and LLD are ‘must have’ skills.
 9

A view of the Job tracker dashboard, where Must Have skills are marked against each job.
The learner is expected to clear mock interviews for such skills, to be eligible to apply for such
a job
For Scaler Academy and DSML batches
Learner Consent to a Job Application
The Career Support team submits a learner’s CV to the company against a job oppor-
tunity, only after getting their consent. This consent is taken either via a phone call by
the recruiter or digitally on the system that the learner has access to (when they
apply for a job). Learners are then required to clear basic and job-specific eligibility
criteria (Expert Mock Interview) before they can apply for a job.

During this process, the learner is encouraged to make an informed decision by

checking specific details about the job opportunity and the employer company by
writing to the Scaler career support team requesting for details. The Scaler Career
Support team will respond to these queries to the best of their knowledge.
 10

Code of Conduct
Once a learner has agreed for their profile to be processed for a job opportunity,
he/she is required to go through the designated hiring process of the company.
Whether it is taking tests or appearing for multiple stages of interviews, candidates
should take the process diligently, professionally, ethically and in stipulated time-
lines.
Lack of response to the employer company’s HR team or Scaler career team’s queries
or not fulfilling their obligations towards a hiring process shall invite penalties. If a
learner misses interviews/tests/any step in the hiring process of more than 2 (two) job
opportunities that they are referred to (without prior communication to the careers
team or company’s HR), their profile will be deprioritised for 45 days. The learner will
be again considered for placements after a period of 45 days.

Further, if a learner misses 1 more process i.e. three (3) job applications cumulatively
(not per company), the learner will be debarred from the placement process.

Withdrawing from a hiring process: If a learner wishes to withdraw his/her applica-

tion from the interview process of any job opportunity then the same needs to be
communicated to the Scaler career support team via a written message, before the
beginning of the interview scheduling exercise, providing valid reasons. One pre-in-
formed withdrawal is allowed during the placement process.

Accepted Offer and Additional Opportunities

A learner who has received and accepted an offer via the Scaler career support
process, will be deprioritised for further career opportunities, till the entire unplaced
For Scaler Academy and DSML batches
and eligible batch is placed.

However, a learner with an accepted offer can be referred to another company (say
C), if C quotes a compensation of 160% of the learner’s current accepted offer.

For example, if a learner has accepted an offer of INR 20 LPA3 CTC from company X
and the candidate is eligible for another company Y. The learner can apply /will be
referred to Y if it offers a CTC which is at least INR 32 LPA per annum.

1.Basic eligibility criteria can change based on employer hiring requirements and such
changes would be communicated to learner well in advance.
 11

Validity of Career Support

Scaler shall endeavour to provide career support to all unplaced and eligible learners
up to six months from course completion, starting from the date of the last manda-
tory class in their program. (Note that the electives are not used to determine the last
date).

Extension: A validity extension will be granted in the following cases:

1) A woman learner pursuing the course during her maternity leave, shall be
eligible for 12 months of career support, after course completion.
2) Any learner who while pursuing the course develops any serious illness and
needs a recovery time of at least 3 months, shall be eligible for 12 months of
career support, after course completion.

Please note extension can be availed in writing by sending an email to

[email protected], attaching valid proofs of medical conditions attested by a
doctor.

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

 12

12. Placement Process

Updation of Learner Profile
A learner interested in availing of Scaler’s career support needs to submit a
completed profile on the learner portal. This data is accessed by the Scaler career
support team to refer the learner to job opportunities. This data is also used to
recommend job opportunities on the portal.

To complete registration, go to the Job tracker tab on the learner dashboard and fill
out the required registration form which has three sections: Personal Details,
Education Info and Professional Details.

Any incomplete/incorrect profile will not be considered for career support services. It
is the responsibility of the learner to specify the correct information on the profile
and to keep it updated and ready at the time of their placement eligibility.

For Scaler Academy and DSML batches

Marking Intent
Along with these basic details, learners are also required to express their intent for
being referred to jobs. The intent form begins to appear once the learner has
 13

completed the basic module, as defined for their course (Refer to 2. Eligibility Criteria,
under Process)

Book ‘Expert Mock Interviews’

Expert Mock interviews are a critical part of the placement process. They are both
eligibility criteria to apply to a job as well as a source of preparation for the learner.

Each job opportunity will have skills associated with it. These skills are mapped to the
modules taught in the Scaler course. And hence, after completion of each module,
learners can start giving mock interviews to unlock more job opportunities for them-
selves.

The slots for mock interviews can be booked by the learners themselves on the learn-
er dashboard under the Mock Interview options of the Placement Tab (screenshot
below) upon the completion of the module.
 14

Expert Mock Interviews are mapped to specific modules of the course which indirectly map
to job-related skills. The learner can avail such interviews in the panel after completion of a
module.

Job Application Procedure

There are two ways in which a learner can apply to the job openings via Scaler at our
employer partner organizations

1) On The Job Tracker

As the name suggests a job tracker is a dashboard where all the relevant job
opportunities are curated by the Scaler Career support will be posted along with the
details about the employer and the opportunity.

The job tracker will be available under the Placement tab (in the left menu) on the
learner portal.
 15

Job tracker and mock interviews are available on the learner portal (under the placement
tab)

Eligible learners can discover all the active opportunities from this tracker. They can
apply for any opportunity for which they are eligible and appeals to their interests, by
filling out the registration form that will be attached to each job opportunity.

Learners are urged to check the complete job details, available upon clicking the job
card (check screenshot below).

Upon the submission of the form, the learner’s profile will be processed for employer
screening, considering the submission as consent.

Once a learner applies, the learner's application is submitted to the Scaler career
support team. The Careers team screens these applications for other job-related
criteria for example experience, notice period, location and so on before forwarding
the application to the company.
 16

Complete job description, the skills required for the job eligibility, location and other details
are available in the tracker.
Note: the learner hasn’t cleared Java Mock Interview, hence an ‘x’ is placed under the
Qualifications section of the job description.

Eligible Jobs vs All Jobs:

There are two kinds of jobs visible on the tracker. Jobs listed under ‘Eligible Jobs’ are
the ones for which the learner has passed the mock Interviews for ‘must skills’ (eg.
LLD). The learner can directly apply to them by filling out the application form.

Under ‘All Jobs’ the learner will be able to see all active jobs (including Eligible Jobs).
However, this tab also displays those jobs to apply to which the learner is not eligible
at the time because the learner has not cleared the Expert Mock Interview for the
‘Must Have’ skills for the said job. However, the learner will have an opportunity to
clear an Expert Mock interview for the additional skills and gain eligibility to apply for
the jobs in question.
 17

A view of the Job tracker dashboard, where Must Have skills are marked against each job.
‘All Jobs’ tab includes all those jobs for which learner is eligible (cleared mock interview for
there must have skills) as well as ineligible (did not clear mock interview for specific skills)

Via the Scaler career support team

The Scaler career support team can also reach out to eligible learners based on
specific company requirements of the various job opportunities.

In this case, the career support team will process the learner’s profile on the learner’s
behalf after providing the learner with all the details about the job opportunity and
receiving the learner’s consent.

The Scaler career support team will contact the learners with information about job
opportunities via email, Whatsapp, Slack or phone..
 18

Application Feedback
Once a learner has applied to a job opportunity either via the job tracker or via the
Scaler career support team, the team will do their best to obtain information from
the employer about the learner’s application or interview status and update the
learner about the same. The Scaler team is dependent on the employer companies
to provide job application statuses and hence would try to provide the same to the
learner on a best-effort basis only.

Preparation Support
The Scaler career support team will put in the best of their efforts to support our
learners in their job interview process. The Scaler career support team will assist our
learners in refining their profiles via resume review, and in recognising their areas of
strengths/ improvement and employability skills by setting up mock interviews with
industry experts.

As described earlier in this document, learners will be required to clear Expert Mock
Interviews of the ‘must have’ skills to apply for a particular job. Learners will be able to
book such interviews in the learner portal itself.

A learner can also access the interview experiences shared by Scaler alumni or by
peers who have taken up similar interviews in the “Discussions” tab on the learner
dashboard. Slack channels related to resume, interview questions etc. must also be
checked regularly to prepare well for interviews..
 19

13. Pre-Placement Sessions

The Scaler career support team in collaboration with its various employer partners
will arrange for interactive sessions called Pre-placement talks, for the benefit of our
learners.

These sessions are organized to help our learners understand the employers and
their job opportunities well and career paths in the organizations.

Post receiving all the required information from the employers (and during Q&A), the
learners can express their interest in the employer’s job opportunities by filling out
the application form that will be circulated at the end of the session.

Information about the upcoming sessions along with the forms to register for the
sessions will be circulated to the learners via email, Scaler Lounge channels and
Whatsapp groups.

14. Communication Channels

All the details related to Scaler career support including job opportunities, career
events, company information, application forms, change in process etc will be com-
municated to the learners via Email, Whatsapp, learner communities, Scaler Lounge
learner groups and/or as a notification on the Learner dashboard.

Therefore, the Scaler career support team requests learners to frequently check for
communication/notifications/updates from the Scaler career support team on the
aforementioned channels.

15. Contact Scaler Career Support

For any placement policy, process or any other career support-related query please
write to [email protected] or create a ticket from the learner portal and the
Scaler career support team will respond to you within 2 working days.

Thank you!