Recruitment Event

I had gone to Oakland University to recruit recent graduates for our Training and Placement program.  It is amazing to me how naive most students are.  They had those Q & A sessions and they had the head of DTE Human Resources and the CEO's of 2 other recruitment companies. 

There was those usual questions from students:

How can I get my resume to stand out?

What extracurricular activities can I do to get a job?

On and on, kind of boring, because most of the answers do not reflect the marketplace, but reflect the ideal. 

Do any of you students ask yourselves, how do Indian Students excel in IT and get IT jobs that pay so well right out of college?

I will tell you why.  They know the reality of the marketplace.  I get kids that have terrible writing skills and terrible communication skills, but still I am able to train and place them into Fortune 500 companies.  Sometimes I feel like taking these kids I meet at college (Non-Indian) by the collar and yelling: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?  HOW DUMB CAN YOU BE? If you see all these Indian kids doing so well, don't you wonder how they are doing it?

Each and every one of you average kids needs to come to a consulting company like mine that can train  you and place you into good jobs.  There are still millions of unfilled jobs at Fortune 500 companies.  The simple reason is that there are not enough qualified job seekers with the required skill sets to fill those jobs. 

In the old days a company would hire a recent college graduate and then train them to fill that job.  But let me give you a financial example of why companies do not do that any more.  Let us say you are BCBS and you are looking for a NASCO developer, you hire a recent college graduate, send them to NASCO for training or train in-house, and usually a recently trained student will usually take 2-3 months in addition to the training time before they truly become effective on the job.  This entire process will take 6 months at a cost of about about $30,000 on average.  A company could spend all this money and get a great employee, but in the end most of them will leave, because the marketplace will dictate a higher salary.  I have seen this happen at BCBS over and over and companies will realize this and then start advertising for experienced NASCO developers only.  They will let someone else take the trouble to train them and then hire them after they get some experience.

That is the current market place.  I can guarantee you that there are no jobs out there for generalized skill sets, every company wants someone with a technology focus and can demonstrate exceptional skills in that technology. 

So the choice is clear, stay unemployed or underemployed or come to a consulting company like mine and learn real skills and be working in 90 days.

I Will Die of Heartache

Heartache, what does it mean?  What does it feel like?

Heartache to me is simply the knowledge of something that hurts you in your core and this causes unpleasant sensations and sleepless nights.

When a student joins a college and spends tens of thousands of dollars, there is an expectation that they will gain knowledge and that this knowledge will lead to a job.

When a student joins our training center and spends anywhere from $0 up to $2500 for a class, there is an expectation that I will get them a job.

I am sure that the college trusties and presidents do not have sleepless nights, because very few of them know their students and their dreams and expectations of what their life should be.  I know my student, each and every one them.  I know the ones that are in financial trouble and are desperate, I know the ones that are spending their parents money for training and do not take the training we offer seriously, I know the houswifes that have good intentions but do not have the time to study, yes I know my students.

When I succeed with a student and am able to get one of my students a job, it is great feeling.  But the problem with that is that I also have the students that I know will not succeed with us, and I feel their pain, I feel sadness, I feel inside what they feel, and this is what causes me heartache.

I am sure that I will never get to a point of 100% success with what I do, and this heartache will always be with me.  I am actually very distant emotionally and you will never find me too happy or too sad in real life, but inside I have tremendous emotions that I am able to control (Klingon like almost).

I have chosen what I do and I am great at what do, much better than my competition, but I am sure I will continue to have heartache, that will never disappear.  I am sure that I will continue to wake up at 4am, because I worry for each and every student that comes to me.  My wife always asks me what is wrong when I suddenly wake up at 4am, well I have heartache.

Core Philosophical Change

I have always been about the success of my students in the long term, and I always did everything with the thought process of their long term success.

But I have come across a huge conundrum, and here it is:

I currently have found a few fantastic teachers in:

SQL Server
.NET
Healthcare Software
SAP FICO
SAP SD

Any student that takes a class with one of these teachers will surely be successful, but everything is a matter of time frame.

1 Week - Healthcare Software

We teach a healthcare software that takes only 1 week to learn and we can place you in a job with 2 weeks.  Pay will be $50,000 a year with very little chance for pay increases over the first 2 years.

4 weeks - SQL Server

We teach Data Warehousing, SQL Server, T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, TFS in this class and our teacher has placed 50-60 students in this technology over the last 2 years.  Pay rate starting will be $56,000 with pay increases up to $70,000 in second year and up to $80,000 in your third year.

5 Months - Other Niche Technologies
 
We teach other technologies that takes 3 months to learn well and now to get job will require an additional 2 months of live project training to really learn enough for you to get the job and survive on the job.  Pay rate will be $56,000 first year, $100,000 second year and $120,000 third year.

As you can see, the longer the training, the higher income in the long run.   But I get mostly recent graduates and everybody wants a job right away, and even if I explain to people that in the long run it is in their best interest to learn the tougher technologies because of the high bill rates, most students will choose to get a job as quick as possible.


I have a few bullet points here:


Niche Technologies Companies are always looking for other giant technology companies to partner with.  So they will partner with someone like Infosys or Wipro, before they give small companies in USA a path to partnership.


Companies like IBM and Microsoft both have a defined path to partnership with levels that are clearly defined and encourage small companies like ours to grow together.


I am obsessed with quality in almost everything I do and will spend any amount of money and time to become the very best in the field that I choose to dominate.


One of my teachers pointed out yesterday, why Microsoft SQL Server will dominate the market place, he said when a customer buys SQL Server, you get SSIS, SSRS, SSAS etc.. and other things from Microsoft for free.  Enterprise customers will save huge money when they buy SQL Server and that is why Microsoft will go on to dominate the market place.


So with all this in mind, from Monday April 16, 2012 our entire company focus will change to concentrate on:


1) Microsoft Technologies  - Because of the availability of partnership and time to market of students that come for training.


2) IBM Technologies - Because of the availability of partnership and time to market of students that come for training.


3) SAP - Various Modules - Because I have an SAP license and we can train our own consultants, and we have some of the best teachers in the entire USA for this technology.


That is all that we will teach going forward.  I will not teach any other technology except for the core focus that our company will concentrate on.


I would much rather emulate a company like Miracle Soft then a company like CCSI.  They are both successful, but I want a company that will last the test of time and have a core focus with established partnerships.  It is one thing to make money and another to build a great company, and I choose to build a great company.

I have targets for each year that are defined on January 1st so each employee understands what our goals are for that year.   Our new goals for 2012 are:


1) 10 Certified employees in SQL Server
2) 5 Certified employees in WebSphere
3) 5 Certified Employees in Lombardi Teamworks
4) Level 1 Partnership with Microsoft
5) Lever 1 Partnership with IBM

I know we lost 4.5 month of this year to achieve our goals and this makes it much harder to achieve our goals.  But sometimes an epiphany causes dramatic shifts and this is one of those times.  If I was to die within a few years, I want to know that I have used my time towards building a great company and not simply making money.  Money has never been important to me, but I believe that this shift in focus will cause us to make more money in the long run but sacrifice profits in the short run.

New Subject - 1 Week Training

Here was the pitch.  Give me 1 week with your students and we will train them in an IT subject and by the second week we will place you in a job paying you $50,000/yr for the first year. 

The job will be in downtown Detroit.

That was the pitch that was posed to me.  I am highly skeptical of anything that sounds too good to be true but I tired out these new teachers, figuring that 1 week of my students times was worth it, if this really worked.

What Happened:

I gave them 2 students and they were able to place both students in the job and 1 has lasted for 2 months now and the 2nd one was fired after 3 weeks.  Not bad for 1 week of training.

With this background I have assigned a new batch of students to these 2 teachers and we are in the process of training a group of 6 students.  The week of  April 16-21 we will start placing these students.  If this second test group works out also, I will be recruiting heavily for this training.  So when you call me, ask about our 1 week training program.

3 New Teachers at VXL

It is rare that I get excited, but over the last 2 months I have found 3 fabulous teachers. 

My SAP SD teacher, Sekhar,  has been teaching for me for 3 batches now and almost universally everyone agrees that he is the simply one of the best teachers VXL has ever had.  He is very knowledgeable and patient.  You can ask almost any question about SAP SD and he will have an answer for you.  Our SAP SD class is a minimum of 2 months long and covers almost the entire breadth of SAP SD.  It is hard to describe in words what a great teacher we have for this class.

I have not taught SAP BI since Kiran left to start his own company, only because no one has even come close to comparing to Kiran as far as knowledge or commitment.  I am happy to announce that we will be starting SAP BI again.  Our teacher Vinod is at least as good as Kiran if not better.  So I am happy to announce that VXL is teaching SAP BI again and our first class will be starting on May 12th.  Welcome to our team Vinod.

We have a great new .NET teacher, Soumya.  She is only 4 years out of her college with her masters degree, but she is so passionate about .NET and is willing to train new students from the very basics up to the most advanced components in .NET.  She just loves .NET and it shows when she talks so passionately about her subject.  If you have been thinking about .NET I cannot imagine that there is a better teacher you will find then Soumya.

Welcome all three of my new teachers to VXL.

We Have A - LMS

Sometimes the unexpected things happen in business.  For my benefit of my students I have been recording all the classes that we offer.  But there was nothing in the market that I could find where I could distribute my videos of my classes.  Our videos are sometimes 4 hours long and you could forget about You Tube.  Even if they allowed such long videos there was no way to keep it secure and give out access to students easily.

So I spend a crazy amount of money and working with JAVA developers to develop my own Learning Management System (LMS).  I do not have a fancy name for it yet, but we will come up with a name.

I have a simple and elegant system in which I can access to any of my classes that we offer within minutes to any student from around the world.  It can keep track of when they are watching our videos, how long they have been watching our videos and a host of other features that we have installed.

I was chatting with a friend that owns a similar company and he wanted to know if he could buy our LMS.  So I sold it to him for $3000.  This was a fraction of what I spend to develop it, but I never dreamed of selling it for any money so I figured, every dollar that comes in is profit.

Then I thought about it.  If someone wants to buy it, maybe there is a market for something like this.  So we have decided to hire a bunch of JAVA developers and make it even more robust and add a lot more features and start selling our LMS to other small companies or individuals.  You never know how people will use the product until you start showing the market place.

I just thought that it was interesting that I developed a product that I needed so that my kids could benefit from watching my videos again and again and this has become a product.  Sometimes life takes you in interesting directions.

By the way, all my friends made fun of me and did not even believe that someone would offer to buy it, but the very next day one of them came to me and asked if he could have it also, and since he was a friend, he said he knew that I would give it to him for free and would not charge him.

Hummmm!  Interesting!!!

Anyway, thanks kids, only by my trying to improve the experience for you at our training center would this product have even come into existence.  I will now put a team together and work on it and see if we can start selling it. 

Like I said, you never know where a product or idea comes about.  Mine was inspired by my students.

Guest House Remodeling

I went to the guest office a few days back and there were a whole bunch of small things wrong that I found immediately that no one told me about.  I had not visited the Guest House since we had bought it.  Then I got to the kitchen and found that the dishwasher was unplugged.  So I asked in the office and they told me that it kept breaking and they simply unplugged it, since it was costing so much to fix it each time.  They even blamed the kids and told me that they were messing it up and did not know how to use a dishwasher.  There is no way College Graduates with masters degree do not know how to use a dishwasher as to make it breakdown.  The likely scenario is that the dishwasher was old or the drain was clogged and hence the leaky dishwasher.  But to tell me that my kids do not know how to use a dishwasher is ridiculous.

I called in Lance my handyman and since the appliances were old, I am remodeling the entire kitchen.  So why am I spending $10,000 to redo the entire kitchen?  The answer if very simply.  If I was staying in the guest house, would I be happy with something.  There is no way I could stay somewhere where there was no dishwasher, especially with 6 people staying together.  I could make do with the old stove that was there, but I figured, now that I started, might as well fix up everything.  So here we are, with a big huge repair bill to fix every small little thing that is wrong in the guest house.

No kids, I am spending a lot of money on fixing up and upgrading everything, please treat the property with respect.  After you leave other students need to stay there and it is important that they have a good experience also. 

I want my kids to be happy when they are with me and this is something that simply had to be done, so yes I really did spend $10,000 to fix up the guest house.

Office Front Doors

I paid a great deal of money to install magnetic locks in our office.  You can only enter with a card key.  My friends always complain that my office doors are locked.  You have to view it from my point of view.  I have at least 10-20 students at any one time studying with me, and each one has their own time period that they study. Some study at night and some study during the day. 

I mainly put the locks in place so that the students that are girls will feel safe when they are studying in our office.

I dream a lot and I get ideas and now that I have money I simply implement the ideas.  I am sure in the consulting business my office would be the most high-tech office anyone has ever seen.  I have the best Electronic White Boards (Promethean), the best 1080P Projectors, and the best Speaker Phones (Polycom).

I had a few students complain that they could not hear in the back of the room, so I bought a wireless mic with speakers so that it will not be an issue.

I am sure that I bug the hell out of my partners in the business when I spend crazy amounts of money on getting the best of everything.  I know I have a problem, I care way too much about quality than about money.  I will continue to spend massive amounts of money on getting my students the best.  Weather it is spending $5000 to install Magnetic Locks on our Front Door or flying in a teacher from another city, I can guarantee you that I will get my students the best of everything.

And, yes I really did spend $5000 on installing locks for our front doors.  I wanted my female students to feel safe and comfortable in our office.

Recruitment - Michigan Collegiate Job Fair

I had signed up for this large recruitment event for March 23rd that was going to be held at Barton Manor in which 900 college students were going to attend.  I paid $1620 and signed up for advertising in their magazine and for a booth for recruitment.  I was actually on a trip to Hawaii during that time and I was going to cut my trip short, and come back just to recruit some recent college graduates.

Then I get the below email from the coordinator:

________________________________________________________________

Good Morning Vijay,

In processing your registration for the upcoming Michigan Collegiate Job Fair, I noticed that your organization is specifically looking for recent Master level graduates to do an internship with your organization followed by placement. I also see that those candidates who are not master level graduates will be charged $1500-$2500 for services provided. In reviewing your website and and the type of candidates you are seeking, I'm don't believe this fair will be the best venue for you in terms of recruiting candidates. This fair will primarily consist of graduating seniors (undergraduate) and recent alumni who is not your target population.

I will keep your contact information on file and notify you of any future opportunities that may arise that would be a better fit.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

__________________________________________________________

I called this young lady and explained to her our process and what we can do for these students.  She listened, but not really listened.

I saw the list of employers that are coming and if you are a recent graduate and  I can guarantee you that the job opportunities that are available will be in the $30,000-$50,000 with very slow advancement.

With us, we will pay $56,000 first year and by second year our employees will be close to $100,000.  Unless you got a job with one of the big consulting companies at these career events there is no way any opportunity they provide will come even close to what we can provide.

I was telling this young lady about the opportunity we provide and how much our employees make by second year, and she heard me, and completely ignored everything I told her, and then said that since I do not offer a position right away and that a position was not guaranteed after the training then I could not recruit at their event.

I can correlate this to an event that happened when I was a child.  I wanted this car racing set that also had a train set integrated into it.  We went to the toy store and they were all sold out, but there was another set that was just a car racing set without the train.  My mom told me to wait and they would buy it again when it came back in stock.  But I told my mom that I wanted that toy right away and I was unwilling to wait.  Even though I knew that waiting was the better option, I was unwilling to wait, and I got my car racing set.

These students are not children anymore, so would you take an entry level job paying $30,000-$50,000 a year now and take ten years to get to the $100,000 range or take training for 90 days with me, and get a chance to make $100,000 by the second year.   I assume that most of the students are not small children anymore and they will choose my option when they hear what I have to offer.

OK, fellow American kids, I tried my best to recruit and train you for free and then place you into high paying IT jobs, but other Americans are holding me back and not even giving me a chance to help you.  I will NOT make any extra effort anymore to recruit you guys at jobs fairs.  You will have to come and find me, if you want my help.

I really like and want to help Americans succeed in the IT sector.  There are currently 2,000,000 IT jobs that are currently unfilled, because there are no people available with that skill set that companies are looking for.

I guess I can just keep helping all these F1 students that come to me and be happy with that, but.... There is something that wants me to help these American Students that simply do not understand how to get high paying jobs.  The kids at Princeton, Yale and Harvard will always do fine, but for you kids from Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Western Michigan University, I would say that the large majority of you need my help to get a high paying job.

In life it is very easy to get a job that pays below $50,000 but to move to the next level of $100,000 and above you need my help.

He works like an American!

I got this comment about one of my employees.  What does this mean?  I trained an African American student that had dropped out of college and was working as a front desk clerk in IT and placed him in a Fortune 500 company.  I had another employee there already and when I asked her how my recent employee was doing.  Her comment was, "He works like an American." 

In the consulting world, when you work with most Indian Consulting companies, they bid very aggressively to get projects and the Indian consultants know this.  They know that they are expected to work nights and weekends without compensation so that the project can be delivered on time and budget.

Since most of my students are new in the field and relatively young, I hope that they realize how important it is to work, night and day for a few years.  Money should be secondary, experience is what is important.

To work like an American is to work 9-5 and that is it.  You can get back to working like an American after a few years of real experience, but until then, work like an Indian or a Chinese.

By the way my employee that works like an American is doing great, because he is very friendly and he gets along with the business side and the development side.  These two sides are always in battle on a project and he is able to bridge the gap.  But, please work harder at least for 2-3 years.  From the beginning of the 2nd year his salary will increase close to $100,000 and I am hoping that this will motivate him.

Is Placement Guaranteed?

Is placement guaranteed?  I just got this question, again, for the umpteenth time.

Listen everybody, I am going to say it one last time. 

Nothing in Life is Guaranteed!!!!!!

If life was that easy, then each and everyone of us would be a millionaire. 

To be conservative about 70-80% of my students get placed.  (I think the it is even higher).

I will get you the best teachers for the subjects that you take with us and I will spend whatever it takes to get you trained and placed.

Sometimes the way I am and what drives me is almost a curse.  I strive to have the BEST.  I strive to be the BEST.  I work tirelessly and spend everything I have to achieve that.

I see most of my friends reduce costs in their company and stash all the money they can into investments.  Money does not drive me.  What drives me is perfection.  What drives me is to be the best at what I do.  I see all my friends with millions in investments, but I do not think that I will ever get there, because as much as I make, which is a lot, I will continue to spend most of it on improving our facilities for students so that each batch of new students will have a better experience with us.

I see all the other consulting companies squeeze every penny and keep buying land in India or buying Gold or other silly investments.  I can guarantee you that I will never do that.

In the end I may not end up super rich, but I will know that I effected my students lives in a positive way, and that makes me super happy.

Why is our Fridge Full of Food!

All my friends that own consulting companies are making fun of me that I fill our office fridge full of food and drinks for my students. 

I think it has been a long time since they have been students, but I do this for one simple reason.

I never know which student has money and which students do not have money, so I buy food and keep the fridge always full with the intent that in case any of my student do not have money they can always have a meal for lunch and dinner.  It was not some sort of benefit that I am offering to attract students.  It was done purely altruistically.

By the way I do not use company money for this purpose, I use my own money for this.

Benefits to my Consultants

What are the real benefits that we offer to F1 students over other consulting companies:

1) Direct Deposit - This is such an important feature and you will not realize how important it is until you have to wait for a check to come in the mail and the consulting companies keep giving you excuses as to why your check is late.  With us it is quite simple, your check will be in your account on the 15th of the month, and it is that simple, no ifs ands or buts.

2) F1 to H1B - We have a 100% approval rate for getting H1B's for F1 students.  Why is this?  We follow the H1B rules, 100%.  It is that simple.

3) If you are eligible we do EB2 category for Green Card processing instead of EB3.  This is such an important benefit, because you will get your Green Card in 2 years instead of 5.  You guys will not realize how important this is, until that Green Card is in your hands.

4) If I promise you something, I will never and I mean never go back on my word.  I will not lie to you.  Good news or bad news, I will tell you man to man and not avoid you like all those other consulting companies.

5) If you call me, I will pick up the phone.  If I am awake I will pick up the phone, no matter what the time is.  If I am on another call, I will call you back right away.  I have seen so many consulting company owners that look at their phone to see who is calling before they decide to pick up the phone or not.  I will not do that, if I am available, I will pick up the phone.

6) We have such a wide breath of training and when you are one of our consultants all support and training is always FREE for you.  I encourage you to take more training with us so that you can improve your bill rate.  I LOVE students that like to learn and will help you to become a better you.

I believe that these are some of the real benefits that we offer.

Unusual Placement

Today we did an unusual placement and I though that I would mention it.  I got a call from an F1 student that said that he was already trained in Informatica and could I place him? 

I told him to send me a resume and I would have my Informatica teacher talk to him and judge his skill set and if he was good, I would market him and place him.  He turned out to be very good and we are currently marketing him and I think he will be placed this week.

One of his friends call me and told me that he was trained in .NET and would I place him?  Same procedure and he also turned out to be excellent.  I placed him today and I got his Purchase Order today for him and his start date for his project is Feb 27th.

I am used to teaching my students and then placing them, but this was absolutely the first time that I placed someone that I did not train.

I am obsessed with quality and I know the quality of my students that I train, so I am very comfortable when I place them, and I am sure that they will succeed.  A lot of times, companies call me for newly trained students, since they know how I am and have liked my past students that work(ed) for them.

Our marketing division has become fantastic at placing students and I am now getting students that others have trained.  It is an interesting facet to our business.

Tears From a Student

I had a story out earlier in which we trained a student and her OPT was expiring and we were unable to find her a job in time, and she was forced to switch back to H4 and how she was crying when she was telling me.  This hurt me a lot during that time, and even though 95% of that batch got placed, I still felt like a failure since I had failed her.

I am happy to report that I was finally able to place her in a large company and that company has applied for her H1 from H4.  Currently there is a RFE (Request for Evidence) on the case, but for a company with 1000's of employees the RFE will not be an issue and she will be working soon.  (She did get her H1B and is currently working in NJ)

I may have failed her initially, but I never forgot about her and I finally did succeed with her.  We had a party in our house recently and I was very happy when she had asked her husband to take a picture of her and I together.

Yes, OK I admit it, I am making money by placing her, but that was unimportant to me.  I just wanted to see her succeed, and she is well on her way to a successful career.

Congrats my dear friend, I am crazy happy for you.

Health Scare

I have not been diligent in updating the company blog.  I had this cough for 4 months that could not be diagnosed and I was sure that I had cancer or maybe worse.  I have been very negligent and I can say that I am sorry.

The initial diagnosis is that it is not cancer, but they are still unsure why I have this cough and they are currently culturing the biopsy of the lymph nodes that they took out of me during the biopsy.  We will have an answer by December 15th apparently.

Follow Up - (This ending up being nothing.  I took Steroids for 9 days and the cough was gone.  The final diagnosis was inconclusive)

Success in November

This year November has been one of the best months for placements for us.  October was actually kind of slow, but November has been spectacular and based on the number of interviews I have setup in the upcoming weeks, I think that December will be great like it was last year.

In my current batch of students I have noticed a few things.

Kids that are successful do the below:

1) Even when my kids were not getting interview calls, they kept on studying in our classrooms
2) They would watch our class videos over and over again and practice on the server
3) They would be on the Developer Network constantly reading others peoples issues and the solutions that are posted.
4) They will keep interacting with the teacher and pose lots of questions and keep learning.  The really talented students will even give topics that want taught and the teachers always accommodate them.
5) They keep a positive attitude

I know these things are simple and seem almost quaint, but all the above make a big difference when we are marketing our students.  If you are one of my students and you have not gotten a job yet, you follow the principles by the successful students and you too will be placed soon.

Email From Farhan Shaikh

I got the below email from a prospective student:  (I wanted to write a comment on this letter for a long time, and I had some free time today, so I thought that I would comment on this exchange.)

From: Farhan Shaikh [mailto:farhancpa@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 5:09 PM
To: vijay@vxltraining.com
Subject:

hey Vijay,
are you providing free traning for SAP FICO?
i have a degree in accounting and looking for free traning in michigan area
i live in windsor (Canada ) ... please let me know

I wrote back:

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 11:30 AM, VXL Training <vijay@vxltraining.com> wrote:

When did you finish your master's degree?

Vijay Madala

248-797-4990

Company Blog: vxltraining.blogspot.com

From: Farhan Shaikh [mailto:farhancpa@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 11:50 PM
To: VXL Training
Subject: Re:

you fuckin suck.. you make other feel like as if your top of line school and hire the top instructors and yet you are looking for instructors on miindia..
you can keep your fuckin ego and shove it in your u know what

no i don't have a masters degree 

My Blog Entry for this email:

Ok so you got a history of the email between this student and I and there was also a phone call from him in which I talked to him.

Before I take students into training, I have to be able evaluate somebody quickly, weather it is via email or phone call.  So let us assume that you are me in this situation and this student wrote this email to you.  How do you evaluate him?

Here is my evaluation of this student:

He is not detailed orientated.  Notice in his first email and here are the errors I found in an instant, without even trying to find the mistake:

1) Capitalization and punctuation is horrible
2) Training is misspelled twice.
3) Michigan is not capitalized.
4) i should be capitalized and it is not in multiple places.
4) Heading on the email is Hey Vijay.  This is simply not how you address someone when you are emailing for the first time.

Even then I wanted to see if he had a Masters Degree to give him the benefit of the doubt to see how much of a drive he had.  He did not, so there is no way that I can take him into the training.

His caricaturization of my looking for teachers on MIindia.com is absolutely correct.  I am always looking to find the best teachers in the subjects that I offer.  I look on Miindia.com because I want to teach all my classes Live, and not online unless that is the only option I have.  To say that somehow finding teachers locally means that we do not offer good quality teachers or training is absolutely wrong.  I would say that my ABAP, FICO and SD class are in the top 5 in the entire world.  My teachers have been with me for years in these subjects and we have perfected the training for the subjects so that our students are well prepared for success when they leave us.

I would like you to find one student that has finished one of my classes that can say that he was not happy.  Find me one, not two, but one student.  You will be unable to find one.

I do not say things lightly.  If I say something then you know that I absolutely believe it to be true.  I spend an extraordinary amount of money on my training program, because I want my kids to succeed after they finish with me.  That is simply how I operate.  Money is not important to me, but I do strive to be the best in almost anything I do, and anyone that comes to my classes will see that.

So the final analysis I am very happy that I did not take the above student into our training.  He is not someone that would have succeeded and was simply looking for a free handout.  I have seen these types of students frequently and these are the same ones that do not do the work and then still expect success and will blame everybody else for their failure.

Thank goodness I was able to avoid him.  He would have caused me countless headaches.