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.