Pune a core part of the plan for Gurugram upskilling company Geekster

Geekster selects its candidates after an online assessment test, based on basic coding problems, and a discussion call. Students, the majority of whom are out of college and want to be techies, are not required to pay the course fees until they are hired and start getting salaries. In May, Geekster had raised a total of Rs 1.5 crore in funding.

The company, which started in 2020, has 1,000 students at present and the ones from Maharashtra and the surrounding regions prefer jobs in Pune. “Pune is a city where south Indians want to come as well and north Indians don’t hesitate to go. There are a lot of IT placements happening in the city,” he adds.

Started in the year of the pandemic, Geekster aims to solve a decades-old problem of talented young people, especially in Tier II and III cities, not getting the right training and, hence, jobs they deserve. “Many students struggle to get jobs even after years of education. On the other hand, employers say that getting a project is easier than finding suitable talent. The students and employers were not fit for each other. Geekster was created to create solutions on a pan-India basis,” says Maggu.

They enrol students from colleges, train them intensely for six months, undertake their counselling and help them land jobs. Among their students are those who have taken a break and want to upskill for a return to the workplace or want to change their profession, such as from sales to engineering. “We wanted to make education free of all barriers irrespective of what one’s location, geography and financial background is. One should not be devoid of good quality education,” says Maggu.

He says that in the past few months, more than 175 students at Geekster have got placements at an average annual salary of Rs 7 lakh. “The highest salary was Rs 22 lakh,” says Maggu. The hands-on training is in online mode. “They solve problems, build projects and are guided by industry experts, who are part of the faculty and aware of industry requirements,” says Maggu. Career coaching, mock interviews and soft-skills training are among the features of the programme.

The company admits 200 students per month and is aiming for 5,000 per year from 2023. The growing number of takers for Geekster is evident from the 50,000 applications that the company received on their website.