A Hiring Problem That Became a Movement
While leading technology teams at a large European bank, Umang Doctor faced a paradox that grew harder to ignore with every hiring cycle. Critical roles stayed open. Teams struggled to find “job-ready” talent. Résumés looked impressive, yet when they actually talked to candidates, it was often disappointing. The system kept insisting there was a talent shortage.
At the same time, outside boardrooms and hiring panels, Umang kept encountering a very different reality, that seemed invisible to everyone else.
Bright, curious young people. Sharp problem-solvers. Relentless learners. But struggling because of their circumstances.
They came from government schools, rural towns, low-income and fractured families. Many had never owned a laptop. Most would never clear a résumé screening, not because they lacked ability, but because they lacked the credentials that traditional hiring systems had learned to trust.
That contradiction stayed with him:
How could there be a shortage, while so much talent was being overlooked?
The frustration deepened when he saw how narrowly “employability” was defined. He met several graduates who had multiple degrees who struggled to translate that education into application. Pedigree had become a proxy for potential. Risk was outsourced to universities rather than assessed directly.
And yet, the work itself told a different story. What teams truly needed were people who could think clearly, learn fast, collaborate well, and take ownership. None of those qualities required privilege. They only required opportunity.
So Umang did something unusual.
Instead of asking, “Where can we find more qualified candidates?”
He asked, “what if we’re looking in the wrong places altogether?”
He decided to go headlong into solving this problem. But his organization didn’t let him go. They empowered him to run an experiment with his idea. And if it worked, they would hire his students.
The first experiment was small. It started with an Uplift program.
The idea was to first remove the degree filter. It didn’t matter if the candidate was a graduate. The focus would be on aptitude, attitude, and learning velocity. Invest deeply in time, mentorship, and real work. Put a little trust and then hire people others wouldn’t.
Skepticism was immediate. Nay sayers said it wouldn’t work. But results spoke faster than opinions ever could.
Every candidate from the first cohort succeeded. Teams didn’t just get engineers, they got loyalty, resilience, and growth. It’s interesting to know that of the 80 odd people placed in the last few years, only 3 have switched organizations. Several of his candidates were promoted. Over time, every pupil he took a bet on delivered. And most of them were first-generation professionals and women from underprivileged backgrounds. And they showed the world how to build sustainable careers. From virtually nothing. Many are now earning more in their first year than their families ever had.
What started as a hiring experiment had quietly become proof. Proof that excellence can be found anywhere. All that was required was access to opportunity.The problem he realized was never talent. It is faith and a little imagination.
And that realization marked a turning point.
Xcelevate was born not as an extension, but as an independent evolution of a belief: that hiring should discover potential, not filter it out. Skilling should be holistic, not transactional. That opportunity should be made available to the deserving, not locked behind gates that very few can enter.
Today, Xcelevate operates as a skilling organization disrupting how hiring is done. They have been able to discover high-potential individuals from underprivileged backgrounds, develop them through rigorous, industry-aligned programs, and deliver them into meaningful careers. Selection rates are intentionally low. Investment per individual is not just financial. It is as much trust and hope. Outcomes are measured not just in placements, but in how many lives could improve their standard of living because of giving wings to someone’s dreams.
The ambition is no longer modest.
Over the next five years, Umang aims to help tens of thousands, especially women, move from exclusion to employment, from invisible to indispensable. To prove, again and again, that when you change who gets access, you change what excellence looks like.
This story didn’t start with charity. It starts with a question the system wasn’t asking.
And perhaps the real question now is this:
“If talent is everywhere, what would the world look like if opportunity finally was too?”
“What do you think is the biggest myth in hiring today, and what would it take to unlearn it?”