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A step-by-step placement guide

This article is for the B.Tech. students who are currently in their final year or pre-final year, and is also applicable to the candidates who are aiming to be placed in an IT company. I expect that you have at least 1 year of time for your graduation. 

I got an opportunity to give interviews with companies such as Google, Informatica, Airbus, Qualcomm, Synopsys, Cognizant, TCS, Zoho, Gainsight, Accenture, Jio, Franklin Templeton, EnH-iSecure, Wiley, LTI, Persistent Systems, etc.

I got selected by companies such as Airbus, Informatica, Synopsys, Cognizant, Zoho, Gainsight, Wiley, LTI, Jio, etc.

I hope my experience with these companies might help others to crack or prepare for their interviews. I will share my placement (on campus and off campus) experience along with the sources and roadmap.

Aptitude & Puzzles:

Many companies have the aptitude round as the first and mandatory round of the placement process.

Companies want to know your accuracy and problem-solving skills. Not just for IT companies, but many other exams such as GATE, GMAT, CAT, etc have this aptitude.

So in order to crack the first round, practice aptitude: solve at least four new aptitude questions a day.

Also, solve some puzzles that can help you improve your critical thinking and crack HR interviews.

Suggested Sites:

Coding:

This is one of the most important rounds. Before anything else, you need to pick a programming language (preferably C++, Java, or Python) for your coding rounds and interviews. I do support learning and writing code in different programming languages. But when it comes to the programming interview preparation, I feel it’s important to choose one language to focus on and get to know it very well. Choose a language in which you have experience and confidence! Do competitive programming on sites such as Codechef, and Codeforces, and also hire challenges on HackerEarth.

Learn and understand the following data structures and solve coding questions on it:

Arrays, Strings, Searching, Sorting, Hashing, Stack, Queue, Linked List, Recursion, Backtracking, Tree, BST, Heap or priority queue, Graphs, Greedy, Dynamic programming, Trie

Solve coding questions on websites like Leetcode, GeeksforGeeks, Codechef, Hackerrank, etc.
I personally prefer Leetcode. Practice coding questions every day, and maintain that consistency.

Apart from practicing coding, many organizations do conduct hiring challenges or hackathons through which they hire candidates. They can be found on sites such as HackerEarth and Unstop

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CS Fundamentals:

Apart from coding questions, some concepts related to DBMS (SQL), Operating Systems, DSA, OOPs, and Computer Networks will be asked in the Technical Assessment and Interviews. Remember that fundamentals are the most important thing for a fresher and companies do expect that. Don’t be a jack of all trades, master of none. When you learn it, put all your efforts into understanding and finishing it 100%.

I suggest you take the free course – CS50 by Havard university on Edx
For a better understanding of Data Structures and Algorithms, suggest you take this Algorithm course by Adul Bari on Youtube.

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Projects:

Projects are good to have on your resume. Projects in your resume serve as proof of your capabilities. They help the employer determine whether you are the right candidate for the job. Presenting them well can improve your chances of getting hired.

It is suggested that you have at least 2 projects on your resume. Make sure you do a project by yourself, Even a simple project that is done by yourself is enough to go with.

Include academic, internship (mini and major), and personal projects on your resume. Don’t worry, if you are not from a CS and related branch, you can add the project that you did in your respective field. It shows your potential to the recruiter.

Suggested Sources:

Build your Resume:

Resume building doesn’t mean making your resume. It means working on the things that you put on your resume. Imagine that your resume contains only the basic details and your education. Your resume looks empty to the recruiter. The fact is that most recruiters view the candidate’s resume for a few seconds and decide on the further process. So, in order to make the recruiter understand you, add the things that you have done during academics or apart from academics. 

The sections that you may include in your resume are:

  1. Basic Details (Name, Email, Phone, Location, Objective, etc)
  2. Education
  3. Experience (Internships)
  4. Skills
  5. Projects
  6. Courses/Certifications
  7. Achievements (optional)
  8. Interests (optional)
  9. Languages (optional)

Refer to this Article by Zety for your resume building.

Make sure your resume is not more than 2 pages. Use a dark colour for the text and a light colour for the background, as many recruiters prefer a printed copy of the resume rather than a digital copy. It is recommended to modify your resume based on the role (off-campus) you are applying for.

I searched all over the internet for the best resume builder, I finally found FlowCV.io, which has almost every feature and section that is needed for building a perfect resume, Even my current resume is built using it.

Sources:

Internships:

I did my internship at Synopsys as a Technical Engineer Intern. I applied for this internship on their career portal.

An internship gives an opportunity to work on real-time projects and gain new skills. Interns not only gain technical knowledge within the industry of their choice, but they also learn how to interact with professionals in a workplace setting and develop essential soft skills like time management, organization, adaptability, problem-solving, and teamwork. Many companies prefer to hire candidates who have done internships. Some companies give full-time opportunities after the successful completion of their internship. Don’t worry. If you have not done any internships, ask your faculty or TPO to assist you with any internship opportunities. 

So if you have done any internship, make sure you add that to your resume. Be aware of companies that provide you with internship certificates for money that the candidate pays them. Instead, look for internships where you will be getting paid and working for a recognized organization.

If you have good projects, and skills and looking for an internship you may visit Cuvette.tech and LinkedIn.

Sources:

Apply for Companies:

This section mainly focuses on off-campus placements. Remember that it is very easy to get placed on an on-campus placement as the rounds are shorter and the competition is very low. On off-campus placements, there is a huge competition and filtering is done in order to shortlist for further processing. Most of the companies that I got placed with are off-campus, including Informatica, Synopsys, Zoho, etc. There is a lot of competition. There will be thousands of people applying for a job, and only a few people (single digit) will be selected. So, it is suggested to work hard to get placed in on-campus placements. If you have not been placed at a desired company or CTC, then you can try off-campus placements. 

If you have an internship with a good company, ask your employer to convert you to full-time, or else you can apply to the companies individually. There are a lot of websites that list jobs for freshers, but I’ve shortlisted some of them.

You may apply for jobs from the below-given job portals: 

If you are interested in a particular company, keep checking their career portal for any openings, You may also connect to people on LinkedIn and also for their referral.

Interview Preparation:

Interviews can be either Technical + Coding and HR + Managerial. Most companies conduct technical interviews and HR interviews. Before heading into the preparation for the interview, you should consider what questions might be asked about technical methods and skills, and be prepared to demonstrate knowledge of things like writing code. Many interviewers tend to ask you for puzzles to test your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Before appearing for the interview, make sure that you have gone through the job description, understand the requirements and prepare accordingly.

In every interview, whether it be TR or HR, there will be a common question that is, “Introduce yourself.” The question seems to be quite simple, yet it is the most important question. It tells you who you are. Further questions will be based on your introduction. So, I advise you to know yourself and do a rehearsal for the introduction.

An example of an introduction: Good Morning Ma’am, My name is Bhargava. I am from Warangal. I will be completing my bachelor’s degree in CS from the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology in July 2022. I am currently doing my internship with Synopsys. I am certified in XYZ and skilled at ABC. I have worked on a wide variety of projects that have allowed me to put what I’ve learned in the classroom to use, and my projects have helped around 300,000+ students. My mission is to bridge the gap between my knowledge of technology and its use for the betterment of the commons.

Technical Round (TR):

This round includes things like questions related to CS fundamentals and coding challenges. Make sure you brush up on the concepts that you have learned before. Make a search on Google about the interview experiences of others and prepare accordingly. Make sure that you are confident in everything that is on your resume. It can be skills, projects, or experience. Most of the interview questions are based on your resume. So before attending the interview, don’t forget to scan your resume once.

HR |  Managerial Interview:

In most companies, the HR round is the final one. If you perform well in this round, you will be selected. This interview is very easy to crack, but you should remember a few points:

  1. Know more about the Company: Before the interview, make sure you are aware of that company. It is good if you know what technologies they are working on, their history, achievements, and also get some positive points about that company.
  2. Be Confident
  3. Use the STAR Method: Most product-based companies expect the answers in the STAR technique — situation, task, action, and result. You may read this Article by Carrus.io to know more about it
  4. Never disclose your interest in higher education: This is the mistake that I made in my first ever interview with EnHiSecure. I have been told that if I get a good rank in GATE, I prefer to join IITs, I got rejected for saying this. So, even if you have plans to pursue higher education, don’t mention it during the interview.
  5. Say YES to everything: Even if you are not interested, never say NO. HR or TR will ask you a few questions about your role, salary, location, bond, and so on. In order to get selected, you should agree to what they ask and say YES.

Sources:

That’s all. This is the end of this article. I hope this helped you. If you have any questions or doubts, you may ask in the comment section. Please share your thoughts, suggestions, or any resources. 

This source itself isn’t sufficient to crack placements. There are many influencers on Youtube and LinkedIn. Follow them and learn more from them. Everyone has their own perspective and learning style, It is easy to say but hard to follow. so treat this information as an experience shared by me and plan your own strategy.

Few other Sources:

Posted in placements by bhargava

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