Placements, To-Do and Not To-Do..

06 Oct 2017

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Placements, time of the year which will evoke several of your emotions. It might get tough, but you will most probably cherish this time after a few years. Following are some points which might help you in sailing smoothly through this time.

_{^{* Please note that all views expressed here are personal and might not necessarily be in sync with your batch’s placement policy. In case of a conflict, respect your batch policy above everything.}}

Things you should be doing

• Do prepare

Preperation beats smartness, knowledge, luck etc. hands down. Specially if you have work experience, don’t feel that you already know C++/JAVA etc. and will sail through easiely. You might have previous experience with it, but still prepare and sharpen up yourself.

1. Technical : Everything else apart, you are applying for an IT company. A minimum standard of technical competence will definately be expected from you. First and foremost is Algorithms and Data Structure. Based on your stream you might be expected to know certain subjects well. Other than what is relevant for your stream, do have basic understanding of how Operating Systems, Database Management Systems, Computer Networks, and Web works.

2. Personal : Preparing you core technical subjects is essential, but so is preparing yourself for the HR/Managerial interview rounds. Hopefuly, you got exposure to some public speaking during the summer semester. Speaking in English might seem a trivial thing to many, but I know many people for whom not being able to speak up in english with confidance was a major problem. If you feel the same about yourself, do talk to your friends about it and try conversing them in english on a regualr basis. I have friends who were initialy petrified by the idea of speaking up in interviews, but over time gained confidence and cracked through easiely. Important thing is to identify it as a weakness and then working on it.

3. Resume : If possible, prepare your resume using LaTeX tools. It generates very professional looking resumes. There are ready made templates available on internet to just fill in your details. Keep the resume <= 2 pages. No body will have time to read through stuff more than that. Proof read several time and use some tools to check for spelling and grammatical mistakes in it. You should know about every single word you have mention in the resume. Do not mention skills which you are not confident about or atleast mention them in various degreess of your understanding. Most importantly do not bluff about stuff you have not done.

• Keep calm

[Almost] Everybody gets a job at IIITB. Its mostly a matter of time. Some might get it just when the third sem begins, while for others it might come up as late as the convocation. It might be a long journey for many, and keeping your calm during this period would be difficult. Don’t let your nerves take upon you. Playing games/jogging, regularly spending time with friends can be very helpful.

• Wait for your favorite sweet

If you are a Kaju Katli lover, hold on your temptaion on seeing an icecream cone. Just because a lot of people like a company (or are simply applying for it) doesn’t mean you should do that too. Read about what work the comany does, what kind of roles are they offering, package structure etc and then make a personal decision. Do not go by what others like and decide for yourself what is that excites you. After not making through a few comapny’s many people get desperate and start applying for random company/profiles which might not be a good match for their skills/expertise/interests. I personally feel its absolutely alright to let a few go. Its better to land at a comapny with a profile that suits you, rather than just getting any random high paying job which might not sound interesting to you.

• Cooperate rather than to compete

Take placement process head-on as a team, as a batch, and it will give lot better results. Take KSMs, they will be helpful for a lot of people. Instead of waiting for others to take it, take initiative yourself. It will improve you preperation level and give you confidence. I myself prepared hard and went through lots of material before taking KSMs on C and felt lot more confident afterwards.

• Be part for other’s happiness

Many time there will be good friends who will get placed before you. Be a part of their happiness. Participate and party with them. It will be one of the happiest moment of many people’s lives, and it would be great if you could be around them. Try to keep that bitterness than creeeps in on not getting an offer to yourself and enjoy a little with those happy on getting an offer.

• Attend pre-placements talk / ask questions to clarify

Do not go by general perception about the company. Attend their talks and see what roles are they offering and clearly understand the salary structure offered.

• Statups vs established giants / Big names vs job profiles

You will be in dilemna about these at many points. Again, do not go by general perception about them. Create an opinion of your personal self after carefuly analysing the company / role / salary / your interests / your family condition etc. What works for other need not work for you at all. If its a well thought through personal decision, any of the above is a great option.

• Take care of yourself and Sleep Well

Can’t emphasize enough how important small things like taking proper sleep a night before your placement is. Eat and sleep on time and if possible exercise regularly. Do not let the placement overrrun your normal schedule.

• In larger scheme of things, none of this will matter

After a few years you will realize and may be even laugh on how you were unnecceasrily worried and tensed during placement times. On a long enough scale of life, this might not even matter.

Things you should not be doing

• Don’t underestimate yourself

Lot of people taking up random offers after a few rejections. It is absolutely alright to not get through the processes of companies. Just try to analyze what could have been done better. Talk to friends and take feedback on what could you be doing wrong.

• Don’t isolate yourself

Yes, a few months into placemnts, when half your batch is placed, most of your friends are relaxing and you are still struggling to find out whats wrong with your, depression starts to creep in. Please don’t isolate yourself in such situations. Talk to your friends about it. Speaking out what you feel is a great way to feel relaxed. Also, take feedback from others about where you might be getting wrong. People around you can give good feedback on points you might improve upon. Also, feel free to bug your seniors as well. Take advices with a pinch of salt, but getting ideas from others won’t hurt you.

• Don’t compete

Nops, don’t. There will be (more than) enough companies visiting the campus. There is no point to run over others and find a place. Everyone will get a decent chance to prove their worth in so many companies, so instead of making war with people around you, work with them. Group studies will take you forward.

• Don’t ignore studies

In all this, don’t overlook your studies. This is important not only because it will impact your CGPA (and can be cruicial if you are on that thin line of 2.8) but also because you are part of such a nice institute and have got exposure to great people, facilities etc. Make use of them. Untill you decide to take up a Phd. you will rarely find such smart people once you start working. The bigger objective of being here in IIITB is probably not just to take up a job but find something meaningful which you can focus your career on. If you haven’t started loving playing with tons of data yet, or those colorful graphics don’t excite you, or developing web interfaces doesn’t seem challenging to you yet, take your time and explore more in your respective stream (or out of it!) and try finding something that excites you enough. Spend more time with the subjects. Third sem offers some of the coolest subjects and ignoring them (as some of us seniors will suggest) over lighter ones, will not be a good idea IMHO. If you prepare well during the summer semester, placement season can easiely go on in parallel with your studies in third sem, otherwise it will get tough.

Other ways to get placements

• Hackathons

Keep an eye on Hackathons going around. Many a times company representatives are also present in such events and might offer you jobs directly. Several companies post direct job offers based on Hackathons results as well. Do get yourself familiar with such websites hosting Hackathons.

• Good Websites

Other than your regular job hunting sites, there are sometime good opportunities waiting for not so tradational job hunting sites as well. I found some decent jobs openings on LinkedIn, Stackoverflow, Hiree and very nice startup oriented ones on Angel.

• Industry funded Lab projects and Startups at IIITB

There are several industry-academia collaboration based projects going in various labs of IIITB. The pay structure here might not be very lucarative but the quality of work in very good most of the times. Also, there are several startups working in the incubation center of IIITB. You can try finding open positions there as well.

• Your Profs.

This is mostly related to people who are doing thesis, but can be tried by others nevertheless. Most Prof. have good industry relations and might at times know of openings at such places. Also, they might hire you in the Acad-Industry projects running at IIITB as Research Assistants.

Afterwards

• Help others

Once you are through you will be in a more relaxed state of mind so don’t hesitate to help people who are finding it difficult to get jobs. Make sure to be humble in any such attempts.

• Don’t stop studies

Don’t let getting a job offer stop you from continuing hard work. Continue the learning process till you graduate and even after that.

• Work hard in your internships

Once you start doing your interships, work hard and try to convert them into full time offers.

If you have any queries, suggestions, feel free to ask them in comments section or contact directly, will be happy to help.