This is a short guide I have prepared for all the people
appearing in placements, it’s strictly based on my own experience and what I
have heard and seen during placement procedure. I don’t claim it’s 100% correct
but I am just sharing my experience and perspective and I hope it would help many.
First of all, we have to analyse any placement procedure
from the company’s point of view. They need to hire people. Either they would
recruit a lot or recruit very less, either they would recruit according to
capabilities of candidates or they will have a fixed number in their mind and accordingly they
would recruit. All in all, there are lots of factors involved and you have to
balance your performance somehow so that you can clear the process. I
would try to draw a general picture here and then point out specific difference
between mass recruiters who hire in bulk and normal recruiters who hire less people.
1) Written Test
The first phase in most of the campus
recruitments is a written test and it’s a very crucial phase because many capable
people fail to clear it. It may be entirely an aptitude test or may be a mixture
of aptitude and technical. Some test are adaptive and some of them have
sectional cut off. Let us look at all the general sections:
a) Quant: It comprises the basis
mathematics that we all learn till 10th class. Typical topics are
linear equation, time and distance, speed, geometry, permutation and
combination, statistics, functions etc. It’s better to revise all the formulas
though by instinct you can attempt most of the questions as they are easy and
do not require much calculation. Still, practice will give you confidence to
attempt most questions in case there is negative marking. Try to attempt as
much as you can and hunt for easy questions which are direct formula based. It’s
a scoring section as everyone has at least 12 years of exposure to basic
mathematics and all are comfortable in it. It’s not much tricky like other
sections and mostly direct questions are asked.
b) VA: Verbal ability is not only vocab.
It covers the entire English section. So let us not call it VA, let us call it
English ability section. You might be asked vocabulary based question like
synonym, antonym, and pattern based questions. There might be para jumbles, or
RCs. The important point here is, you can’t mug English and can’t prepare for
it in 10 days. You have to learn to develop an instinct for it and have faith
on your instinct. One should try learning English in the most unorthodox ways
and the best way is to get exposed to it as much as you can. Watch SITCOMS,
MOVIES with subtitle on and watch them closely, listen to commentaries and
news, read novels and newspaper, read as much English as you can and you would
not require any dedicated preparation. Still, for the sake of gaining
confidence, you might learn some basic grammar rules and their exceptions, mug
up a few general words and practice some question to get a feel of how to
attempt the section.
c) LR: LR has most interesting
questions and some people are naturally good at reasoning so they won’t require
any special preparation for it. All you need is to focus on the problem as you
don’t need to learn any formulae for it. It just requires brain, but as we say
again, practice would make you comfortable while attempting this section so
better try a few before the actual test.
d) DI: There might be a separate section
for DI or not, it’s an easy section. You need to study a chart or table or some
other structure and answer accordingly. If your calculation speed is fast, then
you can collect lots of marks in this section and it’s a fairly easy one.
e) Technical: Technical section may
contains variety of question like output of C/C++/JAVA program, or finding
errors in a program, or theoretical question. It might have question from
algorithms or subjects like network/OS/Software engineering. The point is, you
can’t learn whole 4 years of your engineering in a week so better you take a
gist of all the subjects instead of deeply studying everything. It’s better to
master one or two subjects and be thorough with the basics of other subjects so
that it might help you in interviews too. Even if you do not know a language or
a topic, still same rules and concepts are applicable in technical and by
careful analysis and some presence of mind you can eliminate few choices and
make a very good calculated guess.
General rule for clearing any written test would be proper time
management. As there are many other rounds afterwards, so mostly major chunk of
people are able to clear the written and they are designed in the same way at
least for mass recruiters. So the important thing would be to attempt wisely
all the section, attempt at least few questions from everyone for a balanced
performance, don’t take anything on ego and be confident. It’s always better to
have a little practice beforehand and speed and accuracy should be balanced
properly.
2) Group Discussions: There may or may
not be a GD. It varies from company to company. Still, there is no such thing
like only those who are brilliant speakers can clear this round, they certainly
have an edge, but there are various other factors. So one should never be under
confident about this round. In a
GD, listening is as important as speaking. If you have no clue about the topic
given, you can just listen to what others are saying, form some perspective and
valid points and then speak in the end. If you are not able to speak a single
line in a GD, still some co-coordinators give such person chance to speak and
in that case if you listened carefully you can give an impressive performance.
It’s always better to be short and concise and more importantly say only
relevant things, don’t say anything for the sake of speaking else it would do
more harm than benefit. It’s always better to know the current affairs and some
sensitive topics that are raised more and often and are always debatable still
you should be prepared to speak on anything that you are not even aware
of. You can practice in groups for it or
practice alone at home to get more comfortable.
3) Case Studies/ Video Analysis/Others: Generally mass recruiters do not have this
round. Only a few companies have such round. They will give you a case study
and ask certain questions from it or they would show you a video. They are
interested in the way you can ‘infer’ from things. It’s a game of presence of
mind and how well you can present your thoughts and ideas you have just formed.
It’s better to go on your instinct and trust on your capabilities for such
round instead of giving too much thoughts and getting confused and under
confident.
4) Interviews: Interviews are the most
feared, misunderstood, overestimated rounds. As they are usually the last phase
so they are very crucial and it always involved lots of uncertainties, an
environment which can make you uncomfortable and nervous, a single mistake and
a heavy fine for it. There is no abc for cracking interviews, as it has lots of
variables in the equations, still what matters is giving your best performance
and having the mental satisfaction that you did the best you could. Let us
first have a brief discussion on resume first,
a) RESUME:
Resume is another thing people stresses a lot, thinks a lot, consults a lot
and are always confused whether they had the best one or not. In short, resume
is like a menu card and instead of setting a general menu card, it’s beneficial
to know beforehand what the customer wants to eat and only present those
contents. Resumes should vary according to different companies and so should
your mindset when you appear in an interview. Let us look at all the section
that must be included:
General Information: The upper side of
resume contains your general information like your name, contact number, email
etc.
Objective: Don’t copy your objective from
someone and don’t try to make it too much fancy and complicated, just look at
the role you are applying for and accordingly write a simple statement that you
can justify keeping in mind your capabilities. Objective should be written with
the perspective what companies want in you rather than what you want in your
life.
Academic Qualification: Just write that in tabular form in a presentable
manner.
Skills: Usually comprises technical skills
or depend on the company you are applying for, prioritize according to that
order and only write those skills in which you are really skilled instead of
the casual flamboyancy we usual do, because really deep questions might be ask
from the skills section.
Training: You can write about any
professional training you have attended and have a certificate of proof for it.
Projects: Write the name of the project
first, then explain it in details if it is for a technical company or in short
if for other company and write all the relevant technologies use. Try to write a
content that tells the working of project in a neat way. This is a major point
in most interviews so be very careful about this.
Seminars Attended: If you have
certificates, you can write it also, rarely any questions are asked from it and
you are expected to know the gist of the seminar you attended and relevant
questions from it.
Achievements: Usually we write achievements
after 9th class and usually those for which we have certificates,
they may include both the academic and extracurricular ones.
Extra Curricular: If you are getting short
in technical stuff, extracurricular might save you, if you have a diversified
profile then you can turn up a bad interview into a good one by explaining all
the extracurricular activities you participated and your experience/ learning
from them.
Hobbies/Strength: They are optional and if
you have space you may put it. They are asked sometimes and you may be able to
give some very impressive answers during cross questioning.
NOTE: Take the printout of the resume on bond
papers and always keep at least 3 or 4 extra copies of it because your
interviewers might ask you for extra copy.
b) FOLDER: Your folder is the complete
package for you. It should contain your resume, all the mark sheets,
certificates and various proofs. It should be well organized, neat and clean
and all the things must be in proper order. Generally, you do not put your
folder on table, you keep it in your hand and hand it over to the interviewers
only if you are asked to do so.
Interviews are an assessment of a person from various different angles.
You can google it out on internet the general question asked but do not go by
the answers given in it. Interviewers are not fool and you can’t make them,
don’t give the usual answers like disguising your strengths as weakness or the
usual stuff that coaching classes make you mug up. Be genuine and yourself,
that’s the best policy as you will never feel guilty or regret about it later but
don’t be stupid. If you are genuinely stupid then also try to act sane for a
while. Firstly, appear in the proper dress code, always keep a pen, look neat
and clean, and be confident, your body language must advocate for you. Don’t be
nervous or anxious. Just be calm but don’t be casual. Don’t answer too much but
balance your answers accordingly. Wait for a while, think what you are going to
say and then only say it. If you are not able to reply for few questions or
replied incorrectly, don’t panic and mess up the rest part. It’s natural; they
don’t expect all correct replies from you. In fact, they might not even be
concerned about the quality of your reply and may be assessing only your body
language and communication skills. Don’t have any prejudice about interviews,
as there are no definite steps to crack it up, it’s always uncertain because
the person who is interviewing you is also a human. He has his own perceptions,
prejudices and mindset and it’s not always the case that you would be able to
please it. It will remain uncertain and unpredictable and that’s the beauty of
it. You don’t require any preparation for it, just knock the door, walk in
there and give your best performance because the only thing require there is to
present yourself in the best possible way.
Let’s go through some general tactics for mass recruiters and normal
recruiters:
a) MASS
RECRUITERS: These are the companies who recruit in bulk i.e. they took a
major portion; hence they focus on certain skills rather than giving stress on
specific technical skills.
1) Communication
skills: Yes, if you are good at speaking then 70% of your work is done because
it is often given a large emphasis. If you are good at convincing and able to
talk properly even if not fluently then you would easily make the cut. However, in
no way it means that those who do not have good communication skills won’t make
it, it’s just one of the factor still try to focus on it most because those
with nil technical knowledge also gets in because of good soft skills.
2) Aptitude:
Aptitude would certainly helps you as there are many companies who do not
include technical section in the test and there will only be the aptitude test.
3) Basic
Technical Knowledge: There would always be some technical questions and mostly
they involve basic knowledge so you must be through with the basic concepts,
they may ask you real time application of this basic concepts or something that
would relate them with real life so at least brush up them once.
4) Project
Work: Your project work will remain key to your entry, if had worked on good
projects and you are able to explain them, it would work as a huge plus point.
5) Knowledge
about company profile: Just go through the company’s profile once, or google it
out and read it, mug all the people who are in key positions and some brief
highlights from the history. They could act as bonus questions.
b) NORMAL RECRUITERS: They do not
recruit much people, mostly in single digit and are interested in specific
people who satisfy their criteria.
1) Knowledge about the role and how you fit
in: Whatever role the company is providing you should be thorough with that
role, and how you fit in that role. You have to sell yourself for that role and
prove that you are the best candidate.
2) Deep knowledge: If it’s a technical
company, you must have deep technical knowledge about all the important
subjects and also practical knowledge. They can ask questions from anywhere
like databases used in Facebook/picasa, or how much memory a word document
takes or all the network layers and their uses so you have to do hard work for
it.
Lastly I don’t want to dishearten, frighten or scare anyone
or say something negative but it’s a fact. Interview processes are not only
unpredictable and uncertain but often unfair sometimes. You may be perfect
candidate for a role, far better than any other person and then also you might
get rejected and a person far below your caliber may get selected just because
it was his day and not yours. Never get disappointed and sad because of few
failures. Those who are capable will sooner or later find their way and achieve
much larger success. So don’t pile up all of your expectations on a single
process and get so much attached to it that you would stake your entire self-confidence
on it. Be hopeful and positive and expect the best, you would end up learning
no matter what the final result is and that will surely help you in later life.
PS : Those who have any specific placement related question
might ask me in the comment box and I would try to reply as soon as I can and others with the same query would also get benefited by it. I
would share my personal experience of seating in multiple companies in the
upcoming post so that it would further help the candidates.