Break through Campus Placements!

Does 'campus placement' worries you ?

As a recent graduate from Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal with Bachelors in Technology in Computers and Communication, I do realise the importance of Campus Placement in an Engineer's college life.

I get it! The pressure is real as you approach your final year - however job seeking process should never be taken as a competitive exam. But then why prepare?

You basically up-skill yourself to take up the tasks in the job you apply for - you enhance your core competence in the Software Development domain on basis of which you could prove your candidature better while sitting for a company's placement process.

Who is this article useful for?

• Students planning to up-skill themselves during their engineering.
• B.Tech students in their pre final or final year.
• Anyone seeking job in Software Development | Software Engineering | IT Engineer kind of job roles.
• People seeking job switch into Software Industry.

Here is what it took for me to overlook all the computing concepts (from B.Tech) in a 2 - 3 month time frame as I approached Campus Placements in 2020.

I foremost divided the whole placement know hows into 4 fragments :-

1 DS

2 Aptitude  

3 Computing Subject Knowledge - OOPs, DBMS, OS etc.

4 Resume Based        

1. DSA

You must be well versed with Basic Data Structures and common Algorithms, not only to make through the Online Tests but also to crack the Interviews. Practice of 2-3 months would suffice to crack a decent level question, but more the merrier.

Recommended Resources :?

a. Narasihma Karumunchi is a bible to crack any Tech interview

b. Pick any one platform like Hacker Rank, GFG, InterviewBit, LeetCode etc, and finish all the Problem Solving challenges, rather than taking initial questions from various platforms.

2. Aptitude Prep

This is very imperative for clearing online tests. One must know all the basic mathematical formulas, and should be able to solve the questions with a good speed and accuracy. Most of the online tests have basic level of questions, but speed and accuracy is what ensures you a shortlist.

Suggested Resources :?

a. RS Agarwal Aptitude Book (if you have a time frame of over 6 months left) - this will be a long time commitment but one should invest here only if you aim non software job roles as well, or if you're aiming to write other competitive exams in future like GMAT GRE CAT etc.

b. GFG Practice and Learn topics (if you have more than 3 months left).

c. India Bix Tests (if you have approx. 1 month left).

3. Subject Preparation

Basic knowledge of Operating System, Object Oriented Programming and Database Management System would be expected of a candidate while sitting for Placements.

Suggested Resources:

a. Operating System

b. DBMS

c. CN

d. MCQs For Online Test

4. Projects/Internship

You must be very thorough with what is written in your Resume, if you have undertaken any Internship or any project, you MUST revise everything you did in that role. You should be able to answer/defend your work for following questions (for example):

a. What is the technology stack used in the task

b. What was your role in this task and how did you create an impact

c. How is this different from already pre existing projects available online similar in nature

d. Challenges faced while doing this task and how you overcame that

e. Why did you choose this (language/algorithm/framework/technology/IDE) to complete this task etc.

I hope this helps you approach your campus placement to bag THAT dream package or dream role or dream company of yours. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn should you have any further doubts or if you seek mentorship.

<This article is written from a very personal experience with the vision to help fellow juniors/job seekers and doesn't guarantee any sort of definite result or hacks to crack the coding interview>