Quick Tips to Succeed in your Interviews!

I am writing the preparation followed by me for placement season 2016. This is my personal preparation routine it will differ from person to person and year to year. This post will provide you a peek-a-boo to the interview processes and will guide you through certain do’s and don’ts for your placement season also it will give you a detailed description of where can you start studying (from starch) to ace your interview.

Pre-requisites

Let’s Decide!

First things first, DECIDE whether you want to do your MS, MBA or campus placements! Be sure of whichever option and be sure well enough before. We have to start preparations months before applying for the first interview. Now, if you decide to sit for placements read further.

1st Round – Aptitude Test / Group Discussion:

The Aptitude Test sections also vary according to the profile selected. The common sections are;

1. Quantitative Aptitude – R.S. Agarwal, GRE/CAT notes, indiabix.com

Time Speed & Distance, Clock, Pipes and Cisterns, Work & Time, Numbers, HCF & LCM, Simple & Compound Interest, Logarithms, Calendars, Ration & Proportion, etc.

2. Technical Aptitude – GeeksforGeeks, Let Us C, Head First to Java.

Data Structures, Memory, Pointers, Sorting, Searching, DBMS, OS, SQL, OOPM, Error Detection, Complete the program, Pseudo Code are the major topics.

3. Programming Abilities – CodeChef.com, HackkerRank.com, GeeksforGeeks, HackkerEarth.com.

You have to write a program for the given problem statement in the language of your choice. Choose wisely, your interview will be based on it.

Please code regularly, the easy/beginner level itself but minimum 5 problems every day.

4. Analytical Reasoning – CAT notes / indiabix.com is sufficient.

5. Verbal Abilities – GRE/CAT notes / indiabix.com is sufficient.

6. Attention to Details (for Non-Tech) – indiabix.com is sufficient.

This is a crucial round during the interview. You have to strengthen your Aptitude, it is the first round for most of the companies and you can never go ahead without clearing it. Most of the questions in this round are repetitive from previous year papers. Aptitude Tests can be held Online (on HackkerRank) or pen & paper. They have an overall cutoff also some have sectional cutoffs for each section.

The Aptitude Test for each company will be different so research about the rounds of every company on Glassdoor.com, GeeksforGeeks, IndiaBix.com, quora.com or final desk blog.

The Group Discussion is for the Non-Tech companies where they judge the candidate’s speaking abilities, participation in the discussions. So Always participate in the GD with sensible points and speak very confidently, don’t disagree with others in an ugly way. Stay updated with current issues.

2nd Round – Technical Interview:

The interviewers will bombard you with indirect application questions from your syllabus of past 3 years. The major subjects to be revised are Operating Systems, Database Management Systems, OOPM, Python/Java/C++/C, Algorithms, Data Structures, SQL, Hash/Heap. You should be well versed with your projects; draw UML diagrams to explain your project model, the code is not asked mostly but you should know the flow of your projects, which technology you have used, how you integrated it, real world applications, scalability, scope, etc. Always try writing or making diagrams as visuals help in better understanding.

Your answer to the question will build the next question for the interviewer. He will always go in the integrity of your answers to know that you understand the concept well. Smile to him and try to now keep it monotonous. If you don’t know the answers to any question admit it and don’t beat around the bush (this is NOT a viva). Never keep a minute of silence during the interview try to know him more, ask about his background, how he ended up in this job, his ambitions (don’t get very personal). GeeksForGeeks is the major help you can get for this round. The book Cracking the Coding Interview, highly recommended for technical interviews! Try reading Head First to Java / Complete Reference to Java and keep your basics clear. Java is in more demand than C. And well, of course, the stackoverflow.com

Apart from the TechCrunch interview, your interview can also be based on your resume! Keep it interesting and write each line of your resume with utmost care and precision. Write only the skills you know. If you know only 1 language make sure you know it in and out! Writing more things on your resume gets you a higher paying job, is a myth! Be very well prepared with the skills and job description provided by the company and try revolving your answers around the same. Keep in mind the values, mission, vision of the company and impart that knowledge directly or indirectly during the interview. It goes without saying that you have to research about the company thoroughly. Know the company via their LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, Google, Business Insider and all social networking accounts. Stay up to date with their recent activities, surveys conducted by them, social causes they support, office locations, their HQ, etc, etc. In short, go through the website thoroughly.

3rd Round – HR Interview:

Not a chill round, HR persons are hired to hire the best. If you have done amazingly well in your technical round doesn’t mean you will be amazing in the last round. You have to be confident and take your stand for whatever you have to say. They will try to screw you up, stay calm but alert! This round is usually short and mostly is a stress interview. You will be asked basic questions such as;

– Tell me about yourself?

– Your Strengthens / Weakness

– Family Background

– Why that company?

– What makes you stand out from other candidates?

– Are you a team player/team leader?

– Talk about your internships/projects

– Transfer base location problems?

Try to practice them before going for the interview and don’t fumble. Stay confident and admit if you are incorrect with some topic. Don’t waste your time with things which won’t be useful in the interview process. Be confident, smile to the interviewer, talk to him like it’s a conversation, ask him doubts if you have any. Always ask questions when you are told to! Don’t ask questions just for the sake of it. Don’t fake or be unreal to the interviewer they are trained to understand candidates!

General Tips:

Personally, a crash course of the technical syllabus is conducted by a group of enthusiasts called the Final Desk, they conducted a 32-hour course in our college (DJ) which proved to be very beneficial in building an interview-centric technical foundation. You can find them here: blog.finaldesk.com/about-us/

Keep on practicing your Aptitude Questions, technical knowledge, coding rounds and If you are stuck then Google, there are various sources on the internet try to utilize them to the fullest if you have understood concepts better by visualization then switch to YouTube, still don’t get it then ask your friends/teachers/seniors everyone here is to help you so stuck on one thing for a long time.

Use LinkedIn to get in touch with seniors working in the firm you are going to go for an interview, ask them about the firm in detail and research about the job description; apply if it interests you. Check the eligibility criteria, job description, salary, job location, benching system, bond system, normal/ dream/ super – dream company and other descriptions in detail before signing the offer letter.

Look for opportunities offline/off-campus also parallel with on-campus. But, if you don’t get in your dream company don’t be disheartened; everyone will be placed keep working hard and never lose faith, there is something much better in store for you. Keep your head up and work your ass off.

For 3rd year students, I believe you will be having mini-projects in your syllabus! Do them well! Try some online courses on edX and Coursera – Free Online Courses From Top Universities | Coursera. Don’t simply listen to lectures but try implementing small projects. Start coding on Programming Competition,Programming Contest,Online Computer Programming and HackerRank, these sites also host placement challenges from big companies like Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Directi, etc. remember to participate in these competitions. Also an internship will make you learn a lot.

I would love to help you if you have any queries, inputs, suggestions; just drop a comment in the section.

All the best!

-Shivani Shankar.

For more information, visit: intehttps://cookwhatyougot.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/campus-placements-2016/