You might have heard and experienced that College is the best time of your lives. And you should make the most of your college experience. Just make sure you have time for fun, friends, party and entertainment but don't ignore your studies. And, most importantly, work hard consistently to get connected with today's hottest employers. Yes, Placement should be the primary goal for almost every student who enters a college. And we all know that Campus placements is one of the most stressful phases in college life. So, you need to plan and prepare well to get a dream job.
For your ability to perform well in an interview, you require 3 things:
Even if you are in top institute with 100% placements, you would require these skills to get into top notch company. Those who are in a average college, they can also get dream job by practicing these skills consistently. It is the biggest myth that top tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook hire only students from IITs or NITs. If you do your basics right, you can get into big companies even if you are in tier-3 college.
There are 2 types of companies visiting your campus: Product-Based and Service-Bases Company
Product-Based have their own products to sell such as Google, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Dell, BMC Software etc.
Service-Based companies are clients of Product Based companies suc as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Cognizant etc.
In Product-Based companies, they conduct more interview rounds and cracking interviews is a bit difficult than Service-Based companies. Generally, a Service-Based company has a fewer interview rounds.
Now let's discuss about general selection process or interview rounds of campus recruitment:
Written Test
This is the first round of interview for you. These are carried out in order to filter or eliminate the crowd.
A company can conduct Aptitude test or Technical test or both. The exam simply needs to be given in MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) formats.
Be it any job interview, the one thing that is common in the selection process is an aptitude test. So, make sure that you have practiced it well. The test is not very tough like bank exam. You need to spend 30 to 45 days for this part. Aptitude test is useful for employers to check the problem-solving, analytical, decision-making ability of the individual.
There are a lot of tests available online and some of the good websites that provide quality Aptitude questions for various placements are
Some IT companies visiting a campus also conduct GDs. This is also mainly for elimination of the candidates so that only good candidates are left for interview process. But, there can be companies that require candidates with good communication, so they can also conduct a GD round. They mainly check a candidate's ability to communicate effectively.
Well there are bunch of good websites that you can refer to, but the most reliable of all are
- CareerRide
- IndiaBix
- FreshersWorld
Technical Round
Technical Round is the most important round in the interview. This is the round where you can showcase your core subject knowledge. And IT companies mainly focus on the Programming skills.
Most important subjects that you must know for any company interview are Data structures and Algorithms.
Your performance in them is highly considered. If you are good at these topics, you will be surely hired by big companies.
Now, in order to implement DSA concepts, you should know few programming languages, such as C++ , JAVA , Python.
I would suggest you to get a good command over at least one language. C++, Java being object-oriented programming languages, are highly demanded in the market. If you know Java or C++, you can work on any technology. Python is a simple language, you can easily learn it in 15-20 days, if you know Java well.
You may be asked to do a code also. So you need to be prepared. There are a lot of platforms available online with the list of coding questions.
Some of the best Websites to help learn and practice for this round are as follows
There are also some important topics that you need to brush-up for your interview process.
They are
Operating System
DMBS
Computer Networks
SQL
When it comes to placement, most of the companies do inquire about projects. The interviewers expect candidates to do at least one or two projects during their college tenure. And, you must be prepared for questions on projects. They may have questions about the technology you used. Why did you use this particular technology and not another? and so on.
HR Round
This round is conducted to know the potential candidates personally. The interviewer will try to understand your personality, background, strengths, and weaknesses etc. Basically they assess if you are a good fit for a specific role or not.
In order to prepare for this round, you can make a list of frequently asked questions such as Tell me about yourself, tell us about your strengths and weaknesses, and why you want to do this job and so on. Just Prepare thoughtful responses for each of these questions. Your responses should have an impact and give you the chance to highlight your skills and interest in the job.
If you are preparing for this round, don't miss our our video on HR interview questions and answers. You will definitely find it very helpful.
Research
The most important aspects of interview preparation are thoroughly researching the company and the role for which you are going to interviewed. You should at least know basic information of the company. And there are pretty informative websites like Glassdoor, Quora and Ambitionbox, where you can read about the companies. These websites have reviews about the interview processes of the companies, that will help you get fair ideas about selection process. You can also get in touch with your placement officer, they can give clear and detailed information about the interview process of a company. Your college alumni can also help you with their experiences. So, you can check if any of your alumni works there, contact them and take as much information as possible. All these information will help you a lot to perform better.
You have now seen various stages of selection process and ways to deal with it. Remember, one day of preparation is not sufficient for the interview. You'll need to plan ahead of time. The best thing you can do is practice in front of a mirror. The more you practice, the more confident you become, and your confidence will help you nail your dream job.
