Cracking the interview is now easier with these pre-placement tips

By: Anushka Mohanta

Stay up-to-date with the information for placement drive. Start preparation from day one, stay calm and focussed, get complete knowledge of the companies and work on enhancing skills to crack the interview.

You are grooming to land a job: Pre-placement preparation is important for getting a position in one's dream job and company and this gives the feeling of great achievement. However, it requires time and effort to give one best shot. Enhancing skills and knowledge could be a little difficult along with majoring in other programmes concurrently. The Placement Cell publishes the notice generally two to three days before the placement drive and in some cases, a night before. To avoid the last-minute rush and anxiety to prepare for the interview, students should begin preparing for the placement drive in advance. Devoting 30 minutes every day for preparation is sufficient.

Know the workplace's demands: To be on the right track with a convenient directory to get one's dream job, an aspirant needs to be aware of the complete hiring process of the company. A company could include several activities such as taking multiple-aptitude tests, group discussions, group activities, Skype interviews, telephonic interviews, HR interview, technical interview, and in some cases, psychometric tests, or even direct interviews in the first round. It all depends on the kind of organization/company, their norms, and the number of candidates.

Possible aspects to be trained: Pre-placement preparation depend on various factors such as the kind of profile one is applying for. Therefore, the students are required to be trained on aspects like Facing Interviews, Group Discussions, Professional Resume Writing, Cracking Aptitude Exams, Skill Development Sessions, and Programmes, Mock Exercises preparation, Recruitment and Placement Sessions, and so on. Training of these activities is crucial to clear the interview.

Keynote to absolute grooming: The basic topics for aptitude and reasoning include:

• Data Interpretation
• Quadratic Equations
• Distance and Time
• Probability
• Sequence Series
• Seating Arrangement Work and Time
• Permutation and Combinations

These topics are important for almost all the tests. One needs to clear the Aptitude test with high scores to get shortlisted for the next round. Other areas to work on are Implementation, study Algorithms and Data Structures, online practice on Hacker Rank, Hacker Earth, Code Chef, etc. and revision of the basic concepts.

To crack the interview, MCQs or technical aptitude, the candidates need to have clarity on DBMS, Operating Systems & Computer Networks.

Tips to get success: Few tips to get success are as follows:

• Analyse the companies who visited the college campus earlier, their placement process and hiring pattern can be your smart procedure to prepare well
• Take various online test series to practise MCQs
• Work on grammar and comprehension, so that you do not stutter during the test
• Try to be well prepared before time to give oneself the best chance of presenting well during an interview

Some of the basic yet important interview questions are stated below to prepare for campus placements

1. Tell us something about yourself?
2. What is your ambition?
3. What are your hobbies?
4. Can you work comfortably in a team?
5. What is success for you?
6. Do you have plans for further studies?
7. Why should we hire you?
8. What can you do for the organization?
9. What do you expect from us?
10. Why do you want to join our organization?
11. Are you willing to relocate to any part of India?

Personal experience: In my case, I could crack the interview with confidence and the consciousness of thinking before I get to speak. I believe that communication is the key to success in an interview. I focused on learning proper grammar usage. Also, I interacted with different people and tried to speak my mind. Putting on some extra effort to look presentable is considered to be the primary reason to create a good impression. Moreover, having the basic knowledge about the company and the job is also required to make the whole process easier.

Placement opportunity available in my institute: Our College has a placement cell named “Training and Placement Cell (T and P)”. In which both students and faculties work together to accomplish the assigned work. The facilities here:

• Our T and P Cell coordinates trainings/workshops on various trending topics such as JAVA, Robotics, ML, AI, Ethical Hacking, etc. (Duration: two to fifteen days)
• GD Sessions, Coding Competitions, Hackathons and Aptitude practises.
• Students are kept updated regarding training and placements by the Student Coordinator of the top cell.

About the Author:

Anushka Mohanta is pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science from NIT Silchar. A foreign student from Bangladesh, she is an effective and articulate communicator who is also consistent and enthusiastic about writing.