Enhance skills with these pre-placement Preparation Tips

By: T. Deepthi

Update the resume and work on enhancing skills, understanding the concepts, and focus on making the right impression in the interview.

Most of the students eagerly wait for placements. The college/ campus placements play a major role in every student’s life. These days the competition is also high especially for off-campus placements. In my opinion, getting a degree is easier for every student as compared to placement in a company. In the placements, there are several rounds and each round is crucial for students. To get placed in a company one should qualify every round.

Key Tips and Tricks for Placements

The tips and tricks are important to crack the interview. According to me, success comes to those who work in the right direction consistently. Most of the aspirants start their preparation in the pre-final year or final year.

The students should gain knowledge and experience like doing internships, learning new courses, participating in workshops, etc. as these would give extra weightage to the resume.

Completing mini and major projects also helps in adding value to the resume. For candidates with no experience (fresher), the clarity of the fundamentals is enough.

In many companies, the first round is the Written Test. Most of the companies include Aptitude, Reasoning, Verbal Ability and Coding in the written test. In the first round, the company examines the candidate capability of problem-solving, etc. this round is conducted just to eliminate the candidates basis their skills.

The important materials and books that I referred for the written test preparation are:

• Quantitative Aptitude Book by R. S. Agarwal
• Logical Reasoning Book by R. S. Agarwal
• Verbal and Non-verbal Reasoning by Arun Sharma and R. S. Agarwal
• Programming in ANSI C by Balaguru Swamy

Also, I referred to the study materials given by the institute.

The second round might be Group Discussion. Some of the IT companies would not organise any group discussions and would conduct a Personal Interview instead. The group discussion round is also conducted to eliminate undesirable candidates. In this round, one topic would be given and the candidates are expected to speak on that topic. Here, the recruiters check fluency, decision-making skills as well as communication skills.

The candidates should keep the following important things in mind.

• Communication skills are essential, hence, work consistently on improvising these skills
• Improve speaking skills by listening to English- audio and watching online videos
• Practise with friends to overcome the fear and rectify the mistakes
• Read magazines, English newspapers, novels, etc. and note difficult and new words from to enhance good vocabulary
• In case, the given topic is related to the hiring company itself then show interest, while talking about the company
• Practise before the mirror and analyse your performance.
• Actively participate in seminars, debate, elocution competitions, etc.

The third round would be Personal Interview. This round includes technical and HR round. In the Technical Round, one should have good command on the fundamentals and key concepts of the core subject. Especially questions could be asked from the resume of the candidate. Hence, prepare each point mentioned in the resume like PPT, poster presentation, workshops, etc. in detail.

After clearing the technical round, it is easy for the candidate to clear the HR round. Similar questions could be repeated in the HR round like

• Tell me about yourself?
• Why we should hire you?
• Are you willing to locate anywhere?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What do you know about the company? and so on

In the HR round, the recruiter would again check fluency, confidence level, etc. Therefore, one should be honest and stay confident enduring this round.

The dress code is very important. We all are familiar with the quote, “the first impression is the last impression”. This is important in the interview. The candidate should be dressed in formals only. Avoid things like overusing the perfume, heavy make-up, etc. The most important thing is to carry your resume while going for the interview.

In my college, there is a Placement Cell. This placement cell helps students by giving information regarding a particular company. There are no on-campus drives in my college so, we have to attend off-campus drives only. The Placement Cell shares the alerts by sending e-mails to all the students. Moreover, our college placement cell invites guest faculty to conduct placement sessions one week before the off-campus drive. The guest faculty helps students in solving their problems and clarifying doubts, if any. They also verify the format of resumes of the students.  

About the Author:

T. Deepthi is a student at Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam pursuing Bachelor in Technology (B.Tech) with a specialisation in Electronics and Communication Engineering.