Students’ Speak: Pre-placement prep tips to land your dream job

A company can take multiple-aptitude tests, group discussions, group activities, skype interviews, telephonic interviews, or even direct interviews as a first round. It also depends upon the number of aspirants and the number of intakes of the company.

There is a sense of accomplishment and victory when you get a placement in your dream job and company. This beautiful feeling is not easy to get. You have to invest your time and enhance your skills.

In a Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme, it is even more difficult to manage studies and placement strategies, simultaneously. In almost every college, the placement cell can surprise you by sending an email stating, “Dear Batch, XYZ company is coming tomorrow for the Student Internship Program, please report at 7.30 am for the process”. And, you are left thinking that you do not have enough time to prepare. To avoid this, you should prepare continuously and sincerely. Even investing 30 minutes of preparation per day is sufficient.

Here is my personal experience of how some of my friends landed jobs in companies such as E&Y and JP Morgan and Chase.

First of all, it is the company’s choice of how the process is going to be conducted and no one can predict the next step of the company. A company can take multiple-aptitude tests, group discussions, group activities, skype interviews, telephonic interviews, or even direct interviews as a first round. It also depends upon the number of aspirants and the number of intakes of the company.

Group discussion: Read, read and read. I suggest you should read articles in newspapers such as 'The Economic Times' and 'The Hindu'. It will not only give you the facts but also help you to learn to articulate things. You should always try to articulate things according to the job role you are being interviewed for.

Aptitude test: Simple logical reasoning and math would be enough. We all have gone through these subjects in CAT/XAT, so it will not be tough unless the aptitude itself is subjective. Like in one of the processes, the aptitude was just checking your accounting and finance knowledge.

Personal interviews: The most important thing is that you must be thorough with your resume and should know how to handle complicated situations. In one of the interviews, the interviewer was checking my friend’s organisational behavior and interpersonal skills. These skills can be developed by various activities done in the college itself. Articulation of words is important to impress the interviewer and for that too, newspapers come handy. In the data-driven world, it will be beneficial for you to enhance your resume by doing some extra online courses. For instance, doing a certification course in R/Python programming or certification in advanced excel will give you an edge over others.

Placement committee at IFMR GSB connects the corporates and students and works hard to ensure that the placement process is smooth. The placement committee not only works for the students but also makes sure that the officials are treated well and be comfortable in any situation. In IFMR GSB, the committee helps the students by doing workshops regularly, for example, the workshop on resume building and enhancing interview skills. These types of activities are done to enhance the interpersonal skills of the students. The team has also started a ‘buddy’ system in which every place com member has assigned a group of students so that every student can get instant attention and assistance related to any placement activity. The placement cell also gives an opportunity of one on one interaction, directly to placement heads and follow no hierarchy system for better clarifications for students.

About the Author:

Divyang Goswami is a student at IFMR GSB, Krea University, pursuing MBA. He has completed his graduation from Hansraj College of Delhi University. He is passionate about Data Science and Finance and terms himself as an animal lover.