Are you confused about placements during Covid? How will the interviews be conducted? what do you need to take care of in the upcoming Placement season?
Fret not. In this blog, I am sharing 5 insights that I understood while working as a placement coordinator. Many students don't pay attention to these things which go behind the scenes. I hope it will help you a lot for your upcoming interviews.
For those of you who are interested in watching the video version, here is the link:
Without further ado, Let's start!
Insights
1) Online Test
we all know that most companies have their 1st step as an online test and these tests are platform-dependent. There are many platforms: hackerrank, hackerearth, hirepro, etc., and each one has a different configuration. It means that each of them has at least a plagiarism checker. Some have audio and video proctoring too.
The thing which I want to highlight here is: they record each and everything of yours. For eg: While giving OT, they might record:
- how many times you clicked the mouse pointer
- which places you have clicked
- if you are changing a variable, then how many times & where you are doing that
- if you changed a tab, then how many times you did that
- from where you have copied the code and how
- If your whole code appeared from somewhere within few seconds then it shows that you were cheating.
So they record almost everything. If you do anything which is restricted, then it raises a red flag and they won't shortlist you. If you are trying to cheat, then definitely you won't be shortlisted.
My suggestion is to practice and do not raise a red flag. If you feel that cheating is necessary for you to clear OT, then practice and make yourself so good that you don't even need to cheat. Many companies have a 50-60% of cutoff in OT. If you perform better than that, then you're anyways getting shortlisted. so practice a lot, improve your skills, so you don't need to cheat.
2) Interviews
During the covid scenario, all interviews will be Online. I still remember that in my 1st online interview I felt really really anxious and I do not want you to feel that way.
So make a habit: give a commitment that for the next 30 days or so, you will solve 1 question every day while explaining it to somebody else. so just think that there is somebody else listening to you and you have to explain your code to that guy. It's no more a Pen and Paper Based Interviews. You have to change and adapt to this online scenario.
3) Feedback from HR
HR's usually does not share feedback because they are private to the company. Luckily some HR's were frank with me and they shared some feedback which is:
i) "Communication Skills of students are not up to the level." Many students are unable to explain what goes on in their minds.
Here is an analogy: you have a very big sports car but you don't have petrol, so how will you run that car? Similarly, even if you know the answer to a question but you are unable to explain it to the interviewer, then what is its use?
Nowadays, It doesn't matter if you are smart or not. The important thing is how you convey your answer and your approach, which is more important than actually solving the question itself.
Suggestion: spend time on developing your communication skills. Also, before the start of placement season, have 4-5 mock interviews.
ii) during online interviews, they focused more on DSA, OOPs, and especially on theoretical knowledge (for eg: what is #include, what is the use of different commands, etc). Do keep an eye on these details also.
iii) Resume (Very important) During the online scenario, many companies couldn't conduct interviews for everybody (even conducting online GDs is difficult). so companies opted for Resume Shortlisting.
To get shortlisted, your resume should be good enough compared to other students. Give time to develop & prepare your resume. This will help you in your resume shortlisting rounds.
4) Research about the company before applying
I feel that this is overlooked by many of the students. nobody researches about the company, they just keep applying and applying.
But researching about the company might help you, especially in your HR round. Eg: if I applied for Oracle, and HR asks me that "why you want to join us?"
Now I have two options.
I can give a very simple and generic answer. eg: I really like your work culture and aspire to join you for a long time etc.
Otherwise, another option is that I research about the company and give some elegant answer. like when I did my research, I got to know that Oracle is shifting everything to cloud. So I can include this point in my answer. eg: I am interested in cloud technologies and since oracle is shifting everything to cloud, I really want to work with you guys and I also feel that your work culture is really good which aligns with my profile and that's why I want to join you. so now this looks like a proper researched & well-structured answer.
If you do this, it shows that you are interested in the company and you have also researched about it.
5) Don't get attached to a single company
for eg: I was attached to Microsoft and when I didn't get PPO, I felt bad. at THAT point I realized that I should not get attached to a single company.
Think it this way: If you really want to join that company then it's okay, you can join it later on. But why waste your present thinking about it?
If you get a job at your targeted company then it's really good. If you don't, then it's time for you to learn and grow. Apply in other companies, there are 50-60 companies almost similar to that, waiting for you to apply and hire you. so thinking about a single company is a waste of your time.
Also, many students do not know about the Salary hike. In the initial phase of your career, if you are working in a company then there is a high probability that you'll leave it after 2-3 years because you receive max. salary hike after switching companies. (you get 15-25% depending on your profile) so anyway, you weren't going to work in a single company for a lifetime.
So it's just the start of your career. Your money, the company's brand value, doesn't matter at all for now. All that really matters is your Experience and Exposure which you can get in almost any company for starting.
If you really wanted to join that company (let's say Google), so no problem, after 1-2 years you can apply again. Till then, keep working hard & keep solving more and more questions, keep growing yourself and improve your skills.
I hope you understand this point. Don't get depressed, don't get attached to a single company.
That's all for this blog. If you have any doubts, you can ask them in the comments section.
See You in the next blog :)