Poorva Garg
Computer Science
Placements
Microsoft
Software Engineer
Interviewed by:
Kanishk Goyal
Internships
Placements
20th September 2020
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When to start preparing for the Placement season?
Comparison between your intern and placement interviews?
Learnings from this placement season?
How did you decide your field of interest? What about backups?
If someone does not get an intern via OCS in their 3rd year, what should they do?
Major problems that you faced?
Online vs Offline placements?
Does the higher studies application timeline and placement session go along easily?
Necessities for targeting your field?
The best time to start preparing would be before the internship season of third-year i.e. summer vacations after 2nd year. This would also help you to get a good internship offer as well. For Software Development profile competitive coding is an important aspect and the more you practice the better you would get.
(She did not apply for an intern via OCS, she had applied for off-campus internships.) One of the major difference was that I was not properly informed by the company during my placement interviews, whether I was still in the process or how many more rounds are there going to be. But during off-campus interviews, I was very well informed about the process and what the next steps were going to be.
I was not very well prepared for the interviews, and I consider myself quite lucky to have an offer. So my advice would be to prepare well and keep calm.
Being a Computer Science student, by the end of the second year, I was pretty clear that I wanted to do something in the core Computer Science areas. Keeping this in mind applied for two profiles - SDE and Quantitative profiles, with more focus on SDE profiles. A major help in deciding my field of interest was the vast alumni network of IIT Delhi.
I do not think an intern via OCS plays a big role in placement. My interviews were mainly focused on my coding and problem-solving skills.
The biggest problem for me was anxiety. Apart from this, I found it very hard to manage time between my courses, Btech Project and placement preparation.
I would prefer offline placements. Since most of the placements were take-home exams there was a lot of malpractice in the tests. In offline mode, everyone is on an equal platform.
It is very difficult to manage both at the same time since many deadlines of higher studies application clash with the placement processes. Applying for higher studies requires you to submit many documents like Statement of Purpose, Letters of Recommendation, Long essays etc. this end up taking a lot of time as well.
For SDE and Quantitative profiles, COL106 and MTL106 are musts. For non-CS students, I would also recommend Analysis and Design of Algorithms course as well. If someone is also interested in Data Science roles a machine learning course could also come in handy (not the Andrew NG course on coursera tho :p).
Placement season would be a stressful time but that too will pass. Prepare well and remain calm. I don’t think there can be any bad offers, it will only be bad if you start comparing yourself to others.
I would also like to address the gender-bias issue which always comes up during placements. The female candidates should not feel that they would have it easy and nor should they question their self-worth and competency. The male candidates should not feel that they would be discriminated against.
I would also like to address the gender-bias issue which always comes up during placements. The female candidates should not feel that they would have it easy and nor should they question their self-worth and competency. The male candidates should not feel that they would be discriminated against.
Takeaways
