Rishidev Prabhakar
Electrical - Power and Automation
Placements
Texas Instruments
Embedded Software
Interviewed by:
Nikhil Danwani
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?
Major problems that you faced?
Online vs Offline placements?
If someone does not get an intern via OCS in their 3rd year, what should they do?
Necessities for targeting your field?
Placement Tests generally starts about 2-3 months before the interviews (starts in December). Initially only 2-3 tests are there in a week but later on you'll have multiple tests on same day. So you should complete the theoretical part (eg. Data structures and algorithms for SDE) before that (September). Practicing coding problems should be part of daily routine atleast a month before(August).
I do not have much experience of the interviews. I did my internship at Texas Instruments and that was my first and only interview. I was offered job Texas Instruments on first day of placement and it was my first interview of the day.
So I'll just tell you about my experience with these two. I did not see any difference in placement or intern interviews. For me both started with a brief introduction about myself and CV, followed by technical questions. The quality and quantity of questions were more in placement interviews in my case.
So I'll just tell you about my experience with these two. I did not see any difference in placement or intern interviews. For me both started with a brief introduction about myself and CV, followed by technical questions. The quality and quantity of questions were more in placement interviews in my case.
I started practicing coding questions a month before the placement season but at very slow pace. And due to that I spent much more time on basic questions than I should've. Then after a month a lots of important topics were left and there was not much time, so for most of the question I read the solution and moved on which is very bad way of practicing coding. So later on when same questions used to come in tests even though I knew that I've read this one I was not able to write the code correctly. So I would recommend everyone to learn and practicing by writing the code, reading the solution doesn't help much. (I was practicing on interviewbit.com and it has topic wise coding questions)
In COL100 we had to learn C language. At that time I felt more inclined towards programing than the core electrical courses. Then I did other programing and CS courses. The assignments of the courses like OS, DS, ML, Computer Networks etc were very interesting and I learnt a lot from them. So after few semesters(2-3) I realised that my interests alings with programming and I should focus on that.
I would suggest that you should atleast have understanding of the core courses in your department. It would be helpful in placements as well as other examination like GATE. In core courses most of the students(me too) prepare with the perspective of minors and majors only but if you put little effort there to get better understanding of the concepts it will be very helpful in coming days. Let's call it as backup because it will help you in number of ways(placement for core companies, GATE, IES, UPSC, other examinations)
I would suggest that you should atleast have understanding of the core courses in your department. It would be helpful in placements as well as other examination like GATE. In core courses most of the students(me too) prepare with the perspective of minors and majors only but if you put little effort there to get better understanding of the concepts it will be very helpful in coming days. Let's call it as backup because it will help you in number of ways(placement for core companies, GATE, IES, UPSC, other examinations)
As we were at home due to covid 19, lack of discussion with friends was the major problem. With discussion you'll know a lot more questions in a time span than you'll know when you prepare alone. Also sometimes you get stuck in a coding question then it's better if you discuss them with your peers rather than searching for online solutions and understanding them which is sometimes frustrating and often time consuming.
When you join IIT you get added in a Google group IITD Notices on which regular internship opportunities come. You can apply in them. Linkdin is another place where you get opportunities.
It's good to have an internship in your resume. It shows that you have work experience, you can work in teams and coordinate so it's important for employers. If you do not have internship then I would suggest that you must try to get involve in some project and get some experience there.
It's good to have an internship in your resume. It shows that you have work experience, you can work in teams and coordinate so it's important for employers. If you do not have internship then I would suggest that you must try to get involve in some project and get some experience there.
Courses are very important and the course assignments helps you in understanding and implementing the concepts. If you are targeting for Development job (app, web) then you need experience in these (internships will help in that). Before internships you can practice on your own. I started doing app development on my own after my first year, then I did an internship with NSS for making an app and I learnt a lot during that.
For any Software Development job first you need to have good fundamental of Data Structures and algorithms. So I would recommend to do this course online or offline wherever possible. You can also do competitive coding if you like. In that case you'll not need much prepration for internships or placement coding tests.
For any Software Development job first you need to have good fundamental of Data Structures and algorithms. So I would recommend to do this course online or offline wherever possible. You can also do competitive coding if you like. In that case you'll not need much prepration for internships or placement coding tests.
You should not panic, if you know how to code, if you've done some work (intern), if you've practiced even for a month you'll get placed eventually. Don't worry about on which day you gets placed. Good companies also come on day 2, 3, 4…
Another thing I would like to say is try to decide that where you can perform best. Like you may not be very good in algorithms but you might be good at app or web development.
The embedded software profile doesn't require muchh algorithms knowledge so if you have good knowledge of C language then you're good to go there. So choose the profile where you can give your best.
Another thing I would like to say is try to decide that where you can perform best. Like you may not be very good in algorithms but you might be good at app or web development.
The embedded software profile doesn't require muchh algorithms knowledge so if you have good knowledge of C language then you're good to go there. So choose the profile where you can give your best.
Takeaways
I would prefer offline placements over online because it is more fair to all students (cheating is prevalent in online tests in most cases). For Interviews I didn't see much difference between the two.