Shreyansh Chanani
Production and Industrial Engineering
Morgan Stanley
Associate
Placements
Interviewed by:
Jatin Goel
Internships
Placements
7th June 2021
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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?
I think this depends a lot on your preferred field or field of interest. You can devote some time to figure this out initially. If you're aiming for a tech-domain or an analytics job, then your shortlist depends majorly on your tests. So even if you start a few months before that is okay. You need to get familiar with competitive programming and keep practicing that. The more you will practice, the better it will be for you. Data structures and algorithms also help you during the interviews and tests. It is just practice and the skills you have that will matter. It is advisable to begin a little early for tech, i.e., during your summer break or after your summer internship since you get more time to be familiar with everything. InterviewBit or Leetcode are good websites to start coding on.
On the other hand, if you're aiming for consulting or APM roles then not much preparation is required beforehand. Major shortlisting is based on the resume. For consulting-based jobs, August-September would be a good time for you to start. There are a lot of books that provide proper guidance. It would be best if you began with guesstimates initially, channelize your case-solving strategies with time, and then finally move onto solving unconventional cases.
On the other hand, if you're aiming for consulting or APM roles then not much preparation is required beforehand. Major shortlisting is based on the resume. For consulting-based jobs, August-September would be a good time for you to start. There are a lot of books that provide proper guidance. It would be best if you began with guesstimates initially, channelize your case-solving strategies with time, and then finally move onto solving unconventional cases.
The major difference is that during placement the companies expect a little more than what they expect in internships. The domains they cover during online tests are very similar during the internship and the placement season, so you can be sure of the areas they want the students to work on.
The tech and analytics companies ask questions broadly on data structures, competitive programming, and probability & statistics. Some tech firms also include OS but someone in that domain will be able to answer better. In consulting there is a lot of difference between internships and placements, they do not expect you to solve good cases during the internship, at least in my case. I got a consulting internship and was asked just to solve guesstimates while during the placement it's a very long and different process. Morgan Stanley specifically had a section on Financial Accounting too along with Quant, English, and logic.
Overall, during the placement season, the expectations go a little higher, but the foundation they test on remains the same.
The tech and analytics companies ask questions broadly on data structures, competitive programming, and probability & statistics. Some tech firms also include OS but someone in that domain will be able to answer better. In consulting there is a lot of difference between internships and placements, they do not expect you to solve good cases during the internship, at least in my case. I got a consulting internship and was asked just to solve guesstimates while during the placement it's a very long and different process. Morgan Stanley specifically had a section on Financial Accounting too along with Quant, English, and logic.
Overall, during the placement season, the expectations go a little higher, but the foundation they test on remains the same.
Looking back, I don't think I have any regrets from the placement season. One thing I would advise juniors is not to take a lot of pressure. Your day might be bad or you might not be able to perform to the best of your abilities. This is completely alright. It’s something that would last for a year or two, but ten years down the line, it will not affect you. Do work hard and hustle for everything as that is very important but keep your mental peace intact. However big this seems right now in your life, this job doesn’t define who you are and it will not decide who you will be ten years later.
It was tough for me as I wasn't able to decide till the 1st of December and just went with my gut feeling. Choosing between fields depends highly on the person, and it is something that comes innately and from within. However, it’s completely normal not to know yet since we are very young right now, and it’s not something to be worried much about. It is just your 1st job and doesn’t define you or your future 10 years later in any way.
One thing that I stood by during the placement season is to be ready to be disappointed because of 2 things. Firstly being disappointed to not get my first preference. Secondly, to be disappointed after getting my first preference. We aren’t sure what we want to do and whatever seems perfect to us right now may not actually be what we want to do a couple of years later. So, none of this is permanent.
On backups, I feel if you can afford to give some time and energy, you should be ready with a backup as it will do more good to you than harm. I had kept a backup (Tech jobs) even though that was not my primary aim. This will put you in a position where if your day goes bad and you don't get your primary choice, you will still have interviews to give and convert.
Make sure that the backup should not come at the expense of losing complete focus on your primary aim. Having a backup will help but don’t get stuck and clouded by your own thoughts. A sweet balance between the two is very important.
One thing that I stood by during the placement season is to be ready to be disappointed because of 2 things. Firstly being disappointed to not get my first preference. Secondly, to be disappointed after getting my first preference. We aren’t sure what we want to do and whatever seems perfect to us right now may not actually be what we want to do a couple of years later. So, none of this is permanent.
On backups, I feel if you can afford to give some time and energy, you should be ready with a backup as it will do more good to you than harm. I had kept a backup (Tech jobs) even though that was not my primary aim. This will put you in a position where if your day goes bad and you don't get your primary choice, you will still have interviews to give and convert.
Make sure that the backup should not come at the expense of losing complete focus on your primary aim. Having a backup will help but don’t get stuck and clouded by your own thoughts. A sweet balance between the two is very important.
Getting an internship isn’t that significant, though it might be in your placement interview, but it is not something that defines who you are. In the end, it is your skills, learning, and knowledge that will take you forward. Many people in my batch didn’t get placed via OCS but bagged internships through LinkedIn or did projects and ended up getting placed in really good companies even on day one. So having a 3rd-year internship through OCS is not a prerequisite in any way, and many people, who got a really good internship and due to various reasons didn’t get placed where they desired, so it works both ways. There is no written rule or guarantee, focus on developing your skills and investing in yourself.
For tech and analytics, it’s all about being able to solve questions. Devoting enough time will help you gain the necessary skills required. During the interviews, your projects, internships and training also play an essential role. For consulting, your resume would play quite a significant role for shortlisting. Companies shortlist people based on their resume only. It's not necessary to have a great POR to get your shortlists. They expect an all-round CV where you have been able to balance and perform well in many areas. After the shortlists, it is all about case solving and cracking the interview. In finance, they do not expect a lot of financial knowledge from beforehand. They expect a strong understanding of Probability, Logic, basic coding and sometimes even English.
Just work hard and practice as much as you can - Valid for all the fields
Just work hard and practice as much as you can - Valid for all the fields
There are two sides of the coin here. Offline mode has its own benefits, and same for online. For instance, when you appear for a test in the lecture hall, the environment is there, and the temperament is set, which isn’t possible to have at home. During the interviews, the communication is much better, i.e., face-to-face, and you can communicate in a better way. When you're in person, they ask you to write and solve things, which makes it a lot easier for the interviewer and interviewee; however, it is not feasible in online interviews.
On the other hand, the stress levels are lesser in online mode than what you would have experienced on campus. You don’t talk to your peers a lot and possibly stay away from a lot of negativity which would hamper your mental state in the entire process. This will help you to stay positive and focus on yourself rather than thinking about others. Another helpful part is that you stay with your family and that can be a very supportive thing during the process which can get tiring.
The OCS and the companies did a fantastic job making the online process much easier than I had expected.
On the other hand, the stress levels are lesser in online mode than what you would have experienced on campus. You don’t talk to your peers a lot and possibly stay away from a lot of negativity which would hamper your mental state in the entire process. This will help you to stay positive and focus on yourself rather than thinking about others. Another helpful part is that you stay with your family and that can be a very supportive thing during the process which can get tiring.
The OCS and the companies did a fantastic job making the online process much easier than I had expected.
I think the major problem that I faced during the tests primarily was in the coding tests. I was not well versed with the syntax and simply implementing the algorithms. This gets better usually with practice. I used Python as it was not syntax demanding hence TLE-Time Limit Exceeded was also an issue a few times. These issues were primarily because I had less practice and hence this can be easily solved by devoting more time to solve different types of questions.
During the interview, I just went with the flow and tried not to think or speculate about anything. It helped me keep my mind in a cool state. Just be your confident self, that will be enough.
There will definitely be obstacles in your way which will be different than ours, but you will figure most of them out on the road itself and you will learn a lot of things.
During the interview, I just went with the flow and tried not to think or speculate about anything. It helped me keep my mind in a cool state. Just be your confident self, that will be enough.
There will definitely be obstacles in your way which will be different than ours, but you will figure most of them out on the road itself and you will learn a lot of things.
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