Leveraging summer vacations for placement preparation

Hello!!! I hope all of you, along with your family are safe and healthy. COVID-19 has created extremely difficult time for all of us.

Before starting my opinion on how you should spend summer vacations for efficient placement preparation, I would like to say that please stay inside, eat healthy, spend time with your loved ones, check up on people, help others if you can and devote some time for your mental health. All of us struggling during the pandemic in our own ways, so stay safe and spread love ❤

The next internship/placements season is about to begin for college students. Unlike last year, when virtual placements was a new thing, there will be comparatively more established and organised processes for online interviews. Companies are more prepared and more resources are available now.

1. Create an attracting LinkedIn profile, mentioning your previous experiences and educational background. Try getting endorsements on the skills from seniors. When it comes to endorsements, ask the endorsements from people whose endorsement actually matter, i.e. someone having a good grip over the skill and not your friends.
2. Work on your github profile and add projects that you might mention in your resume. Add a readme file with the projects clearly defining the project along with technologies used.
3. Rework your CV: include power verbs, get it proof-read. Contact seniors/ alumni for suggestions.
4. Learn about typical stages of placement procedure related to the role you are interested in. Try to prepare according to them.
5. Leverage university-provided platforms for preparation.
6. Watch youtube videos with placement tips and experiences when you are not in the mood for problem solving or studying.
7. Make a flexible schedule for yourself for preparation for topic-wise preparation, online tests, and whatever suits you. You may also keep sometime for mock interviews. Never make tight schedules as well get a bit lazy from time to time. Give yourself atleast two -three hours for leisure.
8. Spend some time for aptitude practice as well. Most programmers tend to ignore aptitude while preparing and although some companies don’t include aptitude in their selection process, others do and you can never know when the pattern for any company’s selection might change. So, my advice would be to spend atleast 30 -40 minutes on aptitude with timed practice.
9. Many times while we prepare for technical placements, we tend to focus so much on problem solving, we forget technical MCQs and other core subjects. Use different platforms like geeksforgeeks, interviewbit, (vitians have their own placement preparation portal) to practice technical MCQ. Practice is what will get you ahead in MCQ and not just reading theory.
10. Improve your communication: The entire recruitment process is a selection mechanism and not a rejection mechanism. Corporates are facing a major shortage of talented professionals — they are looking for hardworking students with an ability to learn — if you can give them reasons to select you — they would be more than happy to recruit you. But it is your responsibility to convince them that you are good enough. And that takes more than just technical skills.

You need to be able to communicate your skills as well — and that requires you to be able to converse in English comfortably and interact with others during various group tasks.

Hope your summer vacations prove out to be extremely productive and you can ace your placements. Good luck!

Feel free to leave comments and questions… I’ll try to reply each one of you as soon as possible.