Internships are pretty much the first taste of corporate life for many. And the students of S.P.I.T are indeed very fortunate, as a plethora of companies visit the campus every year to hire smart young minds to work for their esteemed establishments. From dream companies like Deloitte, Oracle and Siemens to super dream companies of the likes of Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Credit Suisse, the students of SPIT have a tremendous amount of opportunities awaiting them.
However, the placements and internship rounds can indeed be daunting for students who have had little or no such experience, facing this sort of academic assessment. SPark brings to you all you need to know about the various selection rounds and handy tips from those who’ve aced the very same.
ROUND 1: THE APTITUDE TEST
The aptitude test was a MCQ test consisting of quantative reasoning, vocabulary, data interpretation and logical reasoning with a 60-minute time duration conducted on the SPIT campus itself. Certain companies conducted a technical aptitude test as well, consisting of coding, algorithmic and data structure based questions. The technical tests were conducted on CoCubes, an online platform, and had a 30 minute time duration.
The shortlisted candidates were then given a day or two to prepare for the interview rounds which took place at the company premises.
ROUND 2: THE TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
A decent resume was a must. Students were expected to go through every point in their resume thoroughly. The interviewers discussed the candidate’s CV, their past projects etc. Candidates were asked a wide range of technical questions differing from company to company. Detailed questions were asked by a panel of two interviewers and most of the questions came under the domain of SQL queries, DBMS concepts like recovery techniques and normalization, programming concepts as well as algorithms. Candidates were also given problems for which they were asked to describe their approach to solving it and also had to write the code for the same. At the end of the round candidates were shortlisted and allowed to move forward.
ROUND 3: THE HR INTERVIEW
The interview normally began with the candidate being asked to introduce themselves, state the purpose behind them wanting to work for their company etc. The candidates were asked to describe why they would want to work for a traditional company instead of pursuing their masters or work for a new age start-up of sorts.
“The interviewer noticed that I had done a couple of internships for some startups and asked me why go for a traditional company like CS rather than some new-age startup, and asked me what I would do if a close friend of mine came to me with a startup idea and asked for my technical skills to help launch it. I told him that quite logically, there are hundreds of startups coming up but very few make it big. I would try to help my hypothetical friend as best I could, but not at the risk of giving up a position at a well-established firm like CS. He seemed quite satisfied with my answer. ” – Samriddha Basu, T.E. Computers
The interviewers also asked the candidates questions with ethical dilemmas and what their approach would have been should such situations ever occur.
“Every point that I spoke was counter questioned. The key towards cracking this interview was staying firm on your words. There is no right / wrong answer in an HR interview but justifications do matter.” – Yash Gaba, T.E. Computers
Candidates who hadn’t been selected by previous companies were also asked the reason for not being selected. Certain companies even discussed the candidate’s results in the previous rounds and also gave the candidates an opportunity to ask the interviewer questions. Basically acing the HR interview would require that candidates come prepared for some common questions and answer them with calm and poise.
Soon after the interviews, the results were announced and the selected candidates were notified about their pay-package and city of work.
S.P.I.T saw a great placement season this year with close to 35 students from T.E scoring internships and over 180 students from B.E and MCA getting placed.