PLACEMENT PREPARATION TIPS

Resume preparation tips

* As short as possible - my take on resumes
1 Page resume - BRILLIANT
2 Page resume - GOOD
3 Page resume - Stop sitting for interviews and try authoring a book
* Customize your resume for each company if you can - please prepare 3 formats of resume
a)Core Technical companies like Yahoo,Cosmic Circuits,......
Focus on projects,technical skills,objective statement saying that you are a tech
lover.
b)Companies that look into your soft skills and leadership ability as well like
Oracle,Morgan Stanley,......
Lay stress on showing your tech skills and also your leadership skills + your team
player skills - place your extra circular activities just after your tech skills
c)Bus companies - they take whatever you give them ( this is imp for people < CGPA
(6.0) )
Prepare an overall resume - not just one that is technical or purely leadership
oriented , keep stressing on the word growth - they some how like it.
These are the basic formats of resumes - once you decide what company it is try
searching them in Google and make a resume that suits their needs
Please follow this link for a sample resume of Harsha Konduri - most apt for
category b) .
* Never fake in your resume - you'll get caught very easily
* Know what you did in each project completely - it is more important for the 1st semesters
because you would not have completed your PS(internship) to question you on it. Some
interviewers may be interested only in your projects!!!
* Prepare a short 2 min speech on "Tell me about yourself" - don't try to know yourself after
the interviewer questions you this - this should be about you as a person and your
achievements , not about your projects their scope and objectives.
* Prepare for a question on "Why should we hire you?"/"Why should we hire you and not
your peer who gave the interview just before you?"(This can be little more embarassing
than the first question.So be prepared)/"Why do you want to work at our company?" -
"What is your weakness ? , what are your strengths ?"
* There are few companies which come with a specific domain and you already seem to
know the domain a bit and love it - MAKE SURE YOU ARE WELL PREPARED for it as you
might not get a chance again.
* There are standard questions like
a)They will ask you series of questions and suddenly this question of whats your
GRE score is - You should say you've not given it
b)About the rest of the things I think you should be saying you don't have plans to
study in the near future ( about 3 to 4 years )
* Never use superlatives like I am the best or I am very good technically - tell them short
and sweet positive sentences
Aptitude Tests
Dont be under the impression that no preparation is needed for Aptitude. As far as campus
placements are concerend 99% companies will have Apti-Tech test which will be the
preliminary round. There will be separate cut off marks for each of the section. However
good you are in technical, unless you clear the Aptitude Tests, you cant get to the interview.
So be prepared...
The best way to crack Aptitude tests : R.S.Agarwal for Quant prep. If you dont have time to
solve the problems, atleast try to learn the formulas specified at the beginning of each
topic. This will help to arrive at answer quickly during the tests. Also try to do atleast some
examples in each sections.
A little advanced would be Sankuntala Devi's "Puzzles to puzzle you". You can expect
puzzles from this even during your technical interviews!!! There they see how you approach
the problem.
Verbal questions are quite easy. You may be asked reading comprehensions(RC),
synonyms/antonyms, sentence correction and jumbled sentences.
Going through the baron's list would be a perk, but its not necessary. Most of the words are
simple. Practice some RC's so that you get the speed.
Apart from quants and verbal, there might be some logical/critical reasoning questions too.
It involves drawing reasonable conclusions from the arguments. Here Infosys students have
an upper hand since all of you have studied Symbolic Logic.
* Aptitude is important because there are companies which want to take a look at people
with high aptitude skills even with little technical skills but not the other way round.
Data Structure and Algorithms (Please go to the link and click on
'request access to this document'. The docs are created from the materials collected by
some seniors)
This is the most crucial subject when you appear for an interview, whether on campus or off
campus as a fresh graduate. Have uploaded a file which will help you a lot for your
interviews.
Here is the link : http://docs.google.com/
Doc?id=dds3v3z6_6gd63dwc4
The above mentioned material covers almost the whole of Data Structures.
Have a thorough knowledge about various sort and search algorithms.
When questioned to give a logic or the approach for a problem its not necessary that it
should be an optimal solution.
Mostly interviewers analyse how you think and how you are approaching the problem.
The above material is quite helpful but one should know to explain when questioned.
Common questions are :
1. How did u approach the problem or how you got the basic ideja on how to solve the
problem.
2.Is this an optimal solution .IF not ,what can be the optimal solution. (you should have
some knowledge about complexities)
Eg. for a problem can be " HOW TO FIND A MIDDLE NODE IN THE LINKED LIST" (this is a
simple one)
For C or C++ program for Linked Lists( both Single linked list and Double Linked List) Refer
to http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_0cq2qgxfz&hl=en
For Various tree programs like "FINDING THE DEPTH OF THE TREE", "DETERMINING
NUMBER OF ELEMENTS IN A TREE" Refer to http://docs.google.com/
Doc?id=dmk9zgn_1wz8fd7hb&hl=en
Operating Systems
In OS, you have to concentrate on very basic questions. It will be mostly on theoretical
explanations. It will be good if a student can take up an example and explain the theory.
Concentrate on various scheduling algorithms, kernel functionalities, deadlock. Threads and
synchronization problems needs to be given importance.
Give clear and confident explanation to the questions asked.
Following link can give you some idea about various OS questions:
http://www.thecareerplus.com/?page=resources&cat=20
Networking:
Difference between Hubs, Bridges, Repeaters, Switches, Routers..Which device is used at
which layer, Main Routing Algorithms like RIP etc, Which protocol is used by which
application (main ones) For eg: TCP/UDP for video conferencing etc., Handshaking
mechanism in TCP
For Basic Networking Concepts Refer to the link
http://www.globalguideline.com/interview_questions/
Questions.php?sc=Basic_Networking_Concepts_Interview_Questions_and_Answers&page=1
Refer to the site http://www.coolinterview.com/type.asp?iType=48 for sample interview
questions on Networking.
UNIX:(Please go to the link and click on 'request access to this document'. The
docs are created from the materials collected by some seniors)
Under UNIX, you could probably take a look at commands that include AWK, SED, GREP,
Find and as many examples on Pipe. Written tests that include UNIX will be mostly on the
aforementioned commands.
Refer to the doc for Basic definitions in UNIX.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_7d3hdcbdh&hl=en
Refer to the docs for all UNIX commands, and test the output for each command to know
more on it.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_8hqtjcqcm&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_3d898v4g2&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_4dpvssbct&hl=en
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dmk9zgn_5dd2vqkfg&hl=en
DBMS
As far as DBMS is considered, the interview will be of mostly theoritical type. So, be clear
about the basic definition and concepts of DBMS.
The topics which are mainly asked are:
Normalization- Be clear about the differences between various normalization techniques
with example
ER Concepts-Basic definitions of entity, relationships-types
SQL-Keys, Constraints, Tables and simple queries
Its better to have knowledge on any database- for ex. Oracle 9i/10g -differences between
the versions and basic functions.
Here is a link for sample campus study material for DBMS:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcqh6fb2_448rtt5fw
Software Engineering
Information Systems students have this subject as their Bonus point when compared
to Computer Sciance students. For all those who want to be the solid software developers,
got to know the various software development processes and techniques that are employed
in the IT industry. Each IT organisation has got its own methodolgy of the Software
Development Life Cycle Process (SDLC) and all of u got to know right from the Chapter 2
which talks about the Process. It talks about development models like waterfall, win-win
model, RAD, concurrent, etc.,Mind U, be thorough with all these models as these are
considered to be the basics of S/W engg and in interveiws the first questions will be on one
of these processes.
Also Systems Engg, quality assurance in software development, software architectures,
component based engineering, conceptual modeling are the areas that one must be
acquainted with.
One must be familiar with all the QA based questions like the various testing techniques and
strategies. This was the question that was asked in the Business Objects interview when
one of the students said that his subject of interest was S/W engg.
If it is a manager that is interviewing you - it will be really good if you are strong in your SE
Basics and make him ask questions on SE - HE WILL LOVE IT!!! - I am not sure if it is a
team lead - How do you distinguish between both of them - if he is > 35 he is a manager <
35 he is a team lead :P
Oracle Retail has S/W engg as one of its side dish besides main dishes DS, OS, DBMS :) So,
first order the Main Dish and then go for the side dish..!!
Apart from these topics, have an idea about the basics in computer architecture,
digital electronics(various GATEs and its applications) and microprocessors.
Stress Interviews
Some companies may conduct a stress interview. And mind you, they wont be stating that
there is going to be a stress round. It might be conducted anytime. It maybe a part of your
tech round or HR round. You never know!!
In stress interviews they will basically try to intimidate you. So why would they go on to do
that? To find out how you handle the stress. Once a candidate demonstrates that he or she
can perform effectively under stress, the test is passed.
So if you happen to find yourself being bombarded by questions in a very rapid pace, or
somebody who fires questions in a rude way and at the same time watching your every
move(like waiting to see what your body lang reveals), you need to take control of the
interview.
And it may not be that in stress rounds, the interviewer is always rude and very fast. It
might be the other extreme too. The interviewer may stare or be silent. In one interview i
attended, the interviewer asked me a question and started to read something else. You
might be left wondering whether he is listening to what you are answering. The interviewer
will give the impression that he/she is least interested in what you are saying. But! be on
guard. This is yet one more tactic to gauge your stress level.
Sometimes they may also ask offensive questions that are designed to deliberately make
you uncomfortable. Keep your cool, take your time in responding to the questions, and
when it's all over, reward yourself.
Going through this link would help!
http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/hastress.htm
Important websites :
www.freshersworld.com (has numerous solved papers, both for technical and aptitude)
http://profile.iiita.ac.in/pkmallick_03/index.html