Hey there, guys (and girls). Welcome to my 2nd installment in the series ‘The College Placement.’ Dive into the world of College Placements and Interview. Hope you enjoy this as well.
Apathy Towards Corporate Prelims: An Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
A lot of companies came by eventually, but somehow I didn’t feel like giving their prelims. Not sure whether it was due to fear of failure or just a lack of interest. Looking back, it feels like it was a combination of both. Lacking motivation, exams for service-based companies held little appeal. One day, while my entire class took an exam, I remained focused on my business, the ecommarket.in.
I do not remember exactly what I was doing; I just remember thinking that this exam was a waste of time.
Moving forward, I started taking exams for a few companies, but it wasn’t going too well. And actually, my friends were doing better than me. Looking back now, I don’t know if something seemed off about this whole College Placements and Interview thing. Though I wasn’t particularly invested, the expectation to participate prevailed. Consequently, I proceeded to take exams for Hexaware, Tech-Mahindra, TCS, Hitachi Vantara, and CTS.
I remember clearing a few of the exams for the companies mentioned above, and the interview was the next thing. The first interview was for Hexaware. I goofed up due to too much casualness and over-confidence. It was horrible; there were some questions on networking I couldn’t answer, and he gave me a program related to some linked list DS. I was not able to do it at all, and the interviewer was kind of irritated. The interview hardly lasted 15 min, I suppose. One of my cousins also had an interview the same day; he did well. He cleared the 1st interview round, and later on, he got a job offer from Hexaware. I was happy for him. And a little concerned for me now.
Bridging Knowledge Gaps: Preparing for Technical Interviews
After encountering failures, I had an epiphany. It became evident that my foundation was weak, particularly in subjects such as Operating Systems (OS), Networking, and Compiler Design. I had to find a way to accomplish it, no matter what. I started going through tutorials online for OS, and kind of loved it. Networking was vast to cover so I read a lot of interview questions to cope. And saw some videos that were more like a crash course on Networking.
After that, I remember taking an exam for TCS. It consisted of aptitude questions & 2 coding questions. I felt pretty good after the exam. Following that, although I secured selection for TCS Digital, I couldn’t successfully pass through the subsequent stages. So as I had cleared the basic exam, I got a call for an interview. I gave the interview, it was better than Hexaware, there were some questions from C and Python which I don’t remember at this point.
Unexpected Opportunity: A Surprising Interview Call
So days were passing by, and I didn’t get a call from CTS. And it was one fine evening, I was at my friend’s place and I got a call from my mom. It was about an interview, I was not able to understand much but she was saying that I was selected for an interview and I should call my TPO(Training & Placement Officer). I called my TPO and she said I had been shortlisted for the Hitachi Vantara interview for which I had no hope. I was a little shocked as I had no hope for this at least.
A few days later, I had my scheduled interview, which turned out to be a successful one. The interview primarily revolved around Java, with additional questions covering DBMS, OS, and Networking. It was to date the best interview I had. The guy who took my interview was great, but I don’t remember his name. It was more of a discussion rather than an interview, I liked his way of conducting the interview. The interview ended on a good note. I was pretty much confident about it, now the next round was the Managerial round.
A Nerve-Wrecking yet Intriguing Encounter
I was a bit worried about the final round as it was gonna be taken up by one of the VPs of HV. He was very calm and composed, he gave me a few questions on aptitude, I wasn’t able to completely solve them but he didn’t seem like much interested in whether I’d be able to solve it or not. He was much interested in how I’m breaking down the problem and how am I approaching to solve it. The next few questions were related to my college days, he seemed much more interested in activities as a Convener. He asked me a few situation-based questions on how I would tackle them. I think I did pretty well in answering them and he asked for some feedback about the interview process and stuff and it was over. I was not very much satisfied but still, I was kinda happy.