The placement season is here

Updated on: Monday, December 28, 2009

Campus placements this year, even at the top engineering college campuses, is months behind schedule. However, this has nothing to do with the global economic recession or its impact on various sectors in the country. An unusually cohesive initiative by academia and industry, ratified by a circular issued by IT body NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) had ensured that companies put away campus visits to the eighth semester, in an attempt to safeguard academic interests.

The seventh and penultimate semester for engineering students nevertheless has not been completely devoid of activity. Top colleges in Bangalore saw a few top-notch finance companies visiting the campus in spite of the caveat. Even small engineering firms scouting for talent did pay visits to campuses. However, big players have been waiting for 2010 to enter the arena.

Starting January, engineering students will sit for campus placement interviews. In what will be yet another tough placement season, albeit the mood is predicted to be better than last year, students will face potential recruiters with a do-or-die agenda in hand. Ready for their careers to take off, and understandably apprehensive, the tension among final year students is palpable in campuses this time around.

No time to rejoice

With little time to rejoice the completion of their seventh semester examination, students will now have to get into the placement mood by sharpening their resumes and getting their priorities right. Rumours of a recovering job market, and a reported thaw in the recruitment freeze, have quelled some fears among students.

Placement officials in colleges, however, maintain that a tough time lies ahead for students as companies are bound to be choosy. Also, given the fact that the rumoured green shoots in the West are not completely visible, students will have to give it their best, a placement official and professor in a leading engineering college in Bangalore said. Tier-II colleges still have it bad as companies are not yet back in full swing as far as numbers go, the professor added.

An HR executive in a Mumbai-based hiring agency says that up north, trends have not yet reversed. However, students in Karnataka are at an advantage due to the proximity of the industry. But students must do their best to get in this year. Make hay while the sun shines is the best advice for them, she opines. Once out into the market, given the number of laid-off workers and the number of executives who have returned from offshore jobs, the competition will be stiff for freshers.

They must remember that once companies feel the pinch, training costs are among the first things that they will look at cutting down on. Even last year, the top colleges in Karnataka may have posted positive placements statistics but the number of offers made by each company had declined. This may very well remain a trend this year, placement officials fear.

What students can do

At the engineering college level, campus placement methodologies vary from company to company. The general rounds include the customary aptitude test, some throw in a Group Discussion round for preliminary elimination, and generally culminate in shortlisting students for a personal interview.

Companies that focus on the technical side, most often hardware firms or often the core branches that may not invest much in training, also throw in a few subject-based questions in the written test, though over time these have become the exception rather than the rule.

Personal interviews, however, are a sure shot round, and understandably rather rigorous. Every company has its own set of requirements.

Experts from colleges and the HR side, who spoke to The Hindu Education Plus, offered general tips and insights into the placement process. Every company looks out for a different skill set, despite some striking similarities, and placement officials say that often the best resource for students is their alumni. Keeping in touch with seniors, asking them how to go about your preparations is the most valuable input you will receive, officials say. However, the power of a simple Internet search too should not be undermined, adds Vikas Mehta, who got placed into leading tech firm TCS from PESIT two years ago.

Talking to seniors is invaluable and the Internet is the best way to go about it. It's quite like crowdsourcing. There are numerous forums where people share their experiences with interviews, even put up question papers or likely question patterns for various companies, Vikas explains (example: freshersworld.com).

It's no rocket science: simply log on to the Internet and look for forums that provide guidance on anything from how to write a winning resume to what clothes to wear, to what is the best attitude to sport on D-Day.

Background study

Do a background study of the company you are opting for. A thorough study will give you an insight into its operations, and hence will offer a deeper insight into what it is looking for.

We tell our students to get this right from the start. If you are somebody who clearly lacks in communication skills but is excellent in academics, a non-services based sector may suit you better.

Doing this evaluation for yourself really helps, points out a placement official from a leading engineering college near Bangalore. That is, while service-based job portfolios may emphasise on soft skills or aptitude (as they retrain the bulk of their workforce), in a product development company it may all be related to how much technical knowledge or hands-on technical skills you appear to have.

With most jobs closely linked with outsourcing, companies even insist on good communication skills, such as being able to write a coherent letter, or being able to draft an event summary or write a personal Statement of Purpose.

Be honest

Another thing to remind students is that everything that is written down in your test will be brought up in your personal interview, so it does not pay to pretend or write fiction, the placement counsellor explained.

Counsellors also advice students, particularly in tier-II colleges where placement prospects may be lean or even non-existent, to go ahead and upload their resumes on job portals well in advance.

This also helps prepare students for the job market, with basic skills such as preparing resumes, writing covering letters, drafting applications and sifting through different job portfolios.

The placement season is here

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