Manish Barnwal

...just another human

The Placement Season

The placement season is back. Nothing new, it comes every year but may be...this is new for you and I'm talking to those who're about to witness probably the most important phase of their college life.

First things first. I'll start with a disclaimer - "Everything written on this space is my personal experience which is definitely not a statistically significant sample size"

The very first question that comes to a typical final year student- What should I start my preparation with? You've got to do a lot, you know that but you don't know what to start with?

I'll help you out here. I'd started with the TnPedia (this is specific to just students from IIT Kharagpur; others please ignore this).

Heard of TnPedia? I'm sure you'd have. If not, just download it from dc++. Ohh yes! dc is used for useful stuff as well apart from the 'general daily stuff'. Download the last three years TnPedia and read through the companies you're targeting. This'll give you an overview of what is expected in an interview, what procedures are followed in different companies, you may also gain some insight to what kind of preparation is needed for a particular company.

Now that you have given a thorough read to your target companies. Start preparing accordingly. I'll try to give a brief introduction as to what preparation is needed for different profiles.

CONSULTING

Victor Cheng is your friend. Super-smart guy. Download his video lectures(again dc++) to get an understanding of what solving a case-study looks like. I'd suggest you to subscribe to his email newsletters as well. Those will help you in slowly gaining the overall idea of consulting.

Preparing for this takes time and you'll have to be persistent. Practise with your wingies, your department friends, anyone...but practise!

Do the role play. Some of you become the interviewer and one of you could be the interviewee. I know it sounds weird. But trust me you'll learn a lot. You'll overcome your anxiety of facing the interviewers. At first the role-play thing won't go that fine but with time it'll be smooth and everyone involved will come out beneficial.

Share your feedback about each other. I remember I used to get a lot aggressive while participating in mock group discussions with my friends. You sure will get to know about your weaknesses. Work on these weaknesses before it's too late. By doing this, you get a chance to commit all your mistakes before the real interview and that's a good thing. Enough words. It's time to execute.

"Being pro-active is the key."

Resources for preparation:

  • Download the video lectures from dc++. Some 10 videos are there
  • Subscribe to case interview emails
  • Case in point. The pdf is easily available on dc++ or online as well
  • Practise your basic math skills. You can't afford to make calculation mistakes in interview. CaseInterview will improve your calculation speed and accuracy

    Case-interview is all about practise. After going through some frameworks you'll feel like you've earned the mastery over this but I guarantee you'll find this wrong once you actually solve a case-study problem in a real interview set-up. So practise, practise and practise.

    That's all for now. I'll add about other job profiles soon as time permits. No more a free bird like I used to be in Kgp. Next update would be on Coding.

CODING

Let's talk about coding preparation. Coding was one thing which I'd started learning and practicing only during my placement preparation. Prior to that I never really liked it. Actually I'd never really put much effort into it. And let me tell you this - Coding is interesting stuff to say the least.

Some of the resources that I'd found helpful.

That's all for now. Next update would be on puzzles and brainteasers.

All the best for the placements. Prepare well. Any help needed? Drop me an email or comment down and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

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