How to plan for placement in first year of college?

 

Placement is the most important thing to end the educational carrier. So, it's our responsibility to take it more seriously. In this blog, I will discuss, How to plan for your placement in the first year of college.

Disclaimer: First of all, I will definitely suggest you, read this blog till the end and I am assuming that all of you belong to the BTech course and eager to get placed in the IT sector.

Welcome to college life. Now you are going to start a very auspicious phase of your life combining both educational & fun components. Before preparing a plan, it is very much necessary to know, What are things required to get a good job in the end. I will discuss, How to join a product-based company?

Product-based companies are those companies that think, develop, launch & maintain a product to fulfill human needs. For example, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Cisco, HashedIn, Linked In, etc.

All the product-based generally hire in two ways:

1. Campus placement & Hackathons.

2. Application through job portals & referrals.

The first option is not applicable to all, we will discuss more option 2. Skills required in both approaches are the same but the chances of getting hired in the second case are a bit higher.

In both cases, a common thing is, a very impressive resume a required. To create a good resume, we need to know, what the resume really contains?

Resume tips:

Size: 1 or 2 pages at max.

Sections (From top to bottom):

Section 1: Name, Email, GitHub & LinkedIn id.

You must have an active & updated GitHub & LinkedIn account.

Section 2: Education (Latest first)

Although it is not always needed, you should maintain a GPA of greater than 8.5. I might create some issues later on.

Section 3: Projects & Internships

If you follow my guidance, you will successfully complete two projects & two internships. But it is mandatory to have at least one internship & two good projects.

Section 4: Honours & Awards

Participate in co-curriculum activities as much as possible and try to earn 3-4 certificates. Try to participate in national & international level events.

Section 5: Skills & Interests

It completely depends on you.

After discussing the portion, we are going to discuss the strategy.

First-year: No need to hurry up. Just keep the things simple. You have to do the required things in the first year as:

1. Make friends, join the clubs & enjoy. Try to gain as max co-curriculum certificates as possible.

2. Grab a command over C language. Solve as many pseudo-codes questions as possible to boost the concept. Hold a command over the concepts like pointer, recursion & file handling.

Second-year: From now take things seriously. You have to do the required things in the second year as:

1. Start coding in any language C++, Java, or python. Try to complete data structures questions in the second year.

2. Start learning a development technology (Web D or Android ) and make a minor project.

3. At the end of the second year, try to do an internship in the development field.

4. Reduce participation in co-curriculum activities.

Third-year: I call it a boost-up phase. You have to do the required things in the third year as:

1. Start solving DSA questions at Leetcode & start coding at CodeChef too. You can choose any platform between CodeChef & codeforces.

2. Start learning data science or ML and make a minor project.

3. At the end of the third year, try to do an internship in the development field or ML field.

4. Say no to co-curriculum activities.

5. Start revising the core subjects like DBMS, Data Structures, Algorithms & OS.

Final-year: You have to do the required things in the final year as:

1. Solve DSA regularly until got placed.

2. Revise the core subjects regularly.

3. Keep a deep understanding & information about your projects & internships.

So, I should say, to get a job in top product-based companies, you should have the following skills:

1. Stronghold at DSA & Oops.

2. A basic understanding of core concepts.

3. Good projects & internships.

4. Good GPA & communication skills.

Thank you,

Aryan