The More You Know #6 : Core

This blog contains the internship preparation journey of Pranjal Singh, Y21 student at IIT Kanpur, who successfully bagged an internship at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory , as well as suggestions for the preparation of core profile.

Hey everyone, I am Pranjal Singh, a Y21 undergraduate in the department of chemical engineering. I will be interning at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory in the core profile this summer. I will be sharing my preparation journey and interview experience here.

To begin with, I would like to share about myself, after joining the institute, I explored a bit of things, I did a SnT summer project in the field of game development, which was a good learning and experience, but I realized that it required a lot of graphic creativity and patience since it is an iterative process. I also did projects in ML and deep learning offered by the chemineers society. I started competitive programming at the end of my first year as most of my wingies were doing that. CP was like okay to me, but I was never too much fascinated about it. So, I prepared for both software roles as well as core profile roles.

Preparation journey:

I began my internship preparation around 10 days after the end of my semester exams. Since I hadn’t studied data structures and algorithms (DSA) before, I started learning DSA from resources like GeeksforGeeks and YouTube, focusing on topics and practicing questions from InterviewBit. Simultaneously, I undertook a surge project in the core field to keep both software and core roles open. Around 3 to 4 hours of my daily schedule were dedicated to the surge project. Additionally, being a part of IITKMS consumed some of my time, while the rest was devoted to DSA preparation.

By the end of the summer, I covered major DSA topics, although I was not able to complete all the InterviewBit questions. Starting from the end of June, I began practicing a few group discussions of different types, considering that various companies have diverse formats for group discussions. I particularly focused on GDs relevant to techno-managerial and core companies. In July, I also revisited a few core subjects such as CHE221, CHE211, and ESO201.

From my preparation experience, I would advise dedicating 100% of your time to coding and DSA if you are aiming for software roles. It’s beneficial to participate in competitive programming contests and solve LeetCode problems.

Resume making:

It is advisable to start making resume from one month before the submission deadline. I already had my resume with basic things, I started updating it from the last week of June. Your first draft should be completed before atleast 10 days of submission, start sending to the seniors for reviewing, update it continuously. It is good to have 3–4 projects (including any research work) in your resume. All the points of your resume should be to the point and very clear to you.

Selection process:

I gave only DRL interview, so I will be talking about selection process of same.

1. Resume shortlist: It was mainly CPI-based. Students above 6 were shortlisted. There may be some exceptions who have really good POR or decent Internships. Around 160 candidates were shortlisted for this round.

2. Technical test: After the resume shortlisting, there was a technical test that contained 30 technical questions. The time for these questions was 30 minutes, followed by 20 aptitude questions in 20 minutes. Technical questions were from basic chemical kinetics, Polymers, thermodynamics, Mass balance, and fluid mechanics. Aptitude questions were not that straightforward, questions were easy but a bit time taking so time was an issue in this section. Very importantly at the end of the test, there were 100 behavioural questions. Answers those questions very seriously. That could be the key point in shortlisting for the next round.

3. Group discussion: After the technical test around 80 candidates were shortlisted for the GD, The topic of the GD was technical like any reactor or any process from industry and we had to discuss some questions like fundamental laws that govern the phenomena and properties that affect that system, etc.

4. Technical Interview: After GD around 21 candidates were shortlisted for technical interview. It was a short interview around 20 to 30 minutes. The interview was mostly based on my resume as my resume contained some core projects. So, they asked to explain those projects. They asked me about laminar and turbulent flow, viscosity measurement, and uses in the pharmaceutical industry. For those, whom projects were not much relevant to field, they asked from fluid mechanics and a bit from reactors, thermodynamic equilibrium etc.

5. HR round: 15 candidates were shortlisted for this round. This was a behaviour discussiontype interview. The interviewer asked me about my family background, and what are your involvement on campus. They asked about any place or project where you worked as a team of 30–40 people and what the problem you faced working with such a large number. They asked about routine, what you do in your free time, relocation problems, etc. You don’t need to prepare anything, just be natural and react to whatever they ask you.

General tips for core profiles:

• For technical tests, you need to prepare fluid mechanics and basic thermodynamics, mass, and energy balances. You can also brush up on your Jee-level chemical kinetics concepts.
• Make a group of around 10 friends and sit with a senior to practice as many GDs as you can, almost all the core companies take GDs, so it is very important. Once you are confident, try to initiate group discussion, and be active during discussion.
• You must have each and every point of your resume at your fingertips. Structure it in a storytelling way in your mind.
• Prepare the projects you did very well, and also think about further improvements, challenges faced during the project, etc.
• Fluid mechanics (ESO204/CHE211) and thermodynamics (ESO201 and CHE221) very well.
• You don’t need to prepare as such for the HR round, just think about a place where you can show them your teamwork and collaboration skills, and just be honest and very clear with your thought process.

“Stay calm and patient during your internship phase. Things may not go your way, but don’t panic or lose hope at that time. Do what is required, and eventually, everything will fall into place!”

Thank you for reading!

The Academics and Career Council wishes you all the best in your internship preparation journey. We are here to support you every step of the way. Please feel free to reach out to us for any assistance you may need.