All about Placements with Vinit Shahdeo — VIT, Vellore

Many of you can relate to being in the dark about what goes into landing a lucrative job with a hefty package. This blog has no particular target audience and its contents are meant to help out everyone who will take an interest in it. It addresses many topics that are relevant to anyone applying for a job, not just limited to a fresh graduate. Last month VinnovateIT had the privilege of interviewing Vinit Shahdeo, a VIT alumni currently working at Postman. All aspects related to placements were discussed and here is what he graded (out of 10) in terms of importance and had to say about each:

Communication Skills — 7

Throughout the interview Vinit consistently expressed the huge role that your skills in English and expressing your ideas plays, because at the end of the day what is being a team player and possessing knowledge worth if you can’t communicate? HR/Managerial rounds test verbal and written communication skills very rigorously.

CGPA- 4

It’s debatable how much CGPA matters and its importance varies for different companies/colleges. In VIT, one needs a CGPA of 8.5 to take the test for applying for super dream companies in campus placements.

Competitive Coding- 11

“Code like you eat”. Throughout the interview if there is one thing that Vinit puts a lot of emphasis on is that one must devote at least an hour of their day to competitive coding and follow this religiously. There are a multitude of reasons for this. For one, companies shortlist candidates for interview on the basis of their performance in the coding rounds and no amount of projects undertaken by you or your tech stack will matter if you fail to clear it. He mentioned only 30–50 making the cut-off for the next tech rounds out of 2000+ applicants when he appeared for the placement drive in VIT Vellore. Solutions presented in the coding rounds not only qualify on passing all test cases, optimal space and time complexity are also crucial and being able to optimise code is a skill attained through consistent practice and participation in competitive coding competitions. Competitive coding also hones one’s skills in Problem Solving and DSA, the importance of which we’ll come to Competitive Coding forms a steeper learning curve as one progresses. Vinit suggested that a beginner can start solving problems on beginner friendly platforms like Hackerrank before participating on Codeforces or CodeChef.

Open Source — 8

Contributing to open source on GitHub improves your profile conspicuously. The green dots on your GitHub profile will go a long way in making you stand out and make employers notice your profile, especially if you are applying for openings through online platforms.

Participating in programs like Google Summer of Code, Rails Girl Summer of Code and GirlScript Summer of Code is a great way of gaining an edge over other candidates in terms of open source contribution, boosting your green dots on GitHub and getting exposure to working in a collaborative environment.

Internships- 6

Internship experience is not absolutely crucial but internships are a good learning experience and provide valuable exposure to the Software Development Life Cycle and working in teams.

The best time to do an Internship is after your 4th semester. Internships in start ups are easier to land and one can learn and contribute more. They are one of the places where you can build your network and add to your tech stack under professional guidance.

Skill in AI, ML, Blockchain, VR- 7

Learning them over the span of your college life can be helpful in developing powerful solutions in Hackathons or other projects. Skills learned should also be implemented in a way that adds to the community.

Projects- 7

Development experience is always an asset for any coder. Quality matters over quantity. Vinit recollected screening resumes that showcased very common ML projects which did not solve an open problem, instead a project that expresses a unique perspective to solving a problem will stand out. Obviously having traditional projects in your resume will not add any value to it.

Resume- 10

Resumes are crucial to getting placed, no surprises there. Building a good resume merits its very own blog. However, there is a surprise ultimately- people tend to make very subtle errors that undermine the strength of their blogs, mistakes hidden in plain sight to the untrained reader, which recruiters are not. Vinit was generous enough to share some guidelines to acing the art of building a resume. Salient points are as follows:

• Know what you are talking about. When listing out your tech stack and skills, make sure to categorize them properly. Anecdotally it is a common mistake to list out HTML under programming languages you know (HTML is a Markup Language). Research thoroughly to avoid conceptual errors.
• Recruiters love numbers. Whenever summarizing projects, accolades, grades, years of experience and so many more parameters, try to include statistical data. To illustrate, instead of saying that you upgraded an application, you could mention boosting its performance by a certain percentage. Numbers stand out and infographics are quite attractive too.
• Awards and Accolades get preference over Projects so listing them is essential.
• Adding links to the projects that you have made is more important than you think. You could have created Snapchat for all we know but without a GitHub link, there will be no evidence to back your claim.
• Explain past work experience, extra curricular activities, projects and voluntary work in 5–6 concise points.

Clubs and Chapters- 7

Joining clubs and chapters provide a means of networking with like-minded individuals and working in a collaborative environment. Networking is fundamental to getting placed off campus. Sticking to the classroom or just self learning can be limiting, not just in coding but also in how you think, approach problems and open upto ideas. Clubs and chapters are a very tested place to broaden your horizons.

Hackathons- 7

They are excellent platforms for expressing solutions and creating projects.
You learn, build and meet different people from various domains in hacks, and have fun! The vibe of the hackathon arena is awesome. It is an enriching ecosystem which becomes a part of your life beyond the event, where you end up working with your team on different projects, connect with seniors and mentor juniors for upcoming hackathons. Vinit says that it is an amazing feeling to be able to help someone.

Digital Footprint- 9

It can be argued that your digital footprint carries as much weight as your resume. Your presence on social networking sites like LinkedIn or GitHub improves your noticeability, which boosts your prospects when applying for jobs on online platforms. The Indian developer community is very active on Twitter. It is a valuable resource for learning about the latest developments in the global and Indian tech community and job openings.

Data Structures and Algorithms- 11

The one concept every coder should be proficient in! The world of tech is progressing rapidly and one can have a hefty tech stack to their name, but the one subject that is here to stay for good is Data Structures and Algorithms. Keeping up with the evolution of software development becomes easier when you ace DSA. Do not slack off on learning DSA as many questions from it are bound to be asked in interviews.

Bonus Insight into Off Campus Placements

As with a good number of things in life, you can only hope that you have some luck in your inventory. In the average case, you can end up landing a job after applying for as many as 50! You should apply on various platforms such as LinkedIn, InstaHyre, Angels.co, Amazon.jobs and the career pages of the respective companies (you can find the option in that section right at the bottom of the webpage which no one looks at twice).

With some mint knowledge credited to your bank, we wish you all the luck in your journey. And hey, don’t forget to check out the interview right below!