Placement Story: Amadeus Labs
Manan Shah’s Campus Placement Experience at Manipal
We spoke to Manan Shah, a Computer Science Engineering student from the batch of 2021, MIT Manipal. Manan co-founded The Consulting Club at Manipal, and served as the first Vice President, Finance and Corporate Outreach for the club. He was also the Lead Organiser for TED X MAHE Countdown and Category Head, Operations at TechTatva 19 and Revels 20. In this article, he talks about his journey at Amadeus Labs
Interviewer: Where are you working right now, and can you briefly describe your role in the company?
Manan: I am working at Amadeus Software Labs India, Bangalore. My role is that of a Java backend developer. It’s a core coding profile, and I work on applications offered by Amadeus for the travel industry. Amadeus — a Spanish company — provides IT solution infrastructure for the travel and tourism industry. The company started with providing a ticket booking facility, the global distribution system of airline tickets, back in 1987. Since then, it has added a lot more solutions, majorly for air travel but also others — rail travel & waterways in Europe. A lot has changed in travel since then, and also in the last 18 months, and Amadeus has evolved with it, adding more and more applications that support the industry.
Interviewer: Can you give us some details about your field of work, and what are the relevant skills required for it?
Manan: My field of work is a proper software developer one, we work on the codes which are deployed in numerous servers, to provide the IT services, majorly through means of Application Programming Interfaces. Various APIs are used by the travel providers (airlines) and the travel agents (online ticket booking sites, retail agents etc.) to avail these services for the end consumer (the general public). The skills relevant are your basic coding skills — in any language — although Java/C++ is preferred. Further, a good grasp of various data structures and algorithms makes your work a lot easier. Everything else, can majorly be learnt in the industry, right from your coding conventions to be used to how the agile way of software development works.
Interviewer: Talking about Manipal always brings up some great memories. What were your great moments while studying at MIT?
Manan: Being involved in activities on campus would always be the best experiences. The university provides for an amazing environment to develop soft skills by being involved in the clubs, fests and student projects. For me, founding this club — “The Consulting Club at Manipal” is the most recent great memory. We founded the club in February — March, and a week after we got the approval, we all went home. Starting a club from scratch in such uncertain times, made it even more fun. Another great moment would be organising the college fests, which entailed a bit of bureaucracy manoeuvring and a lot of team management — considering the gigantic core committee that we have for each fest. All these experiences provide you with stuff to talk about during your non-technical parts of the interview, and sometimes prove equally important, especially in good companies.
Interviewer: When did you begin preparing for placements?
Manan: I started a bit late, after the first company had already arrived and selected the students. Till then, I hadn’t seriously given placements a thought. In the months preceding placements (April — June 2020), there was a lot of uncertainty about everything and thus I failed to take it as seriously as I should have. The first company took a few of my friends, and that was a major wake up call. Towards the end of July, I started seriously preparing for placements, and I used interviewbit.com majorly. Being in the CSE branch, the preparation was relatively easy. My complete focus was on clearing the OT; which for me, was the biggest huddle.
Interviewer: Tell us about the placements process at Amadeus Labs, and how did you prepare to make sure you get selected?
Manan: The placement process is a straightforward one. First, was the OT, it had 2 coding questions — medium level, along with a few MCQs. The MCQs were a mix of aptitude, basic math, logical reasoning, and basics of a few CS subjects — Computer Networks, Operating Systems, and Database Management Systems. The coding questions have a high weightage and should be given more priority while preparing. Next, we had one interview with a panel of two — a technical interviewer and a HR representative. It had both technical and HR questions — the standard cliché ones. This short placement process, however, I believe, was adapted to the changed scenario of lockdown. This year onwards, it might have more rounds, with HR and technical questions in two separate interviews.
My preparation included practicing competitive coding before OT. After getting selected, I brushed up and prepared the basic HR questions — tell me something about yourself; talk about your strengths & weaknesses; talk about specific experiences and the different extracurriculars you were involved in etc.
Interviewer: How did the pandemic affect the placement process? Were there any specific changes that have been made to tackle the challenges brought on by lockdowns?
Manan: The pandemic created a lot of uncertainty with regards to the process itself. Previously, there were additional rounds, which were cut short in the online version. Whilst appearing for an online placement, we are at home, in a comfortable informal environment whilst you have to be professional during the interview. Just be careful about the room in the background, and take care to dress aptly.
Interviewer: Tell us your experience of working at Amadeus? Is it everything you hoped for, and how did the COVID Pandemic affect your new corporate life?
Manan: Working at Amadeus is a great experience. Being a European company, the work culture is very employee friendly, and everyone is very supportive. This is in contrast to how the American and Indian companies function.
I was lucky enough to have a few weeks in the office at Bangalore. The office experience was a great one, with many perks that come with in-office work. After that, even working from home has been a great experience, with lots of learning and growth.
Interviewer: Thank you for giving us this opportunity Manan. Is there anything you wish you knew before you started preparing for placements that you only learned later through your own experience?
Manan: Just focus on the particular type of role that attracts you, prepare for it well. Talk to seniors who are in the role currently, about how to prepare. From my experience and seeing my batch mates around me, almost all people who were serious about getting placed, did get placed. Stay focused, keep working hard and you are bound to get placed. We all experience anxiety and nervousness during the process, especially with so many people getting placed around us; but we have to learn to not let that affect our work and focus. It’s challenging, but it’s important to focus on the important stuff at hand — the next OT or the upcoming interview or just solving that one extra question — be it on leetcode or indiabix.
That’s all from my end. Best of luck to all your readers for placements!
You can connect with Manan on LinkedIn
Editors: Vidhi Mehta, Sumantra Sen and Riddhi Agrahari
