Placement Story: BlackRock
Harsha’s Campus Placement Experience at Manipal
We spoke to Harsha Tummala, a Computer Science & Engineering student from the Batch of 2020. He entered college determined to focus on his academics but later got into various activities with multiple clubs and served as the Chairperson of IEEE Manipal. He is a sports enthusiast and participated in multiple marathons during his engineering days. In his summer vacations, he interned at IIIT as well as Huawei providing him the academic edge. This balanced routine that he followed helped him secure his desired role at BlackRock.
BlackRock is a global investment management corporation based in New York. Initially, started out as a risk management company, it has now become the world’s largest asset manager, with $7.4 trillion assets under its management as of Q4 FY19. BlackRock operates in 30 countries with clients in 100 countries.
Interviewer: Where are you working right now, and can you briefly describe your role in the company?
Harsha: I am currently interning with BlackRock on big data and web application development. My job revolves around developing an application that can benefit my team by saving them hours of work and which can be scaled to serve a more important purpose in the organisation from a data perspective as we proceed. Learning web dev ecosystem and functioning of big data systems were key.
Interviewer: How does a typical day at work look like?
Harsha: Working hours are flexible. Based on your team, the day can start between 6 am to 12 pm and end between 3 pm to 9 pm, or later. It all depends on the work assigned to you. The overall day is not exhaustingly stressful. There is no restriction on taking a break as long as you get your work done but the most significant benefit is actually the environment in the company. It’s lively, relaxed, and very inviting. Even after a full workday, there is time to unwind or hit the gym for a while.
Interviewer: How was your time in Manipal? Tell us about the best bits.
Harsha: It’s funny when I recollect but I was a person who came to Manipal thinking that I had to do great in academics especially after getting into CSE. I ended up leaning towards getting experience through hands-on projects and like most first years, I joined way too many clubs to be able to manage. I eventually stuck with LDQ, IEEE Student Branch Manipal, and also took up graphic designing. I became an organizer for the graphics category at fests and that was when I started enjoying graphic designing. However, I gave it up after becoming the category head in my third year as it didn’t feel right. The time I spent during pre-TechTatva and pre-Revels with everyone, boasting of who had gotten the longest night perms, were really fun times. One great thing about Manipal is that you get a lot of time to explore new fields and pursue things you had always pushed to the background. A thing like that for me was endurance running. I participated in multiple full marathons and half marathons and ran more than 1500 km in my third year which was a milestone for me. I participated in debates and sketching competitions. My time in IEEE as its chair was a rollercoaster ride, from trying to manage a club with a group of peers to figuring out where to lead the club. All of this aside, I made my closest friends and lived the most memorable moments here — from the first year info desk duty to random frisbee games in front of FC.
Interviewer: That’s great to hear! Can you tell us about your placement preparation? When did you start and were there any companies you had your eyes on?
Harsha: I started preparing for placement around two weeks before the placements started. Mostly because I was too invested in my summer internship which lasted almost for a month after the college opened. My main focus was joining a company and gaining experience before going on to do my masters. I didn’t have a dream company as such but I was focused on the type of company and the role that I wanted. A large financial firm with a developer/analyst role fits me well.
Interviewer: How was BlackRock’s campus placement process? Most importantly, how was your experience of it?
Harsha: First there was an online screening test which had logical reasoning, Data Structures (DS), Algorithms and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) multiple choice questions. Once shortlisted, there were three rounds, two of them were technical rounds and one HR. Based on the performance in the first round, the second technical round might or might not be conducted.
In my first round, the interview started with my introduction and questions regarding Manipal, then they went through my CV and asked about the internships that I had done and what my role was in them. They asked a lot of questions about my Virtusa internship. Some logical reasoning trick questions and one thing that I remember clearly was that they asked me technical questions around topics I was comfortable with based on what I told them. Because of all the explanations I gave about my internships, they only asked a few technical questions on OOP and DS. Another suggestion is to communicate properly with your interviewer if you have any doubt or when you are stuck on a certain question. Be verbal about your thought process regarding how you approach the problem so that the interviewer can redirect you in the right path in case there was a mistake somewhere. Overall, my first round went really well which I felt was mostly because I could explain questions on my CV accurately. My second round was HR and from what I’ve noticed, their main aim is to see how you can fit into the company’s environment, your willingness to work with the firm, and your communication skills.
Another suggestion is to communicate properly with your interviewer if you have any doubt or when you are stuck on a certain question. Be verbal about your thought process regarding how you approach the problem so that the interviewer can redirect you in the right path in case there was a mistake somewhere.
Interviewer: When do you think is the ideal time to start preparing for placements and what are key points that one must focus on?
Harsha: My advice would be to start preparing in the summer itself even if you are not consistent with keeping it up every day. In case you cannot start preparation in summer, don’t sweat it but make sure you start once college opens. Frankly, if you can give yourself an hour every day until the day placements start, no one can stop you from acing your first round and the technical rounds. In the end, it is not about how smart you are but how consistent with your preparation can you be. Competitive coding is a must for any company with a high package but make sure you are thorough with DS, Algorithms, OOP, and Computer Networks.
In the end, it is not about how smart you are but how consistent with your preparation can you be.
Interviewer: Those are some great advice. Can you tell us a little bit about the profiles that were offered?
Harsha: They come once and for two profiles i.e. APG and FMG, where both are analyst roles but FMG is Finance Modelling Group and APG is a programming/development profile. While they only come for interns, the conversion rate is almost 90%. The locations were Mumbai and Delhi for both P/I. There is also a possibility to have I in Mumbai and P in Delhi or vice versa. No bond.
Interviewer: How helpful was your branch during placements and in your job?
Harsha: Data structures, OOP, Computer Networks are some of the important concepts they look for. It’s advisable to pay good attention to these topics as they will come in handy. For the job, I’d say it’s not directly relevant but the conceptual parts remain the same. So, the learning rate is better for a CS student in analytics/development profiles as compared to students of other streams.
Interviewer: We know that you’ve achieved a lot beyond traditional studies. Can you tell us a little bit about the opportunities out there and your experiences during various internships?
Harsha: Firstly, I feel the word “achieved” is clearly an overstatement. I used to feel that I had to do something productive every summer and so I started applying to these opportunities two months prior to every even semester since my first year. Though most of them read,“thank you for writing to us, but…”, however, some eventually turned up to be great internships. The most important takeaway from this is to keep applying constantly and not to lose hope. The two most prominent internships were the ones at IIIT Hyderabad and the Huawei — Seeds for the Future. The IIIT internship was centred around convolutional neural nets and was completely technical. The funny part was that I was learning about things required to solve the problem for one and a half month out of the two month internship but it was one of the best learning experiences. For the Huawei internship, I was among a group of students who were taken to China (I was a year early) for a cultural and technical induction into the company. The technical training was regarding 5G networks and various aspects concerning it, and for the cultural part, we learned Mandarin and about Chinese culture. In the end, each internship was a significant learning experience both in terms of technology and the flow of work.
Interviewer: Did the internship experience come in handy during the placements?
Harsha: Take my word for it when I say industry experience does matter in an interview. Especially when you take the internship seriously throughout. On a serious note, working on a project at an industry level first-hand offers a great learning curve in a number of ways: it gives you further insight into the work that goes on in firms, it gives you a lot of content to talk about during an interview and also helps you to convey how technically sound you are. For me, my internships helped to avoid a lot of technical questions in interviews as I could put my technical knowledge in a more presentable form on my CV.
Interviewer: Thanks a lot, Harsha for your time. Before we end this discussion would you like to give any tips to our readers regarding their CVs?
Harsha: There are two ways interviewers judge a CV. One is if you have great academics and you want to work instead of going for masters. Second is having industry experience i.e. internships, certified training conducted by other universities or organizations, etc. But what is more important is articulating what is on your CV in an easy to understand manner and in a way that will align you with the organisation you are interviewing for. I’ve been rejected saying that I look more suited for Machine Learning and Development roles.
You can connect with Harsha on LinkedIn.
Interviewer: Chirag Gaind (President)
Writers: Navaneeth Krishnan, Shubh Jain, Tezraj Kayshap (Associates)
Editor: Yash Banka (Vice President, External Relations)
