DESIS Ascend Educare Program
Hello Everyone! I am Kashish Purswani, a third-year student pursuing my B.Tech in Information Technology from Shri G. S. Institute of Technology and Science, Indore. I worked as a STEP Intern at Google this summer and was part of programs and scholarships like DESIS Ascend Educare Program 2021, LinkedIn CoachIn SRE Program 2022, and vGHC Scholarship 2021.
I will be sharing the application process and my experience with the DESIS Ascend Educare Program through this blog. I got selected for it in my second year and thus, it mentions the process for the 2nd-year applicant's cohort.
About the Program:
DESIS Ascend Educare Program is a 6-month-long mentorship program by The D. E. Shaw Group. for the women in tech. It is an effort to bring together talented and intellectually curious women in tech and includes:
- Learning, coaching, and mentoring from top minds in the software engineering domain.
- Tech courses in areas such as data structures and algorithms, problem-solving and coding skills, design thinking, programming languages, automation testing, and other core computer science topics.
- Holistic development with sessions on professional presence, communication skills, presentation skills, and more.
- Opportunities to work on projects related to tech courses under the guidance of top mentors from DESIS.
- Unparalleled first-hand industry exposure.
- Build an amazing project under the guidance of a mentor.
- Direct interaction with DESIS leadership and opportunities to learn from their experiences.
- A chance to network with a diverse group of women from different colleges who share a passion for technology.
- A stipend of INR 50,000 for the duration of the program.
- Strengthened readiness for interview processes conducted by top technology companies.
- Sessions to get to know the firm better.
- Get a certificate on the successful completion of the program.
- Reimbursements for books, meal allowances, and obviously, goodies.
Eligibility:
Last year, it was only for girls with Branch as CS/IT in the 2nd and 3rd year of Engineering. They selected 35 girls from 2nd and 40 girls from 3rd year.
This year, the eligibility has changed and the program is open to women students who are enrolled in a full-time course and meet one of the following eligibility criteria:
Selection Process:
Each and every round was eliminatory in nature.
[1] Online Application Form
I got to know about this program through LinkedIn.The application form asked for a resume, achievements, transcripts, and a letter of intent (i.e. Why should you be selected for the program over other applicants?). The deadline was 31 August 2021 and we had more than a month to submit the application form.
>> Tips for Letter of Intent:
- You can write your letter of intent in several iterations so that you do not miss something that you might want to include.
- You can present your interests, achievements, journey, and challenges faced in the form of a story that keeps one engaged while reading.
- Do not copy/paste from the internet and keep it personal.
- Get your essay reviewed by any past scholar if you have time.
[2] Coding and aptitude online test:
It was conducted on Hackerrank on 11th September 2021. It had 5 aptitude-based MCQs, 1 DSA-based MCQ, and 3 Coding Questions. The test as a whole can be categorized as somewhere between easy and medium and we almost had 2 hours to attempt the questions.
>> Topics of Questions:
Aptitude MCQ: Probability, Permutation and Combinations, Profit and Loss, Ratios, and other quant-related topics.
DSA MCQ: It includes basic algorithms and concept-based MCQs.
Coding Questions: Questions could be easily solved if one was familiar with library functions, sets, maps, etc. I would categorize them as Leetcode medium questions.
How to prepare for the test?
- You can practice a few aptitude questions on every topic and have a look at the formulas being used for Aptitude questions.
- Brush up on the basic implementation of various data structures and algorithms and practice DSA Questions.
- Having an experience in CP may give you an edge over others as it is a timed test and questions are mostly logical and maths based.
Interview Round:
2nd-year students had a Technical Interview first and then a personal interview whereas it was exactly the opposite for 3rd-year students.
[1] Technical Interview (19 September 2021)
It lasted for 45 minutes and was conducted on Hackerrank only. The interviewer was really very friendly and the interview started with an introduction followed by my interests and subjects I studied in college till then. He then asked me about the data structures I was familiar with and my favorite data structure. (I answered Trees, but wasn’t asked questions based on this answer.)
I was then asked basic questions on LinkedList, Searching and sorting algorithms, Representation of Graphs, String Palindrome, certain language-based questions, time complexities, and working of certain STL functions ( as my language is CPP), etc… I answered all the questions and the interviewer asked me if I had any questions for him at the end.
[2] Personal Interview (21 September 2021)
It was expected to be of 20–30 minutes, but it only lasted for 10–15 minutes for me. So, the duration can vary with the interviewer. It was conducted on the Bluejeans platform. It started with the introduction and ended with the question for the interviewer. It was a general discussion and questions of the below type were asked:
> How would you manage your time for the program along with college studies and your personal engagements?
> Tell me about an achievement and a project you are most proud of.>How do you think this program can help you?
> Discuss any problem you have solved for which you think you have come up with a wonderful solution.
> Have you worked in a team? How was your experience and discuss if any challenges faced.
After clearing all these rounds, I finally got selected for the program and the journey began on 1st October 2021.
My experience being a part of the cohort:
I really had a fantastic experience in this program. Each group of 5 students was assigned to a Mentor. We used to have weekly meetups with the mentor after every session in which course-related and general queries were discussed.
Sessions:
We had sessions almost every weekend. Five to six technical and some non-technical courses were completed throughout the program. I got to learn some really useful subjects through the program. We also had some fun sessions during the program and the best among those was the 25th Anniversary celebration of The D. E. Shaw Group 🤩
Networking:
I got to meet an amazing group of students. Talking specifically about my group, I got to learn a lot from my group members. It was really fun working with them and everyone is worth taking inspiration from. Even now when the program has ended, they are just a text away and they are ready to help in the best possible way.
We worked on the final project in a group and our project won the first prize among the 2nd year students.
Apart from these, we were showered with swag kits throughout the program.
And last but not least, getting selected for the program gave a boost to my confidence. So don’t wait, prepare well and apply fast to the program! Still, if you need any help, feel free to reach out to me on my LinkedIn. 🙌
We are pretty sure that this article would have answered all your queries. If not, you can drop your queries here in the blog comments itself! The application deadline for 2022 is the 19th of August. If you haven't applied, what are you waiting for!? For your ease, here is the program brochure and application form. Good Luck! 👍
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