Come Sail Away
“Help will always be given at IMG, to those who ask for it”
Says the poster right in the front, as I walk through the glass door leading to a room full of computers, blue chairs, and passionate technophiles, we call the IMG Lab. Having spent almost a year as a member, I have come to experience the statement in its truest sense.
Providing a detailed description of all that we do and practice in our sweet humble abode situated on the ground floor of the computer centre would take hours with a high probability of missing out on something. We manage the official institute website and Channel i, continuously improving and launching applications to make the life of thousands of inhabitants of R-Land easier. However, this only takes up a portion of our time at the lab. From web development to designing, networking to information security, data structures to machine learning, open source to competitive programming, computer software to even making memes, there is a non-exhaustive list of fields the members of IMG have ventured into and mastered themselves.
There is an atmosphere of constant motivation and development.
Here, everyone helps everyone else by providing counsel whenever it’s in their domain. We like to follow strict deadlines here at IMG, constantly pushing and challenging ourselves to do better and faster. The discipline and work ethic of the lab prepares the IMG member to tackle the big demanding corporate world with ease.
It’s no secret that the doors of the lab are open to everyone at all times. However, being on the other side is an extremely mind-boggling experience. The recruitments are held in January for all the first-year students. The recruitment week is one of the most nerve-wracking yet exciting weeks of college. There are three rounds to being in IMG, first is a screening test, followed by a technical interview and finally an HR round. Good problem-solving skills, aptitude, and just a basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and Javascript are enough to get you through the test. In the later rounds, the selection criterions are mainly creativity, logical reasoning, and a strong desire and determination to learn.
New entrants are showered with utmost care and help. Lectures are scheduled for them in their first semester, covering various topics in the trade by seniors who are experts in that particular topic. The lectures are coupled with assignments which are designed such that you gain sufficient understanding of the topic irrespective of your previous knowledge of it. Seniors are eager to helping you out if you get stuck at any step of this process. Even though it’s a little tough for me to verbally communicate with people, during my time here I never hesitated to ask even the stupidest of doubts and I owe it all to the incredibly helpful and motivating seniors. Apart from the technical skills, time management and planning are some of the pivotal skills that you learn here. During our second semester at IMG, we work at projects starting them from scratch and learning all the aspects of professionally writing or developing apps that are going to affect thousands of people (Seriously wow!).
The lab always hosts a lively environment with various activities constantly happening apart from the usual work. We have hackathons, gaming and mafia sessions, movie-nights, musical workspace, ‘Tech Fridays’ — lectures on topics like cryptography, probability, stock-market analysis etc. on Fridays (to justify the cool name obviously), and not to forget the frequent supplies of chocolates and sweets brought by the members.
It’s no doubt that you will find the inhabitants of IMG Lab to be fabulously dedicated hard-working people but let me also state that when it comes to having fun, they sure know how to. We don’t hesitate in celebrating all our achievements and hard-work. The annual IMG trip is without a doubt the highlight of the year. You can’t help but look forward to next year’s trip as soon as it’s over. Farewell at IMG has got its own special vibe. It’s only natural that we get incredibly attached to each other and when it’s time for one of us to leave the college for good, we try to make it as special for them as humanly possible by making gifts, farewell invites, and thousands of memories along the way.
It’s a marvellous ride, being a part of IMG with amazing companions and believe me, you don’t want to miss a chance to hop in.
See you at the recruitments! :)
