Securing your dream placement doesn’t happen with any shortcut! Hard work with smart strategies in your placement preparation is how you grab your golden opportunity with thousands of other students competing for the same.

 

“Where Do I Even Start?”

“What Questions Will Be Asked?”

“How to be More Confident in the Interview?”

 

We get the stress and confusion! For this, Shivalik College of Engineering, the best placement college, has curated a detailed guide that simplifies the placement process and will help you move closer to cracking your next interview. 

 

Stay tuned! 

 

Types of Placements

Before jumping to the ultimate placement guide, let us first understand the different placement types available for students. 

 

On-Campus Placements	Off-Campus Placements	Pool Campus Placements
On-campus placements are programs or drives organized by the organization. The hiring companies visit the campus and then perform the selection rounds.	In off-campus placements, the students directly apply to hiring companies with no support from the organization.	Pool campus placements refer to drives that different colleges can attend under the affiliation of a university.

 

 

Understanding the Hiring Process

Before we start with placement preparation, students first need to understand that the hiring demands for various industries can vary, optimized for their processes, enhancing efficiency.

Based on the solutions offered by the company to the customers, it can be divided into two categories: 

 

• Service-based Companies
• Product-based Companies

 

Hiring Process for Service-Based Companies

Service-based companies offer intangible services rather than physical products, such as skills, expertise, or labor, such as web development services, consulting, etc. These companies deliver client-centric services or projects, so the hiring process involves multi-channel recruitment. The hiring is focused on both soft-skill & technical assessments and client-fit evaluation. 

 

Hiring Process for Product-Based Companies

Product-based companies develop and monetize their software or physical products, focusing on in-depth technical skills, problem-solving, and core concepts. The hiring process typically includes multiple technical rounds, because these firms require niche skills for the design and deployment of their products. 

 

Step-by-Step Guide for Placement Preparation

Let’s move ahead with our 4-step placement preparation guide: 

 

1. Build a Strong Resume

Building a strong resume is the very first step in the placement process, because recruiters use resumes to screen and shortlist candidates. The resume provides the first impression, highlighting your expertise, skills, and fit to the company’s requirements. 

 

How to Build a Strong Resume?

• Use a clear and readable resume format. The most preferred resume format is reverse-chronological, which lists your work experience starting with your most recent job and working backward in time.
• List all your technical and soft skills in your resume in accordance with the job role. 
• Provide relevant contact details, including your contact number and email address. 
• Add a resume summary highlighting the key skills that help recruiters understand the value proposition and assess your suitability for a role.
• Add an education section that highlights your academic journey and achievements.
• Highlight any experience like training, internships, research work, etc.

 

ATS-Compliant Resume

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is a software that recruiters and employers use to enhance the hiring and recruitment processes. The software helps recruiters perform automated screening and filtering of resumes efficiently. 

 

The screening is performed by scanning relevant resume keywords, skills, and experience. The top recruiting companies widely utilize ATS, which necessitates that students build an ATS-compliant resume.

Here’s how to build an ATS-friendly resume:

 

• Use simple formatting with a structure and layout supported by the system. Choose standard fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri.
• Add standard section headings for different sections with relevant keywords like “Work Experience,” “Education,” “Skills,” and “Certifications”.
• The software screens based on a predefined set of keywords, which makes it essential to optimize your resume for the relevant keywords specific to your job role. 

 

Bonus Tip: Personalize your resume for every company you are applying to. Highlight expertise that is relevant to the skills required by the hiring company.

 

2. Aptitude Tests

 

 

Many companies conduct aptitude tests as the first round of the selection process. These tests are crucial because they help evaluate problem-solving, analytical, and critical thinking skills. These tests help recruiters hire a talent pool that has the potential to excel in a professional environment. 

The aptitude tests help recruiting analyze the following skills of the students: 

 

• Logical Reasoning
• Quantitative Ability
• Cognitive Aptitude
• Verbal Skills
• Situational Judgment
• Abstract Reasoning
• Data Interpretation
• General Awareness
• Critical Thinking

How to Prepare for Aptitude Tests?

1. Begin practicing for aptitude tests as soon as you can. In fact, students can start with preparation in the first year itself, because they get ample time for practice. 
2. Every recruiting company will conduct a specific type of aptitude test, like quantitative reasoning tests, verbal reasoning tests, etc. Before you begin with preparation for any particular company, ensure you know the type of aptitude test that will be conducted. 
3. Utilize online resources to prepare for aptitude tests. In addition, most colleges offer 
4. Time management is key to these tests, as it helps students perform their best under timed conditions. 
5. When preparing for a specific paper, the students can look up previous year papers or mock tests provided by the organization. 
6. Practice alone is not effective if you are not tracking your feedback and further making improvements. After every test or once a week, the students can create feedback outlines to improve their performance.
   

 

3. Technical Skills

The aptitude tests are usually followed by technical rounds, which test the candidate’s foundation on core subjects, making them the most difficult ones to crack. 

 

For technical rounds, the focus should be on the subjects of your program, including the fundamentals and advanced topics in your domain. The technical selection rounds will typically include technical interviews and coding rounds (for engineering students).

 

Tips for Acing Your Technical Rounds:

1. The most important tip is to build a solid foundation of core principles. 
2. Do your research beforehand to know the languages, data structures, or intelligence tools the recruiting company requires. 
3. Be very clear and concise about your approach to problem-solving and logical reasoning.
4. Actively participate in coding assignments to practice your coding regularly. 
5. Earn technical certifications that are relevant to your niche. 

 

Students from an Engineering background should consistently write code in real-time and attempt on-the-spot coding tests. Some of the most popular platforms include: 

 

1. GeeksForGeeks
2. HackerRank
3. CodeSignal
4. Codility
5. HackerEarth
6. CoderByte
7. LeetCode
8. TestGorilla
9. CodeChef
10. Codewars
11. Mercer Mettl

 

4. Prepare for an Interview

To ace an interview round, you must follow an effective approach that helps you mark your success. The recruitment process can include a variety of interview formats, some of which have been listed below:

 

1. Structured Interviews: All the candidates are required to answer the same set of questions during the interview, instead of experience-based questions. 
2. Unstructured Interviews: In this interview format, the candidate is asked questions based on the skills, experience, and qualifications. 
3. Technical Interviews: Technical interviews are mainly focused on testing the skills and technical knowledge of the candidates. 
4. One-to-one Interviews: In this format, only one interviewer conducts the interview. 
5. Panel Interviews: In this interview format, a group of interviewers will assess the skills & expertise and cultural fit to the company. 

How to Prepare for an Interview?

1. The first and foremost thing to do when preparing for an interview is to thoroughly read the job description. The job description will usually provide you with the expectations of the recruiters. Understanding the job description listed by the recruiting companies will help you better align your skills with theirs. 
2. Find online sources that ensure you know more about the company you are interviewing for. The common sources to gain a company’s information are their website, reviews, and social media profiles. This helps you better understand the company’s ethics, mission, growth prospects, and work culture. 
3. Mock practice will help you get acquainted with the interview–like environment and help you feel comfortable during your interview. 
4. Carry and organize the required documents. The required interview for college placements typically includes your resume, portfolio, academic documents, and certifications. 
5. Wear formal attire. Dressing appropriately reflects your professional attitude, helping you build a great first impression. 
6. Your body language provides nonverbal cues directly impact how interviewers make your first impressions. You will reflect professionalism with a proper posture, steady eye contact, and a friendly demeanor. Avoid constant fidgeting, no eye contact, bad posture, and negative facial expressions. 
7. Prepare for expected interview questions. Here is the list of questions that are generally asked during the interview rounds. 

 

• “Tell me about yourself.”

• “Walk me through your resume.”

• “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

• “Why should we hire you?”

• “Why do you want this job? / Why do you want to work at this company?”

• “How do you handle stress?”

• “How did you hear about this position?”

• “Describe your ideal work environment.”

• “What can you bring to the company?”

• “What is your greatest academic achievement?”

• “Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership skills.”

• “Tell me about a time you made a mistake.”

• “Tell me about a time you failed.”

• “What are you looking for in a new position?”

 

Additional Strategies For Placement Preparation

Here are some additional strategies and tips to help you with placement preparation: 

 

1. Most students start their placement preparation in the final year, but starting as early as possible is best. Engage in college activities from your first year that can add to your soft skills and projects. Get a head start on your aptitude training and technical skills from the second year, so you have sufficient time to build a strong foundation and master your subjects.
2. Look out for qualifications and other essential criteria listed by the hiring companies to earn an extra edge. 
3. Many companies conduct group discussions to filter students in their recruitment process. Stay updated with the current news and focus on your soft skills, including communication, analytical, and interpersonal skills. 
4. The placement drives place a strong focus on your communication skills. 
5. Build a well-established network on platforms like LinkedIn that can reflect your professional expertise. Update your profile with course certificates, internships, or any academic achievements.

Shivalik College of Engineering: Best Campus Placement College in Dehradun

 

At Shivalik College of Engineering, we ensure our students get the best placement opportunities. Our Career Development Cell comprises experts who curate a strategic placement strategy personalized for students from every department.

We partner with Explorin Academy to offer an exclusive Super 50 Training & Placement Program. The program focuses on training and placement guidance from IITians, including interactive lectures delivered by IITians, weekly contests, and experiential learning. The program emphasizes interview preparation heavily, centring around soft skills, mock interviews, skill-based assessments, and aptitude tests.

The College of Pharmacy, Shivalik Campus, also partners with Pharma Elite to offer the Super 30 Academic Excellence Program. This program focuses on GPAT preparation for pharmacy students. With our partnership, the students get comprehensive GPTA materials, mock exams, and personalized coaching sessions.

 

Get Placed with Confidence!

The strict recruitment processes, focusing on technical expertise, soft skills, and psychometric evaluations, can make cracking the interview very difficult. With an effective placement preparation strategy, it will only take your hard work to land your dream job role.

 

In this blog post, we offered a strategic and detailed strategy to help you feel prepared and confident for the next recruitment drive you sit in. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below!

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FAQs

 

How Do I Start Preparing for Placement? 

You must strongly focus on building technical expertise and honing soft skills to prepare for placement drives. In addition, craft a compelling resume that highlights all your skills (both technical and soft skills), academic achievements, and experience. 

 

Is a 7 CGPA Good for Placements?

Most companies have their criteria for filtering students in a placement drive. It is best to check the eligibility criteria of the company you are applying to.

 

Can I Prepare for Placement in 1 Month? 

Yes! If you have a strong foundation of technical knowledge of your subjects, you can dedicate your time entirely to preparing for soft skills and aptitude tests. 

 

Which College is Best for Placement in Dehradun?

Shivalik College of Engineering, a NAAC A+ graded college, is among the best colleges for placement in Dehradun. The college has a placement record of 92%, with the highest package being 42 LPA. 

 

With 500+ partnered recruiters, the college has successfully established an annual average package of 7 LPA. The dedicated Training and Development team ensures that the students are prepared for every phase of the placement drive.