What Really Helps In Campus Placements?

I get asked that question quite often from lot of engineering students especially in second & third year of engineering. Answer to this question is not straightforward. When a candidate takes up engineering thinking that its a short-cut to getting a job in the Industry, the trouble starts. Of course, one argument could be 'What's wrong with such an attitude?'; but that makes up another post, some other time.

#-Link-Snipped-#What really matters in placements is entirely dependent on the type of job you're applying to. The most obvious requirement for any job for an engineer is often the most neglected. And that is, thorough knowledge of your engineering subjects. Too obvious, right? But how many students have really studied the subjects with interest and have really understood what they were taught? Very few! At least that's what my experience has been. Any technical job will require you to be prepared to apply the knowledge that you've gained during engineering. So if you aren't really thorough with the basics, you surely will have lot of trouble in future.

What else matters in campus placements? Well, lot of companies have a similar recruitment process: Aptitude Tests -> Technical Interviews -> HR Interviews. Each stage in an elimination stage because that's how the candidates are filtered and the ones who survive are offered the job.  So apart from the knowledge of engineering subjects, you will have to prepare for aptitude tests (comprising of basic math, logical, analytical & English skills) and also be ready to face technical interviews. My opinion is that it should not be difficult for any engineer to clear aptitude tests because we already have handled higher mathematics. Technical interviews should not be a problem if you paid attention to your engineering subjects and genuinely had interest in the subjects.

So, that's it. Campus Placements should not be a big deal for you if you keep these things in mind.