rediffGURU Pradeep Pramanik, career coach, placement consultant and director of Fast Track Career Consultants, shares useful tips to land your dream job while you're still in college.
If you are in the final year of college, your top priority, apart from clearing your backlog, would be to secure a well-paying job.
Your parents would be proud and happy -- not to mention stress-free -- if you found your dream job through campus placement.
With cut-throat competition and limited vacancies in an ever-evolving job market, aspiring professionals would need to put in serious effort, beyond academic proficiency, to clinch the right opportunity.
To ensure success in a campus interview, here are some useful tips for you:
1. Never take the campus placement drive lightly
Before you appear for the interview, take time out to brush up your knowledge and core skills thoroughly.
Make notes of important questions and answers.
For example, students appearing for core engineering roles may face questions from topics that you learned in the second year, so revisiting and revising those chapters can be helpful.
2. Form a practice group for mock interviews
Form a group of three to five students with whom you can practise mock interviews.
Doing this will expose your weak areas while helping you answer important questions with more confidence.
It will also improve your fluency and tone.
3. Group discussion skills are important
Group discussions help enable recruiters to explore your analytical skills.
Preparing in advance also allows you to improve your communication skills, work on your body language and research for content.
For example, you can start with simple topics like 'Impact of social media' or 'Is AI a threat to the future?'
4. Choose from the best
In most cases, you will receive interview calls and requests from multiple organisations.
Remember to be selective about your options. You do not need to sit in all your interviews, especially if you are not convinced by the initial inputs received from your placement cell.
For example, if you're passionate about coding, choose and respond to software product companies instead of applying to mass recruiters from unrelated fields.
5. Do your homework diligently
Many times, students appear for interviews without reading about the company enough.
When the recruiter asks you basic questions about the organisation, you need to be prepared to answer them. This will give you an edge over the other applicants.
Before signing up for an interview, students must also ask: Does the company's policy and required skill sets match your requirements?
6. Expand your knowledge spectrum
Apart from being an expert in your core subject/s, you must be updated about the current affairs and important events that impact all of us.
In any campus interview, the panel usually has two sets of questions.
These could be: a. To test your theoretical knowledge, and b. Situation-based questions to test your analytical and critical thinking skills
7. Speak to the point and speak assertively
In the first job interview, students often commit mistakes by speaking more than required, thus losing a golden job opportunity.
For example, if you are explaining a project you completed in college, use simple language and summarise your thoughts.
Avoid unnecessary technical jargon. Be clear, crisp and confident.
8. Listen carefully before jumping to reply
There is a reason why smart people speak less and listen more.
Listening and speaking slowly helps maintain the gravity in their approach and communication.
As a fresher, you are not expected to answer all the questions. So don't hesitate to say 'No' if you are not sure about the answer.
Recruiters will value you more for your honesty than for your attempt at guesswork.
9. Respect the interviewer/s
Once you have decided to appear for the campus interview, you must respect the people on the panel irrespective of their views and arguments.
You may express your views respectfully without contradicting the panel or speaking rudely.
10. Dress well, look smart
Your appearance makes a huge difference in cracking an interview.
Having a pleasing personality pays well too.
Wearing a well-ironed shirt with clean shoes, groomed hair and a confident posture can make a strong first impression, even before you speak.
- You can post your career-related questions to rediffGURU Pradeep Pramanik HERE.
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