Author: Vedant Panchal LinkedIn

S.P.I.T Placement Preparation Guide

This guide is designed to help students at Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (S.P.I.T) prepare for placements. It includes advice on technical topics, projects, HR preparation, company-specific study, mock interviews, and resume customization.

Placement Advice

Following are some advice which will help you best prepare for placement process of almost all the companies that visit S.P.I.T for placements.

NOTE: This advice is specifically for tech roles

1. Core Topics: Master Java OOPs, DSA (like Striver's SDE sheet), and system design basics. Review tricky questions on popular languages and frameworks relevant to the role, such as React and JavaScript.

2. Projects: Having in-depth knowledge of at least one strong project is helpful. You don’t necessarily have to implement everything but should understand its theory and alternatives well enough to discuss it confidently.

3. HR Prep: Preparing for HR questions is crucial and should be prioritized. It’s beneficial to go through a structured playlist or guideline on HR questions and customize answers based on likely questions.

4. Company-Specific Study: Go over previous interview experiences for the company, study the pattern, and, if possible, connect with seniors who have interviewed there.

5. Mock Interviews: Taking mock interviews can be a great help, as interviews are often subjective and depend on the interviewer’s style. You can also use ChatGPT to simulate interview questions based on your resume.

6. Resume Customization: Tailor your resume for each job application by highlighting relevant projects and skills. If you’re applying for multiple positions, having a tool or structured approach to quickly swap projects and skills on Overleaf or a similar platform might save time.

Resources

Books

1. Behavioral Interviews for Software Engineers: All the Must-Know Questions With Proven Strategies and Answers That Will Get You the Job

Videos

1. Tell Me About Yourself | Best Answer (from former CEO)
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQHW7gGjrCQ&list=PLO4kDC0EWkeCnf8PBRk7XDPhrzmAxHLah

2. Get Hired (watch the entire playlist)
   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO4kDC0EWkeCnf8PBRk7XDPhrzmAxHLah

ChatGPT Prompts for Interview Preparation

1. Mock Interview Questions:

   • Use ChatGPT to generate mock interview questions based on your resume. This will help you prepare for a variety of questions that might come up during the interview.

   • Example:

     Pick every smallest details from my resume and make questions on it. It should be extremely exhaustive. don't leave anything
     

2. HR Questions:

   • Example:

     What are the most asked hr questions. Amswer them on behalf of me. It should should natural and remeber yo write in speaking style
     
     Ownership
     Bias for action
     Nothing is impossible
     User first approach
     Transparency (okay to make mistakes)
     Humility
     Empathy
     
     These are the values of the company. Keep them in mind wgile answering.
     
     Things about me are written in the attachment
     

Regrets

Some of my friends regret not doing the following things earlier:

1. Not having a good project on their resume
2. Not starting DSA sooner; not giving coding contents
3. Not preparing for HR questions sooner
4. Not doing a credible off campus internship
5. Not building a good resume and not knowing your resume in depth (refer to ChatGPT prompts on how to prepare for such questions)
6. Not learning Java in depth
7. Not having a worthy achievement on their resume (like a good hackathon victory)
8. Not learning advance SQL (LeetCode SQL 50 is enough)
9. Not having a good pointer (more than 8 is fine)

• My top 3 regrets are:
  1. Not preparing for HR questions sooner
  2. Not preparing for my resume well
     • There was one freelance project which I should've repositioned in work experience but I'd instead put the internship I did in my first and second year instead
     • Because of this, I was asked a lot of questions about the internship which I didn't remember
  3. Not doing internship in a company with good team structure
     • I did my internship in a startup where the team structure was not that good
     • Comparing it to the current internship I am doing at House of X, I can see the difference in the quality of work and the learning I am getting
     • If I'd done this kind of internship earlier, it would've been impactful in HR interviews

Personal Advice

I am what I read

Reading: Read a lot of books. It will help you in your HR interviews and in your personal growth. I recommend reading books on psychology, and self-help.

Following are the books that have impacted me the most:

• Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong - Eric Barker
• 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing - Gary Provost
• Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Placement Advice Offered by Others

• Gaurav Panchal
  https://nice-verse-5b3.notion.site/Placement_prep_checklist-c0a637f0925c455a996623059e08477f
• Interview Questions Asked in SPIT Placements (Credits: Stephen Vaz and Siddhesh Sonar)
  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iDl1FcRZrNqzj4N5d_cNtQH4XDhRVqE2uWXAH424dY8/edit?usp=drivesdk