Campus placement, ideally, is an event where companies go and recruit the students in colleges for jobs and internship programs, before they graduate. Mostly in their final year of education.
It is the time in the life of college students when aspirations are high and hopes are soaring. Everyone is willing to get selected by the big brands and kick-start their careers prolifically.
Yet, there is a lot, which needs to be understood by the college goers.
Let’s have a quick run through, with a lot of insight that you might be missing on the campus placement scenario!
The Shift In Companies’ Campus Placement Vision
We all know that with the Indian economy showing signs of recovery, and a lot of multinationals finding their base in the country, the private sector has accelerated its recruitment activities. And the sector seems too keen on the fresher recruits. However, the current campus placement strategy is not too relaxed, it is far too stringent than what it use to be in 2000s, when most graduating students expected to bag multiple offers. Companies are now more selective in extending offers and have decidedly shifted focus from quantity to quality of candidates. And that’s where the students will face a struggle.
The Strigent Testing Criterion
This may sound a little unjustified to existing time students, but they surely are subjected to far more rigorous selection standards, as compared to earlier days. These days, companies are testing aspirants at multiple levels to ensure only the candidates with the appropriate skill set and attitude get selected. Normally, large companies take a screening test to shortlist applicants for personal interviews, which is generally the final stage in the selection procedure. Some companies may also include other activities like group discussions, essay writing, case studies and role plays too.
How Must You Prepare For Selection Procedures
Let me be the bad news bearer here! Students must know that each stage in these selection procedures is highly volatile in nature. Which means, they can get eliminated at any stage. Hence, it is critical for students to suitably prepare themselves.
- The first stage, i.e. screening test is a test of aptitude, covering various aspects like Mathematical Abilities, Verbal Abilities (including reading comprehension) and, Data Interpretation (including puzzles).
- For tackling the section on Mathematical Abilities, aspirants are advised to revisit the fundamental concepts learnt during Class 6th to 10th. Thus, a careful reading of the textbooks and solving the problems at the end of each chapter helps a lot to build on the problem solving and analytical skills.
- The Verbal Ability section has questions on vocabulary, word usage, sentence correction, jumbled sentences, reading comprehension, etc. Many students, especially those coming from a rural background, find this section to be challenging. However, it can be handled comfortably by regularly reading good books and reputed newspapers. For building vocabulary, a habit of referring to a dictionary must be developed.
- These days we are lucky. Given the exponential advancement of the technology, we have memory aids, like digital flash cards and some amazing, smart phone based applications that come in handy for all students.
- For Data Interpretation, memorizing multiplication tables (up to 20), squares (up to 30), cubes (up to 20) and so on, will save your time during the sessions. Puzzles can be tackled with ease by practicing more and more, thus getting familiar with different types of questions. I suggest, you organise fun puzzle solving and quiz sessions with your friends, which will help everyone to build on the skills, plus will enhance the bonding too.
Last, but not the least, I would say that, campus placements these days are a vital part of every student’s life and placement tests potentially are used by recruiters to hunt for the deserving candidates who are not only adept in their field of specialization, but also possess managerial qualities like time management, quick thinking, stress management, and who have the abilities to become the assets for the company.
Therefore, the imperative skills need to be acquired and honed to ensure you land an offer from your dream company.
Your hard work guided by a sound strategy and a methodical approach will help you go a long way and nail the campus placement procedures with ease and success thereof.
