Getting Placement after completing your education is one of the biggest hassles for any student. Enduring the pandemic head-on, then facing hindrances in education and the impending recession, has posed a severe challenge to new job aspirants. Add to this the struggle of securing a job through online or offline placement, which has become a big challenge for the students. One big reason behind this is that they have not received the regular education they were supposed to have. The second reason is that because of the pandemic, they missed out on the opportunity for a quality internship. So, getting placed in 2023 will pose a big hurdle for them. This blog will help you develop the right strategy and give you some handy tricks to crack both on-campus and off-campus placements.
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What are On-campus and Off-campus Placements?
As the name suggests, on-campus placement is the job drive conducted on a college’s campus for hand-picking prospective students who are cut out for a job role. Usually, this has been the hiring norm in most cases. Your college or university placement team takes care of all the job placement responsibilities. In on-campus job placement, you only have to compete with your peers. But it is competitive because the opportunities are quite limited.
Off-campus Placements are where you must approach the company and apply for a job by following the proper protocol. These are those types of interviews that are conducted outside the campus of the college. In other words, the college has no responsibility for these off-campus placements. So, in this case, you are on your own, and no placement team is there to help you.
Both on-campus and off-campus placements offer you plenty of job opportunities, but you are as good as the next person without a proper strategy.
Below are some tips and tricks on hacking on on-campus and off-campus job placement. Look at these and tell me which is easier for you.
Tips and Tricks for Acing On-campus and Off-campus Placement:
Clearing an On-campus Placement Interview:
Build an impressive job resume. Whether an on-campus job hiring opportunity or an off-campus one, you need a resume for both job opportunities. It should highlight all your achievements and give a well-rounded view of your personality. The achievements that we are referring to in this case are your academic achievements and your professional ones.
But since you are just at the starting phase and still have not cleared college or university, how do you enlist your professional achievements? For that, you need to have had some experience through internship also. If you have done something in a part-time professional capacity, then you must also mention that. Describe everything in detail in a proper format, just as you would do in an off-campus placement drive.
Here are some tips for you to follow:
- Prepare Yourself for a Basic Interview:
Most of the on-campus placement drive has a proper written and verbal test questionnaire based on which the selection is made. If you look up various websites offering job interview guidance, you can even look at various sample questions and prepare yourself beforehand.
- Keep all the Standard Required Documents in Order:
You need to present many documents at the on-campus job hiring drive. So, you need to collect them beforehand and even get some photocopies. It will help you in verifying all your credentials. Most times, the documents asked for are the 10th and 12th class mark sheets and college/university graduation certificates (Provisional certificates are also allowed if you are due to clear the exams).
- Research Well About the Hiring Organisation Beforehand:
You should research the hiring organization before they come for the placement drive. Suppose you are aware of all the finer details about the hiring organization. In that case, you will be much appreciated for your alertness and general awareness, which might increase your chances of getting hired.
- Present Yourself in Front of the Recruiters in a Proper Manner:
If you appear for an interview, it is highly recommended that you present yourself in the best manner possible. You should be well-spoken, dressed for the part and also groomed formally. You should also ensure that your body language is extremely positive on the day of the interview. Ensure you get all the checkboxes ticked for presentation if you want to be hired in the on-campus placement drive.
- Enhance Your Soft Skills as Much as You Can:
By soft skills, we are referring to your verbal skills. Not only should you Skill-up your knowledge, but you should also be able to present them easily and effectively. Apart from the standard terminology used in questions, avoid technical jargon. At any point, you should not act fake or know-it-all. You should also know when to truncate the answer to a question. Make sure that your English pronunciation and grammar are top-notch.
Clearing an Off-campus Placement Drive:
Off-campus placement drives are equally competitive. Here you will get to face the real deal, and you will have a tough battle, but there is always a method to hack all such placement drives. After all, it is a matter of preparation only. Let’s see how we can help you tune and tweak to help you deliver your peak performance.
- Prepare Your Resume in the Best Manner Possible:
As we have already mentioned to you about the importance of the CV/Resume in an on-campus interview, you need to follow the same for off-campus as well. It consists of all the highlights of an individual appearing for an interview. It will help the hiring team and HR to summarise all your achievements. Make sure you have built the best resume and present it the way the hiring company wants. You should also check out several YouTube resume-building videos or approach a professional CV-building organization to get your resume built in the best way possible.
- Prepare for Aptitude and Coding Exercises Beforehand:
It is a must in all IT companies. They will check you for aptitude and coding skills by conducting an exam. You will also be asked to display your coding prowess on a whiteboard exam where the IT management will check whether you have the right mindset and skills to code. So, prepare well for this part.
- Have an In-depth Understanding of the Fundamentals of Computer Science:
In other words, we mean that you need to study your whole syllabus in advance. This will help you grasp all the fundamental concepts of computer science. But which topics should you focus more on? Make sure you have covered topics like computer networking, operating system, database management systems, pointers, object-oriented programming systems, data structures and algorithms and a bit about all the programming languages used in the IT sector today. And also, make sure that you have good skills in your core programming language.
- Display Projects in Your Portfolio:
If you can show your practical skills during the off-campus Placement, you have put the icing and the cherry on the cake. Practical experience is so important. Every company loves to have job-ready candidates because it does not take much time to train them. If your portfolio is well-built and you have handled some serious stuff, you should not be afraid to display them to recruiters. Make sure you have uploaded them on Github, as it demonstrates your capability to handle all the tools required in software development. It also shows you are job ready. Also, present them in the best way possible, showing that you understand everything you have done. If you can impress the recruiters with your portfolio, they might pick you up immediately.
With these tips in your hand, hopefully, you will be able to land a job in an on-campus or off-campus placement. But if you do not succeed at your first attempt, keep trying. In present times, there is no shortage of software companies in India. We wish you all the best in your hiring endeavours. Having said that, if you need professional help to achieve your goals, then the Training Basket team is here to guide you to your target.
