Question

What are the best steps to search for a job off campus as a fresher?

Answer 1

Off campus placements can be really tiring and intimidating at times and requires an additional effort of contacting the recruiter and getting shortlisted for the selection process of the company and hence factors like resume building, past work experience, etc. comes into play.

Major differences between on campus and off campus placements can be found in the articles given below:

1. Placements (On-Campus, Off-Campus and Pool Campus)
2. How is On Campus Placement different from off-campus placement?

Due to intense competition in Off campus placement drives good preparation is very essential covering a wide variety of topics in CS as described below:

1. Work on Resume : HR and Talent Acquisition team spends a very short interval of time scrolling through your resume and hence making an effective resume is very important. Use any standard resume template or below links to build a good resume.

   1. Resume_Maker_1
   2. Resume_Maker_2

2. Coding Practice: Most companies take an online test before proceeding to Interview rounds and hence good coding practice is necessary.

   1. Must do coding questions for companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe.

3. Important Computer Science Subjects you should know :
   • Operating System : Good knowledge of Operating System is important and candidates get lots of operating system based questions asked in telephonic round and face to face interview rounds.
   • Computer Network : Networking based questions are not asked in lot of companies but companies like Cisco, Juniper Networks, Citrix, etc. who work extensively with networks focus a lot on this topic.
     https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/commonly-asked-computer-networks-interview-questions-set-1/
   • DBMS : Databases are used in almost every company and form a huge segment of the Interviews especially face to face Interviews where you can expect both theoretical questions as well as to write SQL queries and hence good knowledge of databases is very necessary.

     1. https://beginnersbook.com/2015/05/normalization-in-dbms/
     2. Commonly asked DBMS questions

   • Pointers : Pointers might play a significant role in MCQs asked in Online tests or as debugging questions in Interview rounds especially when you are applying for a profile which requires good knowledge of C and Embedded C like for companies like Honeywell, Western Digital, Qualcom, etc.
     1. 
   • C++ : C++ is one of the most widely used coding language used in lots of legacy companies and hence it’s in depth knowledge for lots of companies become crucial, although it can be skipped if you are interviewing for a non C++ profile.
   • OOP Concepts : Object Oriented Programming plays an important role in deciding how a code should be structured and plays an important role in off campus interview starting from telephonic round to face to face interview round and hence should be given it’s due importance.

     The Complete Reference Java Book, Chapter (6 – 11).

4. Interview Experience : Read Interview Experiences for the company which you are preparing. GeeksforGeeks provide an extensive collection of Interview Experiences of lots of companies and is best for going through Interview Experiences.
   1. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/company-interview-corner/
   2. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/internship-interview-experiences-company-wise/
5. Resume Knowledge : Last but not the least know your resume well, your projects and internships, example you worked on some security technology like SSL then have good theoretical knowledge on SSL and be in a position to talk about your work experience for a long duration and explain it properly.

Answer 2

How to apply?

There are four major ways through which you can apply for an off-campus job opportunity in a company:

1. Careers Page
2. Job Referrals
3. Hiring Challenges
4. Talk to a Recruiter

Careers Page

Almost every company has a career page where they post all their job openings. Regularly check the career page and apply for a suitable job opening. 

Where to find the careers page?

• Open the website of the company you wish to apply to
• Scroll to the bottom of the webpage
• You will find the link to the “Careers” or "Job" page there

Link to the career pages of some of the top product-based companies:

• Google Careers
• Facebook Careers
• Microsoft Careers
• Amazon Jobs
• Flipkart Careers
• Uber Careers
• Tower Research Careers
• Bloomberg Careers
• DE Shaw Careers
• Goldman Sachs Careers
• Intuit Careers
• Expedia Careers
• Booking Careers
• MakeMyTrip Careers

You can also check for job openings on job portals like: LinkedIn Jobs, AngelList, InstaHyre, Naukri, etc.

If you do not find relevant openings on the career pages, you can email the company by sending a proper application mail with your resume.

How to find the email address?

Google for "careers@replace_with_company_domain" and "jobs@replace_with_company_domain" and check if any of it comes up in the search results.

Job Referrals

The ratio of selections to job applications is extremely low at most companies. To increase this ratio, companies generally have an incentive program for its employees to refer people they think would be good hires.

A referral is a very good option to get an interview call from a company. Many companies skip the preliminary tests for referrals and start with the main interview process.

Referral Process at most companies:

• You reach out to a person working in the company you want to apply to
• The referrer then shares your profile with the recruiter
• The recruiter gets in touch with you if your profile matches with the job requirements
• Interview!

If you have seniors working at your dream companies then it should be fairly easy for you to get a referral. Otherwise, you can reach out to people on LinkedIn to get referrals. Tips: How to get job referrals on LinkedIn?

Hiring Challenges

Many companies host hiring challenges on platforms like HackerRank, HackerEarth, TechGig, etc. Most popular formats of such hiring challenges:

• DSA coding questions
• DSA coding questions along with MCQs on CS concepts.
• Development challenges

Take part in these challenges and try to get a good rank. If you do well, you can get an interview call from the company.

Google, Facebook and CodeNation actively hire freshers through hiring challenges.

Talk to a Recruiter

Recruiters are people who either hire for their companies or for some other companies. It makes a lot of sense to directly reach out to them if you are looking for a job at companies that they are associated with.

Building a good LinkedIn profile can help you a lot in that. Tips: How to get a recruiter's attention on LinkedIn?

Answer 3

One can go for off-campus placements in various ways. But for most of the ways we need to have some reference in order to apply to a company.

These four are the major ways to apply to a company for off-campus placement.

1. First way is to remain in touch with company people (your seniors, friends, relatives or anyone else) because many times when companies have vacancies, they recruit people referred by present employees. So, if you are in touch with them, you will come to know about the vacancy and will get chance to apply. In this case, having contacts is the most important factor. Remain in touch with your seniors and ask them about any opportunities in their companies.

2. Sometimes companies post vacancies on their websites and relevant pre-requisites for the candidates. So you need to check the company’s website regularly and apply whenever they have suitable vacancy for you.

3. Other way to go for off-campus placements is when companies pool various campuses and call students at one central location. In this situation, students from various colleges and in large number come and apply. This is generally applicable to small colleges where placement is a rare phenomenon and students have to seek external support to get placed.

4. Other option is to apply on various job hosting sites like naukri, monster, fresherslive etc. You can develop your profile and upload your resume and then go for the desired companies.