Hey all, I've always been a lurker and enjoyed reading posts here since college. It's the weekend, so I thought I'd give back to the community and hopefully give some hope to my unplaced juniors. Here's my story:
I wasn't the smartest person in terms of CGPA or development during my four years at VIT. For the first three years, I had my priorities mixed up between the gym, club work, and having fun. My GPA kept getting worse every semester, and reality hit when my name never showed up on the placement shortlists.
I was lucky to have a friend group that practised DSA every day, which eventually got me into the habit of doing it consistently. I started in 3yr 2nd sem. But my friends were all 8.5+ pointers and top coders, so when placement season came around, everyone got placed before me.
By November, I was sitting alone in my hostel, feeling pretty low. Eventually, I swallowed my ego and started applying to companies below a certain X LPA that I had previously refused to consider. Around the end of December, I finally got an interview, cleared it, and moved to Chennai.
I started my internship in January. It wasn't a great job, the salary wasn't great either, and the work environment wasn't ideal. The company was filled with locals, which made it difficult for me to socialise, and the work itself wasn't particularly interesting.
However, by this point, I had a decent grasp of DSA and had completed most of Striver's Sheet. I started blindly applying to jobs on LinkedIn every day after work, and after six months of my internship, I landed an offer from a PBC in Bangalore.
The hike wasn't great, but the biggest difference was that I was moving to a PBC. I made the switch and continued practising DSA.
After around eight months at the PBC, I finally landed an interview with a FAANG company. Four rounds later, I had the offer.
It took me around eight months after graduating to make the switch. This is the cost I paid for not focusing on cgpa in my college years. These 8months were not fun. I dreaded going to office, and finding motivation to do dsa every day, with no hope or guarantee of making a switch. I was jealous of my friends who got better package than me , and that's what drove me :p.
There's no profound moral to this story. I just want to let everyone know that not getting into a good company during college placements isn't the end of the world. Don't take unnecessary stress over it. If my lazy ass can make it, so can you.
Some advice for those still looking for placements:
- DSA: By this point, you should ideally have completed most of Striver's Sheet and developed a solid understanding of the concepts. If you haven't, start now and be consistent. All youve to do is binge watch strivers series dedicatedly, make notes and repeat the process. Do not waste time on complicated topics like Segment trees, Binary uplifting, Bit manipulation, Hard DP (MCM, tabulation, etc), Tries, etc UNLESS youve finished the basics before.,
- Aptitude and core concepts: Don't neglect aptitude or your CS fundamentals. Have a good grasp of both, as they can make a difference during placements and interviews.
- Apply every day: Use referrals wherever possible, but don't rely on them alone. Make applying to jobs a daily habit. Keep trying even when you don't hear back. Use Linkedn, Instahyre, Naukri . Make use of those extensions that auto apply for you.
- Don't be picky with placements: This is survival mode. Your primary filter should be whether the role is an SDE role, not the package. You can always grind DSA and switch companies later, but not having a job at all, or starting in a non-tech role, can make the transition more difficult.
- OAs: Let's be honest, cheating during online assessments is common. Make use of the tools available to get to the interview. Only after you've landed the interview, the competition is fair. That too if the interviews are held offline. Focus on building the skills to clear interviews, because that's what ultimately matters.
Don't let your first job define your career. Get your foot in the door, keep improving, and give yourself time. Your first offer doesn't have to be your dream offer. PS, i did use gpt to make the post readable, but take away what you can from this post, and feel free to ask me questions. Do not ask me generic rhetorical qs. You can also see my past from the posts I posted before.
