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What can my son, a 1st year B.Tech Computer Engineering with Data Science student at KiiT Bhubaneswar, do to enhance his domain knowledge for learning and career?

Nayagam P

Nayagam P P  |7882 Answers  |Ask -

Career Counsellor - Answered on Sep 07, 2024

Nayagam is a certified career counsellor and the founder of EduJob360.
He started his career as an HR professional and has over 10 years of experience in tutoring and mentoring students from Classes 8 to 12, helping them choose the right stream, course and college/university.
He also counsels students on how to prepare for entrance exams for getting admission into reputed universities /colleges for their graduate/postgraduate courses.
He has guided both fresh graduates and experienced professionals on how to write a resume, how to prepare for job interviews and how to negotiate their salary when joining a new job.
Nayagam has published an eBook, Professional Resume Writing Without Googling.
He has a postgraduate degree in human resources from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Delhi, a postgraduate diploma in labour law from Madras University, a postgraduate diploma in school counselling from Symbiosis, Pune, and a certification in child psychology from Counsel India.
He has also completed his master’s degree in career counselling from ICCC-Mindler and Counsel, India.
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Asked by Anonymous - Sep 07, 2024Hindi
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Sir, my son is in 1st year B tech Computer Engineering with Data Science at Kiit, Bhubaneswar. Please suggest about certification courses and other learning which he should undertake in parallel to the college course, for enhancing domain knowledge both from learning and future professional career perspective. Kind Regards

Ans: There are a number of online platforms providing CERTIFICATION programs. One of the best online Certification Course Platform is NPTEL, the Certificate of which is recognized by most companies and even most colleges recommend it apart from other platforms like UpGrade, Coursera, LinkedIn, Internshala etc. And the best sources to recommend perfect courses would be his college faculties. Please advise him to create his Professional Linkedin Profile and should keep updating it every 3 months once he qualifies any certifications and / or any other activities. He should also put Job Alerts, based on his domain, in LinkedIn to get notifications of job vacancies to know the job market trends from the Job Description (JD). Please go through one of my lengthy answers in which I have provided the steps/tips/strategies to be followed by a 1st year Engineering Student till last year. If your son follows the same, it will boost his confidence when he reaches 4th year and gets ready for Campus Placement. All the BEST for Your Son's Bright Future.

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Asked on - Sep 07, 2024 | Answered on Sep 09, 2024
Sir, thank you very much for your guidance. Much appreciate the quality inputs. May I request for the link / copy of one year before ‘lengthy’ answer (unable to trace back); that would be of much helpful! Kind Regards
Ans: 1) Visit the college campus & your CSE Department. Spend around 2-3 hours, if the college has not yet opened. 2) Check the reviews/do thorough research about the college in Google/Quora. Please note, no college can be 100% perfect and the perception/opinion of the students about the college differs from one another. Keep in mind any negative evaluations of universities, but avoid making predetermined conclusions until you get them validated after joining the college, as the internet is flooded with information with differing opinions. 3) If the course curriculum is available on the college’s website, go through it. 4) Try to research your favorite subjects in Google / YouTube / LinkedIn etc. till college opens. 5) Now, create your professional-looking LinkedIn Profile. 6) It is advisable to create a new professional email ID (preferably Gmail ID) like ‘ravikant_btech or ravikant_tech or ravikant_cse_tech’ etc. (for LinkedIn/Job Applications/Certificate Courses) INSTEAD of using the same personal email ID that you might be having already. 7) You can provide your email ID to the college if it stresses for the same ID when you applied for the college No issue. 8) Have a limited/like-minded friends circle though you can interact with all the students of your classroom. 9) Involve in co/extra-curricular activities, related to your domain or which will be of your interest. This will help you in the long run for Campus Interviews/Abroad Education etc. 10) Avoid skipping any classes and take notes, provided by the Faculties. Class notes are more important for all tests/exams in your college. 11) Have a good/professional relationship with all faculties of the CS department. 12) Create a separate note-book for doubts for each subject. 13) Whenever doubt-clearing sessions are conducted, fully utilise them and get all your doubts cleared and note down to avoid 11th hour pressure before each test/exam. 14) Important: Maintain a decent SGPA/CGPA of 8.5 and above without any backlogs/arrears. 15) After 1st Semester is over, start learning and/or upgrading new skills from NPTEL, LinkedIn, Coursera, Upgrad, Internshala etc. and / or recommended by your faculties. 16) Once you complete the online/offline short-term courses & get certificates, immediately update them in LinkedIn. 17) MOST IMPORTANT: Put job alerts in LinkedIn, related to your domain (CSE), get notifications, go through the JD (Job Description) of each job vacancy to know the job market trends and prepare yourself for the same. 18) Whenever you get an opportunity, interact with the 2nd to 4th year students & get their advice which will enable you to plan after completing each academic year. 19) Whenever Campus Recruitments are taking place, if time permits, interact with the last year students after they attend the interview, to know about the assessment tests, interviews, group discussion, selection process & companies visited. 20) Placement cell of most of the colleges displays the names of the recruiters/companies visited during the last 3-years. Whenever time permits, do a research about each company by visiting its website. 21) It is advisable to start preparing for assessment tests of Campus Recruitment, once you enter into 4th year. 22) Decide in advance in 4th year itself, whether you want to go for the job after your BTech or to pursue your Masters in India or Abroad. 23) If decided for Masters, start preparing well for Entrance Exams/IELTS/TOEFL/PTE etc. whichever is applicable. 24) Before approaching an Abroad Education Consultant, conduct thorough study on the countries and universities you are interested in. 25) Please note, your college cannot arrange to provide internships for all students. If you get, well and good. 26) If not, you should start trying through LinkedIn, Internshala, any other Internship platforms, or through your parents/their colleagues in any of their companies for Internship (instead of relying only on your college). 27) As far as the Campus Interview is concerned, prepare a good/professional-looking Resume just in 1-page as you will be a fresher. Use ‘cultivatedculture’ Resume Building Platform which is very user-friendly and free also. 28) To prepare for the online or offline interview, prepare yourself with Mock Interviews using your mobile phone with the help of your family members/friends. Conduct at least 10 mock interviews, correcting yourself in each one for your responses to the questions as well as your body language. 29) Preparing around 20-25 technical / non-technical questions & answers for the same in advance will further boost your confidence when you face actual interviews. 30) When applying for campus interviews, prioritize organizations with job descriptions that fit your profile, hobbies, credentials, qualifications, location, job title, and company reputation. 31) However, have Plan B & Plan C if campus recruitment does not work out. I Hope, I have covered almost all aspects with value-additions. I am supposed NOT to provide any direct link here. Please visit Coursera, UpGrade, Internshala etc., go through the Courses available and make your son join. It is also advisable to seek guidance of his College Faculties who are the first best sources to provide information on this.
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