Engineering Student Advice: Tips for Success

Ans: Praveen Sir,

As desired by you, given below are the steps/strategies/techniques to be followed from 1st Year till last year.

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.

Hope, I have covered almost all aspects with value-additions.

Regarding NPTEL, to begin with, please advise her to join the course titled, "AN INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE'. This will boost her confidence. Please type in google ' NPTEL Artificial Intelligence'. You will get the link as I am not authorised to provide direct link here Sir.. This course is conducted by an IIT-Delhi Professor Mausam. Gradually, she can go on joining other certifications, recommended by her college faculties.
All the BEST for Your Daughter's Bright Future, Praveen Sir.

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