Placement session starts for NIT’s in the month of July end and August start. Everyone was competing for getting a dream job. Even a person who didn’t study in 2 years of MCA(Masters of Computer Applications — as many people are unaware of this degree)was also working very hard in semester break of 2 months to get a dream job, as it was a high time for preparation of an interview for any company.
Everyone in tier 1 college has a dream to get a good job or say pursue “Dream Job”. As a MCA student, we don’t have a compulsory internship program of 2 months like Btech students have, so none of us bother about the internship. Everyone was focusing on placement. But as this time for MCA also, companies were opened for 2 months internship, everyone was giving a try. 9 Students got an internship out of 86 and I was among them. Honestly, at that time, I was not prepared for an internship. But suddenly I got an internship. Internship was never in my plan. At that time I was not happy because there were many things which I planned for placements since the day I joined NITK. After getting an internship I stopped competitive programming because I thought the company is good so I will accept PPO and trust me it was the biggest mistake that I have ever done and still regret. There were many issues that came later with the offered stipend by the company, as it was facing loss. They reduced the stipend by half. At that time I got scared, I have no idea what I will do, as that company was a seed startup with hardly 1 year of experience in Industry. Still, I decided to join that company as an intern and gain knowledge as much as I can and prepare for placements simultaneously. But my dear friend, things will never work out as per the plan.
I didn’t get sufficient time for the preparation of placement. I was so afraid, I don’t know what I will do in the placement session. I was not in touch with Competitive programming, I was not prepared with quantitative aptitude and many other things which we need to consider while preparing for a placement. My confidence level went to ZERO as I thought “I don’t know anything, everyone in college is working hard and they know everything ”.
And here the day comes, when there was a first coding round from the top MNC. I was not able to crack it. After that back to back coding rounds were there, sometimes on one day, we have 2 coding rounds for different companies. It has been 7 days all the companies which I wanted to work with since the 1st day of my college and I prepared for it, was gone and I was not even able to crack coding round. At that time I was feeling so low and started doubting myself, Suddenly I got shortlisted in one company. My confidence increased by seeing the results. They selected me. As that company was offering a Software Engineer profile with good incentives I was pretty happy, they called me the next day saying they will announce results, but the concerned person already told me that I was selected and need to come early in the morning to receive goodies. And here comes one more tragedy they offered some different profile which I didn’t even apply for. I rejected that offer. Because of the clashing of rounds of this company with other companies, I lost 3 companies in which intake of MCA students was good. I didn’t even able to write a test for these 3 companies. At that time again I was feeling like — what’s wrong with me, why these things are happening with me, I can’t see any good company coming, what should I do. I kept applying for the companies that were coming, I was continuously getting shortlisted for every company I applied to. I gave 3 companies interview and got rejected. The reason of rejection was not known, because none of them were giving feedback and from each of the interviews I was getting rejected from last round i.e HR round. Then the day comes, when I was selected in one of the MNC which was offering less incentive as compared to other MNCs but have positive work-life balance and good feedback from our seniors.
After all the tragic things happened to me, I analyzed one thing, that we don’t have control over the future but definitely have control over the present. If we decided to work in the present, without thinking of the outcome, that work will always be fruitful. Everyone didn’t get immediately what they want, but they can work for it and give a try. Trust me, now or later their hard work will pay off. All those sleepless nights will pay off.
Things will never work out as per the plan. We need to have patience and confidence. Never ever look back, what’s gone is gone. What’s coming, we don’t know. But what we can do in present we always know.
About the Author:
Shaini Soni , Alumni NITK Surathkal, Software developer at Nokia Corp.