Preparing long and hard

The final year in an engineering student’s life can be best described as the year of verdict, where at the end of seventh semester most of them are made to go through gruelling campus interviews – their ticket to stability and monetary fulfilment.
Getting through these interviews is every engineering student’s dream and a lot of preparation goes into it.

It is also a very tense time for an engineering student, as it can be an extremely stressful
affair.  Metrolife spoke to a few engineering students across the City who expressed diverse views on how to crack them and what these campus interviews mean to them.

Nikil Kumar, a final year industrial engineering and management student, says that the whole process is extremely flawed.  “The entire process emphasises on putting up a fake image during the interview to meet the societal norms. They don’t want you to be yourself at least that’s the notion given to us when training for campus interviews,” he says.

Akhil M, studying in final year (electrical) says, “Campus interviews are the only thing that inspire students to do some extra reading. The general perception is that we need to follow certain behavioural patterns to crack the interviews. I believe it is impossible to orchestrate every move in the interview. The best advice according to me is to be yourself and give it your best shot.”

On aptitude tests, he says that they are comparatively easier because all one needs to do is go through a couple of IQ tests. Abhiram Ramachandran, who is pursuing civil engineering, talks about how serious these campus interviews are.

“We have already started going through books to improve the chances in the aptitude test. We usually start preparing two days prior to the interview. Most of us take them very seriously. However, there are a couple of people who are very chilled out about it and even manage to do well without any prior practice,” he says.

Tanya Matthews, a mechanical engineering student who has already been placed in the first campus interview, says that the competition was very stiff but she managed to get it  right in the first shot.

“Our placement officer conducted a class before the campus interview and we were taught everything we had to know about facing an interview. Tips given by him were really helpful,” she added.