Top 3 questions from Engineering Graduates

Engineering Graduates in this blog refers to early career engineers with 0-1 year experience, graduate engineers who have just graduated and either looking for a job or deciding between offers and undergrads who will graduate in a year.

I have been working with early career engineers, graduates and undergraduates for some years now as I am actively involved in hiring for my current and previous companies. The kind of passion and technical focus we have in our fresh grads is really commendable! Still, there are a lot of graduates out there having very similar questions.

Based on my experience I have noticed these 3 questions they most often ask:

#1: What do companies look for in my resume?

Companies look for motivated individuals who are willing to learn and who are grounded on computer science fundamentals and who can code. This is true for most companies and startups.

Given that, graduates are very new to the corporate world, they are not expected to know everything under the sun nor are they expected to understand how to deploy production level apps - though knowledge of it will be a plus!

Many graduates also believe just having an AI/ML project or course in the resume will get companies to hire them. Not true. If you are really passionate about AI/ML and want to work on it then try to see if you can apply it to a real world use-case yourself. Really understand the algorithms and fundamentals. That will surely help you. Just a random project to showcase AI/ML in your resume will not add much as the interviewers can catch you when they deep dive in the interviews.

#2: Should I concentrate on competitive programming or DS/Algo?

Competitive programming has become the buzzword in the last couple of years what with HackerRank and many others gaining popularity. Many companies do leverage such platforms to hire fresh graduates. But, it's mainly used as the first round to ensure they get engineers who can code. But, once you are through with this round, the interviews will focus on your real world experience if any, like individual or college projects, internships, freelancing, research papers and passion projects on GitHub.

So, to answer the question, you should be good in competitive programming to get your foot in the door but you should also focus on computer science fundamentals like DS/Algo, Database and Operating system concepts to crack the interview as companies like candidates who can code and understand the basics to ensure a solid foundation.

#3: Which company should I join (for grads having options) OR Where all should I apply/not apply?

To be honest, for your first job any company is good enough! Honestly!

If you are a college with lot of options, ensure you get an offer and try your dream companies and if you get it you can stop and join one of them! That's it - Nothing complex here.

If you are in a college with lesser options, apply to all kinds of companies to get your first job. Do check they are working on latest technologies and that you can learn in that environment and if so you should be all set. If you do have a dream company in your mind, do not worry, you can appear for a lateral interview there in a year or two after gaining good real world experience. It is not the end of the world if you do not get your dream company as your first job!

Chill and enjoy your engineering course and make sure to ground yourself well in fundamentals.

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Still worried about what companies look for or if your resume is good enough? Feel free to connect with Pradeep Kaushik for a 30 mins discussion on this here - https://www.pradeepkaushik.com/connect