Come February - March and most of you are running a placement fever. Well, not necessary. You could still have normal temperature and get an offer.

In order to avoid tension and fear, here is a list of tips compiled to achieve the best result during your preparation time.

1. Strong in your subject(s) – All of you are fortunate to be learning in the golden age of internet. There are many resources that make your learning more effective. These range from tutorials, animations and visualisations to slides from text book publishers. You can visit www.teachersacademy.co for links to such sites.

Do not read guides, they kill your ability to think and frame your own answers.

Remember that no company is looking for your subject knowledge or skills to be directly useful on the job. But, when you are good in whatever you have learnt, then it demonstrates that you can learn new things easily and you can be useful for the company. Therefore when asked, choose a topic you are good at, and be thorough in it. You are judged by:

• your clarity in fundamentals – so even if they try to confuse you, you stand by the correct version

• your ability to relate real life examples to correct theory

• your ability to suggest a solution to a situation using some subject you have studied
• your ability to think logically and systematically to solve/answer a question – even if the end result is not correct

Most students do not have minimum hands-on experience in their labs. Therefore, interview preparation doesn’t start in final year but in your first year itself. Take your course sincerely.
Soft skills are useful only for those who know the subject well.

2. Repeat and Remember
The following are crucial steps in remembering information for the purpose of an interview

a. Highlight points during reading and summarise using mind maps

b. Condense and rewrite the main points in your own words

c. Use acronyms to recall – for example think of a rhyme or word that will make you recall the material
3. Find out about the shortlisting process for the company

Understand fully the process by which the company is eliminating candidates – first the requirements in your academics. For example, many companies do not take candidates with backlogs, or below a certain percentage.

Also find out about the subsequent rounds – written and oral tests, whether these are technical or aptitude tests.

4. Find out about the company – what is its business, where the offices are located, how many employees are there, what kinds of projects they do. Some of this information is given during pre-placement talk, or on their website, but try to get some real information through alumni or seniors in that company.

5. Resume preparation – there are many sites that offer you help for this aspect. My sincere advice is that use a template only to know what kind of things must be written and to make sure you don’t miss out anything important. But please don’t just copy or put words that you don’t understand. I have interviewed hundreds of candidates and many of them don’t know the meaning of the high sounding words used to describe their qualities. Everyone writes a standard career objective without knowing what it means. Worse, when asked to introduce themselves, there is a standard rehearsed answer that is repetition of the first few details in their resume. Be creative and natural.

6. Prepare for interview in groups

a) Does it suit you?
Every person has a preferred time and place of study. For example, some prefer nights and others early morning. Some like to be alone, others prefer group study. Observe what kind of method works best for you. Do not get carried away by what everyone is doing. Choose your own way.

b) Have a definite plan about what, where and who for the group

c) Have clear roles for portions of the syllabus or problem solving etc depending on your friends’ strengths

d) Do role plays and get feedback from some of your friends who are observers

7. Attitude and health
a) Eat nutritious food at regular intervals instead of having one heavy meal. You will either feel sleepy or end up getting acidity

b) Take a walk or do any other exercise to keep yourself fit

c) Take ample rest depending on your need

d) Visualise your success every day

Every night before going to sleep, visualise yourself succeeding in the interview. Feel the emotions you will have on such a success. Hear people congratulating you on the success. Imagine you are watching all this on a TV channel with the remote in your hand. If you get any other kind of negative pictures – just switch the channel where you are successful. Make it a brightly coloured scene. Repeat this before you get out of bed every morning.

8. On the interview day
• Tips for dressing (boys)
Shave - or well-kept beard
Collared shirt, buttoned up, full sleeved, buttoned cuffs
Tuck shirt
Wear belt
Ironed clothes, well-fitting clothes, no flashy colours
Smell nice
Shoes with socks. Polish shoes
Clean hands
• Tips for dressing (girls)
Formal trouser-shirt or Salwar-Kameez (preferably long kurta) or chudidar-kurta (preferably long kurta)
Preferably 3/4th sleeves or full sleeves; no sleeveless clothing should be worn
Sandals; closed shoes may be worn if wearing western outfit; no floaters
No flashy colours or flashy make-up
No anklets, bangles or excessive jewellery, or similar that make noise
Well-groomed and tied-up hair

• Have a light breakfast or lunch (depending on your time of interview) Don’t eat something that may upset your stomach

• Carry everything that is needed – hall ticket, pencils/pens, instruments (make sure you know the rules of what can be carried). Carry pens which you are used to

• Reach the venue well before time (if it is an unfamiliar place, it is better to make an extra trip before the day)

• If it is hot, carry a small bottle of water. Make sure you don’t drink so much that you have to run to the toilet

• If there is a written test, read the questions and plan the sequence in which you will answer – starting from questions you are confident about and are quick to answer

• Don’t get distracted by other conversations or activities in the exam hall

• Don’t fear – having prepared well, there is no reason for fear

• Don’t ever copy – whatever be the compulsion? Even showing to another person is not correct. If you really care for him/her you would have helped in preparation. Companies don’t mind taking incompetent people, but not dishonest.

• Don’t overwrite or scribble. Don’t make spelling and grammatical mistakes.

9. Personal interview –
a) Have a pleasant mood and wish the interviewers

b) Understand the question clearly before jumping to answer

c) Try to steer the conversation where you can show your strengths

d) Be honest when they ask you about strengths and weaknesses etc. Generally, you should have some incidents to back up whatever you claim. For example, if you say you are a problem solver, can you tell an event where you demonstrate that quality?

10. Result of interview

If you get an offer, be happy, celebrate and check what made you succeed. Share your experience with others.
If you don’t get an offer, check what mistakes did you make, and try to overcome those issues next time.

Follow these tips and you will keep normal temperature and you will pass with flying colours! And to show you how can summarise effectively using a mindmap, here is a mindmap of interview preparation.