A community for the leaders and learners in technology by Pooja Gera

What do I do to land the best job and become a true engineer? 🤔

Right so, I am gonna write this straight from the heart (no chatGPT was harmed during the making of this notion). When I was in my first year I had the same doubt - how are my seniors (special mention of Urvi Goel di, Khushboo Verma di, Suhani Di, Japleen di and Apoorva di) doing awesome everywhere - academics, community and their software development careers too. I honestly thought for a good amount of time that they had 30 hours in their day. 😂

My first year, I was told by someone that if I take a lot of positions in college societies and clubs, be on leadership positions then I’ll be preferred by the recruiters more. (hmmmmm) I went ahead and took the responsibilities in every society 😎 Was it beneficial? Well I did make a lot of friends BUT my time which I could’ve used to attend classes, focus on my CGPA and write more code got obviously divided. 😔 First semester, I got a GPA of 8.00 (which was BAD considering I was literally my school’s topper and I had never scored less than 95%).

Secret of Having Good CGPA 💯

If the subject is interesting to you

Okay well 90% job is done. If the subject is interesting to you there is a huge possibility you will easily score an A and above.

Here is what you need to study:

• Attend classes. The more you sit on the front the more you’re scared of the professor pointing you out if you’re not paying attention, which ofcourse, makes you listen more during the class. When you’re listening during the class, you’re essentially reducing your time of doing the course at the end moment sacrificing your sleep and risking a headache during the exam. Plus, honestly, whatever is taught in class is what comes in exams. 🙆🏻‍♀️
• Notes. If you think you can’t make proper notes, buy notes from your seniors or get from your friends (if they give), and if they don’t please don’t be salty about it. It’s just that at times, people think that you’re just using them because they’re good at academics and you don’t wanna be friends with them for who they are (based on real-life events) so make sure you’re being friends with them because they’re v nice people and not just a seasonal fruit that pops up whenever exams come. 👊🏻

Then I came to a realisation that this isn’t who I am, I can do much much much much much better (definitely not in Physucks too). From that semester I experimented with one thing - I attended all classes, took proper notes and made a puppy face in front of Abhigya to share her multicolored very pretty handwriting notes with me. I asked my seniors the strategy of studying each and every subject according to the professors we had and they were kind enough to help me out everywhere. 🥰

• YouTube recommendations (these are for CS / IT subjects only for now) - Gate Smashers and Knowledge Gate. For mathematics, you can refer to Bhagwan Singh Vishwakarma.

If the subject is NOT interesting to you

First of all - 😑

Now that you’ve been judged by my look of disapproval, let’s get into how you can still score well (I feel like I am a magician and an engineer both, solving the problems like I got a wand from Ollivanders)

Here is actionable advice for you:

• When you get 9+ CGPA, the chances of you not making through the cutoffs of oncampus placements become almost negligible. This doesn’t ofcourse mean that people with less CGPA do not get hired by good companies, I just always like to play safe.
• Secondly, universities reward you for your academic feats. Since I am from IGDTUW, I know that here we receive three kinds of awards - chancellor’s gold medal, vice chancellor’s gold medal and silver plaque for outstanding performance during our convocation ceremony (this is a HUGE motivation)
• Now that you know why you should want to hustle and push through 6 months of a subject you don’t like, follow the advice of what you need to study from the section of “if the subject is interesting to you”

For studying, your community manager and friend Tavleen Kaur has made a server where you can sit in the voice channels and focus on studying.

Rules: Camera ON. Microphone OFF.

Join the Technical Resources Study Group Discord Server!

Okay, I think I got my academics covered - how to learn how to code 😭

This is my MOST favourite part, here is a visual representation of how much I like learning and coding.

(Yes my friends have weird names)

1️⃣ Data Structures and Algorithms (Baby Steps of Coding)

So, here is what I did in my first year - (puts on my righteous cap) I won’t take money from dad anymore, I’ll learn and earn on my own. I took this decision because I follow a lot of YouTubers who focus on the importance of self-discipline and taking charge of your own lives. But my inherent personality resembles a butterfly 🦋 I see something more interesting and I go wheeeeeee. Result? I couldn’t learn how to code for a good 6 months. My friends were getting opportunities via coding tests and I was finding and collecting resources. I had some money saved and I took a course which was a little less expensive, my seniors advised me against it and told me to get enrolled in a Coding Ninjas course but I didn’t listen and I ended up becoming more confused because A. the course didn’t feel interesting and B. there was no accountability in that course. It took me not getting the LinkedIn CoachIn and Flipkart GWC mentorship that made me realise I am doing something horribly wrong.

I majorly had the following problems:

1. I didn’t know who to ask my doubts too, seniors are available yes but you need someone constantly and you can’t bother them all the time even if they are mentoring you in some club / society. They’re nice but as juniors we also have to take care of them and let them have their personal life.
2. Then, because of how I had been studying all my life - deadlines, reminders and assignments were what made me “understand” things. Just watching videos didn’t do it for me.

Around the same time, a webinar was conducted by Parikh Jain sir, and a learning path of Competitive Programming Ninja got out - it was of around 18,000 rupees. OOOOOF 🥵 I asked a couple friends and seniors if it’ll be okay for me to take (this was in February 2021, four months before I got my software engineering intern offer from Microsoft) - they told me that if I am able to do justice to it and follow it religiously, there’s absolutely no way I wouldn’t learn how to code and be the best at it.