Diving right into the topic without any fancy introduction.
Well, it all started with the research. I, too, like many others, searched for blogs to know how the selection process, & found only a handful ones to be useful. Most of them emphasised about the entire process in a maximum of 1000 words, but there is literally so much that they do not tell you about this- they do not walk you through the nitty-gritty details.
I personally, came to know about this in 2022, & even before I knew how the internal system works(I was a freshman then, with no experience of communities,only 3 months fresh into college)-well, if you have the previous blog in the series, you know what the outcome will be.
Yes.
I was rejected right at the first step- I remember waiting painfully long only to be served a templated rejection mail which said that I need to devote more time into the community, gain experience & then reapply, if still interested.
I had made up in my mind that "one way, or another..am gonna see ya-am gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha" (whew 1D song reference here in case if you don't get it) It just pained me at the thought that they wanted me to do some community work, but I had almost no contact with anyone in the community. That is where, hackathons came to my help. I restarted using twitter, linkedin more often(tbvh, I was basically a hardcore addict for 6 months, actively seeking out new connections, trying out new opportunities) & then, got a coveted invite to a local tech event. That was the beginning of an era.
Rejection still a fresh wound, I tried out applying for a few positions, with majority being rejections(even faced a case where the interviewer told me that the onboarding mail would be shortly sent to me after the interview, but it...never...appeared.) got into some leading positions like being the chapter lead for hack2skill(was a full tenure lead, managing a lot of dope shit) Then, tried my hand at designing & before I knew what was actually happening with my life, I was blast into the present.
I had literally heard people say to me that my linkedin made them outright jealous(well, happy to help xD)but somehow, I managed to get the things that they wanted exactly(took me a whole year to get it a anyway, could be different for different people)Even got questioned about why I wasn't a GDSC Lead-which fuelled my determination to be a lead in the first place lol
Anyways, back to the main topic folks-enough of horsing around
After Clearing the initial application round, I was invited to a coding round via email. It was a new round of the elimination process, newly introduced for my batch. They sent us an email regarding the topics, & oh boy, they actually did not discreetly mention the actual CSE-IT curriculum chapters that would be there.
I scheduled my test after midnight, just because there was lesser distractions around & the internet was more or less suitable for taking the test. The test was of 2 parts-
- The technical questions round-consisted of topics from DBMS, Computer Networks, etc. We had the option of skipping questions & coming back later to solve them. Even though the level was easy, facing them with a non-computer science background can be difficult. I actually once felt that this round was enough to kick me off the track; but even one known question can save your midnight. The whole section was covered in ~15 mins, & I proceeded to the next section.
- the aptitude section- this was one of the most talked about sections on tech twitter, & perhaps the lengthiest. Honestly, I loved it. It was like an online personality test, only with 100 questions, whose answers would bring an averaged score of your interests & how a person you are. If you have ever come across one of those "take this quiz to know if you are in depression" type of things where, there is no correct/wrong answer, yeah that is it. Answer it honestly though, because even though your pessimistic side prevails in the test, you might be more optimistic in your general life(blh, that was me anyway)
the timings are separate for both the tests, so, if you finish one, the second one's timer starts from the scratch. I finished both of them in 1hr 30 mins approx. I had a lot of anxiety regarding this one, primarily because, it is a technical test & I expected those recruitment level DSA questions(thank goodness that I was proved wrong)
We had to wait for a while impatiently to get the results for being selected from the interview. The questions that were asked to me are in the previous blog & I regret to write that I had forgotten the name of the interviewer seconds after she said it.
All the questions that I was asked, this time, was known to me & I sailed through it. It was at this point that I realised by what they meant by "you do not have enough experience". As an over enthusiastic & curious peep, I asked them questions without even asking for their permission, but they literally smiled & nodded "trust me, you will figure it out"-which was totally unexpected to me.
Needed to wait for more than a month to see the acceptance mail.
All the countless hours, researching into the experiences of others', all those half watched application videos, all the wait-was worth it in the meanwhile-When you aspire, you have to perspire(I don't know who coined this quote) NGL I WAS SHOCKED AT FIRST & THOUGHT THAT IT WAS A PRANK MAIL. Took me a whole day to process the fact that I was the founding GDSC Lead of my college.
yes
I made it.
some unknown info-the application video I made looked extremely cringy to me after I submitted it, so I chose not to include a link to it-it is more or less the same as others' videos,except the fact that I had to make it around 2am(took me solid 8=10 takes before I got everything right)-well, the struggle was worth it!
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