Placements and Internships: Through the Students' lens

Preface 

The main aim of this article was to sort of navigate through the placement process, talk about different aspects of placements, and find out what’s actually going on. The authors of this article are currently fourth-years themselves trying to sit through the placement process and would like to apologize for any unintentional bias against, um, where do we start?

After multiple years of struggle, JEE coaching, mock tests, uninstalling that game you’ve played all your life, extra classes, and weekend exams, you finally get that dream score, or at least something close to that dream score you can afford to settle with. Of course, trusting the “Join an IIT and everything will be fine,” you apply and get in. Why do you fall for the same shit over and over again? We’ll never know. But now you’re here, ready to start a new life. For the target audience, this is right in the middle of the pandemic. But okay, a new chapter it is.

Some of you might have written this chapter’s ending already. Or had multiple ending paragraphs in mind, just in case something doesn't pan out how you want it to. Some of you might try and figure out the ending along the way. Either way, if the goal is to get a job from a third-generation first-tier college, you might most likely find yourself staring at the last few pages of your chapter, wondering what is even there to write. We’re there too; we’re just writing this article instead of that chapter.

There are plenty of concerns that have been raised, addressed, and taken care of, and plenty of concerns that have magically disappeared after the classic “We’re working on it.” Since most of us only go through the placement process with a little purple pod icon, we at Udaan decided to talk to the backstage members about some key concerns that we’ve heard most of the student community complain about to get an idea of what has been done, and what can be done.

< Quick Rant >

Why aren’t enough companies registering at our institute ? Why are decent packages not offered? Why are there so many hurdles in the placement process? Why are there several slip-ups from the institute? Why do we not have adequate WiFi to sit through the placement tests?

< Okay, let’s move on to the first item on the list >

Index

1. Where do we stand?
2. What are we doing to stand?
3. 6-month vacation >> 3-month vacation (*internship)
4. What about Core?
5. Recession: Stuck with no luck
6. Backstage
7. An Ode to the Upcoming Batches

Where do we stand?

Sure, it looks like things are horrible right now, but is it just us?

As for the placement scenario, currently, we have 30+ companies. This year has seen 11 PPOs and almost 39 students placed until now. So, I am not saying we are doing best, but we are doing pretty well compared to other 3G IITs. I am in a group with other 3G coordinators. So, without taking a name, there are many 3G IITs that just have 4-5 companies. So, we are in far better condition than them. Obviously, we have to do better, and we are working on it. As far as initiatives go, as usual, our placement team is working round the clock to ensure we have companies. We are working with a placement officer, and the process is such that the placement officer is the first one to make contact with the company. Once that is done, we, the student representatives, handle the rest of the stuff.

- Sushant, Placement Coordinator

The numbers and ranks sure do look good, but what does it really amount to? Several companies have registered and then backed out even after accepting registrations. There are also cases of companies registering with 0 vacancies and going through an initial screening round just not to shortlist anybody. On the other hand, there is undoubtedly a huge amount of work that goes from the placement team to reach companies. With the current job market, the team has definitely worked tirelessly to contact and follow up with companies despite getting rejected multiple times. Is it really the same case with internships, though?

There's this misconception that I bring companies to the college. So, in the internship policies, it is mentioned that no student should contact the HR of any company, for which there are a couple of reasons. I won't delve deeper into that, but I’m also a student and cannot contact them. The PO, the placement officer, is the one with the authority to contact the companies. Hence, the maximum I can try is perhaps constantly pestering him, putting pressure on him to contact the companies. But at the end of the day, it's the contacts of the PO, the number of contacts he has, the quality of the connections he has with the companies concerned, and the work of the recruiting officers that ultimately make the difference in whether a company comes or not for recruitment.

-Chetan, Internship Coordinator

Well, it is indeed the job of the PO to contact the HR of different companies, reach out to them over and over, and bring them to us for hiring interns. But, considering the present situation where that isn’t happening (very clearly so), does pointing fingers at each other really help? And while it’s true that a student need not reach out to the companies themselves, there are efforts that we do not need, but we deserve. On the contrary, the idea of an Internship Coordinator reaching out to the companies in the absence of a PO in order to push the number of interns hired on the campus is not something utterly alien to us. The point remains: what steps are being taken to bypass the existing issues and ensure that the students get internships?

One good thing that we did was separating the IGC post into 2 roles: the internship coordinator and the guidance coordinator. So, now, the internship coordinator only focuses on internships, unlike me and my predecessors. We had another thing to deal with.

-Ishaan, ex-Internship, and Guidance Coordinator

What are we doing to stand

Now that we have a decent idea of how we’re currently doing, let’s maybe take a look at what we’re currently doing? From the students’ end, there are multiple placement tests that are conducted, some of which are smooth, others that make you never want to take a test again.

Could you provide an overview of the current placement policies in place on the campus and, in your opinion, what aspects of these policies are working well and where do you see they can be improved?

The placement policy is very exhaustive, and till now, it is working well. We have raised some issues, but, after a lengthy discussion, we decided not to include all of them, and you can see the updated placement policy document on the website. So, the point we would like to add to the placement policy in times to come is decreasing the dream company criteria, which is currently 1.8x. But because of the current market condition, we are more concerned about placing all the students rather than providing better opportunities to one who already has a  job.

- Sushant

Can you describe the decision-making process for approaching companies to target for placements? What criteria do you consider that this company is worth approaching or this company would be good for the students?

So, at the start of the semester, we floated a form to collect data on students’ dream companies. And we received more than 700-800 responses. Dream Companies here refer to the names of companies given by all the students - the companies they are interested in. So, we try to reach out to them, and in addition to that, we have existing clients, the companies which are coming from the start of the institute. With all this data, we approached the company. And obviously, it is very flexible if we get news that a particular company is visiting some other campuses. We make sure that we contact them and pitch our institute students as potential employees.

Minimum CTC is one of the things we consider. We make sure that CTC does not fall 7-6.5. We also make sure that companies that are banned from AIPC do not register. AIPC is the All India Placement Committee. All the IITs, their placement faculty advisors, and placement officers are in that group. So, we make sure if some company is blacklisted due to some or the other reason, we do not contact them.

- Sushant

I have constantly been in touch with the PO for the past couple of weeks, and I have a list of companies in my hand. I am continually updating it, pushing the PO to contact these companies everyday, and asking for an update on a daily basis. We have weekly meetings to keep in constant touch with his activities. He has already reached out to a couple of companies, and things are looking good at the moment.

- Chetan

We then tried to highlight some critical situations where placement processes were poorly conducted and find out what went wrong in these cases.

So, one thing that has been going on in this season is towards the end, after the company has been established on Pod, etc. You release some public Excel sheets that are editable by anyone, basically. That may or may not lead to some adverse consequences as well. So, one thing is why is that happening, and why is it not being taken care of beforehand?

The data on Calyxpod is overwhelming.  We have data right from your family details to educational details. And, there are some of the companies who require only specific details. We try to get as much as possible from the Calexpod itself. In case we don't have the data requested by the company, as you said,, we float the Google sheet, which is open to all the students.We only float the google sheet to collect the data we don’t have. We are trying to stop this to find some other way, and we are open to suggestions.

- Sushant

Team Udaan would like to point out a certain flaw in this system and this is not a mere speculation. There have been instances where students have tampered with their batchmates data - job preference and such in the google sheet accessible by anyone in the institute. We urge the placement team to look into floating a google form instead; There are two advantages here. By enabling the collect email address option, it would be clear who actually filed the form. And the data itself could automatically be loaded onto a linked sheet and this whole who changed what hungama could be avoided.

But usually, when you know that the data is not there, you have an idea of what you need much earlier. However, the current process is to send emails and WhatsApp messages 2-3 hours prior to the deadline with follow-up messages of “It’s urgent.” These are sometimes even released in the mornings, during peak classroom hours.

Sometimes the companies send their template very late, and whenever it happens, as you can see, we have extended the deadline and to make sure everyone has filled it. We even put  constant reminder messages in the group. We try to make sure all the students who have registered on Calyxpod do share the data at the earliest.. So, we remind them constantly that this form is mandatory; please fill it out.

- Sushant

An advice from Team Udaan to all the readers skimming through this article. Do join the Whatsapp group. You don’t want to miss out on any updates because of that. And don’t mute the notifications unless, of course, you're already placed.

There was another slip-up with Merylitics’ exam system, where it was made compulsory for students to take the test from the CC lab when the WiFi arrangements were too unstable to support all the systems. Given the short window of login, the students who did not trust the resources and brought their laptops instead were the only ones who could attempt the exam. What went wrong here?

Yeah, so it was a very unfortunate incident, and unfortunately, two students couldn't finish or start the exam. And we tried to understand why this happened.. The central server was there, and some of the technical people were also there. We tried to debug what went wrong during the test, and we figured out that it was not a Wi-Fi issue because students wouldn’t have been able to give tests from their laptops otherwise.. So, Wi-Fi was undoubtedly not an issue. The issue was the operating system, which was not updated. Some people were using Ubuntu, and as a company suggested in the mail, test details mail that it is preferable to use the Chrome browser. But some students tried to use Mozilla Firefox and whatever browsers were there in Ubuntu, and Chrome doesn’t come pre-installed on Ubuntu.

So, that was one of the reasons that students could not take tests from the CCLab systems. There's actually a data science lab located on the second floor. While it doesn't currently have any computer systems, it does have cubicle structures and all the necessary facilities, such as power sockets and Ethernet cables. We are exploring the possibility of utilising this space temporarily for our placement process, where we can make use of our own laptops. This way, we can potentially conduct our placement process in that location.

- Sushant

Of course, handling a vast group of students is not an easy task. On the other hand, every company is a potential opportunity for any student who applies, and it is essential to ensure that the student community receives a fair shot at anything they’re eligible for. But what else do we learn from this particular conversation? Please bring your own laptops as a backup lest you wanna find yourself in a tough spot. In a constantly developing campus like IIT Tirupati, there are several issues that result from constantly migrating and expanding facilities. However, it is definitely an upgrade from the constantly fluctuating Wifi and unavailability of rooms to take tests from. Maybe sometime in the future, we’ll see our juniors lining up to give tests in something called the “Placement Lab - 1.”. In the future, we trust.

6 month internships 

Another critical hurdle many students have been facing on both the placement and the internship side is the requirement of 6-month internships. Many companies, especially core industries, value hands-on experience and expect students to have contributed to the industry in some way before providing full-time employment. This learning curve, according to the industry standard, takes at least six months. On the other hand, the current curriculum believes three months should be enough for students to learn, apply, present, and add to their resume. This poses heavy problems in getting companies for placement when the minimum criteria is a six-month internship or above, considering that the current curriculum does not have any flexibility in the last two semesters to house internships. Moreover, the campus is also unable to invite some companies for internships since they cannot allow the students to extend their three-month vacation to 6 months.

So, my senior, who was the previous IC, fought for this change. We pressed for 6-month internships in research and industry, but the academics didn't accept it. So, there's nothing we can do about it right now. The faculty advisor for internships said you could drop a semester and do a 6-month internship, but that is not a good idea. That's the knowledge of the current situation I have right now. So, six months is out of the question for internships.

- Chetan

While this request has gone unheard for the current batch, the new education policy answers some of these policies.

From what I heard, the new NEP allows you to do a six-month internship. That is very good for people interested in core engineering because they could get into good companies where we have been on probation for six years and an offer after six years. That is an outstanding provision.  I know many start-ups that are always looking for six-month interns because six months is an ideal time to learn the technology, make some significant changes, and work well by participating in the project. You can participate well, and there is an excellent probability of getting an offer after six months. So, that is one good aspect. If the six-month internship goes through, it is positive for people.

- Ishaan

Well, there goes another case of in the future, we trust. What ever happened to ‘We are the future’? But luckily, this is one such future the current second years get to witness. With no provision of 6-month internships in their curriculum, they get to see their juniors, who are the pioneer batch adapting the new curriculum designed according to the new NEP. The present first years could potentially choose a 6-month internship and explore the road not taken by many before them. Do we feel pleased or jealous? Maybe we were born in the wrong year.

Core Domains

Looking at the previous placements is, of course, a ritual before applying to a college. The grand places your seniors have reached, you can take the same step someday and have as much money as you can, even claiming that money grows on trees. But nobody tells you how the branch placement split up is. Out of 120, 85 are placed with such good packages, and you go in confident that you can somehow make your way to be one of those 85. But little do you expect almost all of those are from circuital branches for SDE roles, and you, as core, are yeeted out into the world to either settle for a below-average consultant role or maybe open up your own tea shop?

How does the placement team approach branch-specific placements such as, for you know, non-circuital branches, and are there any tailored strategies or initiatives in place to ensure that students from all branches have equal opportunities?

We have a placement representative working in this area. I would like to take an example of the mechanical department. So, the PRs take companies to the PO, and they get an update from the PO regarding what the company said. If he had approached it before or if he has not approached it, obviously, the PO has to approach that particular company. Once contact is made, once you know the initial discussion happens that we are going to hire at this time, we have this many vacancies, then the HR contact goes to the placement representative, and they take it forward.

As you can see, all the branches have equal placement representatives, two per branch from B.Tech and one from M.Tech. So, in that direction, placement representatives are taking the lead, and they are making sure that we have enough core companies also. We also recently had a meeting with Pushpak, Sir. Currently, he is in IIT Indore, and he is the placement officer of that institute. He also remarks that IIT Tirupati is doing far better than other institutes in terms of core placement. Our director also keeps pushing us that more students should go to core domains. So, yes, we are doing it well, and we are trying to make it better.

- Sushant

On the internship side of things,

Currently, not enough core internships are being offered. Many core companies come later in the internship season primarily because many software companies come earlier, and all those interested in software who don't generally sort by branch can apply for them. A majority of them who are interested in software internships can get placed earlier on. After this phase, the core companies are well aware that only the core engineering students remain to be placed in the internship season, which is why they come late. So the situation will stay this way for this and the next month: many CS and electrical companies will go and hire students, and from December onwards, many core companies will be expected to start coming in. For Chemical Engineering, it's generally around February or March. Similarly, for Civil, it’s generally between January and March, which is how it is sorted out. Last year, the majority of the students from core branches secured internships in companies, out of which most of them were core.

- Chetan

Despite the effort, the current observation is the absolute lack of good value for core roles, if any are offered in the first place. Even the internships resulted in several opportunities for core students but with little to no stipend and no future opportunities. The offered packages are poor, and the reasoning given is that industries are places where you start very low but pick up quickly in 10-15 years. With the current state of the job market, where profiles like prompt engineering were not even a thing two years ago but are now rapidly replacing several software roles, is it really a good idea to start low and hope things will work out eventually?

On the other hand, another logical conclusion is to skill up in current job demands and hope to get a job there. Despite having a core background, if a student has enough skills and experience, they should ideally be allowed to apply and focus on non-core roles.

With several companies approaching the institute for consultant and analytical roles, can there be some sort of training or awareness incorporated into the curriculum or additionally so students who are interested can get some perspective on it?

First, there should be awareness because, at least in older IITs, there is a culture of consulting and banking, and this culture exists because companies like PwC and BCG are coming in for positions like engineering analysts, engineering consultants, and technology consultants. Similarly, Accenture is coming in for those positions in Japan that started last year, but not precisely for internships, only for placements. But that culture needs to be brought. We do not have a club for consulting with a large group of students showing interest, nor do we have many alumni working as consultants. So, that would grow only with the alumni or if the students take the initiative and form a club by themselves by contacting alumni of other IITs and sister institutes.

On the academic side, there is always this encouragement from the department to do an internship in your domain. They argue that your internship is being considered for academic credits, which means that it should contribute towards your degree, so they believe it should be in your subject of interest. There is another layer where you have to go and get it approved after persuading the professor to get your internship approved for credits. But I don't know if that would be authorised for a field like consulting as a valid internship unless you make your case specifically. the departments need to ease out on some of these rules. If we consider their argument the absolute truth, this can only be done if we detach the credits from the internships, which will be a significant change. There are only slim chances of that happening, even in the future.

- Ishaan

With the internship options for non-circuital branches being narrower year by year, don't you think that the college should offer more allowance and freedom in the field of the internship, which would help the student a lot in their personal career pursuits as the other IITs and foreign universities do?

So, I talked with Dr. Prashant Vooka, the internship advisor for our branch. According to him, he said that the internship is meant for your branch. You need to do an internship in your field primarily because it will develop and enhance your skills in that field. For placements, It's not an issue, but an internship, according to the director and the internship advisor, is embedded in the core branch curriculum, with credits being awarded.

There have been exceptions in the past. You must have known students like Noble. They were from different branches, but they did internships in other areas depending on their areas of interest. The point is that if you're interested and you have strong faculty support, or you have done a few good projects to support your stance about the area of your internship- for example, Noble had Sridhar sir backing him. If it's an impressive internship offer, you could talk with your respective faculty advisor about it, asking for approval. It shouldn’t be a problem.

- Chetan

Of course, we know Noble, our Udaan elder! Speaking of migrating to current job market fluctuations, we decided to find out the direct influence the current recession trends have had on internship and placement recruitments.

Recession

We asked Ishaan, the previous internship coordinator who was thrown into the middle of a Placement officer change and rapidly emerging recession season, about the impact of the recession on our institute because, well, it makes sense, right?

So, how do you think this whole recession and the whole lack of employment as such impacted internships as a thing?

A lot. So, if you look at it, I can talk about the software industry, and this is a quote-unquote from the old placement officer. For most software companies, taking two-month interns is like giving someone a job for two months where he cannot even learn the entire code base of what is to be done in the company. He is working on a tiny part of a small project. So, they must also be very selective in what projects to give these interns. While it's true that some companies offer accommodations and additional benefits to interns, it's essential to recognize that hosting interns comes with costs for the company. They provide these opportunities because they see potential in the interns, especially during tough economic times like a recession.

However, if a company is still determining its hiring plans for the following year, it might hesitate to hire a potential employee a year in advance. This uncertainty can impact their decision to offer internship positions. That is why the numbers dropped a lot. A lot of big companies came in. We missed out on Adobe, and we missed out on ServiceNow. Many companies that had hired the last time turned up later. And that was not only the issue with internships but with placements as well. But with internships, it was much more prominent.

Companies are looking at you as prospective employees. If they don't know whether they're going to hire, and with layoffs as the icing on the cake, we never know what could be done., We were just approaching companies as and when they came in.

- Ishaan

What are the steps that the institute is currently taking to reach a decent season despite the murky situation in the industry?

You must have read the posts about the mass layoffs and firing of employees in companies like Google- even the big tech companies are affected. For our seniors, like last year, Sprinkler offered everybody a PPO, which unfortunately wasn’t the case this year. So, we can expect things to go downhill somewhat in that sense. Currently, the situation may be slow, but we hope it will improve in the coming months. This being a universal issue isn’t restricted to our institute; the situation is relatively similar elsewhere.

- Chetan

We are targeting more startups because they are open to hiring from new institutes. And we are primarily looking into e companies that are coming to other 2G and 3G IITs. Sincee these are the companies that are hiring from these institutes, we believe., adding one more IIT shouldn’t be much of an issue.

- Sushant

That sounds about all we can do about this, not going to lie. But with several other aspects of placements and internships, there is definitely scope for improvement from different parties involved.

What can be done?

Where are we headed? In terms of the current job market, the recession has caused a dent. In terms of the internship duration requirements, the old curriculum we’re following is of no help. In terms of good packages and core placements, the industry itself has a specific procedure. So what does #settledforlife mean right now?

So, how would you personally describe and define a successful placement season?

For me, a successful placement season would be a situation where everyone registered for placement gets placed; let me tell you, we have 360 students this year for placements, and in addition there are some students from the 2023 batch; they are 31 in number. So, overall we have 390 students. If I could help/assist all 390 of them in getting placed, I would consider this placement season successful. But again, it depends on the market condition, and we are hopeful that we will have more companies in the future.

- Sushant

390 definitely seems like a significant number. And perhaps a little aiming at the clouds here? While many students have received PPOs and have also been placed with decent packages, the internship season has seen an absolute drought of companies. Maybe one thing that might help is bringing in more companies and approaching as many as possible.

Have you been looking into increasing the number of these companies that come to college?

We have mailed and called more than 600 companies, but this year, market conditions are not very encouraging, as we all know. Even the director had the same view that the market currently is not very good and it is going to be better in months to come. Because of that, many big companies are not very open to hiring candidates. That is one of the reasons we don't have many big companies, and also, since our IIT is not very established, we don't have a strong alumni network. So, in a time like this, the company goes to their small pool of colleges, which they have had for a long time. That is one of the reasons why we don't have big companies in the 30 companies list we have.

- Sushant

What can be done from the company’s side to make this internship process smoother?

Every company thinks they have a foolproof process. And to be very honest, the process is foolproof in their eyes. One thing that can be done is that there can be transparency while declaring results. There should be a reduction of delay while declaring results. And whenever they declare results, they should at least be in touch with the coordinators.

Another issue is that companies can inform us about a hiring freeze or their hiring plans. Instead, they keep us waiting for two weeks, only to say they aren’t planning to hire. I found this to be an unprofessional way of handling things. But again, that happened with only one or two companies, not generalising every other company out there. Almost all the companies that successfully hired students from our campus had their sources to be pretty flawless; In my opinion at least.

- Ishaan

With the current Online-Offline Hybrid modes and the influencer era, one way of promoting and getting companies to recruit would be to go social. We checked out the institute’s Career Development Cell profile and found it to be as dead as our long lost Facebook accounts, with no record of advertisements for the current 2023 season.

So, in terms of marketing, how much is done to market our institute to companies? With regards to advertising or marketing for our own institute as a 3G IIT open for placement, what steps are we taking?

Yeah, the CDC webpage is not very active. We’re currently in the process of acquiring Linkedin Premium, and the budget had not been approved previously. Right now, it is sanctioned, and we’ll soon be acquiring a premium profile. The brochure has also had some issues in getting approved, went through several changes, and is almost done. So, probably in a week or two, you will see a post from the CDC regarding this year's placement, and yeah, we will start marketing them. We are also creating a dedicated team with the help of CDGRs and PRs, and some of the IRs will also be there to help with the marketing.

- Sushant

In the future, we trust. Again and Again.

But thankfully, this future did come true. This interview was taken before the placement poster was out on LinkedIn. We guess we should also do our bit now; let’s share the post and see to it that it reaches as many people as possible, even though our potential connections are just the people on campus.

Moving on, what are some skills that students can develop that are commonly prioritised?

It depends from company to company. Every company has a different set of requirements. Some companies look at their resumes, while some don’t and just look at the GPAs to fill the students out. As far as I remember, last year, only very few companies did resume-based shortlisting. Most of them, at least in my domain (CS), had an online assessment of students before doing the shortlisting. So, at least for most companies, your resume plays a part only if you get into the interview. The interviewer looks at your resume and then digs you up.

- Ishaan

Definitely a good time to work on your resume then. Don’t worry; we've got you covered. DO hop in and read our article on How to Resumé.

Backstage

With so much in the way, a noteworthy mention goes to all the placement and internship representatives. Being students themselves, they’ve stepped up to represent the community and find jobs for not just themselves but the entire student body. Organizing tests, talking to companies, going through the process, and dealing with slip-ups definitely requires dedicating a significant amount of your time apart from the academic schedule.

It was pretty hunky and dory last year. Around one month in, when I saw no companies were coming, the placement officer was going to leave, and I contacted companies myself. It turned from being a chill job to something more of a full-time job itself. Combining it with my 5th-semester academics made it even more hectic, which dropped my GPA. On the plus side,  I believe that it gave me a lot of interpersonal skills - for instance, navigating through people. Not only our people but also people from outside. That's basically how my experience went.

By the time it was through, the company had ceased coming, and it was pretty upsetting because there were still a long line of people waiting for internships, and there were debates about how to accommodate them in college and stuff like that. It was somewhat irritating to hear, but in the end, I had to embrace the fact that placements and internships are a bilateral issue. You can be as prepared as you like from your end, but it all depends on how the market is doing on the other side. Adding to the fact that I even had to secure an internship for myself in the fifth semester, I had rejections from three companies before getting one, which frustrated me with myself and my academics, which was pretty tough at that time. But at the end of the day, it taught me a lot.

- Ishaan

We’d like to applaud and thank the representatives for the efforts that they’ve put in to try and secure as much of a successful placement/internship season as possible. With the right amount of cooperation and coordination, we’re sure we can see good numbers for future JosAA applicants to google up.

An Ode to the Upcoming Batches

After all that ranting, we have just one thing for you:

“You just need to believe; you must believe.”

- Master Oogway

Well, this article will be read by the first and second-year students. One advice for you is to explore in your first year and at least try to get the hang of what you want to do to spend your second year preparing for it. Digging in your second year and training in your third year would make you miss many opportunities; at least be clear about what you want to do. I am not saying you should have pinpointed every minute detail that I want to intern in this company at this level, at this location, which isn’t required. Instead, you should know what exactly you will do, whether you will try for core engineering or shift towards software jobs. I believe the new education policy is better than ours because you are exposed to many core courses very early.

My advice for your group is to make the most of your opportunities and exposure. Take the time to explore various areas and develop a broad understanding of your chosen field. The second year may seem heavy, but it's manageable, and you can even work on personal projects alongside your studies. However, planning to prepare in the third year could be challenging as academics will become more demanding. So, it's wise to use your second year to build a strong foundation and prepare for the road ahead.

- Ishaan, our very own Master Oogway

Well, that’s about it. We’re sure being in your final or pre-final year puts a lot of pressure on you, with the dreading question “Will I get a job?” looming over your head at all times. You might often become Louisa and start your version of the musical number in your heads;

“It's pressure like a drip, drip, drip that'll never stop, whoa

Pressure that'll tip, tip, tip 'til you just go pop, whoa, oh, oh”

Hopefully, this article hasn't added more fuel to that anxiety but instead provided you with valuable insights into the backstage, if that’s any consolation for what’s happening right now.

Quoting Phil Dunphy,

When life gives you lemonade, make lemons. Life will be all like, "Whaaaat?"

So, even when faced with uncertainties, remember that you have the ability to turn challenges into opportunities.

We’re sure the campus will have something in store for you. But maybe, try off-campus? Or maybe higher studies? xD

In the grand scheme of things, your journey is just beginning, and there's a world of possibilities awaiting you beyond graduation. We surely hope so. Embrace the adventure and keep moving forward; you could be the next Cornelius (Lewis) Robinson. Until next time!

P.S. This article was not intended to offend anyone. As the campus magazine, our primary aim is to shed light on the events and issues on campus, offering constructive critiques where necessary. This is the essence of journalism, and we are committed to upholding its principles and spirit. Our intention is to inform, provoke thought, and encourage positive change within our community. We appreciate your understanding and support as we continue to fulfil this important role.