A Beginner’s Guide to Industrial Internships

When and where to apply

The season for applications in most of the MNCs start vaguely in August and lasts till September end. Of course the timelines vary for each organization but it’s a good practice to pull up your socks during this period. For the start-ups, however, the festive season carries on throughout 365 days.

Talking of where to apply, the best way to lookup for a position is on the careers page of an organisation. That being said, I know how difficult it can be to look up for roles now and then on the careers page, hence you may go for other options like LinkedIn Jobs, but keep in mind that these are not 100% accurate. Many times, you’ll search for internships and it’ll show you jobs that demand 10 years of experience.For startups, the best website there exists is AngelList, hands down (This is not a sponsored post, although I do wish it were :p). There are many other websites too where you can look up for positions, eg. Idealist, Indeed, etc.

How to apply?

“Once I have found the role for me, I can apply directly, duh.” Of course, you can. But mind if I give some advice to you buddy. If you apply directly you’ll enter a cut-throat competition where your CV will compete against a million others. So, to get an edge, it’s always great to have a referral.

1. Referral : The role of referral is not to get a wild card entry, you’ll still have to go through the regular, rigorous interview process but the probability of your CV being shortlisted gets better. Chances are, the recruiter will have a look at your CV (unlike many others that get rejected by the shortlisting algorithms) and if s/he finds it good, voila! You’ve got your opportunity.Now the next question is, how do I get a referral? It’s quite a straightforward process. Go on LinkedIn and lookup for the FTEs of the organization you’re trying to apply for, send them a connection request, preferably with a note describing your desire to get a referral. And once they accept, you can send them your resume and the job ID. And if they find you fit for the role, they’ll refer you. It’s always good to approach multiple SDEs because some might be busy or inactive on LinkedIn at that time.
2. Apply twice: This point is more of a hack. The problem with referrals is that they might take time and many job descriptions do not mention when they’ll close the position, so it might happen that while you’re waiting for a referral, the position gets closed. So, its best to apply for the role as soon as you see it and once you get the referral, apply again from a different ID. Not fair, I know. But can help you a lot.

How to make a resume?

Resume plays a very important role in your selection. The trick lies in grabbing the attention of the recruiter within moments. It’s high time you should know about the 7 second rule:

It is widely believed that an applicant has between 6 to 10 seconds to impress the resume reader

Hence, it’s never a good idea to beat around the bush in your resume. Here are some tips to make your resume stand out.

1. Use consistent font (size, space, colour) and spacing throughout your resume. Use dark readable inks.
2. Start with your name and contact details on the top, followed by your Github and LinkedIn IDs. Then mention the following sections: Education, Technical Skills, Experience (if any), Projects, and Achievements & Co-curricular, in the same order as mentioned. Your resume must not exceed one page.
3. Don’t give vague project descriptions. Use action words, quantitative measures, and describe the tech stack you used. One of the formats is 
4. Avoid unnecessary sections like life philosophy, a day of my life, etc. Don’t put your picture, don’t rate your technical skills.
5. Don’t just mention the clubs/societies you’re part of. Instead write what you did there. Use them to show your leadership roles or management skills.

These were some fair and square tips, now it’s time to give you a little hack. There’s a high chance that you’ll be rejected by an algorithm before even reaching the recruiter. So, if you want, you could copy the job description and paste it in your resume. Make sure to keep the size infinitesimally small and make it transparent (i.e. the font color should match the background color).

How to prepare for interviews?

I guess most of you are would be interested in only this segment, so here I am! Addressing the elephant in the room. How to prepare!!! Well, it depends on how much time you have and how much can you do. So I’ll answer accordingly.

1. Data Structures and Algorithms: Nothing fancy here, these are the absolute basics that you need to master. The preferred websites are GeeksForGeeks and LeetCode. Recommended programming languages are C++ or JAVA (preferably C++). Do NOT use Python for these purposes. Although before starting DSA, you should study about time & space complexities and STL (if you’re doing C++) to grasp the concepts better.Some people have a doubt that there are so many algorithms out there, which ones should we study. The answer is, when we talk of DSA, we’re not exactly talking of algorithms, but algorithmic paradigms. Like greedy algorithms, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, etc.Do not spend too much time on theory. Try to solve problems, topic by topic, and gradually increase the difficulty level. If you’re short on time, it might not be possible for you to solve many problems on a specific topic. So, here is a set of problems, compiled by the YouTuber and Amazon SDE, Love Babbar which you can try solving. Geeksforgeeks also has a small problem set which you can refer to if you’re low on time.
2. Object-Oriented Programming: The understanding of OOP is way more important than your other CSE subjects. More than DBMS, OS, etc. It has vast practical applications and is used in almost all real-world projects.
3. Other CSE Subjects: Once done with the above two, you should know that you’re done with the basics. DSA and OOP are good enough to land you a job in any good interview process. However, it’s an icing on the cake if you know OS, DBMS, Computer Networks, and Compiler Design. It’s important to mention that if an interviewer asks you a question on a topic you don’t know, do NOT try to answer with your little knowledge, because it will give the interviewer an impression that you don’t know your subjects well. Instead, it’s better to straightaway say that you haven’t prepared that topic well.
4. System Design: Now that the icing is done, it’s time to put a cherry on the top. Well, system design is something which is not even expected of you but it creates a great impression if you know it. Fun fact: it’s not tough at all. Hardly takes some time to read and the rest is all practice. Here’s a video by the YouTuber and Uber SDE, Gaurav Sen to get you started.

Now that we’ve talked about the topics, it’s time for another li’l advice from my end. All the preparation means nothing if you get too nervous during the interview. So, you should also do a mental preparation. How, you ask? Mock Interviews. Fairly simple process, some of your friends can act as the interviewer, or pick someone from preplaced, me or anyone else, as I'm sure everyone here is equally skilled for this, and ask you the questions. This would give you a good experience of what you might face in actual interviews.

Some other general interview tips include talking out loud, explaining your thought process very clearly, never sitting silently. Do not get intimidated, and ask as many questions as needed to properly understand the problem clearly before starting with the solution. If stuck, feel free to ask for hints. The in-person interviews require you to write the solution on paper or whiteboard, which is very different from an IDE and I’d really like to stress on this point. Most of us take this lightly but please don’t, it’s a very different experience and it’s always good to practice it beforehand.

And that marks the end of this torturous blog. Pooh, that was a lot of information. I really hope that you benefit from this, even if by only 1%. If yes, feel free to share this with your friends! I’d appreciate the support. Okay then, until next time. Goodbye!