Campus Placements: A step by step campus recruitment preparation guide

Last Updated on July 15, 2022 by Admin

Preparing for campus placements is the most crucial part of your degree or diploma courses in engineering. Most of the students ignored the importance of preparing the campus placements and lost the chance to get selected by the company. Here are the definitive step-by-step campus placement and campus recruitment guide you should follow to get absorbed by your dream employer. Also, learn about the campus recruitment process.

We have prepared this placement guide for the students looking for job opportunities in construction, real estate, project, infrastructure, oil and gas, and other related businesses.

But the students from another educational background also refer to this campus placements preparation guide to improving upon their winning rate in the campus placements drives.

Every year hundreds of companies visit your campus to recruit fresher in their companies. It’s, in fact, a matter of pride for students to get selected while being on campus.

As most of us took admission in our colleges, looking at the previous year’s placements stats and changes of getting selected by companies. As nowadays, companies are more demanding when it comes to campus placement drives.

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Also, one of the best reasons for this is campus placements are a risk-free way of finding jobs. Most Companies often lower their recruitment criteria for students for entry-level employment. However, there’s much more than technical knowledge required to clear a campus recruitment interview.

This is one of the in-depth guides for on-campus placement for engineering students. You can find here the answers on how to prepare for campus placements engineering courses?

What is the campus placement process, what campus placement companies visit, and will you see your college for campus placement 2022? The essential skills required to get selected in a campus recruitment drive and follow these exact tips mentioned in this definitive guide to get your dream job offer in your campus placement drive.

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Table of Contents

What is Campus Placement or Campus Recruitment?

Campus placement, also known as campus recruitment, is the process when companies visit your college to conduct job interviews and hire students. If you have a question, why is campus recruitment important? Read more to get an answer to your question. These campus placement drives are arranged by the colleges and institutes that invite all the best potential companies to recruit from their students.

The campus placements are held before the final examination. These placements not only benefit the students, but they also benefit the companies and colleges.

However, as a student, you need to prepare well for the campus placements. Getting the best companies for the placement drive is the leading job of your college.

From there onward, you are the one responsible for what happens next. Of course, your college will prepare you, but there is still a whole lot more you can do. In the following blog, you will find all the information you need about campus placements and campus placements.

Types of Campus Placement

There are mainly two types of campus placements – On Campus Placement and Off-Campus. There are other forms of placement models coming up as well, but a few can be classified under the existing campus placement models.

On-Campus Placement

These placement or recruitment activities are held on the college campus or institute you are studying in. The college invites the best companies and companies with official partnerships to come and interview students to gauge their potential as future employees. Companies may use their form of the interview process. Post the interviews, they make selections and sometimes even offer jobs and salary figures.

Off-Campus Placement

This is where you, as an individual, will seek employment on your own. It is entirely up to you to get yourself placed in a company after you have finished your education.

You have to take a lot of effort, but you are a lot more in control of your employment. Many students resort to this type of placement after they’ve failed to get an on-campus placement. Sometimes, students may get help from their college placement cell, but this help comes from only providing contacts. Kindly check these Top Recruitment Agencies In India to find jobs through the off-campus or lateral recruitment process.

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Campus Placement Process

One of the best ways you can prepare for a campus placement is knowing about the complete procedure. This way, you can prepare for all the steps involved and feel more confident on the day of campus placement or recruitment interviews.

The recruitment process of any company is carried out in a minimum of 3-4 step process. Based on factors like the number of interview rounds, company size, pay packages offered by the companies, etc.

The recruitment companies are categorized into Large Corporations (mass recruitment), Mid-size companies, and Small size/Startups.

Here is the most common procedure for the campus selection process in engineering colleges and other courses.

Pre-Placement Presentation

This is the first part of the procedure. In the pre-placement presentation, the companies that have come for the campus placements put up representations regarding their organization. You get to know all about the companies, their recruitment process and the salaries you can expect. After the presentations, students are allowed to ask questions to the representatives.

Eligibility Criteria

This is the foremost step in the campus recruitment process whenever the company decided to visit your campus. The first step is to ask the student’s data interested and eligible as per the companies’ criteria. Every company has its own set of standards for the campus recruitment process. The company needs to disclose its eligibility criteria along with the salary packages.

Resume/ Profile Shortlisting

In this step, you will know about the qualifications and other essential criteria companies have set for recruitment. Usually, companies interview only those who belong to a specific stream of education and choose from them. Learn more to know about the various construction job titles in the construction industry.

Since colleges teach multiple disciplines and placements drives for all disciplines are held together, make sure you know which companies are interested in your education.

Written Examination

Once you know the companies, you will be applying for, and you will have to attempt an aptitude test. The test may vary based on the positions you are applying for, but there are a few tests specific to education streams.

Group Discussion

A few times, this round is not conducted, but many companies use this for filtering candidates. A group of students is created a judge moderates that. A common topic is given for the group to discuss.

Once the discussions begin, students are judged on their knowledge, communication skills, confidence, leadership skills, and listening and retaining capabilities. In the GD round, the latest news and current affairs are discussed, so you need to brush up on your knowledge.

Technical Interview

The technical interview will check your knowledge of the subject you are studying and other crucial technical knowledge related to your profession. This round is mainly conducted in a one-on-one setting, but if there are many students and interviews are short on time, they may conduct interviews as a group.

Formal Interview (HR Interview Round)

In this round, you are judged for your confidence and abilities. You can even term this interview as your job interview. If you have done internships or have worked on real industry projects, it will help you do well during this interview. In this interview, you will most likely know if you have been selected.

Top 50 HR Interview Questions and Answers for Engineers pdf ebook

Post Placement Discussion

If you have cleared the formal interview, you will get an offer letter and a post-placement discussion. You will be given guidelines and be told about the joining procedure. You will also be said any other important information you need to know. Most of the time, your college’s placement department takes care of your offer letter and joining procedures.

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Tips for Campus Placement Preparation

Now that you know about the stepwise procedure, you know how to prepare for campus placements. Read more to learn about how to prepare for placements?

Here a few tips you can use for your campus placement preparation and get the job you want in the company you wish to. You also need to have or acquire specific skills to do well in the campus placement drive. Start working on these skills early on, and keep working on them.

Following are the essential attributes of any campus placements drive. Kindly be prepared in advance with all of these.

A well-written Resume

A resume must be built according to a specific job opening and the company. Resumes can have different formats based on the profile you are applying to, the company you are using, etc.

One of the things that will instantly set you apart from the crowd and get you noticed is your resume. We suggest you spend a fair amount of time writing your resume. Do not just fill out a preset template. Your resume needs to be customized according to your application for the company and job profile.

A resume made for a profile of a civil site engineer needs to be different from a summary made for a profile of a billing engineer.

Do thorough research about the job profile and the company. Talk to your Seniors or friends, or acquaintances working in that company and take their help. Most companies have a preferred format of resume.

Have your resume(s) reviewed by your friends, peers, and placement officers. Take their feedback and make necessary changes to your resume. Your resume is an indispensable tool. It needs to be correctly structured and formatted. Use simple language, check multiple times to make sure there are no errors, do not use fancy fonts or colors, and make sure your resume layout is clear. Check these accessible resume formats for engineering job seekers.

Know about the companies

Every college has multiple companies coming every year for campus recruitment. Find out which construction companies visit your college for placements from your placement cell and maintain a tracking sheet for those companies.

Write down the dates when they’re organizing the recruitment drive in your college, their official website address, links to their social media channels, and a brief description of the company.

Sometimes, a company might terminate their visit, and instead of them, some other companies’ visits might get scheduled. Therefore, knowing about every company that’s going to visit your company helps in such situations. You can write down their details in brief on the track sheet you’re maintaining.

Now you must do extensive research on these companies and learn everything you can about them. Here are some things that you should know:

Company History
Founder and present CEO
Products and Services they offer
Company Location
Major news about the company
Major Achievements
Competitors (other significant players in the industry)
Business segment
Market Challenges and trends

Though almost every company holds presentations before the interviews, you must read about them on their website and social media channels. Use your networks, and if any of your seniors are working in the company, ask them about the recruitment process, interview, etc.

When you’re given a chance to ask them questions after the presentation, don’t hesitate. Ask them about the job profile, the qualities they are looking for in their prospective employees, a typical day at the job, and something unique you noticed about them during your research or the presentation. So you must pay attention during the presentation.

Know your Strengths

This is what recruiters will be looking for. It is one thing to clear your exam with excellent marks, but it is another thing to be able to know your stuff at the drop of a hat. So, you have to know about your education, and you should talk about it whenever asked about it.

It also helps to have a favorite subject. It becomes easier to learn and even recall. So, if you have a favorite issue, make sure you are an expert on it because it is likely that you will be asked about it during placements.

Aptitude Tests

You will be taking an aptitude test set by the company. And since you know about it, you can prepare by taking online aptitude tests. There are many websites with strict aptitude tests that can help you get the hang of aptitude tests and do well. Use your free time to do these freely available tests.

You can look for tests based on your educational discipline and start preparing. For example, if you are an engineering student, there are aptitude tests for engineers. If you are a management student, you can look for management aptitude tests. And these tests are pretty easy to find online.

You can download the placement preparation books for engineering students’ pdf version.

Write & Speak Well

Work on your English speaking and writing skills. In India, English is the official language of business communication. Therefore, to increase your chances of being selected as a candidate, work on your English writing and speaking skills. Recruiters will test both of these during your interview.

Always try to converse in English with your friends and family. Read a lot of books, magazines, and newspapers. This will also help you increase your vocabulary. Also, get into the practice of writing a journal. Many talented candidates even get rejected owing to poor communication skills, so take this seriously.

Brush up your Technical Knowledge

If you are getting educated in a technical discipline, be sure to brush up on your technical knowledge and skills. In campus placements interviews, there is a lot of importance placed on technical skills, and you will be mostly grilled about your technical knowledge.

Keep reading and updating your technical knowledge. Practical work is the best way to do this. More than anything else, this is what recruiters are concerned with, and if you can display your technical knowledge and skills, you are bound to get selected for a job.

Mock Interviews

One of the most nerve-wracking parts of the placement process is the one-on-one interviews. Campus placements are probably the first time you are facing an interview. Therefore, it is pretty natural to be nervous. But there is a way you can deal with your nerves and do well in the discussion – mock interviews.

Many colleges conduct mock interview exercises as a way to help their students prepare for placements. Make sure you are a part of them. You can also practice mock interviews with your friends as a means to prepare. This will genuinely help you. Kindly check this practice test to brush up on your technical skills.

Develop Marketable Skills

In the competitive professional world, just knowing about your subject is not enough; you need to have other forms of skills and knowledge that will project you as a well-rounded candidate that is worth employing.

Presentation skills, email writing skills, public speaking skills may be expected from an MBA student, but imagine an engineer having these skills.

Similarly, if an MBA student knows programming languages and coding, it will instantly make them stand out from the rest. These are the skills you should acquire to give yourself a better chance.

Improve General Knowledge

General knowledge matters a lot. If you have good general knowledge, you will automatically do well in the interview and group discussions. Good general understanding also portrays you as someone aware of your surroundings and knows what is happening in the industry.

To increase your general knowledge, you need to make use of the internet. Read up on all the latest national and international news and news related to the industry you hope to work in. Also, read the newspaper. Get into the habit of it. It will increase your general knowledge and increase your chances of getting hired during campus recruitments.

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Tips to Crack the Campus Placement Interview

Following are the most important things you need to consider on how to prepare for campus placements.

Start by preparing specifically for the companies you are sitting for. Companies want the candidates to be proficient in at least one subject or profile. Pick the subject of your choice and learn to demonstrate your knowledge.
Check the reviews about the interview process of the companies on Glassdoor or any other job portal. Most of them paint an accurate picture of what you are going to face.
Read about the interview process of other candidates and try to gain some insights into which subjects the interviewers of that particular company most focus on.
Google for past placement papers of the company you will be sitting for next. It seems unimportant but let me tell you a secret.
Most of the companies have a standard set of questions that they repeat throughout the whole Placement session wherever they go, try to get a general idea about the type of questions they ask.
Also, call a few seniors( who are working at the company you are trying to get into) and ask about their own experiences. If you have a good network of friends, it won’t be hard to find a senior who guides you.
Do not be late for your interview round. Nothing pisses an HR person more than a candidate appearing late.
Look confident but not appear rude. No matter how good they are, most people sometimes just cannot handle themselves during their interviews. Just try to relax.

Work on your communication skills from now itself. Learn to answer as briefly as possible. If you are nervous, do a few mock interviews with your friends.
Do not blatantly lie as these guys were themselves, students, earlier and have been part of the interview process throughout their life. Questions like “Why do you have this much percentage/CGPA?” ” Why do you want to work for our company?” “Where do you want to see yourself in 5 years” are commonplace, and it would help you a great deal if you are prepared for these beforehand.
Do try not to mumble/bluff through your technical rounds too. If you are confident, then answer. Otherwise, ask politely in terms of ” I am not exactly sure of the answer, but can I tell what I know about the topic” and try to make an educated guess if you are permitted.
You never know if the Interviewer is planning a stressful interview. If the Interviewer appears rude, also keep your calm and do not lose focus.
Read the ” About Us” page on the company website and listen carefully during the company presentations generally held before the Interview process.
When you are allowed to ask questions, do not hesitate and show how much you are already familiar with the company and your job profile. Good questions to ask will be about a typical day at the job, the interviewer’s job profile, what qualities they look for in a prospective employee, or something unique you noticed during the presentation.

Do not get demotivated if you cannot answer all the questions and not panic under any circumstances. Sometimes Interviewers ask hard questions.
Sometimes they ask all sorts of questions that are probably too hard to answer. It is just to know if you are well prepared and interested beyond what is taught at your college.
Do bring 2-3 copies of your resume. You do not want to sit there and find out you gave the only copy of your resume to the HR lady and do not have something to show to your interviewer.
After you are done with the interview, do graciously ask for their feedback after the process, even if you are not selected. It will help you perform better for the upcoming companies. If they refuse, then walk out.
Do not dress casually and cut your fingernails. During one of my Interview Rounds, I was asked if I considered the company below my level as I had dressed like a Hobo.
Write about your projects on your CV. Write briefly and do not give it all away to explain to the interviewer later on during the actual interview and impress him. If you are any good, you can easily divert the whole interview process towards your projects and questions based on them. But do prepare in advance and read about your projects thoroughly.
There is no excuse for failing to explain whatever you did during the time of the interview. I had three technical projects and 4-5 nontechnical ones, including 2 Study Oriented Projects. I would focus on the technical ones during the coding profiles and the others during the rest.
Do not talk too much. Be to the point and do not ramble on during interviews. Do not try to impress your Interviewees by being quick to answer their questions and not listening properly, or giving a wrong answer.
If you have some doubt, just say that you are not entirely sure of the answer but would still like to attempt the question and then follow up with the best logical explanation you can give, even if you do not know if it is the exact answer.
Prepare different resumes for different profiles. The summary you make for a site engineer profile will have to be different from that billing engineer profile.
If it is a telephonic interview or online interview, fix the slot during which you can give your best. Most people in college only get up during the afternoon and are most proficient during late evenings. If possible, try to arrange the interview according to that.
You can also check the various placement preparation sites for engineering students.

Final Words

Campus placement is one of the most critical steps in your career. Good placement can mean that you start at an excellent salary in a company where you will learn a lot. Therefore, make use of all the information given above and prepare for your campus placements. Be confident and be positive, and you are sure to do well. Also, read this article Missed the Campus Placements? How to search for your dream job?

Try to get admitted into the college or institute that will teach you well and ensure you have an excellent campus recruitment.

Check for the institute, which has had at least sixty percent placement record in the last five years and has placed its students in the country’s best companies and multinational companies as well.