IT preperation for PUCSD

What is IT ?

IT is Industrial Training which you do for 6 months in Industry. You work on some project , may be you do some Coding or most of the time some bug fixing or QA .
I have seen that most of the people take IT very seriously , where as its not that big thing. Dont worry for IT .. i mean worry for getting IT but dont worry if you cant get into some high profile Companies PUCSD is crazy about like Amazon , Versata or any thing like that.

What you get into a BIG company ?

Most of the time there is a project which is already complete and you do some bug-fix or testing or some build some module . Which is perfectly fine. No body is going to put you on hardcore development from day 1 , you will only give you things which they think you can handle. Even in regular job people end up doing bug fixes and understanding the product for initial 6 months or more . So expecting hard core development is not a good idea

+ : High stipent , good facilities
- : no good work (most of the times)

What you get in a Small company ?

In small companies , most of the time you can get better work (which is most important) but the stipend wont be that great like big companies , but it would be sufficient.

What do companies ask you when they come for Campus ?

Hardly it matters what you have done , most of the time they dont even ask anything ... and when they ask , they ask you to explain what you did ? Thats it.

Does it affects what have i done in IT ? Does that matter a lot while i get offer at the time of FP ?

Not really. There are people who have done testing work and now doing Pure dev work , There are people who did development work in IT and now doign Testing and other non-dev work. There are people who have done XYZ and now doing ABC .

FP is different and your IT matters very less . mainly you have to do good in interviews and written exams.

Does CPI matter ?

Let me tell you when CPI matters .

- Most of the companies keep minimum CPI criteria for students to sit in the written exams . they may allow people above 3.0 or 3.5 sometimes . In that case CPI is something which will help you .

If they find 2 good candidates with equal skills and they have to take one then if there is big gap in CPI it will matter. But if there is small difference like <1 style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 0, 0);">How should you see Written test and interview ?

From what i and almost everyone has seen that written test is something you study for . all your maths skills , C and other knowledge helps you most at the time of written test. you have questions in front of you and you answer it . Here comes your knowledge and only your knowledge and the fact that how much you have mugged up (i hate it) ... how many differnt C problems you have done , and how deep you know about something.

Interview is something you show your creativity , your confidence , sometimes your appearance , and most of the time your luck .

I have seen people who are great in OS , Algo , Data structures and over all computer science , but are weak in aptitude ... and that turns out to be the biggest nightmare . they are able to crack all the questions they will face in interview , but they are not just able to reach there because they fail in written.

Aptitude and C are very important part of any written test (most of them) .. you cant afford to be bad in aptitude . its the first step of your ladder. If you cant make it , you cant pass through.

Just make sure that you clear written easily and interview is something more muck rather than skill. What matters most in interview is your confidence , some times how you appear (yes , i am talking about physical appearance , they dont expect Salman khan , but just be a polite , nice , clean , smart person)

Is my coding skills important ?

You can be great coder , but you can fail here . Coding at IT or FP time is different. When we code for our assignments and for lab work , we have adequate time , we have computer to test the mistakes . But in IT or FP you dont have time ... you are given 30 min or 1 hr to write a program and it should RUN !!! ... What it means is that it should be very near to perfection . you should be able to handle all the cases apart from small things like <= should not be there in place of < . and many other small small things . Just try to write a HeapSort() in C on paper and then try to run it . You will see where you stand. Yes , you code in C only .. no python , C++ or java etc. You cant afford to be bad here , you need to be a Fair (if not good) C programmer . Atleast a paper coder. Try to write a lot of programs on paper , most of the times if you are solving a problem , try it on paper and then test it . It should help . most of the companies ask C coding in there written exam , so if you not good at it, that will be bad.

I am ignoring maths and puzzles and only doing C , data structures , OS etc ?

Thats not a good thing. Companies do not need a C programmer or an OS expert with an average mind . They would rather prefer average C and OS person with exceptional problem solving capabilities. You must be able to solve complex problems apart form working knowledge of other things. This is mainly for Fp and not for IT and its also true for IT .

When they ask things from you they will see how are you solving it and not that you gave a correct answer . A correct and right approach is much appreciated than a right answer.

What will happen during IT time ?

Surprises , there is a one word answer but let me elaborate over it . Be prepared to see a person get a IT before you who has less CPI then you or who was considered less smart , less attractive , less knowledgable than you all these days ... That happens .

Just dont worry .. keep cool , be confident . Its just a matter of 3-4 hrs that they have to judge people and they have there own criteria's . It might happen that A knows 10% and B knows 90% , but A was asked nothing from that 90% what he/she doesnt know and B was asked a lot from 10% which he/she does not know .

What subjects are more important?

OS : OS will be asked by everyone , this i would rate rank 1 . atleast it will be among top 2 always ... Each company will ask OS except some like versata.

Algorthims : this will also be asked by almost every company , make sure that you brush up all the basic questions like those arrays problems and linklist problems .

Data structure : This will go same way like Algorthim . this will be asked by almost every company . Make sure that you know the concepts and seen many questions . Share a lot of qustions with each other and practice.

Puzzles : Yes , i would put puzzles and riddles after this . Most of the companies test your problem solving skills and your way of thinking . Here , its not neccessary that you give them correct answer , you will win if they are convinced that you are able to think in right direction and can lead to correct answer if you are given some more help , its obviously great if you can solve the puzzles , but its ok if you cant.

Rest all subjects :


Some Tips and things to remember

- If you dont know something , be straight and tell them that you dont know (make sure its not a very very silly and simple thing , if they ask you to traverse a linklist , dont say you dont know , rather try it) . But they ask you how malloc works internally , its something not everyone knows , so you can tell them that you dont know . and give them chance to go ahead. People who come to recruit understand that you cant know 100% , you its fine if you said that you dont know 2 -3 out of 10 things.

- Make sure you do aptitude and C very very well (for written) .



Programming interview exposed : http://manish.pucsd.googlepages.com/Programming_interviews_exposed_1_.pdf
: Read This ebook , it has good problems of DFS and other things , which are very nicely explained. This is a must read.

Orkut Community for PUCSD puzzles : http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=36434569
Join this community and discuss some of the puzzles and questions. Mainly this is focused for Algorthim and puzzles . If people are ready and enthsuastic , we can start active discussion .


Some comments and experiences : I asked some people to share there experiences and write a small paragraph for you people so that you can understand what people do in IT and how they feel about it . I am sure it will help.

"In my IT, I have done testing of Sybase IQ products which include writing scripts for automated testing, executing scripts and some parts involved manual testing as well. In my initial days of IT I was given time to learn shell scripting and database concepts especially about indexes in deep. In my IT days I was given two main projects – work load monitoring and load improvement. The work that I was doing required mainly shell scripting, python code and dbtest (a Sybase tool) scripts

I doesn't liked manual testing, the work given to me was completed by me in the given time that is all required by a company. Many times some of the works gets blocked due to one reason or other.
during my IT I was utilising saturdays and sundays for FP preparation"

Vivek Bhardwaj , batch 05

"I worked on developing a test automation framework for there product called Unwired accelerator . mainly i worked in python and xml parsers . I learned about syncing technlogies . and overall product architecture ... there was not much work load . The stipend was very good , the atmosphere was excelent . i love Sybase . its a nice company to work with. For my FP the only 1 out of 4-5 companies asked which interviewed me ... my current company didnt even ask about it .. i guess they dont even knowthat i did any IT :) . So for my FP its didnt matter at all. "

Manish Chauhan , batch 04


"well i wasn't that happy going to symantec initially, but as i always say it depends on the team. Well i worked on making a test automation tool for one of there product's QE team. The work was good, basically related to DS, C/C++, lots of XML parsing and creation, mostly related to Window's system environment(that was a new thing :) ). Learned new tools as well. I think going in for an IT you don't require anything extra, you will grab the things there.
Just one thing, be in touch with at-least two people in your team one, your mentor/buddy, second the person whom he reports, as these are the people who will be the one sending out your details."

Vineet Garg , Batch 04

"I did my IT at IIT Bombay

There at IIT, as part of the job I was involved in mainly two things,
> was involved as a tutor in GCC workshop
> was involved with some GCC code changes which finally didnt completed (or bettr say I couldnt complete)

From my IIT experience I gained only two things
> I read GCC source code (so now, I am not afraid of reading any code :) )
> Got time to do things othere than course/syllabs like learnd TT, and other tech related stuffs.

What I feel , my IT experience was not an Ideal one, and dont thing u can take an example out of it (anyways, now nobody goes to IIT)
Somebody who did IT in industry could provide better insight.

:)
"

Neeraj Chopra , Batch 05

"During IT u have to do things within deadline & this deadline is strict coz ur ppo depends on it. so u learn to do ur task faster & better. I learned new things in optimization of db query. how a database engine works, how to design ur db schema to make your query writing easy. having said that it makes u feel confident each time u complete a task & get appreciation for it. u shud b master of the subject in which u r doing ur IT. Also getting corporate culture xperince helps u in real job.keep discussing diff ideas with ur seniors/mngrs during IT also helps u"

Preetdeep , Batch 04



If there are any doubts or questions , you can always shoot an email to manish.pucsd@gmail.com .

Manish Chauhan
http://www.finance-and-investing.blogspot.com/