This article is written to help freshers from India with Bachelors or Masters degree and working professionals working in non-IT industry planning to switch to IT industry

Content: Find tips for finding an opportunity, clearing IT aptitude test and interview.

If you are planning to dive into an IT career, here are few tips that would help you to achieve your aspiration.

Use below internal links to quickly navigate to that topic.

• How to get an interview call
• Things to do on the day before an Interview
• What to expect in a Written Test
• The Interview
• What’s more important Experience or Salary
• Is IT going low due to recession in the USA

How to get an interview call:

Your first step to get an IT job is get a call from IT company for interview. How do you get an interview call? Where can you find software job postings?

You guessed it right.  Jobs are posted in job boards such as Naukri.com/Monsterindia.com/Timesjobs.com. Go straight to one of those sites (or all of them) and register your profile with them. Upload your resume and keep all the fields complete.

Companies always need people! (with an exception in the times of recession like now). So company’s Human Resource department continuously consults the above job sites for filling up the required job positions.

You can also try job consultancies such as Elitmus.com. Elitmus is an online job consultancy based in Bangalore. They conduct an aptitude test called the pH Test. They charge you some amount of money for registering for the test. You have to regularly check elitmus.com for new job postings.

The jobs posted at elitmus.com are usually the high paid ones (3 lakh Rupees per annum on an average). Any score of above 80 percentile and a good score in your bachelors almost ensures you a couple of interview calls. I personally liked their services. I had got a lot of interview calls (from National Instruments, McAfee Software, H3C Technologies, Huwaien).

Research the current requirements in IT Industry:

Is your cousin is working as a software engineer? Talk to him; Find out the technology that in demand in his organization. Did your friend get placed into any Software Company? Discuss and find out what questions are being asked, and dig it up.

The current technology requirements of IT are:

JAVA/J2EE, DotNet, Siebel, SAP, Automated Testing, Oracle PL/SQL, javascript/AJAX. You need not have to know all of them. Learn any one of them thoroughly.

Choose a technology based on your interests. For example, if you like web and the internet, you should consider learning JAVA, dot NET technologies.

If you are fascinated by the way gmail works, dynamically refreshing content on the page without reloading. Or if you are interested to know how your scrapbook opens when you reply somebody on orkut, you should learn javascript/ AJAX technologies.

Want to find out how vast amount of information is stored in the internet or how orkut remembers so many people? Learn SQL.

If your priority is to grab the high paid IT job opportunities, you should consider learning CRM Customer Relationship Management Softwares (SAP, Siebel).

Last but not the least if you want a hassle free IT job sans programming, opt for testing. Learn manual or automated testing.

Do not Forget the ancestor: C language

C language, the ancestor or programming languages. Often, freshers seem to have wrong impression about C language. They assume that C is an outdated programming language. If you are one of them, then you are completely mistaken.

C language is the fastest compiler and the best ever compiler. Since its birth in 1978, it was the key language for System Programming and embedded systems. Even C ++ has not been able to replace C compiler in Embedded systems and RTOS programming (Programming air-crafts). C is a very powerful language with little restrictions.

If you are a beginner in C, read the book “Let us C” by yashwanth kanitkar. Once you are done with that book, read “The C programming Language” by Denis Ritchie. This book is the best ever book teaching C language. You can crack any written test asking C language, if you read this book thoroughly.

C language is the favorite programming language for interviewers to ask questions. Expect a lot of C language questions if you are attending your first IT interview. See the posts on C interview questions with solutions in this blog. If you are migrating from another industry to IT, this is the language that you should learn first. Even for learning JAVA, C language happens to be the pre-requisite.

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Things to do the day before an Interview

Let us say that you got a call from coveted IT company in India, what next?

Usually they conduct an aptitude test for screening people before the actual interview. Search on Google for previous papers of that company and start working on those questions. This trick works most of the times. Yes, companies do repeat question patterns. Try FreshersWorld.com for the latest placement papers.

Learn What They Want:

Before you go to attend an interview you should do your homework. Find out the expectations from your future employer. Read the job description carefully. Do they want a Java programmer / Web developer / Web designer / Tester / Quality Analyst? Tweak your resume based on what they want.

And more specifically, knowledge of which technology do they want the job applicants to possess? Do they want people for build management? / Do they want people for application server administration?

If you cannot understand these details, do not worry too much. Take help of your friends or seniors who are Software engineers by profession. Also be sure to see this checklist on things to do the day before an interview.
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What to expect in The Written Test:

A written test typically covers the following sub-topics:

1. Soft skills: IT industry expects their employees to possess good soft skills (writing / speaking in English). You don’t need to be an essayist or a prize winning public orator. If you can express in English, what you wish to say, consider yourself as fit for an IT job. If not, you should join some English training institute such as VETA. Preparation for English tests such as TOEFL/GRE/IELTS helps greatly.
2. Aptitude: IT job is all about real life problems and solving them; so interviewers would naturally want to test your problem solving ability. The only way to test your problem solving abilities is through puzzles. As it is difficult to test a fresher for advanced concepts of programming, industry considers simple puzzles as a quick way to test. Make it habit to solve puzzles.Buy the book, “Puzzles to Puzzle you” by Shakuntala Devi, finish it and move on to “More puzzles to puzzle you” by the same author. If you have time also solve the classic book, “The great book of puzzles and Teasers” by George Summers. If you have solved that book completely, I bet that you can clear any aptitude test that comes your way.
3. Math: Expect a few questions from mathematics that is taught in high school. Favorite topics in aptitude tests are percentages, loss and profit, ratios, interest, permutations and combination. There is no match for the book “Quantitative Aptitude” by RS Agarwal in this department.
4. Programming skills: 90% chances are that you would be asked questions from C language. Most probably: scope of variables, pointers, pointer arithmetic, String manipulation, C standard library(stdlib.h, string.h,. etc) , memory operations (calloc, malloc), precedence of operators, arrays. Questions in C++ and Java are rarely asked in entry level / freshers interview.
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The Interview:

You would be evaluated on the basis of following things:

1. Speaking skill:This is a very important criterion. You are expected to speak fluently. You need not be an orator, but buttler English is not accepted. Even if its buttler it’s alright to some extent as long as you speak smoothly. Do not slouch in your chair. Sit straight, talk very confidently & audibly. Maintain eye-contact. Answer to the question — do not over-explain or under-explain — keep it simple. Never give one-word answers. Do not use negative language like “I don’t know” , “that was not taught”. Instead say POLITELY that you are not aware of it or say that you are excel in some other topic. Listen with utmost attention, do not think about anything else while doing an interview.
2. Honesty:is usually tested in the last round also called as HR (Human Resource) round. In this interview, a HR manager talks to you casually. You need to be casual and honest while answering. Do not hide or over explain about your backlogs / arrears. Do not talk too much about your negative points. Do not boast too much, you will be caught. If you say that you like reading newspaper, first question would be “What’s on headlines today?” So be very honest.
3. Grooming: What you wear speaks a lot about you. You need to come neatly groomed, with ironed and a decent dress. Boys: Formals and shoes, Girls: Punjabi dress or salwar and kurta. If it is an MNC, it may be other way round. You might see the interviewer wearing funky t-shirt and jeans. But still it is better not to take chances.
4. Resume / Curriculum vitae:Everything on your CV/resume counts. Do not write poems or day dreams in resume. Write your own, simple but smart one line ambition. Think twice before you write anything in resume. You’d be questioned about each and every word in your resume, be prepared to justify. Participation and prizes in events technical/cultural/extra-curricular is a great plus. If you haven’t done anything other than going to college, it’s time for you to join some NGO / some active college group.
5. Technical skills:Certifications rock!!, they are highly valued. If you do not know what certifications are, find out from your seniors. Consider doing SCJP 1.5 or an oracle PL/SQL certification. If you know that you are not good at what is being asked, you can promptly interrupt and tell the interviewer about your strength. You are likely be asked to write a C program for factorial, sorting, recursion, find greatest number. So be prepared with such common programs.
6. Extras:Your project work could be questioned. In case you are not from Computer science background, they might not ask much. But common questions are: What was your role in your project work? Explain how is your project work useful in real world?
   Learn at least in brief about your project and be honest if you did not do it by yourself.
7. Ask questions:At the end of the interview you would be given a chance to ask questions. Asking nothing usually may give a wrong impression to the interviewer that you are under confident. So grab this opportunity to ask questions. Do not ask questions such as: How many leaves would I get per year? / How much will my pay rise after one year? Instead enquire about the project and growth, about the interviewer’s background, his relationship with the company, or anything about the company that amuses you.
8. Puzzles again:You would be given a couple of puzzles to solve; you are not expected to get the perfect answer for the puzzle. But you should not give up easily. At least act as if you are trying to solve. They see your attitude (perseverance) in solving puzzles as solving real life problems you might face tomorrow in the company. You should never give up until he says time-up. I learnt it in Huwaien technology interview. I wish somebody had told me about this.
9. Argument Round:This is very common asked in the US based MNC’s. HR interviewer would start arguing with you on a point. For ex: your dress sense is bad or your resume sucks. The key here is he is trying to test your argument abilities. You should stick to your point for hours together. Never waver or agree to what he says.
10. About the Company:One day before interview, learn few key facts about the company such as: CEO of the company, clients of the company, products of the company, founder name etc. A friend of mine did not qualify an interview in Satyam Computers for mis-spelling it as Sathyam.
11. A Cool Tip:Last but not the least, remember that the answer that give him leads him to new questions. You would get questions from the terminology that you had used in your answer. So answer in a way to lead him to ask in the areas you are strong at. This should not be very difficult. Practice it with your friends.

Read frequently committed mistakes in an interview.

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What’s important Experience or Salary

For freshers, what certainly matters is who you work for and what you work on. Yes, brand name works, but if you have to choose between a silly job and high pay versus good job but low pay. I would certainly recommend you the latter. If you have good experience in good work you can demand a raise in next company but not the other way around.

Is IT going to fall due to recession in the U.S.A?

Yes, there is going to be a huge effect on IT industry jobs due to the current financial situation in U.S.A and U.K .This may subsequently lessen number of job opportunities in IT now. This trend would continue till the end of 2009. But this does not mean that it is the end of computer era. Software industry is here to stay. It is only facing a harsh and stormy weather. Soon, the bright sun would be back in the sky.

Update: Economy seems to be reviving in India. As of december 2009, the signs are positive. So there is soon going to be an increase in jobs available in IT industry.

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This post was moved from Interview Mantra

You can also add a website name if it does not appear in the choices given in this poll.

Obviously, I voted first as I had created the poll

My vote goes to Naukri. In the past, I had got decent number of calls via Naukri.

I did have an account with Monster India. I got only one interview call from that site till now. I think Monster India is not as good as Naukri.

What is your take? Comment below.

Bar graph showing trends in software technologies

This is a graph drawn from the statistics of Jobs from Naukri.com Job Search Engine. The graph divides software jobs into categories based on technologies.

Please note that this graph  represents the job scenario in December 2009 and that too in India only. The number of jobs available in software industry keeps changing on a daily basis.

Highlights of “Technology Job Trends Graph”:

• Highest number of jobs available for Oracle PL/SQL developers.
• The number of jobs posted for SAP CRM is third highest after jobs in Java .
• UNIX looks evergreen as usual. So it’s worthwhile to learn UNIX shell scripting and basics of UNIX administration.
• .Net caught up quickly with J2EE. Dot Net seems to threatens J2EE’s future.
• Adobe Flex (Rich Internet Application) came from nowhere to the list of top technologies in India. As flex is relatively new in the market, the industry is searching for two year experienced flex developers. It would be a good idea to learn flex, if you wish to laterally boast your prospects.

A bad career choice can make your work drudgery

For most of the graduates that passed out during the years of recession(2008,2009), the first thing running in their heads would be what to do next.

80% of the crowd give in to their emotions and follow what conventionally was being done by their ancestors and take up absolutely any job that they come across.

Few years down the line, their level of frustration at work reaches to such a height that they resign and stay jobless or take a break for higher studies. And start their new search of finding a better suited career.

How do we avoid such consequences?

Identify your passions. Chose a path which makes you happy. Read the practical guide on how to find your passion if you have trouble in finding out your passions.

The world is huge and is filled with opportunities. If you are talented in some academic subject, consider teaching as a profession. If you are talented in painting, take up a profession in that. If you have the eye to distinguish beautiful things and want to design dresses, take up a career in fashion. If you like greenery and like being amidst the forest take up a career in wild life photography. If you enjoy talking, take up a career as reporter or as a Radio Jockey.  If you are into spiritual teachings, take up meditation and learn the art of zen and the spread the same around.

Life is really short for not living your dream. One needs to understand that money is not the ultimate goal of life. A person with intelligence, wealth and power in the right balance would be most successful.

A person with lot of money and no intelligence will lose his wealth in no time. A person with all the power and no money is a blind man speaking to a deaf society.

Hence objective in any career needs to be able to achieve intelligence, money and power in equal proportion.

Life is filled with challenges. Playing safe is never an option. Learn to follow your dreams and take maximum risk. You may fail several times. Each failure will make you stronger and better but you will surely succeed.

This article was written by Naveen S.R., a software professional working for a coveted IT company in Bangalore. He is a champion in managing his work and time. And most importantly, he loves his job as a software engineer.

Image courtesy

A screenshot taken from nokri.com payment page

A few months back,  India’s number #1 Job board, Nokri.com, rolled out new services called Resume display.

For a fee of 900.00 Rupees, they claimed to display Nokri profile for 12 months to 50,000 HR managers. They promised few thousands of views to Nokri profile.

Everything looked so impressive, the styling, the pricing and everything. It was so tempting. If a person can get a boost of new job calls by paying a nominal fee, why not?

I wanted to test their claims. So on 29th April, 2009 I credited 900.00 Rs to Nokri for Resume Display of my friend’s Nokri profile for one year until 29th April, 2010. Here is the invoice bill for payment of 900.00 Rs that I got via email.

Guess the number of views my friend got? 1000? 2000? 5000?

A staggering 135 views!!! And guess what my friend’s resume got 15 views in the last month! Want proof? Sure. Here is the view count of my friend’s profile on whose behalf I shelled out 900 bucks.

What is the lesson learnt? Don’t trust these job board services that don’t care to add value to their “paying” customers.

Note: I’m sure Nokri.com representatives would want to contact me.

An exclusive message for them:
“Don’t struggle too hard to talk to me. My email id is sridhar@interviewmantra.net . By the way, don’t you guys care to address the grievances of  your customers? I mailed you regarding this issue long back and never got a response from you.”

A pie chart graph of Indian Job market

The above pie chart is taken from Naukri.com’s  JobSpeak Report for October 2009. On a monthly basis, Naukri.com consolidates the job statistics in the form of tables and visual graphs.  Their report is based on the data of 15 million job applicants who use Naukri.

Now, look at the pie chart above keenly for 5 seconds and try to guess what it is all about.

You probably might have already guessed it, this pie chart shows the statistics of percentage of jobs available in India split on the basis of number of years of experience.

There are few interesting points to note in this pie graph:

1. The highest number of jobs are available for professionals with 4-7 years of experience. (The red colored pie sector with 36%).
2. Least percentage of jobs target professionals with experience more than 16 years.
3. Freshers and professionals with experience of less than 3 years have the second highest number of jobs of 31%.
4. Employees with 8-12 years of experience have 22% of the jobs posted in Naukri.

I believe that we can safely generalize these trends that are specific to Naukri.com to the whole of Indian Job market in general.

The first point in the above list sounds quite logical that companies want people who are more experienced than a (fresher /3 yr experienced resource) who work hard for the company. And at the same time they don’t want a too experienced person in the range of 8-22% who usually look for manager role(that involves no work other than checking emails, doing useless excel sheet work, lecturing employees under them and playing politics).

The second point seems to indicate that organizations fear recruiting old and over experienced people with experience of above 16 years, who usually demand gigantic salaries and want to work least. Probably companies think that so much of experience does more harm than good.

I’ve been observing this experience bucket(as Naukri puts it), for a quite long time over six months now. This trend seems to remains static without much change.

International VLSI Conference held at New Delhi

This is a true story about the influence of an International conference on three friends in choosing their career paths. (I’m one of the three!).

Circa December 2007, I got a call from Sreeram, my ex-college mate from Chennai telling me about an international conference on VLSI and Embedded Systems in Hyderabad. We were pretty much tempted to go register for this conference, but the only thing that inhibited us was the price tag of registration 8000 Rs. for just three days.

I contacted Karthik, another friend of mine from Chennai. One thing that was common among three of us was that we were all Engineers from Electronics and Communication Engg. stream from engineering colleges in Chennai. Second thing was that we were CEACTIs (Confused Engineers Aspiring for Core Technical job in India) who passed out in 2007.

All the three of us were confused about choosing our career paths. Sreeram was aspiring to pursue Masters in the US. He was confused whether to take up Electrical stream or Computer science stream. Karthik was confused whether to pursue Masters or to join an IT firm in India. I was working for a reputed IT firm in pune. I was confused whether to continue in technology stream, or to pursue my passion for marketing and entrepreneurship.

None of us had a clue what to do, until we attended that international conference. We decided to shell out big money and go attend that conference. We had no idea that this conference would totally change our minds and give us a direction.

The conference was conducted in a posh international conference center in Hyderabad. The attendees of the conference were experts from the industries of VLSI, Embedded Systems and Core Electronics, professors from international universities, businessmen owning chip manufacturing companies, employees working for reputed chip related companies (such as Intel, AMD, ARM) and aspiring students studying in reputed colleges of India.

We attended few paper presentations on latest trends in VLSI, few panel discussions on future of chip manufacturing in India, visited the exhibits of sponsor Electronic related companies and last but not the least, enjoyed the royal lunch that they provided.

We had the opportunity to talk to a professor from a famous university in the USA. He also happened to be a member of selection committee of international student admissions in his university and a popular IEEE fellow. Professor was kind enough to speak with us about the criterion of selection of international students, drawbacks in Indian education and life as a graduate student in the USA.

We also spoke to few employees of Intel, AMD. We asked them how they got a job in a core electronic company. They shared their experience with the core technological companies, they compared and contrasted electronic and IT industry in India.

At the end of the conference, we were overwhelmed with a huge amount of information about the electronics trends happening in India and the world. We realised few shocking revelations, India was lacking extremely bad in chip industry when compared to the western world. There are hardly hundreds of jobs in India related to chip industry. M.Tech programs in India were far inferior to the ones in rest of the world.

It took us a couple of weeks to digest what we learnt at the conference. The conference gave us an invaluable thing, a direction to our career paths and clarity in our vision.

Sreeram realised that he should apply where his interest lies, in electrical engineering for masters instead of going behind the computer engineering stream just for the sake of getting a job.

Karthik became crystal clear about his pursuit of Masters in VLSI program in the US. He loved VLSI, he had even won few VLSI competitions in India.

I got the whole picture of the electronic and IT industry in India. I decided that I was not going to get into the myriad of electronic technologies. I wanted to be a technical marketer, a business man who sells technology.

Sreeram is now a Research Assistant in Gannon University, Karthik got an admit into VLSI stream in University of South California, I resigned my tech job and started full time blogging as a first step to my entrepreneurship.

If you are a CEACTI like us, I highly recommend you to participate in international conferences related to your field. If you are a student of electrical engineering branch check out the VLSI Conference 2010 to be conducted in Bangalore. It may change the course of your career!

This post was written by Sridhar Jammalamadaka. Add Sridhar on Facebook.

But the call never came, you are still waiting. After a week, a sneaking suspicion has crept into you that you’ve lost the job. Why hasn’t the call come through?

This happened to me, not once, not twice, but a dozen times. I would get a call from a big name company. In my eye(I’m also told by my circle of friends & relatives) that I’m terribly smart, quick on the uptake and strong in my domain knowledge. Although the interview questions were always tackled almost 100% correctly by me, the appointment call letter won’t come.

I was completely zapped. This left me wondering what was wrong with me. I worked harder at improving my domain knowledge and my actual working skills. Still where was the great job? One by one all of my friends were landing jobs in Microsoft, IBM. I was left behind.

I realized something was lacking in me which led to failure in interviews. I realized certain truths about me.

• My self confidence was superficial. In my heart of hearts, I didn’t think I was good enough for the great job.
• I didn’t focus on one job at a time. I would day dream about several opportunities and want all of them at the same time.

One-pointed Focus on the interview:
What worked for me finally was my total inner transformation and a little reliance on the vedic route to the vijaya or success.

I learnt to focus only on the interview at hand and not subconsciously think that the other big MNC job can be tapped if not this. I began to want the job with 100% of my heart.

Visualization & Materialization:

• I learnt to think as though I’m already through in the company that I was going to take interview with. Learnt into imagining wearing company identity card, sitting in the workstation talking to my colleagues, talking to my boss, being appreciated by my boss, enjoying goodies in company canteen. It would be a complete youtube video in color.
• I would think about what would I do with my fat pay cheque, what kind of new bike I’d buy, the places I’d visit, the gifts I’d give, never doubting for a minute this may not happen.

Help I got from the Vedic mantra:
Like most of you I am also not into religion on a daily basis, festivals of course because they bring great food.

I know you would be surprised that I, a techie am asking you techies to indulge in something as “vague” as a religious practice. But I swear, just try out and you won’t regret! No harm done, only benefits given.

I chanced upon this mantra for success & prosperity.

Aum Mahalakshmaye Vidmahe
Vishnupriyaye Dhimahi
Tanno Lakshmih Prachodayat

ॐ महा लक्ष्मये विद्महे
विश्नुप्रियाये धीमहि
तन्नो लक्ष्मी प्रचोदयात्

The way to chant this mantra:

1. Take a bath in the morning
2. Face North
3. Close your eyes
4. Chant for the mantra 11 times

Do this everyday from the time you get the interview call and till you actually get the result.

Speaking from my experience, the interview success formula should have following elements:

1. Well honed job skills.
2. 100% focus on interview at hand.
3. An ability to visualize & materialize the desired job.
4. Chanting of vedic mantra for success and prosperity with a concentrated and calm mind.

Follow the above formula and the great job is yours!!

About Guest writer: Padmas Annamraju runs a software company in pune. You can reach her at padma3333@yahoo.com She is a poet and delves extensively into the realms of spiritual knowledge. She has traveled widely in India.

Indian Rupees

People work for money. Why beat around the bush then? Here is a table which shows the highest and the lowest paid jobs in India.

This data is collected from Naukri PayCheck tool. Salary of 10 years experienced professionals is tabulated in a table. The salaries are in Lakhs of Indian Rupees (INR) per year.

According to this data, the job that pays the most in India is the industry of Corporate Planning / Consulting and Top Management. These jobs pay an average salary of 12 lakh Indian Rupees per annum (10 lakhs is 1 million).

Second Highest paid job in India is the Information Technology(IT) Industry with an average salary of 10.2 lakh INR per annum for a 10 year experienced professional.

If you think web designing/graphic designing is cool in India, think again. It is one of the least paid jobs in the Corporate India paying an average of 6.5 lakhs per annum for a 10 year experienced resource.

It is disturbing to note that teaching/education is one of the least paying jobs. Teaching/education lays the basic foundation for every industry and for the country. It is the most important job! If Teachers are not paid well, the quality of education comes down. And if quality of education is low, quality of skill is low and consequently the quality of life in that country comes down.

Here is the comprehensive salaries paid by various industries for a ten year experienced employee in lakh Rupees per annum.

Image Credit

Salary Calculator

Companies always try to take more from their employees and give less to them. They try to pay just as much as average of how much other companies in the same field pay their employees. But some greedy companies go a step ahead and underpay their employees.

Their confidence is that the employee may not realize that he/she is being underpaid. As there is no means to find out the prevailing salaries given in all the other companies.

How do you know whether you are being paid equivalent to professionals working in the same profession as yours but in different companies?

Naukri.com, India’s largest job portal has come up with a magical solution, Naukri PayCheck. Naukri PayCheck is an online graphical tool, which compares and graphs salary ranges of people working in the same functional are as you and with same experience as you have.

All you have to do is, go to Naukri PayCheck page, input your functional area of working, experience in years and current salary. Voila, you will have a graph plotted showing the median salary for people in the industry that you work with equal experience as yours. You can check whether your salary is below or above the average salary paid in your industry.

Now you might be wondering about the credibility of this calculator. Naukri claims that it plots this graph using the salary inputs of millions of existing profiles on Naukri. So, Naukri PayCheck’s results are quite close to reality. Go ahead and play with this tool!