Preparing for a campus drive is often the very first step in the beginning of your career prospect. 

Campus drives open the gates to a better job prospect by bringing you the most significant opportunities in hand. Thus preparing for the campus drives is a significant step on your journey to hunt for an ideal job.

In this blog we enlighten you on the different rounds a campus placement consists of and the most effective ways that will help you prepare for your placement drives. 

What is Campus Placement? 

Campus placement or campus recruitment is when companies visit your college campus, conduct interviews and hire candidates for different profiles to work in their companies. 

The college decides on what all companies are to be invited to participate in the campus drive and recruit the students. These placement drives hugely benefit not just the student but also the company who through these drives get the opportunity to select an ideal candidate based on their skills. 

However as a student you need to prepare well for these campus drives as they consist of a series of interview rounds. To ace them and to stand out from the rest of the students competing for the same profile you should be thoroughly prepared with the various rounds that might require you to showcase your different activity skills and talents at different stages of the interview. 

What stages the campus placement comprises ?

Campus placement generally comprises of the following stages :

Skill Assessment Test – 

Skill assessment is generally an aptitude based test that analyzes the intelligent quotient of the applicant. This is a pen paper based test, which consists of objective type questions. 

The questions are about logical reasoning, communications skills, quantitative reasoning and knowledge about your specific field. 

Group Discussion –

Through this round the company recruiters analyze the problem solving abilities of the candidate. Confidence and good communications skills are the two crucial aspects that will help you ace this round. 

To prepare for this round you can take ideas from MUN and other such group discussions that might be available online on youtube and other platforms. 

Panel Interview Round – 

As the name suggests a panel interview round is where a panel of professional recruiting managers interview the candidate, based on his/her skill. 

The interview is more professional, than an aptitude or group discussion round. 

This is the first  time the candidates face the professionals from the company, and have one-on-one communication.

This round is often the deciding round of the complete selection process. 

Technical Test – 

Often students nailing the other rounds of the interview might face difficulty with the technical round.  

You could be very good with other aspects of the job interview but being good with technical aspects holds the key to landing your dream job. 

Students most of the time take the technical knowledge lightly, but it is equally important, rather than just relying on theoretical knowledge, make sure you also read about technological advancements in your field, and the daily happenings and inventions in the technological world. 

You can prepare through mock tests that will help you prepare for the kind of questions asked in a technical test. Identify the frequently asked questions and prepare them well. 

HR Interview Round – 

The HR interview round is the last round of the process before the company hires you. This round is categorized as the basic communication round wherein the company’s HR asks generic questions related to the candidate’s resume, knows about their interest and tries to find out if the candidate is a good fit for the company. 

The questions range from what the candidates know about the company, what are his salary expectations, etc. 

Basic preparation tips, you must follow to make the most of campus placements 

Below checklist will help you ace your campus placements if you follow them diligently. 

1. Keep your resume updated. 
2. Include a cover letter- not many of us pay much attention to this, but it is as important as your resume. A good cover letter increases your chances of standing out among the rest.
3. Do a thorough research about the company you are applying for. 
4. Attend the campus preparation sessions, if your college is organizing one. Preparation tips will certainly help you while you appear for the interviews. 
5. Practice mock interviews.

Other crucial points to make a great first impression :

1. Be on time for your interview
2. Dress to impress as it is rightly said that first impression is often the last impression. 
3. Be confident while answering the questions
4. Specifically prepare answers for the questions like why you want to join the company, what is the salary expectation etc.
5. Practice well because the right attitude and right preparation make an individual stand out from the other candidates.

If you follow the above mentioned tips diligently, it will generally help you prepare for the campus drives and would also help you excel them.