Muhammad Sarfaraz's Review on BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore

Hardly anyone from BMSCE would have experienced, what I had, during my placement time. I have always wanted to write a blog about my placement experience. :) I gave around 23 interviews(in almost all the rooms in Placement Dept. including one in the Placement Officer's cabin too :) !) At the start of the placements I had an exact CGPA of 9. Strength: I was extremely good at apti and solving problems, good at DS, ADA, C. Weakness: I had trouble interacting with people.( Anyone who meets me for the first time will definitely get the impression that I'm an introvert. ). I was not too passionate about computers at that time. My resume did not have anything interesting. Netapp(8.25 lpa) July 12 2012 I had exactly 9 CGPA and was eligible for the written. The written was tough and I was very tensed since it was my first written.Did not clear the written. Oracle Cloud(5 lpa) July 18 2012 After clearing the written, we were told that it was a night shift job. Some people left the scene. I decided to get an experience of giving an interview. Clearing the written gave me a lot of confidence and I decided to get rejected in the interview(at that moment I didn't know what lay ahead).At the end of the first interview I told the interviewer that I had a chronic disorder because of which I couldn't stay awake at night and asked him if I could get a day job. I got rejected in the 1st interview(I had not done well anyway) National Instruments(Internship + 8lpa) July 19 2012 After the written test which consisted of only 12 subjective questions, 10 were selected. I was one among them. I had done really well in the written. The interview questions were mostly based on algorithms and DS. I cleared the 1hr long first interview. This was probably the only company that had asked all the interviewees the same questions. 4 of us got into the 2nd interview(last). In the second and final techincal+HR round,one of my 2 interviewers was a BMSCE pass out 3 years senior from my branch. I had done really well and had high hopes. I got rejected in the last round. They selected 1 (making the entire college eligible and selecting only 1! After coming home I sent my senior a fb request and asked him the reason for my rejection :)) Akamai Solutions Architect(7.2 lpa )20 july 2012 I knew this profile required good interaction/communication skills. I had none. I decided not to clear the written(or so I say to myself, as I didn't clear :)). The other 2 who were rejected along with me in NI got into this. Akamai SE (7.2 lpa) 21 July 2012 I cleared the written. At the end of the 2nd interview I was informed by the guy who was conducting the test(some 3rd party test conducting company) that I was rejected. I left for home and on boarding a bus I received a call from my friend who was still giving interviews. On knowing that I was already on my way home, he didn't tell me what the matter was. Later(after 5-6 months) I got to know that I had actually cleared the interview but was wrongly informed. Since I was on my way already, the interviewers told my friend not to call me back. The guy who wrongly informed me, was sacked. Thoughtworks (6.23lpa ) 23 July 2012 2 days later, I cleared the written and programming rounds of ThoughtWorks. There were more than 100 ppl to be interviewed. It went on till 12:30-1:00 in the night and still some of us were left to be interviewed. The interview was rescheduled to the next day at their office in Koramangala. I got rejected in the 2nd interview( The interview was difficult). There was only an HR round left after that. I was exhausted after this. Clearing written and getting rejected on 5-6 successive days. I did not clear the written test of Fidelity. I became over confident at this moment and decided not to attend any tier 1 companies. I became greedy and wanted to get a high paying job. JP Morgan (5.88lpa) 2 August 2012 I cleared the written again and was informed that the profile was business related(this was a misunderstanding). Knowing that there was a GD and considering pay(my hunger for more money :)), I decided not to open my mouth in the GD(which was not at all difficult for me to do :P). In the GD I was asked to conclude( since I had not spoken a word). I concluded by saying some agree on the topic, some do not!. The coordinator burst into laughter :).Rejected in GD Cleartrip (6.51lpa) 9 August 2012 Cleared the written. The interview was tough and I didn't do well. Got rejected in the 1st interview. Oracle Finance (4.93lpa) 31st August 2012 Considering that this could be the highest paying tier 1, and me not getting a job yet, I decided to attend this. I cleared the written and the technical interview. The HR was taken at around 730 and we had to wait from morning for the interviews. We were tired. In the HR I was asked if I was tired. I replied yes. The interviewer asked the reason for my tiredness as I had done no work and had to just sit on the bench. I gave the stupidest reply : I was too excited about OFSS coming to BMS and couldn't sleep the entire night! :D. I got selected.(still wonder how!) My pride had increased and I did not sit for some tier 2 companies- MetricStream and Informatica which were offering around 6lpa. Adobe(8.3 lpa) 25-26 September 2012 The written was very easy. The first interview was difficult. I had prepared well and cleared this somehow. After clearing the 2nd round we were called to their office. Cleared the 3rd round too but screwed up again in the HR. Got rejected in the last round. The result was informed some days after that and the same day we had the written of Zynga. I was already sad and ended up not clearing the written of Zynga. SAP came to campus on 12th Oct and I didn't clear the written again.( adding to my agony of not clearing a written for the first time in 3 months, they took 7 and all of them from my Dept.) Goldman Sachs kept a cutoff of greater than 9.0 (I had 9.00, although I don't think I'd have cleared it). VMware( 10.3lpa ) 25 OCt 2012 I cleared the written and the 3 difficult technical interviews. 5 of us were shortlisted for HR and 2 got selected. I was extremely confident that I'd clear this, but I got rejected again in the last round. Microsoft came on 2 Nov. It was the only tier 3 company. My sister's marriage was scheduled on the same day and I couldn't even give a try( I did attend the pool campus afterwards and cleared the written and programming round, but got rejected in the telephonic round)