DEV Community: Skillenza

Build the future of software with Open Source!

Skillenza — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 13:48:37 +0000

Open Source Software (OSS) is the future of software development. Existing tools being taken and modified into better ones leads to the evolution of powerful and reliable software. Open source provides the greatest support to software developers in the form of accessibility to existing software which has been developed, debugged, documented and vouched for by a dedicated developer community.

Imagine what the world would be like if Tim Berners-Lee had not shared HTML code development with the world.

Probably the World Wide Web might not have been the way we know it today. Such is the power of Open Source. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and many others have used this shared repository of knowledge to build many of their outstanding products. Google Chromium, VLC media player, Mozilla Firefox, Linux, etc are a few of the numerous Open Source Softwares widely used by individuals and companies for different intents.

For example, Microsoft built its cloud-computing platform Azure on Linux. Google used its own Chromium project to create today’s most widely used cross-platform web browser Chrome.

If you aspire to be a part of a community that builds and maintains such valuable source codes which are accessible to every developer in the world, contribution to Open Source will provide you with the opportunity and means. From being able to assess your software development skills to receiving guidance to improvise, you can hone yourself into being a fine software engineer and be part of creating software that adds value to the industry and society. Additionally, if you are a job-seeker and such contributions appear on your resume, they demonstrate your expertise and passion for software development.

Now, if your fascination for exploration has manifested, let’s dive into the details you would need to start your journey into Open Source Contribution.

What Open Source Contribution means?

Open source, as the name suggests, is a model or mechanism of software development where projects or codes are publicly accessible for free. To make a contribution implies active participation and collaboration with a smart and generous community of developers in building or enhancing software projects.

This contribution can be done in various ways. The most common way is by writing code. As a programmer, you can create your own project or be part of others’ projects on any Open Source platform. These projects must have practical applications in personal lives or professional fields. If writing code is not your forte, there are many tasks for non-programmers as well.

It might seem to be daunting or tiresome at the beginning. However, your contribution does not have to be tedious or time-consuming. Open Source projects flourish because software engineers with different abilities and varying levels of commitment make an effort, maybe minuscule or substantial, to complete the projects. These efforts result in building software of high quality and efficiency.

Who can contribute to Open Source?

Anyone who wants to offer their services for the betterment of the software community can contribute to Open Source. All you need is the willingness to collaborate and work with strangers who are equally or more enthusiastic about giving back to the community.

Initially, Open Source was mainly used by programmers to write and exchange codes intended for the use of software development for various projects, academic or professional. While some wrote original codes, others edited and improvised on it. The modified code was part of Open Source as well, with all of its transition history available for any developer who wanted it. The combined efforts of like-minded people resulted in upgraded software code which could then be used for building more innovative and profitable projects.

However, today, as the number of IT professionals who want to get involved and contribute to Open Source has considerably increased, it has expanded to so many more responsibilities. It’s not just about writing code anymore. You can contribute to any other process of project development work as well. When you start on any platform, you can post on their forums asking for non-programmer tasks for beginners or choose one yourself if you are sure. where to start with.

Here are some roles that you will come across:

Programming/Coding: Coding is the primary sector where most of the Open Source community contributes. Choose projects that are built on a programming language or software that you know. If you are into coding, look for the ones that require small bug fixes. There might also be certain small enhancements you can do. You can start small by working with other developers on their projects.

Testing: Checking the quality of code is as critical as writing it. Every piece of code needs to be verified and validated. By understanding the requirements of the project, you can help in preparing the test cases, building test data and testing the code.

Writing: Documentation of a project is vital for it to be usable and reusable for other developers. You can volunteer to write documents for a project or translate an existing document. Software Requirements Specification document (SRS), test cases, code version control, user manuals, etc are all integral parts of any project. You can start small by proofreading others’ work, moving on to writing documents for smaller projects gradually advancing to major ones.

Assisting with UI/UX design: More than often, an outsider’s perspective gives a lot of information regarding the practicality of interfaces of many software products. Developers of such products seek assistance from people who have not worked on that project to provide feedback and suggestions with respect to the User Experience or Interface that has been developed.

Building a network and sharing: One should never shy away from opportunities to learn more and gather knowledge from this community. You can attend presentations or simply meet face-to-face with other developers and build your network. Who knows, you might end up suggesting new ideas or features.

When you share your experience and learnings on social media, say by blogging or tweeting about them, you might be able to influence other developers to join the Open Source community.

How can you contribute?

There are a number of platforms that host open source projects. Some of them are:

GitHub
CodeTriage
First Timers Only
Open Source Friday
First Contributions

You can use the resources available on these and many other platforms to decide where to start from. They have step by step tutorials on how to get started on their platforms. Their repositories contain various new projects or tasks associated with existing projects which are dedicatedly assigned to newcomers only, should they choose to work on them.

You can save the repositories on your local machine and start practicing there. Select your programming language and project. Make changes to it and test before syncing it up with the servers. If you do not want to code, check for other tasks on the platform. There will be explicit requirements specified for volunteers for tasks like fixing compiler errors, UI enhancements, design suggestions, testing, documentation of existing code or projects.

First Timers Only provides specific projects for beginners only, to get a warm reception to the world of Open Source Contribution. First Contributions guides new developers through the workflow of contributing on GitHub through various efficient hands-on tutorials. These platforms are built specifically for newcomers with dedicated projects and hands-on tutorials taking you through project workflows on GitHub respectively. In CodeTriage, you can subscribe to a GitHub repository of your choice and get assigned with work on a project daily in your email.

The Free Code Camp platform on GitHub hosts a multitude of projects for all kinds of developers, beginners or experienced. You can choose from the already assigned tasks or make your own requests depending on what kind of work or project you want to be part of. There are links to articles about getting started with Open Source contributions in general, version control, experiences shared by other contributors, etc.

Why should you contribute?

The reason is simple. To make better software with a group of people who think like you. Better software enhances the quality of the IT industry as a whole.

It can be undoubtedly said that adding value to the software developer community also upgrades your skillset. You gain knowledge shared by other like-minded developers from across the world. Since, majority of the global companies now use Open Source materials for corporate interests, they are well aware that the contributors have established themselves as meritorious developers. They consider you worthy and potential employees.

In addition to that, with so many different responsibilities available to work on, one gets the opportunity to venture out of their comfort zone and upgrade themselves in a different set of skills. This is also a fantastic way to gain real-world experience.

Conclusion:

It’s imperative to remember that in this community, every contributor started out as a beginner. All you need to do is to start somewhere. You will have to keep learning, practicing and delivering, keeping your mind and work open to review, rectifying your mistakes and shortcomings, improvising every day, striving to get better results the next day. Someday, you will be able to make yourself capable of imparting your experience and wisdom while taking some newcomer under your wing.

Virtual Interview Hacks : 10 Tips to Ace the Race!

Skillenza — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 09:31:45 +0000

Why don’t we just start with what a virtual interview exactly is?

A Virtual Interview is a hiring assessment done online by conducting face-to-face “meet” over video calls on web conferencing tools. This method helps recruiters to evaluate and shortlist candidates, and since this interview can occur remotely, it saves recruiters certain travel and staff costs. Many companies have been conducting virtual interviews since the Internet flourished.

However, during this current catastrophe where the entire world is battling the Covid-19 pandemic together, innumerable measures are being taken by all the corporate heads across all industries to ensure safety and well being of their employees and society as a whole. Social distancing, the most powerful defense tool during this global contagion has brought Virtual Interviews to the frontlines. Now, every establishment is strengthening their capabilities to be able to conduct recruitments using technology, deeming web-conferencing services as the need of the hour.

This is the new trend now and will continue to be even after the world recovers from this rampant outbreak. Additionally, due to the impact that it is having on the world economy, the IT sector is looking at a slowdown. This is kicking down recruitment numbers and escalating the already existing cut-throat competition for skilled jobs. Therefore, for new aspirants, students or professionals looking to switch jobs, it is very crucial now to get acquainted with the process of virtual interviews.

There are some common areas in which you should be prepared no matter whether it is an in-person interview or a virtual one. Let’s look at those along with what more you need to do to confidently tackle and ace virtual interviews.

1. Build a strong resume:

With the increase in the volume of virtual interviews, recruiters now have less time to prepare before evaluating the candidates. They skim through resumes to grasp a superficial idea of the person they are about to interview. With the rise in competition for jobs in the IT sector, your resume should have the potential to mark a great first impression to make you stand out amongst your competitors, no matter what medium is being used during your interview.

If you are in college, build an innovative and effective project in your final year. Use platforms like Skillenza, Internshala, etc to put yourself on the market and bag internships, especially paid ones. This will help you showcase that you have a working knowledge of the industry. As a student or professional, you can also boost your profile by engaging in hackathons, coding competitions, software development workshops, etc, like the ones that are conducted by companies like CodeChef, HackerEarth, TopCoder, Skillenza, HackerRank, etc. Apart from the technical capabilities, your resume should also be clear, concise and well-articulated.

2. Be prepared to answer all the questions:

Find out the FAQs, both in your technical domain and in general, and prepare your responses. If you are a student, the recruiters usually enquire about your subject preferences and ask questions accordingly. This pertains to both in-person and virtual interviews. If you have done anything besides your course study like participated in coding events, hackathons, etc or have interned somewhere, they will definitely be asked about. If you are a professional, they ask you about all the kinds of work experiences you have had.

Besides work, they might ask you about your strengths and weaknesses. Your reason for choosing your stream of education or quitting your last job can be probable questions. Acquire some knowledge about the organization you are preparing to interview for. That will help you answer questions regarding your future interests and expectations associated with the company. Just remember, they will be expecting genuine and natural answers, not memorized ones. So prepare yourself to answer accordingly.

3. Get used to the camera:

Have ample practice of speaking in front of a camera. Ask for your friends’ help in conducting mock interviews of you. Observe yourself on the screen, how you sound and look. Make sure your voice does not crack and is at a suitable volume when you speak. Be acquainted with your voice if you are new at this or are conscious while answering on camera.

4. Build your own questionnaire:

Be prepared with a questionnaire of your own. This is again applicable to any medium used during the recruitment process. Interviewers often ask candidates at the end of an interview if they have any questions for them. This would be an opportunity to show your eagerness towards their organization which adds points to your profile. Ask them details about the kind of roles and responsibilities you will get when you join the company. If you are an experienced professional, another topic that is usually raised is the remuneration details, like salary expectations, company proposals and some negotiations.

5. Run multiple tests on all technical devices:

Make sure to check if all your devices are working perfectly days before the interview. Ensure that your connectivity stays strong consistently and your laptop or desktop has power backup. It would make an irrevocable damage to your impression on the recruiter, if your interview gets interrupted by technical issues.

An important part of this task would be to check whether your device’s in-built camera, microphone and/or earphones are doing their job well or not. In the latter case, it will be wise to invest in a decent web-cam and an external microphone or a new set of earphones.

6. Keep extra software tools ready:

You might be asked to draw flowcharts or write algorithms or codes during the interview. Certain problem solving questions if asked, might need you to solve them on the screen, as the interviewer watches your analytical and logical skills. Therefore, keep certain software tools like MS Word, Excel, Paint, Google docs, etc open and running in the background before your interview starts.

7. Set up a suitable background:

Give a thought and decide your background before your interview. Make sure you sit against a wall which is light or neutral in colour. Keep your surroundings clean and organized. Select a position where there is ample lighting on your face so that you don’t look hidden behind shadows. This makes for a professional setup for the interview and removes any visible distractions for the interviewer.

8. No disturbances during interview:

Ensure that you are not disturbed during the interview. If you are not alone at your place, inform other residents about your situation. Keep doors and windows closed if there might be sounds coming from outside. Ensure that the TV is switched off and all cell phones are set on silent mode.

9. Follow the formal code for your attire:

Select your clothes for the day well in advance. Do not opt for anything that is brightly coloured or has sparkling metals or jewellery. Spare some attention to your personal grooming, as shabby or rumpled appearances diminish impressions to a great extent. Hence, make a sincere effort to appear crisp and professional, just like you would, for an interview in person.

10. Stay positive and believe in yourself:

Do not give in to unnecessary worries and anxiety. It would only make you doubt yourself, demotivate you and lower your confidence. This is relevant to any form of interview, in-person or virtual. Always believe in your capabilities and at the time of the interview, smile with conviction and just present your best self!

The Fantastic 4 : Indian IT industry

Skillenza — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 07:07:03 +0000

With a population of over 1 billion, India is a breeding ground for talent acquisition. Numerous companies from all over the world have lined up in the past, are doing it now and will continue to do so in order to tap into this potential.

Every year there is an increasing demand for hiring in all the metropolitan cities across the country driven by significant additions in the IT sector recruitment by various global tech companies. According to a feedback survey conducted in 2019 by LinkedIn, a professional networking organization, at least 12 internet and IT businesses were ranked among its list of the top 25 companies to work for in India.

Owing to the dynamic nature and multitudes of functionalities that the software industry caters to, there can be many ways to define these companies. However, they can be broadly divided under the following types based on what they are selling and who they are selling to.

1. IDCs (Indian Development Centers)

What are they?

Several tech giants have global dominance in software development. With advancements in technology happening every day, this is an essential factor in driving the world economy. India, as a rapidly developing nation, is profoundly contributing to this revolution in technology, thereby making its mark as a favourable market for companies focusing on developing as well as outsourcing software.

Why are they hiring in India?

One might wonder, with so many developing countries in the world, how does India manage to dominate in attracting the major share of software outsourcing from companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. The reasons are simple:

Enormous talent pool: Indian education system has a major sector focusing on imparting technical education. This results in India generating a massive population of skilled IT professionals.The skill set includes many diverse trending technologies like programming, web designing, business intelligence, information security, cloud computing, data analytics, mobility, digital marketing, etc.

Economical: It is a very widely known fact that Indian labour and operational costs are significantly lower than developed nations like the US and UK. Studies say that more than 50% of the Indian software developers have an annual salary of less than $10,000.Here are some figures indicating an Indian software developer’s average salary:

Communication skills: The medium of education in every technical university in India is English, irrespective of the location or region. This enhances English language skills which ultimately facilitates an ease of communication while working for a majority of clients across the globe. This also gives Indians an edge over countries like China, which are substantially ahead in terms of the software industry, but have a small fraction of the population that speaks fluent English.

Being associated with the most popular names known across the world, gives an employee a significant recognition advantage. Another benefit claimed by recruits is that even though job applicants are offered remunerations that are way lower than their American or European counterparts, their pay packages are still more than what Indian establishments usually offer for the same kind of work experience. Freshers usually receive annual packages of 12–14 lacs when they join as software engineers. These aspects of IDCs make them crowd favorites during recruitments.

2. STARTUPS:

What are they?

A startup is a new company created by a single or a few entrepreneurs working towards a goal of delivering new products or services or both.

Tech startups develop new IT products or services and deliver it to the market or develop existing products and services and deliver it to the market in new ways.

As their name suggests, these companies are at their utmost initial stages of development and these mostly operate on shoestring budgets. To make a mark on the technology domain, these companies have expenses exceeding their revenue, in order to create quality work in software development, testing and marketing.

Startups provide a great opportunity to fresh graduates, as they provide a great learning curve in this industry. Having low manpower requires employees to fast track their skill set development. The rate of facing more and bigger challenges and responsibilities every day is also higher here than an established company, where employees are assigned the same job and responsibilities for long periods, even years. Thereby, an employee’s impact on the outcomes of a startup firm is more profound than an employee working in big teams in a large company.

Startup companies in India:

India’s e-commerce company Flipkart, online insurance aggregator Policy Bazaar, ride-sharing service provider Ola, food delivery services Zomato and Swiggy, classified advertising platform Quikr, e-commerce payment system Paytm and hotel chain OYO were amongst the first startups to show diverse innovation in using technology for regular use.

“Longevity in this business is about being able to reinvent yourself or invent the future.” ~Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)

Over the past decade, India has witnessed a massive uprising in technological entrepreneurship. It all started with the growth of Internet businesses during 2012–2013. The global investments were rushing in at a time when Reliance Industries launched Jio, with an exceedingly low budget high-speed mobile data plan, enabling people from every region of the country to access the Internet. This created a wave of young graduates fresh out of top-notch engineering colleges and business schools to create startups in India.

A NASSCOM report released towards the end of 2019, revealed that so far India had added 1,300 new startups that year, taking the total number of startups to close to 9000, reinforcing India’s position as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.

These companies started out with low capital, hence they made use of effective talent acquisition. Most of them were founded by IIT and IIM alumni who had gathered their own experiences from established tech giants. For new hires, they focused on high quality skill sets as they could not afford employees in huge numbers. To achieve this, conventional methods of selecting candidates like written tests and interviews were ditched and creative tools and tactics were used to assess talent. Some of these creative hacks included providing internships, conducting coding competitions and hackathons, using AI technology to browse and rank resumes, etc. They rebuild recruitment methodologies in order to acquire the cream of the talent pool which would lead to the best productive environment possible.

Needless to say, such establishments expect their employees to learn a lot and fast while working, as they put a lot of stake on them. So anyone who thrives on challenges and wants to take up newer roles and responsibilities at a fast pace, should consider working for them. Remunerations in startups depend on the quality of skill set a fresher comes with at the time of hiring and the kind of revenue the firms have generated within their short life span. While salary packages normally range between 2.5–4 lacs per annum, the companies have also been heard of offering 6–8 lacs per annum pay packages to those with advanced digital technology knowledge like AI, ML, RPA, etc.

3. CAPTIVES:

What are they?

Captive is a generalised term in the corporate world to describe captive insurance. It is a licensed insurance company created by parent companies or parent groups to provide coverage for themselves. Instead of finding outside firms to provide risk-mitigation services, these parent companies pay premiums to the captive insurer, which would be their wholly-owned subsidiary company. Therefore, it’s a form of self-insurance whereby the insured is wholly owned by the insurer.

Having a captive enables the parent companies to reduce insurance costs, provide coverage for risks (that would otherwise be difficult to place) and future liabilities, if any.

Hiring scenario in India:

The country head of WalmartLabs India (the technology arm of the US retail corporation) in Bengaluru, Hari Vasudev told Economic Times that, “India’s talent market across a variety of technology areas is very advanced and we want to very aggressively tap into this talent pool.” With this notion, they have been consistently building their teams in India, by insourcing more tech work to their captive centres, a strategy also being shared with similar organizations like US home improvement giant Lowe’s, retailer Target, UK based retail giant Tesco, British-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca and the French multinational investment bank and financial services company Societe Generale, to name a few.

Captives provide tech employees an opportunity to work on the management, regulatory and auditing side of the corporate world. They are more business oriented and provide many employee benefit programs, thus being more appealing to skilled professionals who have IT industry experience and are looking to work on this side of the corporate sector or willing to wade into new territories. The salary packages in such establishments vary widely for senior-level positions depending on years of experience and skill sets. For entry-level jobs the pay scale generally ranges between 2.5 to 6 lacs per annum.

Over the past year alone, the captive centres of all these global firms have hired nearly 1.3 lakh people in India. Industry experts say that this has overtaken the number of people hired by Indian IT services for the first time in a decade.

According to an interview by Francis Padamadan (senior director, Asia Pacific, Kelly OCG) to Economic Times, captive centres set up shops with small teams and eventually expand to larger teams as they gain prominence in the global market. He added, “One of the key European banks started with a 200-seater office and now has nearly 5,000 people team in Gurgaon.”

NASSCOM’s strategic review stated that India saw 65 new centres, a 63% rise over last year, with nearly a quarter of all centres set up by firms with US-headquarters.

4. SERVICE COMPANIES:

What are they?

Service companies are businesses that generate their revenue by selling services or providing professional support to its clients. The most widely provided services by establishments in India include IT services like application development, business process outsourcing, consulting, enterprise solutions, technology education services, software management, AI, cloud infrastructure, e-commerce, IT support, etc.

The IT service industry of India has made a great contribution to the nation’s GDP, increasing from 1.2% in 1998 to 7.7% in 2017. Since its birth in 1967 in Mumbai, as an establishment of the Tata group in partnership with Burroughs, it has come a long way to become the largest exporter of IT in the contemporary world economy.

As India’s biggest recruiters:

India’s top IT service providers like TCS Ltd, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Mindtree, Mphasis, Zensar Technologies recruit thousands of people from across the country every year. While they conduct college campus and off-campus recruitment drives to hire fresh talent for entry level jobs, there are hundreds of walk-in recruitment drives conducted frequently for hiring their workforce to execute digital global projects.

According to an ET analysis on hiring trends in India, the top five companies TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra, hired over 64,000 employees amongst themselves over the second half of 2019 only, compared to around 54,000 employees hired during the same period in 2018.

Due to the rise of startups, traditional companies are now realizing the business disruptions being caused and therefore are adapting to modern technology and trends to innovate their hiring methodologies.

As corporate giants have a considerable workforce, they usually have big teams working on their projects. There are many employees performing similar tasks and new team members are almost always given the easiest task to begin with and gradually learn and work their way up the ladder which takes considerable time. This provides a sense of comfort while training, a feeling of camaraderie among peers and job security. This makes such establishments a safe bet during job search. Using this feature to their advantage, most of the established companies including the stalwarts TCS, Infosys and Wipro offer remunerations in the range of 3–4 lacs per annum while recruiting freshers.

CONCLUSION:

All kinds of companies that constitute the IT sector in India, will continue their dominance in the market because of strong market stocks and major technology development. However, as the current trends reveal the industries’ shift of focus towards advanced technologies like Machine Learning and AI, it’s estimated that about 60–65% percent of the current IT workforce is likely to undergo massive changes over the next 5 years, marking reskilling and upskilling as top priority. There is an initiative by NASSCOM named FutureSkills, that aims to upskill about four million people by 2025.

Nevertheless, with the variety of high-skilled professionals that India offers, hiring in the IT sector will keep growing in the upcoming years.

10 things that can make a Computer Science Engineering student shine

Skillenza — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 07:05:18 +0000

How exciting must it be to have reached this juncture of life? The stage where the first thought towards carving your life’s course happens. The point of life’s innumerable possibilities.

These can be very confusing times. It’s always a great strategy to think ahead and make plans to build your profile, enabling yourself to stand out amongst your peer group, who will be graduating around the same time as you, with similar credentials.

In this article, you can look at 10 ways to build yourself a marketable profile, while you are still in college, to earn those extra merits that will push your resume ahead of others.

1. Apply for internships in your field of interest:

Awareness about the work culture in your desired industry enables you to stay on top of trends. It helps you gain first-hand experience of real-world projects and an opportunity to put your textbook theory in practice. The ability to demonstrate such an insight makes your profile more appealing than those who do not.

Internships at startups are generally considered more effective than at established companies, for students, in terms of learning and experience. You get more exposure to different sectors, have more responsibilities and make a greater impact while working for a project in a startup.

Wherever you end up getting your internship, make sure to get a striking review or recommendation from your supervisor when your program comes to an end.

2. Engage in competitive programming:

If you are good with Mathematics and computer programming especially in languages like C++, Java and Python, this can be very helpful for you. As the name suggests, competitive programming is kind of a mental 9sport, where you use your programming skills to write code for some particular problems, under certain restrictions like low time and space complexities.

A few examples of good programming judges available online are Skillenza, Codechef, HackerEarth, HackerRank, SPOJ, TopCoder, etc. These are supported by companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc among others.

3. Participate in hackathons:

Hackathons are highly-engaging marathon-like events for people with a technical background, to come together and form teams with an intent to solve problems or resolve ideas within 24–36 hours is most cases. Every member on the team is assigned a responsibility and with their cumulative contributions as designers, UX developers, backend developers, project managers, etc, they create a working solution like products, mobile apps, etc by the end of the event.

It creates the perfect setting for networking with people having similar skills and interests. Your knack for creating innovative ideas and concepts while completing your project will not go unnoticed by recruiters of companies involved in the event.

Successful completion of a hackathon makes for a brilliant addition to your resume.

4. Earn certifications in digital technologies:

Having a working knowledge of digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Cloud Computing, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality, Cybersecurity, Internet of Things (IoT), etc, has never been more important as it is today.

All sectors of the IT industry are focusing on embracing these by rebuilding their platforms and solutions. To achieve this, they require relevant talent and are willing to pay higher salaries to those who qualify.

Addition of one or more certifications in one of the above-mentioned technologies will certainly give your profile the much-needed boost.

5. Publish an IEEE paper:

If your strength is research capability, then conducting new studies and experiments in your field of interest and getting the results published in IEEE could be one of the top-notch approvals that you could achieve.

Almost all tech companies that have R&D departments are members of IEEE. Being an IEEE published author gives you increased visibility and research credibility. Besides the IT industry, even IEEE itself offers positions to its members whose research ideologies and work qualifies them for their open positions.

6. Learn to develop mobile apps:

From a job-growth and job-security point of view, mobile apps development is a lucrative career option. If you have any career interest in this field, it would be a useful idea to build an app as your project during your final semesters. You have to develop a working solution for a real-world problem and your app should have some features that do not exist in any similar app already available in the app stores.

Different operating systems require different platforms for app development. So, the more platforms you learn and master, the more sought-after you will be as a mobile app developer.

7. Enhance your soft skills:

Join debate clubs, participate in MUNs or Symposiums (National or International) or take up leadership roles in college clubs and campus organizations. By doing so, you can add an effective extra-curricular attribute to your profile. They provide employers with proof of your soft skills like effective communication, leadership, and being a team player.

Make sure to bag a glowing recommendation letter from your institution’s concerned faculty, acknowledging, appreciating and validating these skills.

8. Build a strong online presence:

You can create your online professional profile by joining networking platforms like LinkedIn. It will help you to build and grow your network. You can reach out to your college alumni to get advice on choosing career paths and prepare for interviews.

You might get referrals from your contacts and also be able to extend your resume to interested recruiters.

9. Learn a foreign language:

Communication skills in a foreign language help finding jobs in MNCs where you can present yourself as a global employee. It’s a general industry observation that Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, German and Japanese are the topmost effective foreign language options for better job prospects in India.

However, do self evaluate before beginning this task as it’s not easy to be affluent in a new language, especially when you are still in college and have ample coursework to do. If and only if, learning a new language truly interests you and off-shore opportunities do excite you, you should go ahead with this plan. There are plenty of language learning apps available online like Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu, Udemy, Memrise, etc.

10. Volunteer your skills:

You can volunteer to share your skills by joining open source communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, etc.

An active GitHub profile showcases your continuous involvement in the programming community and completed projects if any demonstrate your software engineering skills.

A good Stack Overflow profile will help your recruiters to understand how competent and assisting you are.

If you have any such social profiles to showcase, make sure you provide the links to them when you are preparing your job applications.

Final thoughts:

As a quick guide to all the steps mentioned above, you can refer to the summarized representation below:

However, it is important to remember that consistent grades and scores on your degree mark sheets are as much relevant as having an advanced skill set while building your resume. You do not have to be the high scorer in your batch, but you should have good scores preferably in almost every subject through all your semesters. Losing focus on your course studies while in pursuit of extra-curricular credits will not create a good impression on your recruiters when they go through all your semester mark sheets.

Therefore, assess yourself and plan accordingly. Focus on what you can do and should do. Start working on skills that you think you are falling behind in. Finally, be happy and optimistic because it shows in your personality. A positive attitude is a harbinger of positive results.