Hello CF Community, I'm addressing Indian Competitive Programmers through this Blog, so non-Indians may not be aware of what I am talking about, so sorry for that !
I know this question has been a Hot Topic among Indian College Students & have been asked many times, but still I want to take views from my fellow Indian Students who are doing CP. Please Don't Downvote :(, you can ignore this if you want.
Long Story Short, Currently, I'm a Third Year Computer Science Student in India, I don't like my Core CS Subjects or more formally I haven't studied it thoroughly. I came to know from Internet that Learning DS & Algorithms helps in getting placements.
I am from a 3rd tier College, where chances of On Campus Placements are almost Zero, but still I have 1 year in hand. I started CP from Placement Perspective but I'm enjoying it now, but my main focus is on Placements, I don't think CP would be Beneficial for me if I am not getting any benefits from it regarding Placements.
Although I know, LeetCode is good from Interview Perspective but I love CodeForces too, so, I compete here too, but I am still a Newbie, although I am focusing on it to be better at it.
My Straight Forward Questions are that -:
Can I get Off Campus Placements if I have only CP & DS — Algo Knowledge & not core Subjects Knowledge ? If yes, What rating would you think (Rating == Knowledge) is enough for Interviews ?
Should I focus on GATE more for M.Tech Opportunities & focus on CP less ? cuz I have heard, getting Off Campus Placements is almost Impossible !
Also, What skills do Companies look for in a Guy so that they offer you a Job, I'm talking about Product Based Companies mainly (decent paying companies LOL honestly speaking)!
Although I have many Questions to ask, but I don't remember them now, I'll add them Later on, If you are on the same boat as mine, feel free to put your views here !
MoreOver, I would like to get views from Experienced Guys like demoralizer to guide me on this !
I am Sorry if you feel I shouldn't have asked these questions here :(
Companies like Uber, Codenation, Sprinklr, Google(Maybe) you need to have good experience in CP, but other companies including Amazon, Microsoft, etc leetcode/InterviewBit/GFG is the best resource you can use. You can still keep on giving cf contest.
This are famous companies, hence there is immense competition to get selected plus work culture in Codenation is not that good, but there are other companies which give good base package also less competition as less people knew about them.
Completely agreed, that's why I wrote "etc".
Codeforces have turned into Quora and linkedin have turned into Facebook!!
Anyways will try to answer in short:
1] yes, you can get placed with cp&ds&**projects**&**cs fundamentals**, rating != Knowledge , but data suggest more is your rating, more you are likely to get selected unless you mess up.
2] according to me gate is useless for cse guys, but still if you think you have no potential in this field, it's worth a try as gate exam is theoretical, nope off-campus is not impossible, I know every one of my rated friend is placed, you just need to know right way to approach people.
3] fanng lol , no faang, amazon gfg, google cp, and rest of new startup or low tier blindly follow this cp based hiring and some other stuff which of low weightage.
Regarding point 2. Well it's not useless. Ask the guy in TCS and Infosys sitting for 14 hours and getting a mere 25k per month. Not everyone is too good in coding, and even sometimes luck plays a role too. GATE is a great way to get into good companies, which I believe.
Hence i said about the potential thing, but whaat do u think companies hire on by seeing your gate marks, or iit jee rank, companies have their own filtering and selection criteria, which still require development and problem solving skills, so imo if you still need those why to waste time on gate, just to get one Interview, anyways it's totally my opinion no offense to anyone.
On the other hand, if you want to do research in india gate is most useful.
Agree with you. But I never said companies hire on seeing marks and ranks. Its all about opportunities one gets.Its just that getting into these tier 1 atleast increases the chance. How many tier 3/tier 4 people have you heard getting/or even interviewing for google. I am sure, there must be students who are bright in even tier 3.Just they need a chance, which one doesnt get.
See, I will tell you what is happening currently, there are abundant opportunities for everyone, after you get one job, situation will be totally different, but during graduation everyone tries to applies for first job and this happens to be Bottleneck as everyone applies at same time, but after some experience, not everyone is looking for constant job change, so there is dilution in applications and then you will see that opportunities were never less, one of my friends in contact from Infosys have applied for amazon and he got the interview but he still got rejected due to projects mostly.
If you want to experiment try to submit application senior role and then for fresh graduate, I guarantee you, you will get feedback from prior but for fresh graduate most of the application are ignored.
I feel, I do have potential, but Its all about Time here.
It would take a considerable amount of time to become Expert or Master on CodeForces (I mean gaining Knowledge of that Level) & even after that, does that guarantee you a good placement ?
& if you're telling I need to have good grasp over everything CP, Projects, Development, CS Fundamentals, & still get rejections from companies, Wouldn't it be better to get into IIT's through GATE & get them like a CakeWalk ?
I am not saying you are wrong, but just saying it would take a lot of time to master CP i think, also Would like to know how much time it took you to reach EXPERT assuming you had started everything from scratch ?
Leave my case, but whatever your potential is, it would take atmost 1 year without cheating if you work consistently. And I am not saying cp is the only way to get into companies, cp has become cultural thing now to filter candidates, but if you think gate is more easy then go for it,but will tell you, nothing is cakewalk, my college friend who got 37 rank in gate has worked for a year almost and he was also placed at Microsoft.
Where are you placed at, if you don't mind sharing?
Currently Licious
I don't know, if I am wrong, But I think people sitting for interviews atleast invest some(varying from person to person) time reading core CS concepts too.
I am not an experienced guy. Just stating my views. Feel free to ignore.
I was almost in a similar situation as you are now last year(I am currently 4th year, tier 3). See, GATE is surely a sure shot way to get into product-based companies provided you have a decent rank(around 300-400). Whatever those youtubers/linkedin influencers tell, off-campus placement is hard to get if you are not good in coding(you have to be at least medium). After the dilemma of more than 2-3 months, I just let off go GATE and completely focused on placements. I faced almost 150 rejects,400+ applications submitted, 90% got rejected only by resume. Gave almost 50 interviews, and converted around 4. Currently I am placed at Oracle.
GATE is not much hard, but its too tiring. You can't practice coding much if you are preparing for GATE. If you can struggle and get into IITs, there's nothing better than this. Else, you really have to slogg in off-campus placements and I mean it.