Off-campus placement is when you get placed at a company without your college being involved in the process. In the case of off-campus placements, you need to directly send job applications to the companies that you wish to join.
Especially with the widespread reservation and misconception about off-campus placement, the need to clarify this topic becomes really important. The truth is, you can actually grab a job off-campus, much easier than you may have thought. In fact, with the right approach, you can land better your on-campus placements.
How to apply?
Careers Page.
Almost every company has a career page where they post their entire job opening. Regularly check the career pages and apply for a suitable Job Opening.
Where to find the careers page?
Open the website of the company you wish to apply to
Scroll to the bottom of the webpage
You will find the link to the “Careers” or “Job” page there
Job Referrals.
The ratio of selections to job applications is extremely low at most companies. To increase this ratio, companies generally have an incentive program for its employees to refer people they think would be good hires.
A referral is a very good option to get an interview call from a company. Many companies skip the preliminary tests for referrals and start with the main interview process.
Referral process at most companies:
You reach out to a person working in the company you want to apply to
The referrer then shares your profile with the recruiter
The recruiter gets in touch with you if your profile matches with the job requirements Interview!
If you have seniors working at your dream companies then it should be fairly easy for you to get a referral. Otherwise, you can reach out to people on LinkedIn to get referrals.
Hiring Challenges.
Many companies host hiring challenges on platforms like HackerRank, HackerEarth, TechGig, etc. Most popular formats of such hiring challenges:
- DSA coding questions
- DSA coding questions along with MCQs on CS concepts.
- Development challenges
Take part in these challenges and try to get a good rank. If you do well, you can get an interview call from the company.
Talk to a Recruiter.
Recruiters are people who either hire for their companies or for some other companies. It makes a lot of sense to directly reach out to them if you are looking for a job at companies that they are associated with.
Note that getting an interview call through off-campus placements is not as easy as on-campus placements. Unless you have an extremely strong background, you may have to apply to hundreds of companies to get a favorable job offer. The best time to apply is in the final semester preferably around April/May.
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