u/Piyush__Arora__

(For context, 26' graduate, B.Tech Electronics and Computer Engineering from a tier 2 private Institute. Final semester results published. Waiting for the final degree.)

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GATE DA Score 542 General Category (i mean being in the general category seems like a sin after seeing a few posts but it is what it is.)

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I was always interested in research, found professors and did research under one of them and presented in a conference at IIT Roorkee hosted by the AMSC department.

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As for the GATE, I had no hope of tier 1 colleges but my mother insisted on trying luck. So, i simply applied wherever she said (Basically wasted money). Also, I didn't apply to a single self sponsored seat and BITS if anyone is wondering because my mother is a single parent. I did apply to an RA one in IIT Hyderabad Smart Mobility M.Tech RA but failed in the interview. Test was easy because I have DA knowledge and C, C++ programming. So, LA Prob C everything was nice.

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For months before GATE, I was like why go for GATE when I should be preparing for placements. So, I didn't prepare for any with all my heart and soul.

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Now, my current offers and the ones I had to reject do include a lot of research oriented stuff:

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JRF at IIT Kanpur (going for this)

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Jr. Project Engineer at IIT Kharagpur (had to say no to the professor as I already have the above Kanpur offer. They told me today, after a month that I am selected. The professor literally first asked me if I am engaged elsewhere. Ok they have that much understanding of how late they are. 🫠)

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JRF at IIT BHU Varanasi (Professor was forcing for PhD right after B.Tech)

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JRF at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad (That time, I had academic constraints)

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Project Associate I at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad (Again, PhD forcing)

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I might get interviews for IIT Gandhinagar JRF and my mom says that I should give an interview, I mean I see her point of exposure but I don't know what to do.

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Now, the thing is, I did have M.Tech IIIT Delhi ECE offer but I have Research inclinations so going ahead with IIT Kanpur JRF.

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In CCMT Round 1, I got IIIT Allahabad Mtech ECE with specialization in Communication and Signal Processing. Didn't participate further in CCMT regular rounds by simply not doing anything. Only and only if, God forbid, something happens and I can't go to Kanpur for some reason, which realistically shouldn't happen, I will go for Special Rounds and National Spot Round of CCMT. This is a backup option I have overthinking problem or I can always try off campus and wait for the Cognizant GenC OL. Even if I do that, I know I will still prepare for GATE.

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Now that I see everyone posting statistics of placements, every other post about placements query in IITs/NITs, it's hard to not feel the guilt I feeled in my pre GATE era. I keep thinking about top packages and my genuine interests in research and being part of that ecosystem in a tier 1 college seems to be foolish.

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I know money is important, and JRF stipend is at least self sustaining as HRA is compensated for hostel accommodation at the institute if the candidate belongs to some other city.

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In my home, no one understands JRF and all. However, they trust the brand value of IIT Kanpur which is why they are okay with me going. This was the only reason my mother asked me to give the interview, that it's a huge reputed organization.

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Your views or slangs or criticism would be greatly appreciated.

An upfront request: Please don't ask me how to game the system. I will simply ignore those messages.

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SWE is standard. DSA, CS fundamentals, Projects (most of the companies are open to any stack.)

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Y'all know CGPA requirements from earlier posts by other people. I won't be repeating that though.

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I would highly recommend to get into clubs which have high profile faculty coordinators. They can get you jobs on contract or foreign if they like your hardwork. Campus placements are one way to secure your future, there are other ways as well. Your profs are your key, especially in core domains.

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Hot selling in the market (if going for off campus) is DevOps+GoLang (do this if you're interested in abstracting SQL and networking roles.)

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Technical roles and core roles:

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SRE at Nutanix: Strong Computer Networks fundamentals. (You really have to know CN, Linux, AWS, OS)

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Data Scientist at iON group: Ability to come up with a simple ML model architecture in Python and get results. Following this, case study, interviews regarding Data Science

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Western Digital Innovation Bazaar: If you have any idea about any of their tracks, they'd ask you to submit a white paper. For details, DM me. I have to keep everything short here.

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Service based companies: Internals of your primary language, like heap memory in Java, garbage collector in Python, memory management in C

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Accelerize360 Product Engineer: SQL, Python, JavaScript, optional Snowflake but will improve your chances drastically. (Data Warehousing at the backend and JavaScript at the frontend.)

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Also, their OA would involve System Design basics. Like, what to do when multiple people register on a Tatkal booking website simultaneously. Also, some ethical AI knowledge would be great.

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Leadsquared DevOps: Git, Linux scripting from scratch and System Design

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Leadsquared AIML: I really don't know, search up on LinkedIn and ask someone if interested.

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Ericsson: It's mostly a telecommunication company but they will hire quite a good number of times and you can get in through good knowledge of any one tech stack, decent aptitude and good communication. Honestly, this is one of the decent paying companies you can get.

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If they come for hardware roles, ECE people must keep up with their analog modulation basics and good aptitude. I will recommend you to ask someone from ECE for this.

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Maruti Suzuki (MSIL): AMCAT, CS fundamentals, aptitude, then a decently moderate interview involving your projects and CS fundamentals. Conversion after the interview was good in our time.

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Elgi Equipments: IoT, Analog Circuits, Electrical and Mechanical core subjects

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Lohia: Again, a lot of Analog Circuits, Digital stuff.

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NVIDIA: Their OA was tough. In depth questions on LR parsers, heavy internals of C like unsigned int knowledge, code execution difference on a 32 bit and a 64 bit machine, problems looking like queue could be solved by stack.

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Aptiv: DSA, pseudocodes. Pseudocodes are really important. Do LeetCode easy problems multiple times to get good at pseudocodes. Interview won't be that tough. They wanna know if you can justify your projects relevant to the role since it's an automotive company.

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American Express: Hard DSA like geometric algorithms, Dynamic Programming and hard greedy. Interviews would be rigorous in terms of the stack you'd have on your resume.

ITC Infotech: Any language DSA, AWS, Azure, Aptitude, English speaking, CS fundamentals etc.

Seven Eleven: A lot of DSA, even in interviews. Why shoes shown on Instagram when you search them on Google (Cookies and why shared cookies don't mess up with security.) Keep up with your browsing knowledge, iterative to recursive versions of algorithms. The LeetCode question count the number/digit where you have to spell out like 12 is one 1 one two. Then that becomes three one one two or stuff like that. I don't remember exactly.

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Always research about the company before the interview. If you want interview experiences, I will send you my experiences in DM.

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For EEE, Mechanical and Civil people, core jobs are scarce as you can see. But I would always recommend you guys, if you want core stuff, I would like you to visit the incubation centres in your college, get professor's trust and work on their projects. You will land somewhere nice. Otherwise, there are sales jobs if you have an interest in marketing, or higher education.

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ECE people, you guys have Liberty to sit for many CS companies or can always go for off campus, higher education, or get R&D roles like Ericsson, Lohia. Thing is, core jobs are not much for bachelors. So, VIT can't do anything if the market wants masters.

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Non technical:

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McKinsey: Gamified Assessment and I have no idea about interview

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ZoomRx: A lot of aptitude, English grammar, quants, group discussion.

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PickYourTrail: technical sales

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I don't know much about non tech but you get an idea that group discussion and communication are necessary. Before asking me about GD, please keep in mind that I was rejected from all GDs for which I sat.

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Pick one stack, follow it consistently. Build decent projects, good DSA, don't ignore aptitude, CS fundamentals and pseudocodes. As said, LeetCode Easy and Medium will show up as pseudocodes. To save your time, do them 3-4 times so that your recognition becomes faster and better.

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Again, you'd have opportunities based on your academic standing, skills, communication, ability to justify your resume.

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Been a long time, now that it's been a month since other campuses released grades 😕😕🫠

u/Practical_War_7296 had asked

(Please do your own search as well. I asked the seniors on LinkedIn) Disagree with me or don't I don't care as my wish is to keep everyone posted about realistic information.

While IIT Bombay will keep you eligible for AIML roles, you will have some politics. Companies get confused with IEOR and prefer core AI/DS people. That's why IEOR folks end up getting placed at the end of the placement season, which is not feasible for someone's mental health.

Packages are what the institute data reflects, if any with minimal inflation.

Realistically, if you can sustain yourself till the end of placement season and ready to outshine AI/DS people, take IIT Bombay IEOR. It might be easier off campus in drives as compared to other tier IITs and private colleges postgraduates but people go to institutes like IITB for on campus placements. It's better to get a top NIT DS as if you can get the IITB IEOR, you can also get top NITs on that score.

Also IITB started IEOR from 28 graduating B.Tech batch onwards. Since M.Tech will also participate in placements that time, as in those who are getting offers now, they will face more trouble. Not necessarily too much but recruiter bias towards B.Tech is not uncommon.

Does anyone have any idea about placements of Computational Materials Engineering at IIT Roorkee? It comes under the material science department and my friend got offered this branch through GATE CS raw marks of 51.XX (IITR uses normalised marks and I don't know the exact decimals 🫠)

If anyone has any insights to share, kindly let me know. Since he's from Uttarakhand, IIT Roorkee is his fascination but placements are more important. So, he's skeptical about an interdisciplinary branch.

If anyone's interested in placements and wants actual guidance, please DM me so that I will redirect you to my friends who got good placements or recommend you professors from Chennai campus. Note that it might take at least 3 days for me to reply so please keep that in mind.

The post will focus on how to make a career in academia if you're interested

1. In any campus, you will find a professor themselves asking you to join them in research. Even if you're not interested in their domain, they will refer you to their network.

2. Generally, people invested in research don't look for VIT but I know that many students who have potential but couldn't get anywhere else will make the best of what they get. So, if you have trust issues, DM me so that I will give you a list of professors from Chennai campus whom you can contact directly.

I already know that very few people will ask me or prolly no one will which is why the list is manageable.

3. Keep your core subjects intact and get good CGPA so that in your final semester, you can do a semester abroad programme. For any VISA issue, there's a buffer of 10 weeks from the start of the final semester. Your faculty will guide you.

4. There are dedicated niche centres in VITC at least. One for electric vehicles if u have interest in that field. Another for mechanical cars and stuff. I am not familiar with that field so forgive me.

5. There's always GATE if you wanna do masters from India.

6. Through GATE/UGC NET, you can apply for projects under different professors across IITs/NITs/IIITs and that can convert to masters or PhD as well. Note that direct PhD after B.Tech is a thing and people who know they only want research go for it. I myself wouldn't recommend it because I don't wanna go for a doctorate directly but you can ask your professor.

7. I would never recommend going for both GATE and placements together because that can compromise on both but if you can manage then it's your wish.

8. Mechanical and electronics guys can go for IIT JAM Physics paper to get into Physics if that's your interest. You can decide yourself.

9. For all branches of B.Tech, you have mathematics in at least 4 semesters. You can go for IIT JAM MA and MS for masters in mathematics and mathematical statistics.

Points 8 and 9 are only for people interested in pure sciences.

I know anyone would wanna join their state club but some, a small amount not all, clubs in Chennai operate on weird rules and stuff, not administrative issue but toxicity. I want everyone to avoid them, regardless of whatever you wanna do. Your mental health is more important than your career.

At your age, if you don't know what to do, observe in the first year. It's enough to know whether you like studying or want placements.

For me, research comes first but living conditions matter too for anyone.

On that note, may I know how well established the CSE department is and how you would rate the RA hostels?

I look forward to any insights you have to share, not limited to the questions asked.

Thank you all!!

(Posting here as people give tests as well as apply via GATE channel.)

File an RTI, referring to the attached link, once the merit list(s) for that programme is/are uploaded.

This link contains official notice from the Supreme Court. Legally, you are entitled to know your marks by filing an RTI within 120 days of publication of the final merit lists of that programme. Following this, the answer scripts are shredded.

You can also request for question wise marks awarded.

https://oldweb.isical.ac.in/\~deanweb/RTI2012DO20059.pdf

Reddit is not allowing to post links. You can comment or DM for portal links.

GATE is not restricted to COAP and CCMT if you want to get into research and development. Startup culture is also good in Ropar, Mandi and Madras which have non-GATE entries sometimes. For better opportunities, GATE is preferred.

IIT Kanpur:

1. They have a cell in collaboration with ISRO, so satellite networking is a good research area there.

2. They also got some semiconductor projects recently, like in a good number.

IIT Kharagpur:

A really good institute for telecommunication research. Their GS Sanyal School of Telecommunication is one of the leading school in the field of 6G research.

IIT ISM Dhanbad:

A lot of future tech is being used for mining applications. IoT nodes deployment in mines, development of physics-informed digital twins, etc.

Many PSUs like BHEL and ONGC (not sure) hire from there.

IIT Madras:

1. If something in VLSI comes before any other organisation, it's IIT Madras. Their fabless and fabrication work is outstanding.

2. Their startup culture is really good. Many of them are working on systems.

IIT Tirupati:

A lot of ISRO grants, for signal processing and imaging in the field of space sciences.

IIT Bombay:

1. It has so many specialisations, one dedicated to rural technology and collaborations with NGOs and ministries.

2. It has a good research culture in the field of theoretical and applied AI.

IIT Goa:

If you are interested in underwater communication, denoising data where noise is caused by bubbles, waves and other factors, you'll enjoy working on it as an EC student.

IIT Mandi:

Himalayan sustainability startups are really good. They need people in tech.

IIT Ropar:

ANNAM.AI is an agritech startup that has off-campus drives where you can apply for posts like Computer Vision Engineer, Software Engineer, etc., and contribute to agritech.

IIT Roorkee:

Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computing department hosts international conferences where B.Tech students can also present research.

Many other opportunities exist for Civil Engineering graduates as well.

I hold the following offers:

IIIT Delhi M.Tech ECE

JRF at IIT Kanpur in CSE department

I have decided to go for JRF as my long term goals are government R&D and PhD later.

The thing with IIITD is that my interests are in Signal Processing and Machine Learning and the only reason I even applied to ECE only is that Dr. Anubha Gupta is working on research in Signal Processing. I would have chosen her for my thesis and still prepare for the project positions.

JRF is in the Computer Networks field. I like Computer Networks when I learn something about it from a case study or a project, not when I have to grind protocols. The professor selected me only because I had an understanding of TCP and persistent connections and subnetting knowledge through projects and interests in thinking about protocols by connecting them to OSI model. I liked the fact that Netflix doesn't even need MAC address to know the primary device. Operating in the network layer is enough for them to apply Zero Trust model and Single Sign On concepts at the customer level.

I don't want suggestions for choosing the route. Both routes are getting me in academia. One is Electronics and another is Computer Science.

I have never been too crazy about Computer Science subjects in college. Maybe because I always knew people take it just for placements and there was barely anyone in my peer group looking for research.

I wanna know what you would have done in my situation and if you could suggest any resources which can help me read more on Computer Networks and Systems. Is there any correlation between Communication in Electronics and Networking? I have explored some but I wanna hear from the community.