2O20 in a Nutshell
Had I known prior, half of my days in 2020 will be filled with me staying at my home wearing pajama’s , I would have prayed almighty god to stop time and not enter the covid-19 year. But, life has always been a roller coaster ride to me. I can’t totally blame 2020 to be worst as there has been couple of good things that I was lucky enough to get. Yes!! I got my first full time job, I earned my first salary, I made good friends, I learnt to manage/survive life by staying apart from my parents for 1 year, I became a good cook :) I rather could say I learnt adulting skills :P . I was initially very sad at the beginning of March as all my plans to Boston and Colorado trips got cancelled. I planned for a trip to Boston and Colorado 2 months ahead , shopped winter clothes (when you stay in Arizona, you ought to shop winter clothes :P), looked for famous places and restaurants to hangout , booked flight tickets and finally all my plans got crashed. But then, staying at home during lockdown had its own comfort. I never imagined , I would be attending a morning class without brushing , but then it happened.
One thing I am grateful for 2020 is that , I got an opportunity to become an active member of Women In Tech Organizations. I attended my first virtual grace hopper celebration, supported Women In Tech campaigns, Women In Tech organizations by providing mentoring sessions and funds, I got a chance to virtually meet and engage with women from various types of Industry etc. I learnt a lot of things from the Women In Computer Science & Tech organizations. I learnt the need to code, how to deal with imposter syndrome, various opportunities out there for women in tech field, how can women achieve in the tech organizations and so on..
I spent my entire summer interning as a Data Engineer at ON Semiconductor. It was my first Industrial Internship. The initial months were quite relaxing and stress free and my internship got extended till the end of December’20. I was really stressed during the initial months of August and September, as I had 3 subjects + Internship + New grad job hunt. Trust me, you will definitely repent of missing a chance of acquiring top internship in Big N’s if you haven’t got one. Yes, I repented too. But then, I also had a goal of giving my best in the Fall’20 semester . I got good grades, completed my fall Internship successfully and also received full time offers. When I look back , I wonder how I myself don’t know how I managed time.
Interview Preparation , tips & strategies
First and foremost , cracking an Interview is not an easy task. Sometimes, its even more difficult than your 12th grade mechanics. But, don’t lose hope. “Nothing is impossible”. I started my interview preparation in August. Yes!! I was late…. I suggest people to start early, cause the earlier you start the better you are with the preparation and you get the confidence of cracking the interview. Though all of us are already aware of the coding platforms such as leetcode and HackerRank, I would always suggest people to get the fundamentals of CS right. That involves Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating systems, Data base management systems . Doing leetcode without knowing Data structures is utter waste. I first started with blind 75 leetcode problems and then moved on to top interview problems. I also referred to “cracking the coding interview” and “elements of programming interviews in python” to understand the important concepts involved such as sliding window , bfs-dfs etc. The most important thing about competitive programming is nothing can be achieved in a single day. It is a continuous process. My seniors advised me to keep solving 2 problems everyday, but I couldn’t manage to solve during my 1st year of Master’s. I later solved during spring break , summer break and in my fall semester’20. From my personal experience, I feel cracking an interview not only tests an individual’s coding skills, but also tests if the person is fit for the industry. Generally, companies have minimum 4–5 rounds comprising of a mix of Technical and behavioral rounds. Technical rounds include coding, system design, general CS basics, oops concepts and so on. Behavioral interview comprises of testing your soft skills. Before the day of interview don’t sit and grind the entire leetcode problems. Just relax, take it easy and revise whatever you have prepared. Give your best shot during the interview and I am sure everybody will get what they deserve. After giving many interviews, I have learnt from past experiences(I usually make short notes on interview experience) and I go with the moto of not repeating the same mistakes again I committed in the past. Every interview is a new learning experience and you cannot be totally satisfied with any interview. There have been circumstances where I performed the interview well and haven’t got the offer and the circumstances where I couldn’t give my 100% , but still received an offer. It’s difficult to guess what an interviewer expects. I finally suggest give your best shot, keep improving yourself and don’t stop learning and I am pretty sure one day or the other we all will land up in our dream company :)
Useful Resources
