Personality development is as important as good grades: Aditi Aggrawal

I have just graduated from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women in BTech (CSE). After class 12, the major decision that I had to take was choosing IGDTU (CSE) over DTU. There is always a part of your mind which weighs down on the college name and the other one prefers the stream. I decided to go with the stream which proved right after 4 years of graduation.

Admission Journey

My admission journey is the same as almost every other Science student. I took one year of coaching from Narayana and then gave JEE Main. My AIR was 30K in 2014 and I got admission in IGDTU. 

There is no standard way of preparing for any entrance exam. One of the most common myths I have encountered is judging the probability of admission with the number of study hours. It doesn’t matter if you are studying for 5, 10, 15 or 24 hours. What matters is whether you completely understand what you are studying. Simply mugging things up won’t help.

Another advice from me will be that one should prioritize their studies but should never neglect their personality. You should always work upon the overall personality by participating in social activities as it is your personality that will help you in the long run. You will outshine any college and any stream with your personality.

Learning and insights

Now, let’s talk about my college life. The first and foremost challenge I faced was being a part of a “girls” college. I hadn’t seen so many girls at the same place and at the same time before. But being in a girls’ college has its perks as well. The best thing for me in this college was that there was no distraction. I could solely remain focused on my goals. IGDTU provided me with a really good college culture, from personality development to professional development. There are various societies in which you can participate, technical as well as  non-technical. Overall, the environment of my college is very nice.

My first placement

I got placed in my 7th semester in Intuit India. The placement procedure was standard with the following rounds:

Round 1: It was a coding test with 4 coding questions of varying difficulties and areas including Dynamic Programming, graphs, hashing and number system.

Round 2: The first interview round of 40-45 minutes where I was  given 2 coding questions. The focus was not on the optimized answer, but the correct approach. Both the questions were of medium difficulty.

Round 3: This one was again a technical round where first, the interviewer discussed about my projects and then 2 coding questions of high difficulty.

Round 4: This one was technical-cum HR round. Here, a detailed and in-depth discussion of projects took place and some questions were asked from my interests in the resume.

How does it work

Okay, so here is the most important part. Indian engineering institutes follow the same syllabus and books that were used 50 years ago. There are no major changes or advancement in the course curriculum. Hence, even after pursuing a technical course, I didn’t feel that close to technology. We know about technology used 100 years back which is mentioned in the books but we don’t know about the latest developments in the area as those are not added to our syllabus yet. Pursuing BTech is like enrolling in two courses simultaneously: one is what the university teaches you and the other is what you do with yourself to get a decent placement or fulfill your future plans. This side knowledge is very important and beneficial for your career and overall technical development. To develop this type of knowledge, one needs a proper exposure to the real world. I seriously believe that this can only be achieved by doing projects, a lot of projects, in areas you are interested in. This will not only increase the quality of your resume, but also familiarize you with the latest technologies. Apart from projects, doing internships, actively participating in various hackathons, participation in small or big events that happen in your college fest will also help. These small things build up your confidence and you get a hold of your subject. 

Obviously, I am not suggesting that you completely neglect your college studies. You should maintain a decent percentage throughout your graduation so that your eligibility is not a thing to worry about. I have seen many nice coders being rejected because of their grades. Also, if you are preparing for masters, then maintaining a close contact with your professors will help you in the long run.

Last but not the least, make your major project seriously and you can even try to get it published in a decent journal. It will add value to your resume.

Mistakes I made

One of the major regrets I have is that I used to procrastinate everything. I could have got a quality internship but I was not prepared by that time. I started preparing seriously from the third year, but I should have started earlier.

About the Author:

My name is Aditi Aggarwal. I have completed my graduation from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women in BTech-CSE (2014-18). I believe that making your hobby your profession is the best thing to do. This keeps you involved with your work and you never feel bored.