Hello, I'm Yatish, a fourth-year student in Electrical Engineering.
Exactly a year ago, I was tense thinking about the upcoming
internship season and how I would face it without a good research
project and PoR. I used to regret watching all those movies and web
series in my first year instead of doing something productive (Here,
I am talking about CPI and Projects as doing something productive).
Before going on to the Internship Season, let's start with my first year at IIT Bombay. We have an intro course in Electrical Engineering as well as Computer Science. After attending CS101 classes for a month, I decided that I would never do coding in my life(remember this line) and started focussing on EE113. That motivation for running away from CSE helped me concentrate on EE113. But as more topics were introduced in EE113, my interest grew in the Electrical core domain. After that, I did a few additional courses in my second year in Analog/Digital Electronics, along with EE204 and EE224. Last Semester, I took domain-specific courses like EE719, EE739, EE654, etc.
Now coming on to the important part: the Intern season and its preparation. I was only going to target Electrical core companies and was preparing for the same. You must revise your EE204 notes, and RLC circuits taught in our JEE days for Analog Electronics. For Digital Electronics, you can refer to EE224 and EE309 notes. For Digital Profiles, one of the most important things is "Static Timing Analysis" and "Types of Memories." These topics are not covered in our curriculum. And I was also interested in Power Electronics Profile (rare in any batch). So for the Power part, just reading basic things about Electrical machines will suffice.
Now, the most crucial thing during Intern Prep: Things which you must not do. The first thing is undermining yourself, which I did a lot. Half of the class thought they were unprepared or would mess up in the interview, and I was one of them. My first interview was for Google Hardware, and I was more scared of it than happy that I was shortlisted(it was a resume-based shortlist). And because of this, I messed up the interview in every possible way. I knew the answers to the questions, but I was too scared to think correctly. The following interview was for Qualcomm, and I was not afraid this time. I cleared their internship test, which consisted of basic analog, digital and coding questions(c lang). But this time, I made a second mistake: "Interviewer doesn't ask a question from our curriculum only." He asked almost all of the questions from "Static Timing Analysis." So again, it was bad luck for me on the intern blog. And Finally, Bajaj came for its Power Electronics profile which I was interested in. I cleared the Bajaj test, where they asked basic power and analog questions. After that, there were two interview rounds. The first was the technical interview round. They asked me 2-3 questions on BLDC motor, and the interview was over in less than 10 minutes. One of my projects was aligned with their Internship work, so they asked a few questions about the project. The second round was the HR round, where they asked you about internship location preferences and general HR questions.
The story of my Bajaj selection is an interesting one. Since the
midsem had just concluded, my friends and I decided to go on a trip
to Igatpuri. I was seeking a departure from my current predicament
and some solace after all these rejections. However, a day before
the trek, I discovered my test was on the same day. That resulted in
panic, and I began to hurry my friends to finish the trek quickly so
we could get back to the hotel on time for the test(so much for
solace). The day was eventful, we scaled the highest peak in
Maharashtra, and on the way back, I revised all my concepts in the
van. We reached the hotel just in time for the test. The next day,
after a grueling day of playing water sports with my friends, I
reached the hotel to find out that I had my interview the next day
at 2 pm. This news induced a mixed bag of emotions in me, I was
happy that I made the shortlist, but I was also worried about how I
would attend the interview. My home was too far, leaving me with no
option but to go to my friend’s house, which was much closer(the
same guy asking me to write this blog now). I reached his home, had
lunch, and got ready for the technical interview, which got over in
6-7 minutes. Yes, you read it right; it got over in less than ten
minutes. After such a short technical interview, I was scared and
thought this would be the same story again. However, I had a short
HR round, and I received the good news by evening. I was on cloud
nine when I got the news that I was selected for Bajaj’s Power
profile. I was very excited about my first offline industry
experience. Another interesting thing that happened was that my
friend had a premonition(Final Destination, anyone?) that I would
get into Bajaj (He also had a similar premonition a day before his
interview, it always helps to have a Gsec with ESP).
I joined Bajaj Auto in mid-May for my Internship at Pune. Initially, I was sad because most of my friends were in Bangalore for their Internships, and I was in Pune. But I got a fantastic peer group at Bajaj who was very helpful both at and outside work. My mentors in Bajaj were also very supportive and encouraged me to explore things independently. Remember, earlier, I had told you that I would never do coding. But I got the internship work which involved writing a Python script, and I liked coding this time.
Thank you all who have read this blog. So, remember a few things before going into the Internship Season. First is don't undermine yourself. The second is: Never fixate on anything. You may not like doing something now but in the future you may. So be open to all the possibilities and enjoy the uncertainty of the Internship Season.