The Fine Print Issue Five, November 2014

Page 3: The President and the Gen Sec come under the microscope Page 2: Bouquets, colourful brickbats and too many earrings at ORC ‘14 Page 8: We talk to the Chief, IPC Unit on the acute lack of connectivity THE FINE PRINT ENGLISH PRESS CLUB PRESENTS SEMESTER I ISSUE V PILANI NOVEMBER 2014 CTC (in lacs) With about 90% of the undergraduate students on campus placed, the Placement Unit has certainly surpassed expectations and derailed certain stereotypes. With a balanced mix of core, Finance and Consultancy job offers BITSians have not only had more and bigger opportunities this time, they also had more diversity in their attempts to strike gold at the placement desk and PU had a successful shot at putting to bed myths that only core companies visited campus in the first semester and Consultancies in the second. As has been the norm in the last half decade, ‘dream’ offers in a few multinational giants have certainly inflated averages across disciplines. Dissecting the statistics into more relevant figures though, still vindicates the perception that the PU has surpassed expectations. & & (The complete statistics for Higher Degree will be available on FB.com/TheFinePrintOnline due to space constraints.) As usual the bars on A7 are the ones you would want to flash in isolation in front of unsuspecting parents. Averages in all other disciplines have beefed up though. Making allowances for deceptively high contributors to the net, all disciplines have fared better than they are perceived to. With more consultancy options in the first semester there has been a healthier distribution across disciplines. Owing to the smooth running of the first trial of the winter window of placement also gives the recruiters a larger pool of students, allaying the worries of current and companies going back pleased with their new recruits, it will be implemented third year students who may be on the fence about which semester they should again. Inviting companies from Mechanical, Manufacturing, Chemical and Civil choose to be on campus. disciplines, the PU is confident about a positive response to their new undertaking. Allowing more core opportunities for students returning in the second semester, it Thirdly, Abinandh talks about how the importance of soft skills cannot be stressed enough. "Companies are looking for the person who is smart, capable and willing to learn on the job and who will be a good fit in their organisation. They require well rounded, earnest individuals and performing well in the group discussion or HR round would certainly reflect that. Seriousness about this aspect and pre placement talks will give the students a certain edge when it comes down to a GD or interview. Things like doing your research on the company and asking relevant questions will go a long way in this regard." (...continued on Page 3) & Talking about how a student's CGPA and the likelihood of him making a good job are related, he said that there is certainly a strong correlation between the two. This does not imply undisputed supremacy of the 9 or 10 pointers, however many companies impose certain CGPA cut-offs for their recruitment tests and having one less than 6 is certainly likely to thin down that stack of applications. It is true that a student's CG reflects on their capabilities and is, although not the only, but a crucial deciding factor for recruiters. & Creating a well-organized resume is not an easy feat. With an average HR spending about 15 seconds on your CV, a simple formatting error may be taken as a sign of general complacency and even be enough to stop you from progressing to the next round. "Students need to be aware of how to build and represent a CV early on. Scrambling to finish this in your Psenti semester isn't going to cut it and that is precisely why preparation for placements should start at least in the last semester of your third year," says Abinandh.