Information Technology is undoubtedly the most sought after career in India.

Software engineers are the stars in the current market owing to their salaries paid. This article is written to help freshers from India with Bachelors or Masters degree and working professionals working in non-IT industry planning to switch to IT industry Content: Find tips for finding an opportunity, clearing IT aptitude test and interview. If you are planning to dive into an IT career, here are few tips that would help you to achieve your aspiration. Use below internal links to quickly navigate to that topic.

How to get an interview call Things to do on the day before an Interview What to expect in a Written Test The Interview Whats more important Experience or Salary Is IT going low due to recession in the USA

How to get an interview call:

Your first step to get an IT job is get a call from IT company for interview. How do you get an interview call? Where can you find software job postings? You guessed it right. Jobs are posted in job boards such as Naukri.com/Monsterindia.com/Timesjobs.com. Go straight to one of those sites (or all of them) and register your profile with them. Upload your resume and keep all the fields complete. Companies always need people! (with an exception in the times of recession like now). So companys Human Resource department continuously consults the above job sites for filling up the required job positions. You can also try job consultancies such as Elitmus.com. Elitmus is an online job consultancy based in Bangalore. They conduct an aptitude test called the pH Test. They

charge you some amount of money for registering for the test. You have to regularly check elitmus.com for new job postings. The jobs posted at elitmus.com are usually the high paid ones (3 lakh Rupees per annum on an average). Any score of above 80 percentile and a good score in your bachelors almost ensures you a couple of interview calls. I personally liked their services. I had got a lot of interview calls (from National Instruments, McAfee Software, H3C Technologies, Huwaien). Research the current requirements in IT Industry: Is your cousin is working as a software engineer? Talk to him; Find out the technology that in demand in his organization. Did your friend get placed into any Software Company? Discuss and find out what questions are being asked, and dig it up. The current technology requirements of IT are: JAVA/J2EE, DotNet, Siebel, SAP, Automated Testing, Oracle PL/SQL, javascript/AJAX. You need not have to know all of them. Learn any one of them thoroughly. Choose a technology based on your interests. For example, if you like web and the internet, you should consider learning JAVA, dot NET technologies. If you are fascinated by the way gmail works, dynamically refreshing content on the page without reloading. Or if you are interested to know how your scrapbook opens when you reply somebody on orkut, you should learn javascript/ AJAX technologies. Want to find out how vast amount of information is stored in the internet or how orkut remembers so many people? Learn SQL. If your priority is to grab the high paid IT job opportunities, you should consider learning CRM Customer Relationship Management Softwares (SAP, Siebel). Last but not the least if you want a hassle free IT job sans programming, opt for testing. Learn manual or automated testing.

Do not Forget the ancestor: C language C language, the ancestor or programming languages. Often, freshers seem to have wrong impression about C language. They assume that C is an outdated programming language. If you are one of them, then you are completely mistaken. C language is the fastest compiler and the best ever compiler. Since its birth in 1978, it was the key language for System Programming and embedded systems. Even C ++ has not been able to replace C compiler in Embedded systems and RTOS programming (Programming air-crafts). C is a very powerful language with little restrictions. If you are a beginner in C, read the book Let us C by yashwanth kanitkar. Once you are done with that book, read The C programming Language by Denis Ritchie. This book is the best ever book teaching C language. You can crack any written test asking C language, if you read this book thoroughly. C language is the favorite programming language for interviewers to ask questions. Expect a lot of C language questions if you are attending your first IT interview. See the posts on C interview questions with solutions in this blog. If you are migrating from another industry to IT, this is the language that you should learn first. Even for learning JAVA, C language happens to be the pre-requisite. Back to top

Things to do the day before an Interview

Let us say that you got a call from coveted IT company in India, what next? Usually they conduct an aptitude test for screening people before the actual interview. Search on Google for previous papers of that company and start working on those questions. This trick works most of the times. Yes, companies do repeat question patterns. Try FreshersWorld.com for the latest placement papers. Learn What They Want:

Before you go to attend an interview you should do your homework. Find out the expectations from your future employer. Read the job description carefully. Do they want a Java programmer / Web developer / Web designer / Tester / Quality Analyst? Tweak your resume based on what they want. And more specifically, knowledge of which technology do they want the job applicants to possess? Do they want people for build management? / Do they want people for application server administration? If you cannot understand these details, do not worry too much. Take help of your friends or seniors who are Software engineers by profession. Also be sure to see this checklist on things to do the day before an interview. Back to top

What to expect in The Written Test:

A written test typically covers the following sub-topics: 1. Soft skills: IT industry expects their employees to possess good soft skills (writing / speaking in English). You dont need to be an essayist or a prize winning public orator. If you can express in English, what you wish to say, consider yourself as fit for an IT job. If not, you should join some English training institute such as VETA. Preparation for English tests such as TOEFL/GRE/IELTS helps greatly. 2. Aptitude: IT job is all about real life problems and solving them; so interviewers would naturally want to test your problem solving ability. The only way to test your problem solving abilities is through puzzles. As it is difficult to test a fresher for advanced concepts of programming, industry considers simple puzzles as a quick way to test. Make it habit to solve puzzles.Buy the book, Puzzles to Puzzle you by Shakuntala Devi, finish it and move on to More puzzles to puzzle you by the same author. If you have time also solve the classic book, The great book of puzzles and Teasers by George Summers. If you have solved that book completely, I bet that you can clear any aptitude test that comes your way. 3. Math: Expect a few questions from mathematics that is taught in high school. Favorite topics in aptitude tests are percentages, loss and profit, ratios, interest,

permutations and combination. There is no match for the book Quantitative Aptitude by RS Agarwal in this department. 4. Programming skills: 90% chances are that you would be asked questions from C language. Most probably: scope of variables, pointers, pointer arithmetic, String manipulation, C standard library(stdlib.h, string.h,. etc) , memory operations (calloc, malloc), precedence of operators, arrays. Questions in C++ and Java are rarely asked in entry level / freshers interview. Back to top

The Interview:
You would be evaluated on the basis of following things: 1. Speaking skill:This is a very important criterion. You are expected to speak fluently. You need not be an orator, but buttler English is not accepted. Even if its buttler its alright to some extent as long as you speak smoothly. Do not slouch in your chair. Sit straight, talk very confidently & audibly. Maintain eye-contact. Answer to the question do not over-explain or under-explain keep it simple. Never give one-word answers. Do not use negative language like I dont know , that was not taught. Instead say POLITELY that you are not aware of it or say that you are excel in some other topic. Listen with utmost attention, do not think about anything else while doing an interview. 2. Honesty:is usually tested in the last round also called as HR (Human Resource) round. In this interview, a HR manager talks to you casually. You need to be casual and honest while answering. Do not hide or over explain about your backlogs / arrears. Do not talk too much about your negative points. Do not boast too much, you will be caught. If you say that you like reading newspaper, first question would be Whats on headlines today? So be very honest. 3. Grooming: What you wear speaks a lot about you. You need to come neatly groomed, with ironed and a decent dress. Boys: Formals and shoes, Girls: Punjabi dress or salwar and kurta. If it is an MNC, it may be other way round. You might see the interviewer wearing funky t-shirt and jeans. But still it is better not to take chances. 4. Resume / Curriculum vitae:Everything on your CV/resume counts. Do not write poems or day dreams in resume. Write your own, simple but smart one line ambition. Think twice before you write anything in resume. Youd be questioned

about each and every word in your resume, be prepared to justify. Participation and prizes in events technical/cultural/extra-curricular is a great plus. If you havent done anything other than going to college, its time for you to join some NGO / some active college group. 5. Technical skills:Certifications rock!!, they are highly valued. If you do not know what certifications are, find out from your seniors. Consider doing SCJP 1.5 or an oracle PL/SQL certification. If you know that you are not good at what is being asked, you can promptly interrupt and tell the interviewer about your strength. You are likely be asked to write a C program for factorial, sorting, recursion, find greatest number. So be prepared with such common programs. 6. Extras:Your project work could be questioned. In case you are not from Computer science background, they might not ask much. But common questions are: What was your role in your project work? Explain how is your project work useful in real world? Learn at least in brief about your project and be honest if you did not do it by yourself. 7. Ask questions:At the end of the interview you would be given a chance to ask questions. Asking nothing usually may give a wrong impression to the interviewer that you are under confident. So grab this opportunity to ask questions. Do not ask questions such as: How many leaves would I get per year? / How much will my pay rise after one year? Instead enquire about the project and growth, about the interviewers background, his relationship with the company, or anything about the company that amuses you. 8. Puzzles again:You would be given a couple of puzzles to solve; you are not expected to get the perfect answer for the puzzle. But you should not give up easily. At least act as if you are trying to solve. They see your attitude (perseverance) in solving puzzles as solving real life problems you might face tomorrow in the company. You should never give up until he says time-up. I learnt it in Huwaien technology interview. I wish somebody had told me about this. 9. Argument Round:This is very common asked in the US based MNCs. HR interviewer would start arguing with you on a point. For ex: your dress sense is bad or your resume sucks. The key here is he is trying to test your argument abilities. You should stick to your point for hours together. Never waver or agree to what he says.

10. About the Company:One day before interview, learn few key facts about the company such as: CEO of the company, clients of the company, products of the company, founder name etc. A friend of mine did not qualify an interview in Satyam Computers for mis-spelling it as Sathyam. 11. A Cool Tip:Last but not the least, remember that the answer that give him leads him to new questions. You would get questions from the terminology that you had used in your answer. So answer in a way to lead him to ask in the areas you are strong at. This should not be very difficult. Practice it with your friends. Read frequently committed mistakes in an interview. Back to top

Whats important Experience or Salary

For freshers, what certainly matters is who you work for and what you work on. Yes, brand name works, but if you have to choose between a silly job and high pay versus good job but low pay. I would certainly recommend you the latter. If you have good experience in good work you can demand a raise in next company but not the other way around.

Is IT going to fall due to recession in the U.S.A?

Yes, there is going to be a huge effect on IT industry jobs due to the current financial situation in U.S.A and U.K .This may subsequently lessen number of job opportunities in IT now. This trend would continue till the end of 2009. But this does not mean that it is the end of computer era. Software industry is here to stay. It is only facing a harsh and stormy weather. Soon, the bright sun would be back in the sky. Update: Economy seems to be reviving in India. As of december 2009, the signs are positive. So there is soon going to be an increase in jobs available in IT industry.