Achievers’ Archive (Kushagra Kalash)

Interviewee : Kushagra Kalash , Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2017–2021)

Placed at Walmart Global Tech

SIME :Which company you have been placed in and what’s the job description?

Kushagra : I am Kushagra Kalash, from EEE K17 batch. I graduated last year in 2021. I have been working at Walmart Global Tech as a software engineer.

SIME :How is this new transition in life is going for you and How do you manage your workload and social life?

Kushagra : To be honest, work-life balance is entirely dependent on the company and team you join. You might join a company/team that allows you to have a flexible work schedule, or you might have fixed timings and work that you may have to finish on the same day.

The company and team determine your work life balance, which is then going to dictate how much time you can spend for your social life.

Fortunately for me, work-life balance is pretty good. Most teams at Walmart don’t have long work hours where you must spend 12 to 13 hours a day. A regular workday is enough, and you can spend the rest of the time however you want.

SIME :How is your new transition from being a college student to a corporate professional?

Kushagra : When I started working, the world was in lockdown due to COVID. This lockdown started mid-way through my third year, and I started working (as an intern) in my fourth year. Because of this, there wasn’t a big transition as such. Living at home and attending online lectures is not much different from working from home for as a professional. So, the transition for me was very gradual.

SIME :How was your college life? Were you a part of any club or society in college and how did they help you?

Kushagra : My college life was pretty great. I was part of multiple clubs and societies.

I was an active member of PSOC throughout, but I also participated in other technical clubs till my second year.

Being active for club and college events helped me a lot. The main benefit of clubs is that you get to know how to run something from scratch to finish. As a junior, you get to how the work is done on the field and learn the basics. And as you gradually become senior, you are the one making the plans, talking to the faculties, organising everything as well as directing the juniors to do whatever is required. You can learn a lot regardless of what club you may be involved in.

Apart from this, you get to have a social group and do something you enjoy as part of club activities. Having actual skills and interests as a result of this that make you stand out is always an advantage.

SIME : Since you appeared in the online recruitment process. How was this new experience? According to you, which one is more beneficial for students?

Kushagra : There isn’t a huge difference between online recruitment and a physical one, the first part is almost always an exam or an assessment, which everyone has to appear for online anyway. Whether you take these tests at home or the computer lab of your college, it doesn’t have a huge difference. You must pass the assessment to get by that part of screening.

With regards to the interviews, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an online interview or a physical one. The interviewers are pretty smart and are able to judge if the candidate knows what he is talking about and how much knowledge he/she has. So, from this perspective, there is not much of a difference.

As for preparing for the recruitment process, it is an entirely different story. Preparing for tests and interviews from home gives you a massive boost in convenience and time. For me, being at home when I was preparing for placements was a huge bonus.

SIME :How did you handle your anxiety/stress and pressure at the time of placement season when several companies were coming to our campus placement?

Kushagra : Fortunately for me, my placement happened early enough in the placement cycle that I didn’t face much pressure.

However, being nervous is normal when going in for placements. As far as anxiety is concerned, you have to manage yourself and your mind/thought process to avoid it.

SIME :How one can prepare for internships and what role does it plays in the placement process? Where did you pursue your internship? Whether doing many pieces of training and internships helps during placement?

Kushagra : First of all, you need to know what type of work/companies you want to go for, that in itself is a big thing. Then you need to prepare accordingly.

One thing I have observed is that good companies that come to recruit interns are very few. So, if you want to get selected as an intern in your third year, you should start preparing from your second year itself.

For tech companies (which is what I have participated in), the general trend is to test your knowledge of the fundamentals of computer science and software engineering. You should know your operating systems, databases, networks, data structures, and algorithms. Experience with competitive programming is not required but it helps.

The advantage of internships is that most interns get a pre-placement offer. If you have a pre-placement offer or a return offer, you don’t have to go through the entire placement process again in your fourth year, which is pretty great.

SIME :What are the projects and competitions that you have worked/participated in during your college years and how it helped in your placement and internship?

Kushagra : I didn’t participate in any technical competitions during my college years. I was usually behind the camera during college events as part of the coverage team or the cinematography team.

As for projects, I completed some projects in my third and fourth years. I made a chat app, a physics simulator and a small library for text manipulation in C++.

Make sure that you make your projects by yourself, and not copy code off the internet. Having in-depth knowledge of the how and why for every line of code helps a lot when you are asked about them during interviews.

SIME :What was the selection procedure of your company? Is there any particular advice you would like to give your juniors while preparing for PI?

Kushagra : There was an online test which was an online coding assessment for two hours asking about CS fundamentals and a couple of questions where you had to write code for the given problems.

Once I cleared that round, there were four interviews — two coding interviews, one managerial interview, and one HR Interview, after which I got hired at Walmart.

When preparing for any tech company’s interview process, you need to have your basics of CS fundamentals clear — including data structure and algorithms. Apart from that, having a couple of good projects as well as some basic knowledge of competitive programming will help a lot.

SIME :Apart from CGPA, what other skills one should incur to make a strong CV/Resume?

Kushagra : To be frank, my CGPA was average. It is only one small part of your resume.

I believe your resume should be a reflection of who you are, and for most people, the CGPA plays a minor role conveying their strengths and weaknesses — provided you cross the minimum bar of course. List out your projects or any kind of relevant work experience.

Tailor your resume to the company and role and ensure that you do not make it too long. As you are just graduating college and at this point most people don’t have much work experience, your resume should not be longer than a single page.

SIME :Do you have any plans for further studies or giving competitive exams?

Kushagra : I might go for further studies in the future. However, for the current short term, I am focussing on working and gaining some experience.

SIME :A piece of the general advice you would like to give to your juniors?

Kushagra : Since COVID is almost over and things are slowly going back to normal, make the best of the time you have at college. Explore, find out what you like, and don’t let your grades slip. Most importantly, have fun :)

Rapid-fire questions:

1) If you have a superpower for one day then what would you like to do in BIT?

I’m not sure what use I’ll have of superpowers, but since the last one and a half years of my college life was taken away by COVID, I may try to somehow get those days back.

2) Who is your inspiration and why?

You don’t have to be inspired by a specific person. I feel the best way is to instil in yourself the best qualities of everyone you know, encounter or read about.

3) If you would be given a chance to meet a celebrity, who would you like to meet?

I’d love to meet Richard Feynman (he was a physicist and a really cool guy).

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Interview and Documentation by IAR Team, SIME, BIT Mesra