Are on-campus placements easier than off-campus placements?

A wise man once said: “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” 

It looks like the quote is meant for this scenario only. On-Campus and Off-Campus is a never-ending debate among college students and even among the professionals which will go on forever, and to add fuel to the fire, questions like “what is your college tier?”, interpose. Though many people argue that getting on-campus placement is much easier than off-campus, but no one tells that the amount of effort required to get placed is almost the same. In a lot of scenarios, it’s observed that the candidates failed to get on-campus placement though they were from tier 1 college. So what would you say in this case? To get placed, the tier of your college or the number of companies visiting your campus do matter to some extent but what really matters is how hard you are willing to get placed, to gain skills, to work hard for the future you want. 

Getting placed right after the final year is what every candidate dreams of. A bunch of colleges provides on-campus placement drives whereas some students continue to struggle for off-campus placement. 

In this article, we’ve cracked the On-campus Vs Off-campus debate to give the candidates a clear idea about the same.

• On-Campus Placements: Matter Of Pride?

Before arriving straight away at the conclusion it is always better to know first about how on-campus placement works. On-Campus placement involves coding rounds, group discussions, interview round, aptitude tests, and in some cases 2-3 more rounds to test the student capabilities. But still, candidates are crazy for On-Campus placement. Why is it so?

The points mentioned below will help you to know the reason behind this craziness. 

1. Approachable: We have to admit that on-campus placements are easily approachable. The recruiters arrive at the college campus itself. Hence saving the time & energy required for a job search.
2. Limited Competition:  Rather than competing with a whole community, students here only need to outshine their peers only.
3. Minimum Efforts Required: For on-campus placements, the college is responsible for arranging the interview with the company, the time, the day, and every other formality is done from the college’s end only. The students just have to make sure that he/she are present on the day of the interview at the allotted time.
4. Higher success rate:  Good rapport shared between the college & the company increases the success probability as the company will not go empty-handed because there is a pressure of recruiting a handful of candidates when the campus drive is already organized.

Apart from the above-mentioned good points, there are some cons of the on-campus placements.

1. Limited companies: Only a limited number of companies arrive at the campus, therefore a student is restricted with them. Because of this, he or she may not see the other opportunities or the offers he can get in the future.
2. Late Joining: Even after getting selected it takes six months and in some cases even a year for a candidate to join the company, which leads to anxiety fear & frustration. There are various companies like Wipro, Infosys, which recruit a huge mass of candidates but don’t provide the offer letter at the moment.

• Off-Campus Placements: Matter Of shame?

Getting a job in these times is no lesser than a roller coaster ride, the ride of rejection, the fear, anxiety, depression, and whatnot. This is the way how every candidate who goes for off-campus placements thinks. Let’s dive deep into the ocean of off-campus placements & find some seashells(pros) & some rocks (cons)from the depth.

1. Opportunities: Unlike on-campus placements, off-campus placements provide the student with a broad range of companies. In off-campus placements, students are not restricted to only a handful of companies but they can explore as many companies as many job opportunities that they want.
2. Satisfaction: The feeling of self-satisfaction provides you so much peace. Getting a job during off-campus placement is a milestone for some students as they crack the same without any guidance from the college. 
3. Knowledge:  Finding the right job requires a lot of research, good communication skills, sharing knowledge with various people. In all, it provides you an exposure which increases your practical knowledge.
4. Early Joining: The company participates in the recruitment drives when they are really very serious about recruitment; as a result, it provides candidates early joining & a handsome salary to keep them motivated.

Now is time to get some rocks from this ocean of off-campus placement.

1. Hard work: We need to admit that finding a job that fits you, that too in off-campus placements is a bit challenging and requires a lot of hard work. In addition to this students need to stay updated with the dates, time & place of the placement drive. Since they need to manage everything on their own without any guidance, they need to go the extra mile to impress the interviewer.
2. Tight competition: Students appearing for off-campus placement drive needs to fight for the job, not with their peers but with the whole student community, making it more difficult to crack.

Now since the whole picture is clear let’s meet Shreya D Nanda. She is working as a summer analyst at Goldman Sachs. She got an on-campus job offer back in her college (PES University) and here she shares with us all, some really helpful advice and her own learnings about the placements for the future candidates.

INTERVIEW

1. How did you prepare for the program?

      I believe in “Getting the concepts right and strong.” For which I started practicing the diverse questions on several coding platforms

Taking up mock interviews. This was my preparation strategy.

2. How long did it take you to prepare?

It has been since day one in college. Though it was not directed towards placements, the concepts and the problems tackled and solved along the way added upon to my knowledge. One-two months of preparation was directed towards placements.

3. Tell us about the application and recruiting process.

It was an on-campus offer. The company had come to recruit interns to our college.

• First Round:

General coding round, which had three coding questions related to Array, dynamic programming and String, and a few MCQs. The MCQs were based on CS concepts like IOS, CN. Some were even aptitude-based.

Based on the scores, some of them were selected for interviews.

• Interview First Round:

It was more of a managerial, discussion about resumes and projects and so ideas on the fly.

A part of them was selected for the next round.

• Interview Second Round:

It was a Technical Round that included on-the-spot thinking (thinking aloud), solving the problem either by presenting it orally or writing pseudo-code or entire code when asked on demand.

Some of them had ties and had to undergo a technical tie-breaker round.

After the structured procedure, 6 of us were selected for the internship.

4. Why do you think you were selected?

I would say I was selected because of these factors: Confidence, experience gained, knowledge, and communication skills.

5. Describe your experience in this program. could be your story. Feel free to write about anything fun, deep, emotional, or motivating!

The whole experience has been motivating. The journey is filled with crests and troughs, we need to inspire ourselves throughout the journey. Failure is certainly a stepping stone for success. Every downfall has something to teach us. We need to make most of it and move on stronger. So go and get what you want.

6. What are some of the tips that you would like to give?

Be Confident. If you don’t vouch for yourself, no one else will.

Technically, be strong in concepts first and then practice, practice and practice.

Shreya gave us some really bang on pieces of advice, isn’t it? One of the best things students can do is to learn from the experience of others who are in the same line as yours. For more insights connect with the master on LinkedIn itself.

Now, from such a long logical discussion it is very clear that both on-campus and off-campus placements have their pros and cons. If a person has skills and is following the right path he’ll definitely get placed either through on-campus or off-campus placement drive. What an interviewer wants in a candidate is a good set of skills and how he can be of help to the organization or the company. Campus placements are good for getting a job on the other hand off-campus placements are good for life.

“Remember having practical knowledge about the world is greater than bookish knowledge.”