Voice over ip

Voice over IP is about transmitting voice information across an IP network, for example the Internet. The classical application of VoIP is as a telephone alternative.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a part of the TCP/IP architecture. The protocol itself offers only a best-effort service: packets can be delivered out of order, corrupted, duplicated or not at all. Also, each packet takes a different amount of time to reach its destination. Applications normally do not use IP itself, but the higher level protocols: TCP, which offers a reliable byte stream service, and UDP, which offers a similar service as IP.
The speech signal is transmitted by digitising tiny pieces of it at regular intervals and sending these to the destination where an analogue signal is reconstructed. For good quality communication, the overall delay should be below 200 ms. Delay variance or jitter should be eliminated through buffering. Speech communication is fairly tolerant to lost or corrupted packets.
When the digitised speech signal is left uncompressed, a bandwidth of 64 kbps is needed for telephone quality communication. Various compression techniques can reduce this amount. The most successful among them model how the speech was produced rather than the signal itself. Various compression standards allow interoperability between applications.
To transmit the speech data, TCP is not a good choice: it has a lot of features which are unnecessary for VoIP, but which increase the overall delay. UDP itself is too simple, but we can extend it: this is the way RTP is used in the TCP/IP architecture. The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) provides information for synchronisation, flow and congestion control and identification. To provide some quality of service (QoS) guarantees, resources can be reserved by using RSVP, the Resource Reservation Protocol.
For VoIP in virtual environments, speech data will have to be sent to several destinations. This can be done in an efficient way by using multicasting. When a packet arrives at the receiver, the voice signal is extracted and a 3D effect is added to it, corresponding to the position of the sender. A sound appears to be localised because of interaural differences. These differences can be captured in Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) which can then be used to recreate localised sound.

Self

Self depends on Consciousness, not on Substance. –Self is that conscious thinking thing, -whatever substance made up of, (whether spiritual or material, simple or compounded, it matters not)-which is sensible or conscious of pleasure and pain, capable of happiness or misery, and so is concerned for itself, as far as that consciousness extends. Thus every one finds that, whilst comprehended under that consciousness, the little finger is as much a part of himself as what is most so. Upon separation of this little finger, should this consciousness go along with the little finger, and leave the rest of the body, it is evident the little finger would be the person, the same person; and self then would have nothing to do with the rest of the body. As in this case it is the consciousness that goes along with the substance, when one part is separate from another, which makes the same person, and constitutes this inseparable self: so it is in reference to substances remote in time. That with which the consciousness of this present thinking thing can join itself, makes the same person, and is one self with it, and with nothing else; and so attributes to itself, and owns all the actions of that thing, as its own, as far as that consciousness reaches, and no further; as every one who reflects will perceive.

City Of Ember

City of Ember is a very nice movie which was released in October 2008. The movie is starring Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan. The story line of the movie is quite different from the other usual movies. This is actually a science fiction fantasy film based on the novel by the same name which was released in 2003. The director has made good hard work in picturizing the story to reality. The thrilling sequences was the very highlight of the movie. I suggest you guys to watch the movie soon and enjoy with your family. The movie was distributed by 20th century fox and Walden media.

Made by mind

We have hitherto considered those ideas, in the reception whereof the mind is only passive, which are those simple ones received from sensation and reflection before mentioned, whereof the mind cannot make one to itself, nor have any idea which does not wholly consist of them. But as the mind is wholly passive in the reception of all its simple ideas, so it exerts several acts of its own, whereby out of its simple ideas, as the materials and foundations of the rest, the others are framed. The acts of the mind, where in it exerts its power over its simple ideas, are chiefly these three: (1) Combining several simple ideas into one compound one; and thus all complex idea are made. (2) The second is bringing two ideas, whether simple or complex, together, and setting them by one another, so as to take a view of them at once, without uniting them into one; by which way it gets all its ideas of relations. (3) The third is separating them from all other ideas that accompany them in their real existence: this is called abstraction: and thus all its general idea are made. This shows man’s power, and its ways of operation, to be much the same in the material and intellectual world. For the materials in both being such as he has no power over, either to make or destroy, all that man can do is either to unite them together, or to set them by one another, or wholly separate them. I shall here begin with the first of these in the consideration of complex ideas, and come to the other two in their due places. As simple ideas are observed to exist in several combinations united together, so the mind has a power t consider several of them united together as one idea; and that not only as they are united in external objects, but as itself has joined them together. Ideas thus made up of several simple ones put together, I call complex; -such as are beauty, gratitude, a man, an army, the universe; which, though complicated of various simple ideas, or complex ideas made up of simple ones, yet are, when the mind pleases, considered each by itself, as one entire thing, and signified by one name.

Abstractions in mind

The use of words then being to stand as outward marks of our internal ideas, and those ideas being taken from particular things, if every particular idea that we take in should have a distinct name, names must be endless. To prevent this, the mind makes the particular ideas received from particular objects to become general; which is done by considering them as they are in the mind such appearances,-separate from all other existences, and the circumstances of real existence, as time, place, or any other concomitant ideas. This is called ABSTRACTION, whereby ideas taken from particular beings become general representatives of all of the same kind; and their names general names, applicable to whatever exists conformable to such abstract ideas. Such precise, naked appearances in the mind, without considering how, whence, or with what others they came there, the understanding lays up (with names commonly annexed to them) as the standards to rank real existences into sorts, as they agree with these patterns, and to denominate them accordingly. Thus the same colour being observed to-day in chalk or snow, which the mind yesterday received form milk, it considers that appearance alone, makes it a representative of all of that kind; and having given it the name whiteness, it by that sound signifies the same quality wheresoever to be imagined or met with; and thus universals, whether ideas or terms, are made.

'Chak De India' always rocks!

Chak De India is one of the greatest films of Indian cinema history. It differs from the usual trend in Indian cinema and looked great. It is a great film in other aspect also. In giving up light to hockey which is the national game of India and which is not encouraged by the government too. The power of working in team is portrayed in the movie very clearly and no doubt the movie is screened in many institutions and organizations for making the associates and students. Shah Rukh Khan was brave enough to take the role of the Indian hockey team’s coach without even having a female lead which is a compulsory in Indian cinema. I also recommend you guys to see the movie for getting the feel of patriotism.

Digital image processing

Digital Image Processing is concerned with acquiring and processing of an image. In simple words an image is a representation of a real scene, either in black and white or in color, and either in print form or in a digital form i.e., technically a image is a two-dimensional light intensity function. In other words it is a data intensity values arranged in a two-dimensional form like an array, the required property of an image can be extracted from processing an image. Image is typically by stochastic models. It is represented by AR model. Degradation is represented by MA model.

Other form is orthogonal series expansion. Image processing system is typically non-casual system. Image processing is two dimensional signal processing. Due to linearity Property, we can operate on rows and columns separately. Image processing is vastly being implemented by “Vision Systems” in robotics. Robots are designed, and meant to be controlled by a computer or similar devices. While “Vision Systems” are most sophisticated sensors used in Robotics. They relate the function of a robot to its environment as all other sensors do. “Vision Systems” may be used for a variety of applications, including manufacturing, navigation and surveillance.

Avoid unhealthy foods

An apple a day keeps the doctor away from you. This was told by some one. But it is a true fact indeed. Eating and sleeping are good for health if they are done in a proper and regular basis too. But the biggest illusion is we can live long happily if we eat healthy foods and do exercises. Doing exercises is a different thing. But while it comes to eating it is not that we can stay healthy if we eat healthy foods only. We can be healthy if we avoid unhealthy foods. Fruits and vegetables make humans to live long than they deserve nowadays. Our grand parents would have lived for say 80 or 90 years. But the next generation people cannot live for long. Because, they doesn’t know how to avoid unhealthy foods. So stay healthy by avoiding unhealthy foods.

Memory

The other way of retention is, the power to revive again in our minds those ideas which, after imprinting, have disappeared, or have bee as it were laid aside out of sight. And thus we do, when we conceive heat or light, yellow or sweet, - the object being removed. This is memory, which is as it were the storehouse of our ideas. For, the narrow mind of man not being capable of having many ideas under view and consideration at once, it was necessary to have a repository, to lay up those ideas which, at another time, it might have use of. But, our ideas being nothing but actual perceptions in the mind, which cease to be anything when there is no perception of them; this laying up of our ideas in the repository of the memory signifies no more but this, - that the mind has a power in many cases to revive perceptions which it has once had, with this additional perception annexed to them, that it has had them before. And in this sense it is that our ideas are said to be in our memories, when indeed they are actually nowhere: - but only there is an ability in the mind when it will to revive them again, and as it were paint them anew on itself, though some with more, some with less difficulty; some more lively, and others more obscurely. And thus it is, by the assistance of this faculty, that we are said to have all those ideas in our understandings which, though we do not actually contemplate, yet we can bring in sight, and make appear again, and be the objects of our thoughts, without the help of those sensible qualities which first imprinted them there

Software fault tolerance

Software fault tolerance is a new and emerging field, and their state of the art is primitive. Software faults are quick unlike hardware faults. However software never wares out, so that the faults are can be regarded instead as faults in design.
To provide reliability in the face of software faults, we must use redundancy. This means replicating the same software N times will not work; all N copies will fail for the same inputs. Single version software is already more expensive than the hardware in most large systems; demanding N versions of software for even small N can be very expensive.

There are two approaches to handling multiple versions. N version programming involves running all N versions in parallel and voting on the output. In contrast, the recovery–block approach involves running only one version at any one time. The output of this version is put throw an acceptance test, which checks to see if it is an acceptable range. If it is the output is passed as correct.

The vegetable soup I prepared!

The vegetable soup I prepared. I have a great love towards soups. But my mom never prepares me even a cup of it. So i decided to prepare a vegetable soup myself and I have suceeded in my mission. Yes! To my surprise it was awesome. The procedure for preparing the soup is as follows:



Ingredients:

1. Vegetables like beans, carrot, green peas or any english vegetables you like
2. an onion
3. a tomato
4. spices
5. ginger, garlic

Directions:

• First of all boil the vegetables in some water. Remember dont drain this water because the vitamins and monerals of the vegetables are sustained in the water now.
• Next, take a pan, slightly bigger in size and fry the onions along with the spices with enough of oil in it.Then the add the tomato, ginger and garlic (not as paste). Stir it well until it gets somewhat cooked.
• Now, add enough of water and the vegetables cooked.
• Add salt and pepper and wait till it gets boiled.
• Serve it neatly in a cup as hot.

You know, i prepared around three and half cups and finished it myself since it was so awesome. You also prepare this and serve for your family members. This is healthy with vegetables also.

Micro-controller in medical Science

In the hospitals when any major operation is performed, the patient must be in anesthetized condition. If the operation lasts for a long time, say for suppose for 4 or 5 hours, complete dose of anesthesia cannot be administered in a single stroke. It may lead to the patient’s death. If lower amount of anesthesia is administered, the patient may wakeup at the middle of the operation.
To avoid this, the anesthetist administers few milliliters of anesthesia per hour to the patient. If the anesthetist fails to administer the anesthesia to the patient at the particular time interval, other allied problems may arise.
To overcome such hazardous problems the design of an automatic operation of an anesthesia machine based on a micro-controller is effective. In this system a keypad is provided along with the microcontroller and syringe infusion pump. The anesthetist can set the level of anesthesia in terms of milliliters per hour to administer anesthesia to the patient with the help of keypad.
After receiving the signal from the keypad, the microcontroller controls the signal to the desired level and fed into the stepper motor to drive the infusion pump in proper manner. The anesthesia is administered to the patient according to the stepper motor rotation (the syringe will move forward or backward direction).
This particular paper will be very much useful to physicians to see the current position of anesthesia of the patients. If the level of anesthesia is decreased to lower level (set value), the alarm will be initiated to alert the physician to refill the anesthesia in the Syringe Pump to continue the process.

mobile 'o mobile

Mobile phones are used by literally everyone nowadays. People use mobile phones not only for talking but also as a camera and music players. Although, lot of advantages are there for mobile phones there are many disadvantages. It had been the source of crime in all aspects in the current situation. But one thing is for sure. Because of the development of mobile phone services the number of lovers has been increased a lot! Yes, whenever you walk through a street in a city you can see 60 percentage of the people using their mobile phones and among (almost) 90% of them have cell phones with them.

Drink to die

People in cultured countries say that drinking is a sin and it is against the laws of God. But the fact is in those countries only drinking has been in immense. Most of the people go to bed being drunken only. The fact is half of them are women too. People gradually start drinking wine or beer thinking that they are not harmful or they would not get addicted to those things so easily. They start drinking with lot of faith on them. But the sad part is they fail to implement what they have thought. So be careful and think twice or even thrice before starting to drink. If not later you will feel for it and regret because the effects will be dreadful and drastic.

Dosas... Yummy

Dosa is one of the favorite breakfast and tiffen in India. It is liked by everyone who eats it. A dosa with chutney and sambar sounds like heaven. It is the best tiffen one can have. You can see it from the picture. It is made with rice flour. Many varieties of dosas can be made. It can also be made with wheat flour or suji flour mixed with rice flour. It can also be seasned with fresh vegetables and also fruits. Out of all onion dosas are most famous. Just try it out in any Indian restaurants near your home.

Ideas in the Mind, Qualities in Bodies

To discover the nature of our ideas the better, and to discourse of them intelligibly, it will be convenient to distinguish them as they are ideas or perceptions in our mind; and as they are modifications of matter in the bodies that cause such perceptions in us: that so we may not think (as perhaps usually is done) that they are exactly the images and resemblances of something inherent in the subject; most of those of sensation being in the mind no more the likeness of something existing without us, than the names that stand for them are the likeness of our ideas, which yet upon hearing they are apt to excite in us

perception

PERCEPTION, as it is the first faculty of the mind exercised about our ideas; so it is the first and simplest idea we have from reflections, and is by some called thinking in general. Though thinking, in the propriety of the English tongue, signifies that sort of operation in the mind about its ideas, wherein the mind is active; where it, with some degree of voluntary attention, considers anything. For in bare naked perception, the mind is for the most part, only passive; and what it perceives, it cannot avoid perceiving. No matter what do you think. But the thing which is given above is absolutely true.

A friend

Friends are those who are with us always. No matter you are happy or sad, rich or poor and what not? If you have a good friend near you will never have to afraid or tensed of anything and you will get a boost automatically. But it is also difficult to differentiate good friends from the foxes. Many come behind you for the money or fame or the other good things you have. Once you are able to differentiate them you can easily succeed in life. There were a lot of rightly said proverbs on those days itself like “a friend in need is a friend indeed”.

India's India

Interviewer : "Adam and Eve are from which country ?"
Sardar : "Of course India."
Interviewer : "Why do you think so ?"
Sardar : "They have no clothes, no food, and no shelter and still they say they are in heaven."

The above is the scenario of countries like India. Even it has developed a lot in the recent years it was only to the middle classes and above. But the poor who are in India are still the same. Recently India has been struck with a big financial crisis also. So, proper planning and development should be carried over. It is rich in wealth also. No shortage in man power also. So India can become a developed country in a few years if it is managed and administrated properly.

A new way of congestion control!

Active Queue Management (AQM) algorithm is very important to manage buffers and transfer packets for wired or wireless networks. But the unresponsive flows to the network congestion control are so dangerous to the network equilibrium and Quality of Service (QoS), especially from a point of network resource allocation. In some certain scenarios, the limited network resource (buffers) can be occupied by a unresponsive flow easily, which results in Reduction of Quality (RoQ). A new AQM algorithm- Clue (Compare and Limited Unresponsive flows) is proposed in order to strengthen the robustness of Internet against these unresponsive flows. As a sort of scheduling algorithm, Clue relies on the detection and punishment of unresponsive flows and gets the elastics control of unresponsive flows, which in turn benefit the buffer queue with the high performance. Via the comparison and evaluation experiments, it has been proved that Clue can detect and restrain unresponsive flows more accurately compared to other AQM algorithms.

Stop smoking today...

Cigarettes smoking is relaxation to few people, few say that it is a hobby and many of them are just addicted. People in western countries usually have the habit of smoking because of their climatic conditions and the social situations and conditions of their country. But if you look at the health hazards of smoking it is absolutely unnecessary reduces your days one by one. So be careful and think twice or even thrice before lighting up your next cigarette. Don’t take any time to stop smoking. Because, once you tend to think, that you can reduce smoking you can never stop smoking. You need to stop it completely.

Idly the best breakfast

Indian Rice Cake. It is nothing but the south Indian idly. Prepared with rice flour which is cooked in steam is not bad for health at all and a perfect breakfast in most of the south India. Mostly the side dishes are sambar, chutney etc flavored in south Indian style. Those breakfasts are very very famous and obviously very tasty too! If you are in any part of the world you just have to try the dish and you will just say “mmm… yummy!” for sure! You just have to go to an Indian restaurant especially where south Indian dishes are available and take the break fast.

Effects of Smoking

Effects of Tobacco:

• Nicotine reaches brain in 10 seconds after it is inhaled and it is spreaded to all parts of the human body
• Carbon mono oxide affects the flow of oxygen by affecting the red cells of hemoglobin
• Promotes atherosclerosis (a heart disease) and leads to lung injury

Immediate Effects:

• Blood pressure and heart rate increases
• Decrease blood flow in body extremities like toes and fingers
• Sudden stimulation of nervous system
• Dizziness and vomiting
• Eyes watering constantly
• Hyperacidity
• Loss of appetite

Long term Effects:

• Respiratory infections
• Airways to the lungs gets collapsed
• Heart attacks and other heart diseases
• Stomach alcers

These are some of the effects that are caused by smoking. So the people those who smokes must leave smoking immediately for their and their family's well being. The person who smokes should quit smoking immediately if they have the following symptoms.

• Increased tension
• Cough
• Change in sleep patterns
• Frequent headaches
• Strong carving
• Loss of concentration

Pregnant womenmust compulsorily avoid smoking for avoiding their child in the womb to continue suffering from smoking.

(To be continued-How to quit smoking)

Smoking

Smoking. It is the habit not only men but both women and youngsters got addicted to. Today if you got a chance to see canteen in cinema theatres, shops opposite to offices, work places and mostly educational institutions, universities, colleges and schools you can find a lot of people smoking around. They are killing themselves. Thats it. Even many of my close friends are chain smokers. They find very hard, not to stop smoking but to run their time without smoking. I read somewhere that nearly 100% of the women want to marry men who does’nt smoke. The most astonishing fact in this, is that women who smokes also doesn't want their would-be to smoke. Health-wise it kills the lungs day by day.

Smoking makes people to die soon and that too in middle-ages. This holds good 80% perfect for men. Though there is an instruction in every packet of cigarette that "smoking is injurious to health" people love to have the piece of cigarette in their hands for no reason other than that they are addicted to it.

It is not only kils the person who smokes it but also kills more the person who sits near to the smoker and inhales the smoke. He is a passive smoker and he gets affected more than the one who smokes. I have been a passive smoker for a lot of times and I could do nothing because the active smokers were my dearest ones.

(To be continued-Effects of Smoking)

Where is India going on?

The country with:

• largetst of population irrespective of its size
  
• highest no: of HIV Patients
  
• highest no: of beggars
  
• highest no: of people under poverty line

in the world is our great India!The world bank defines poverty as that a person should have atlease $1(U.S) for his own being per day. If it is so each person in India must earn 365$ per year. Politicians in India say that poverty is eradicated. If it is so, many people in india have their daily wages as Rs 10(about one fourth of an U.S dollar) per day. This amount is required to get the food for avoiding death without poverty. So has the target achieved? What about the minimum needs in education, housing, health services, clothing,and other basic necessities? Are we supposed to live on pavements and sleep under trees from birth till death? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

The only constant thing in life is Change. But here the changes that occur here is only for 5 years. Yes. The government changes every five years. Thats it.If India could provide Roads, Electricity, TV's and Telephones in every village, it would improve, education, health, family planning, agriculture, animal husbandry, GDP and reduce migration from villages to cities.So lets change it!

Campus Interview part-10

9. JUICY EVENTS AT INTERVIEW

For TCS interview I had worn a new shirt and had fixed a new pen in my shirt pocket. The first technical question, ‘write 8085 program to sort 10 numbers…’ the interviewer was explaining. Mean while I tried to take out my pen from my pocket but the new pen was so tight that it was not coming out at all. I pulled, pulled and pulled for around one minute, but the pen was stuck their like a virus. The other interviewer was enjoying the scene. Ultimately I asked ‘Sir can I have your pen?’
“You should”, came the reply.
With such a situation, who can come out successful?
In L&T ‘C’ test, one of my friends solved a ‘C’ program and wrote the output as 200 unfortunately, which was the right answer. But he saw a ‘C’ punter in front of him, who had written 105 as the output for the same program. So he stroke off 200 and wrote 105 beside it.
In the interview, interviewer took his ‘C’ answer sheet and asked ‘how did you get 105 after getting 200?
“Sir, later I thought the answer might be 105 so I changed it to 105”.
“Can you explain how did you get 105 with the given program?”
The candidate was bewildered, he replied
“Sir….. No sir……I……….actually guessed it”
“Why did you guess 105 only?”
“Sir…… because ………105 is my lucky number”
And rest is the history.

One candidate went to CTS interview; of course he was a Kannadiga. His was the last interview of the day. The interviewer asked, “Who is the CM of Karnataka?”
The candidate replied with great confidence, “Sir, K. M. Krishnamurthy”.
Ultimately he was selected. By the way K. M. Krishnamurthy was his project batch mate
By the end of 2002 I was so obsessed with the film ‘Devdas’ that I had watched it 10 times. In MindTree interview I mimicked “Shahrukh” as Devdas. I had remembered all his dialogues. Interviewers felt really happy and said they never had experienced such an entertainment at interviews. That was my best interview.
In some interview, a guy called “Ehtisham” showed different Karate skills in front of the interviewers. [They didn’t take him because they feared one day he might kick them too].
6) For a software company, 9 from our class were short listed for the Ist interview. For 8 of us they asked which programming languages we knew. We said we didn’t know anything except ‘C’. But one guy said he knew many languages and smashed every question that came his way. Unfortunately that guy was rejected. We all were short listed for the next interview. Finally 5 of us were selected for the company.

Campus Interview part-9

7. RESULTS
7.1 CELEBRATION
Selected!! Wow that’s nice. Celebrations are totally left to you. But I suggest, if you want to party and have fun, do it on the same night as after couple of days you lose the josh of your success. After you get selected I swear, you won’t get sleep in next couple of nights. So ultimately everything has to be fought and earned. Believe in yourself, not in luck. Luck never made a mad man wise.
7.2 NOT SELECTED
Earlier I used to laugh the phrase “failures are stepping stones”, but now I think that failures are building blocks of your personality that make you stronger every time you fail.
So you have failed irrespective of your efforts and endeavours; no problem. You can say to yourself ‘this was not my company, there are hundred more good companies and I will get into a better one’. I know how bitter the disappointment is, but life does not stop. The show must go on and on. This day you have not lost anything but gained something. You have gained experience, which makes you handle pressure in a better manner next time. You have got to interact with few people and got to know your shortcomings, on which you can always work and improve yourself. Yeah, I know how difficult it is to take these things positively. When I had failed in my first four interviews, I was so much disappointed that when one of my friends asked “Hey still you have not been selected? This time I wish you will be selected”. I had replied sarcastically “I am ready to face hundred interviews”. That day I came and watched the film ‘Kabhi Han and Kabhi Na’ which changed my way of thinking. In the film the character Suneel is a normal guy with ambitions and the desire to get his girl. To succeed or to get what he wants he tries in every way, he even lies here and there but does not succeed. But he does not feel guilty or disappointed at all. He keeps telling his parents that one day he will become a successful person. He tries again, but fails. He is restless; he looks more fresh and optimistic every time he tries. Ultimately he loses his love for whom he had yearned several years. But even then he smiles and hopes he will succeed some day. Kundan Shah has directed the movie very much realistically.
This movie inspired me so much so that when I failed afterwards I never felt the disappointment. Again next time with a smile on the face and hope in my eyes I went for the interview. So I strongly recommend you to watch KHKN which is the story of optimism.
You can look back what were the areas in which you didn’t perform well. Sit and work on those areas. And again with new hope and a fresh look apply for the next company. You may fail hundred times, but one day will surely be yours and that day you will feel like you have conquered the world. Feeling dejected makes you miss your moments. Good moments don’t come often in our life; one should live every moment that comes his way. Say yesterday, you had failed and today you have your brother’s wedding. If you are dejected, nervous and don’t enjoy the occasion and after couple of days if you get a better job, you will repent throughout your life that you could have enjoyed your brother’s wedding.
‘When a door is closed for us, we tend to look at the closed door for so long that we never observe the other opened doors’. When I had failed in Infosys I was so disappointed for weeks that I never realized when the companies, TCS, CTS, L&T came and went away. So please don’t get carried away with your failures. One more thing, always stay focussed on one particular thing. Say you have five call letters, please never ever think that you have so many calls and you can get into one or the other. Otherwise you will land up nowhere. Hence aim only the interview, you have right ahead and just do it.
There is nothing called success because success is purely virtual and has no boundaries. So always commit to CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvement), then what ever they call success, money, fame will all be yours.
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8. ATTITUDE

Company HR managers are psychologists. They can gauge the personality of the candidates by evaluating the answers given by them. So even by preparing perfect answers and bluffing perfectly you can’t prove yourself to be a person with solid attitude. Short term preparation doesn’t help this out. So if you start now you will find the difference after few years.
So basically what should you do to get the job? You should impress the interviewers. You can do it by giving brilliant technical answers, knowing, explaining and appreciating company’s performance or business plans (for this you should be knowing what’s happening in the industry), telling your achievements, delivering emotional dialogues or portraying your personality which improves them.
Changing our personality fully is difficult as few aspects are innate in us, which are unchangeable, but we can develop good attitude by commitment and practice. What’s actually attitude? It is the conception and the way with which we look at the things around us, people around us and behave or lead our life accordingly.
I was too much of philosophical when I was in 2nd semester. I did lot of soul searching and set certain values for myself. Most of the time I followed them and it really paid off. The advantages that I got were, I never experienced mental stress and never had personal problems with anybody. The main advantage was that I enjoyed every moment that came my way and at the end of the day I am not complaining; I am happy.
So let me list few tips that can help you. Even if you refer some personality books(I have heard Shiv Khera’s book ‘You can win’ is mind-blowing), you will find these things in some or the other way.
Enthusiasm: - A man without enthusiasm is like an animal. Enthusiasm is the urge or curiosity to know, learn, do and experience new things and moments. With this one can lead a thrilling life, without which the life becomes just a routine like a machine. So this is the age, when your blood should rush to make you energetic to do (Positive) what you can.
Angry young man: - Never get angry. If some body makes you angry, just laugh at them, laugh at the situation. Think that you are the master of the moment and you just don’t get out of control. In anger, if you shout at others or beat them, ultimately you have to repent about what you have said or done. Moreover by shouting or beating you are not changing anybody. So never lose your temper, let whatever happens: being cool and patient is an asset.
Laugh at yourself: - If you can’t laugh at others, somebody will laugh at both them and you. Life is to enjoy, and laughter is its tool. When you laugh at others it’s OK, but the problem comes only when others laugh at you; you feel humiliated and tend to become short tempered. Instead one can learn to laugh at oneself. This avoids ego problems, makes you more social and down to earth person. So there is no use in thinking yourself as a great personality and behaving like a king because people always like modest individuals.
Criticise: - Don’t criticise anybody. By doing that again you are not changing him to a good person. Criticism only spoils your personality. You won’t get anything if you comment on others.
Weak minds talk about people,
Average minds talk about events.
Strong minds talk about ideas.
Learn: - Have the hunger to learn the things you don’t know. Let it be technical knowledge, general knowledge, etiquettes etc. So learn the things eagerly and sincerely. Everyday you should feel you are improving.
Groupism: - Even if you wish, you can’t work alone after you get the job. So those who like loneliness and are reserved; open yourself and make friends. Meet new people and share your views and knowledge. By this you can learn effective communication and develop leadership qualities. For leadership skills you can opt to become the captain in the cricket field and see how best you can manage the players. You can organize competitive events and try to lead in your project groups.
Optimism: - Even if you are at dire straits, hope for the best. Even if you are dying hope that you would live. This what makes life sweater. Always believe you can bounce back and win. Never give up.
Whatever you do you should not disturb, hurt or harm others. Being selfish doesn’t make you happy; making others happy makes you happy. Hence, always work for the welfare of the society.
Still there are hundreds of aspects that can make your personality a rock solid. In this regard you can refer the personality development books.
Your personality is measured not by your words but by your thoughts and behavior. So over the time anybody can develop ‘positive attitude’, if they are serious about it. With proper workout even a ‘khajoor’ (stupid) can become a dignified person.

Campus Interview part-8

6. HR INTERVIEW

Going into HR interview, you can be relaxed and feel free. But for few candidates HR section seems difficult. Usually HR interviewer will be a lady, so don’t get distracted. Just concentrate on her questions and your answers. This is very crucial stage of your life; if you stay focussed and perform well you will enjoy your future. There are many questions that HR managers from different companies ask. Let me list some of the questions and answers in a format, which I think, can be better ones. There can be hundreds of good answers, which can be given, based on your views, thoughts, personality, goals, expectations and finally the mood.
How was the written test?
à Sir, it was easy. I think I did well.
Tell me about yourself?
à Well, I was born in Dehradun. My father is Canara Bank Manager and mother is a housewife. I did my primary education in Royal Convent. My father was transferred to Banglore, when I was 14. I joined Kendriya Vidyalaya. I scored well in 10th with 95% aggregate for which I got CBSE scholarship. I did my 12th in the same school with 90% aggregate. When I was in 12th, I had participated in national level science exhibition held at Hydrabad. I wrote CET and secured 729 rank, even though I had got medical seat I took B.E. (Mechanical) in NIE …………. .
[In between they may ask questions about the scholarship you got and the exhibition you participated.]
Why did you leave medical seat?
à Right from my 10th standard I was interested in maths and I really didn’t enjoy biology labs. I wanted to learn the technology and do something in the technical field. So I opted engineering.
O.K. After scoring good marks at PU why did you score less in engineering?
à Sir, in PU we had 5-6 subjects to be studied in 14 months. But in engineering we have four-month semester and we need to study 8 subjects per semester. Moreover the labs are like lottery. If no output, then fail. So there is luck factor playing its part in engineering. Yes, I think I could have studied still well and could have performed still better.
Why do you want to work in a software company?
à When I took the seat in mechanical I didn’t know about software. But afterwards I thought, I better could have taken computer science branch because software is the fastest growing industry where one can build his career faster. Moreover I am flexible and efficient which make me suitable for learning the changing technologies faster and give my best.
[For mechanical or electronics companies]
à Sir, I wanted to study some core, solid field of engineering, so I chose the evergreen branch, Mechanical. After studying the technical concepts for 4 years, now I want to see how these subjects are applied in the industry. So I want to work in the field that I have studied and give my best to the company I am working in.
Why do you want to join our company?
à I have realized that software is the field where I can make a point. So basically I want to join a software firm like yours that works globally on cutting edge technologies and expose its employees to all the fields, which help the employees to excel.
[If the company is small like IVEGA, ONMOBILE, ITTIUM etc.]
sir, since your company is small, it can give every attention to each of your employees so that one gets to know all the things that’s happening in the company unlike some big firms like INFOSYS where some group is given some task and they are not allowed to see what’s happening on the other side. So one can grow faster in a smaller company like yours. So I prefer to work in your company.
[If the company is big like INFOSYS, TCS etc]
Sir, it makes me proud that there are few Indian companies which are global leaders today. The phenomenal growth of your company in last couple of years only speaks volume about your company. Yours is a SEI CMM level-5 company that gives its employees not only a challenging career, but also a rich work culture and rich values. I just want to be a part of that.
What do you expect from the company?
à Freedom! The company should give its employees the freedom of thoughts, ideas and proposals so that one is not restricted to something. One should be allowed to share his views on the things going on in the company so that both the employees and the company get benefited. By this the company can spot the areas in which an employee is good at and can extract good results by making him work on that area.
[Or you can say]
The company should encourage those who perform well and provide growth opportunities. It also can work on strengthening the employee relationship. I think a company should be like a family.
What are your strengths or why should we hire you only?
[You can say your strength with respect to the company but there are 4 things that a company usually expects from you. They are hard work, efficiency, flexibility and teamwork]
à I am efficient and flexible. I can learn faster and deliver faster which is required in software industry.
[You can say you are enthusiastic, creative, confident, have leadership qualities, communication skills, organisation skills, good memory etc, but support your answers with relevant examples. Here don’t try to bluff, if you want to bluff do it intelligently with proper expressions and emotions. For that you need to be an actor. You will win only when you out think your opponent. Out thinking is to know what the opponent is thinking and thinking beyond him. Wasim Akram had the ability to out think the batsmen and take them out with his variations. Sachin outthinks not only the bowler but even the opposite captain by improvising his shots. Vishwanathan Anand has to do the same thing.
In an interview you need not defeat the interviewers but anticipate what they are expecting, what they are thinking about you and accordingly deliver the goods based on you and your preparation. It’s not as complex as it looks. Believe me.]
What weakness do you have?
à Well, I think I underestimate myself at times. (Or) I need to still improve in my communication skills. I am working on that. At times, I act carelessly, so I try to motivate myself always.
[Don’t tell too many weaknesses, one or two are enough. Also mention the ways to overcome your weaknesses]

What really motivates you?
à [Say who really motivates you]
The achievements and sacrifice of all the great people in all the fields motivates me to do best in my field. The sheer thought of excelling in technical field and becoming a recognized individual in the industry motivates me.
[or]
The way my parents are struggling to educate me and their hope & blessings motivates me (or) Bill Gate motivates me (or) I am self-motivated.

Who is your role model?
[You can say anybody but you should know what you like about him or her]
[I had said]
My role models are Sachin and Shahrukh Khan, because apart from their talent they worked hard and dedicated themselves to their field and rose to stardom right from the scratch. I mean to say, they justified their talents to the full extent. I like their consistency [You can say Bill Gate, Narayan Murthy, Sports persons. Your Father, Scientist, politician or anybody. By the way many say, east or west ‘Vivekananda’ is best]
Your Hobbies?
[They see your resume or bio data and ask about whatever is written there. So prepare well thought resume. About hobbies say some quality hobbies (of course you should cultivate them) like writing articles, quizzing, organizing tournaments or competitions, knowing new cars, meeting new peoples and places, singing, sports, etc.
Eighty percent of students write, ‘reading books and playing cricket’. Please avoid these two options as they have become default and moreover interviewers will be fed up seeing same hobbies again and again. So don’t put up something that makes interviewers boring and lose interest in you. You need to out think and present yourself as an interesting, curious, fresh and raring to go kind of candidate.
What are your future goals?
Right now I want to get into a good software/hardware/mechanical company like yours, stick to the company forever and grow along with the company.
O.K. What about your higher studies?
à Sir, after my engineering I just want to get into the industry, see how it works and how I work in it. So I am not opting for higher studies at this stage. And also, as I am from a middle class family my parents can’t afford for my higher studies.
Are you comfortable with our two-year agreement?
à Yes sir, I am pretty comfortable with that.
Like this some companies may pour hundreds of questions. So don’t be impatient, show them that you have temperament and patience to work hard. Be modest and down to earth. Some companies may ask just a couple of HR questions, you should know earlier itself what you are going to speak. The people who can speak well without preparation are very very rare.
Interviewers may ask some unexpected complex questions like:
Consider yourself as C. E. O., what do you do for growth of the company?
How can you improve employee relationships in the company?
What can you do to avoid sexual harassment in the company?
You said you are innovative; you better suit to join a product company rather than our services company.
You being weak in communicating skills do you expect you will get the job?
Take a breath, take your time to think and answer in a positive and optimistic way. Don’t leave hope or surrender at any stage.
Companies ask whether you have friends and enjoy their company. This is to test whether you can work in a team. So always say you have pretty good number of friends and you enjoy their company. Never ever agree to work alone.
I forgot to tell one thing, about imaging again. The day prior to the interview you sit alone and rehearse the interview. It’s like taking your interview by yourself. Ask HR questions to yourself and answer them loudly as you do in an interview. You can anticipate even technical questions and rehearse. This technique is very, very effective. Don’t think that you are the only one who has to do this; even ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ rehearses before acting.
By the end of the interview you will get the clue whether you stand the chance or not. Even if you don’t have hope don’t leave the centre, wait till the results are announced.

Campus Interview part-7

INTERVIEW- TECHNICAL
Usually there are two interviews, one technical and a HR (human resources) . At this stage you are totally prepared and are confident. Let’s see how to fare in the interview.
Dress neatly for the interview, preferably a light shirt with dark pants and dark shoes. You can wear a matching tie. Shave yourself cleanly, take a bath, comb your hair neatly and use a mild deodorant. Keep all your certificates, marks cards and resume in a file and carry your project reports to the interview.
At the interview centre meet the guys who have finished their interview, and ask them what they were asked in the interview. Around 50% of the technical questions that were asked to them will be asked to you. So get to know the answers of those questions.
Enter the interview room with a smile saying ‘may I come in sir?’ go near the chair and shake hands with the interviewer firmly. Generally oldies don’t shake hand and young interviewers prefer doing it. Sit only after they ask you to sit. Sit straight leaning backwards with legs open (don’t cross them). Give a fresh, eager, alert smiling look. Technical interviewers may not ask HR questions, but to start with, they may ask ‘ tell about yourself’, you can tell about yourself in brief (not literally). This will be dealt in HR section. Then they may ask ‘what are your favourite subjects?’ Name at least 2 to3 subjects which you have studied in depth. The questions asked will only be on basics of these subjects. They will surely ask questions about the projects you have done and electives you have mentioned in your bio-data.
The generally asked technical questions are:
Electronics and Communication
Analog circuits
What is semiconductor diode?
How does zener diode work as a voltage regulator?
Explain transfer characteristics of transistor.
How does a rectifier (usually bridged), RC coupled amplifier, oscillator work.
Digital fundamentals
How to realize XOR gate using NAND gates
Half adder, full adder, combinational logic.
Sequential logic, flip flops, RS flip flop, synchronous and asynchronous counters.
Signals - op -amps
what is signal?, convolution, Fourier series etc
opamp, applications, filters, timers etc
Microprocessors
architecture of 8085, 8086 and microcontrollers
functions of pins, interrupts, instructions, interfacing
programming simple programs
Communication
What is AM, FM, multiplexing, TDM, FDM, receivers,
What is PCM, sampling theorem, digital modulation techniques, vocoders, mobile communication (CDMA & GSM).

Computer Science & Engineering
( Example FAQ in interviews)

C, Data structures, C++ & OOPS:

What is dequeue, priority queue, Dangling pointer etc.
Differentiate between Calloc & Malloc, structures & unions, *p++ & ++*p etc
What are: Polymorphism, virtual functions, encapsulation, data hiding etc
Do virtual constructors & destructors exist?
What is the memory used by an integer pointer, float pointer etc.
What are: binary tree, strictly binary tree, completely binary tree, almost complete binary tree, threaded binary tree, etc.
Conversion of expression from infix to postfix & to prefix
Evaluation of postfix and prefix expressions
Given inorder & preorder traversal or inorder & postorder traversal of a tree, build a tree.
Why prototypes are used?
What are inline functions and scope resolution
What are pre-processors? What is their use?
Which is efficient sorting algorithm? Why?

Note: In most of the cases small program code is given & output is asked or to identify the error in it.

Operating Systems:

What is virtual memory? Differentiate between logical & physical memory
What are: demand paging, pure demand paging, page fault, page replacement, page replacement algorithms (LRU, Opt. FCFS etc), thrashing, paging, segmentation, external & internal fragmentation etc
Which technique does DOS (& UNIX) use? (Paging or Segmentation or both….)
What are scheduling algorithms? (FCFS, SJF, RR,…) [IBM]
Why you prefer SJF? Does it have any limitation?(ans: Starvation of longer processes) How do you over come it?( one solution is: by using priority queue with SJF)
What are semaphores and monitors?
What is critical section problem?
What is a process, BCP (Program Control Block)?
What is turnaround time, Throughput [IBM]?
What do you optimize using scheduling algorithms SJF, RR etc?
What is real time operating system, time sharing system, batch processing multiprogramming?
Differentiate Between multitasking and time-sharing system?
What is dead lock? Necessary condition
File accessing technique (direct, sequential)
File allocating techniques (contiguous, linked, indexed)
Free space management (rarely asked)
Head movement algorithms (FCFS, SHORTEST DISTANCE FIRST, SCAN,
C-SCAN, LOOK, C-LOOK etc)

Note: These questions on OS are asked only if you tell OS as your favourite subject.

DBMS:
What is normalization? Why is it needed?
What are insertion, deletion, & modification anomalies?
What is first, second, or third normal forms?
Do you implement it in your project, how explain with example?
What is super key, a key, candidate key, primary key or minimal super key etc?
What is entity integrity, referential integrity etc?

SYETEM SOFTWARE: (rarely asked)
What is an interpreter, differentiate between compiler and interpreter? (MIND TREE)
What are assembler, linker, loader, and dynamic linker?
What are Yacc, Parsing techniques, LR, LL, LALR grammars?



UNIX: (rarely asked)
Expand UNIX, who developed it, when & where?
What is file structure used in UNIX? [IBM]
Differentiate between UNIX & LINUX?
Some commands may be asked.


JAVA & NETWORKING: (Rarely asked)
What is the significant feature of JAVA? (ANS: JVM JAVA virtual machine)
Difference between package, interface, classes etc?
Difference between interfaces & abstract classes?
What is class A, class B, class C, class D addresses? (CIP)
OSI & TCP (IP layer and their function may be asked)
What is routing?
Difference between routes, bridges, & gateways?
What is firewall?
Difference between UDP & TCP?
What is subnet?


Note: question on SS, UNIX, JAVA, NETWORKS, OOPS, C++ are asked only in the pure software companies or big MNC’s or dream companies or if you say it as your favourite subject.






Mechanical related Questions
1) Orthographic views
2) Difference between I and III projection.
3) Difference between Otto cycles and Diesel cycles.
4) What are principal stress and compound stress?
5) State 0th, 1st, 2nd law of thermodynamics.
6) Explain Alumino thermite process.
7) Different types of welding and machining
8) Explain the importance of laser in modern mechanical field.
9) Applications of mechatronics.
[ I feel sorry; I couldn’t add questions from electrical, IT, civil, environmental etc. branches as minorities are always sidelined.
These questions just look simple. They may grill you if your answers don’t look confident or if you try to bluff. If you don’t know, you can say ‘sir we don’t have that in our syllabus’ or ‘sir I am not remembering it’ or ‘I don’t know sir’.
Maintain eye contact with the one you are speaking. While you are speaking give intermediate looks to the other interviewer. When they ask about projects you can spent more time on them, as you will be more comfortable with the projects you have done.
Non-CS students who apply for software companies, should say, they at least know one programming language, generally C; and should be prepared to face questions like what are strings, pointers, header files or simple ‘for loop’ usage programs.
Some software companies ask puzzles in their interview. This is the most challenging job to many people. There are chances that if they solve one or two asked puzzles they may get selected, other wise may get rejected. I have seen many good students struggling with puzzles, with tense and frightened look at the interviewers. Usually the puzzles asked will be simple. So be cool, take the paper and write down the figure representation of the puzzle and analyse it by fully focussing on it. Just forget that in front of you two (or more) enemies are sitting. Many students falter at this stage. One JC student who answered every question fired at him at Satyam interview was finally asked a puzzle.


How do you divide this figure into 7 equal parts?

The boy got tensed, struggled and gave up. He was rejected for not using common sense. By the way the answer was:




So don’t panic, be cool and feel confident. Yes, here a bit of luck is counted.
Speak clearly and convince your answers to them. Don’t rush at your answers and end up stammering, getting confused. Speak slowly and steadily; such are the guys who impress more. Smile in between (if you don’t know the answer) and don’t make too many hand movements. Don’t use complex terminology, which you don’t know. (Practicing mock interviews really helps a lot).
The technical interview may last for 15 to 45 minutes. With good preparation many people find technical interview easy.
If you do technical badly, then there is 90% chance of your rejection, if it was average, then one can do well in HR and get selected.

Campus Interview part-6

GROUP DISCUSSION


Group discussion is once again a filtering process. Here the communication ability and the ideas of a candidate are evaluated.
A topic is given and 8 to 10 of you are allowed to speak on the subject for around 10 minutes. The topic of the GD is generic (simple). It may range from cricket to software industry, to Indian culture, to the future of humanity to anything, but it will be simpler. So one needs to have some kind of general awareness and needs to update with current affairs.
Now how do you face it?
* Usually the topic is debatable, so one needs to quickly decide whether you are far or against the given topic. I suggest, try to be different in your choice the group. You are given some 2 minutes time to make points about the subject.
* If you initiate, you will get the advantage, but don’t initiate without ideas. It’s better to speak after two to three have spoken.
* Be cool and look fresh.
* Don’t look at the judges
* Speak clearly and loudly facing all. Try to anchor the group, not dominate it.
* Clearly explain your ideas with few weighted words. Don’t speak too much of nonsense.
* Don’t murmur or stammer.
* Don’t criticise others.
* Always look at the person who is speaking and nod your head so that judges will see that you are listening.
* If somebody is speaking more, you can say ‘you have spoken enough, let’s give chance to this person’ or ‘I agree with him’ or ‘you are going out of topic, let’s stick to the topic’
* Speak around 2-3 times. I mean don’t speak just once for 2 long minutes and keep quite for rest of the time, so try to speak in bursts. If somebody is listening to the discussion from outside, he should see that you are alive inside.
* Try to conclude yourself (if they ask to)
One can practice mock GD with his friends to become familiarise with it. Actually Mandira Bedi’s group, ‘Extra Innings’ on Sony max on world cup 2003, had inspired me.

Campus Interview part-5

3. WRITTEN TEST----TACTICS

My first written test was for Talisma. I was not shot listed. Afterwards I regret it because in interview they asked only puzzles (my favourite area) and the salary was 37k. Do you know why I did not clear the test? Because I had not carried my watch. Yes, you require a watch to manage the time. Sometimes you need to be as fast as a humming bird.
Based on my experience I have written some tactics to crack the written test. You can follow your own methods also.
If you have sufficient enough time, then you can start from the 1st question and go till last. The problem arises only when the questions are more & time is less. It’s like providing voice, data & multimedia through a narrow band.
After getting the paper it’s better to attend that section which looks easy to you. Many go for quantitative aptitude (numerical) questions. You can go for verbal at any time, but don’t spend much time on verbal because here you may have to guess a lot.
If there is -ve marking don’t guess the answers. You can guess when there is 50% chance. But I suggest don’t guess. If no -ve marks are there, tick all the questions. But beware, “some companies look at number of wrong answers too.


3.1 QUANTITATIVE


i) Here leave the tougher questions and move further.

ii) Manage your time. Often look at the watch.
In PHOENIX written test, 100 questions were to be answered in 30 minutes. So each question was to be answered in 20 seconds. It so happened that the first 10 questions were lengthy (4-5 lines long) and hence took more time for reading them. I realized it sooner and skipped the lengthy questions. I moved further where there were single line easy questions. I finished them all & then came back to the lengthy ones at the end, so I ended up answering 90-95 questions, but many people who started with initial lengthy questions, took much time and ended up answering just 70-80 questions.
Hence plane your time properly.

iii) Representation with figures

As you read a problem or puzzle, you represent it with figures so that your brain can easily retain the problem for long time which makes you solve the problem quicker with faster analysis, for ex: let the question start like this, ‘A&B are couples. C is their son, D is C’s son and E is D’s wife. You can draw like




Or if the question is, A is older than E, E is older than C, D is of same age as A and so on. Then you can draw
A = D > E > C
This representation makes you to compare or analyse the questions asked and answer fastly.
If they say a train of length ‘l’ and tunnel of length ‘L’, then immediately draw a rectangular tunnel and a rectangular train with horizontal intercepts as bogies; indicate the length as ‘L’.

iv) After reading the question and after drawing their figure representations (not for all) subsequently, write down the related formula even if it is as simple as
Speed = d / time

v) If there is speed-distance problem, I suggest solving it at the end. Most of the time such questions eat up your precious time.

vi) No company allows usage of calculators in the written test. Then how do you operate with fractions, say how do you calculate 29.11 x 41.24?
If you start doing it digit by digit, you will never dream of finishing the paper.
Here you can use some mental techniques, like instead of multiplying the fractions, it is better to approximate them to nearest integers. 29.11 can be increased to 30 and 41.24 can be reduced to 40. You should see that the amount that is increased in one number should be proportional to the value that is reduced in the other number. Then you get 30 x 40 = 120, as 29.11 x 41.24 = 120.04964
So you almost got the answer! If the options are 115, 120, 125, 135, you can tick for 120, while approximating even if you get around 118.5, you can tick 120.
If there is something like 41/7.2 then you can approximate 7.2 to 7 & correspondingly reduce the numerator to, say 40.
Then you get 40/7 = 5.71 as 41/7.2 = 5.694: the approximation became almost accurate.
You can master this technique when you practice this extensively. This saves your time like anything.

vii) Use your common sense. If in a problem the height of a mountain is to be calculated and you get the answer as 15 km, you can straight away reject the answer because the highest peak in the world is only 9 km high. Then you can recalculate the problem.
When I was writing for Ivega in a question about averages, they gave the ages of children, their average age etc and asked the age of the father. I calculated fast and got it as 7 years, which was ridiculous. I laughed at myself and solved it again. I got 35 years.

viii) You should always have an eye on the options. If there are ridiculous answers, you can reject them and easily near the right answers.

ix) Many students start solving a problem. They struggle, struggle and don’t get the answer, then decide to leave the question and go for the next one. Thus they lose 5 to 10 minutes easily. To avoid this one should anticipate the time a problem may consume. If you think some problem may consume more time, you skip it. It can always be answered at the end. Again this anticipation comes by practice.

3.2 VERBAL
In verbal, you should always have a look at the options. If they ask the antonym of ‘beautiful’ and say you don’t know the meaning of it. You can look at the options that may read
Ugly
Smart
Handsome
Good looking
In the given options, if you know that choices 2, 3 and 4 mean same thing, then you can blindly go for the first one.




3.3 PUZZLES

Solving puzzles doesn’t come naturally to all. There is no particular rule to solve the puzzles, but there is an approach which can be mastered only by solving numerous puzzles. For the inexperienced ones, I suggest just three things to do while solving a puzzle i.e., just concentrate, concentrate and concentrate. If you don’t understand, read the puzzle three to four times and focus on it. Here you may lose your time in the trade off.

Campus Interview part-4

2. ONE DAY PRIOR TO INTERVIEW


This day you should keep everything ready. Your clothes, (shirt preferably plain and light, should be washed and pressed.), a pair of dark shoes, the file containing all your certificates, project reports, pen, tie etc.
These all things should be kept ready even though if you are doubtful of clearing written test because many a times, I have run around like a dog in search of clothes, files, etc and because of this thing I even was late to Infosys interview.

2.1 IMAGING

Imaging is the most important philosophical aspect for any success. Let me explain imaging with an example.
Do you think whenever Sachin scores a century it is only due to his game on the field? No! There is something which is responsible for it which is off the field.
One day prior to the match Sachin imagines, sitting alone. He imagines: “Tomorrow I get up at 6 ‘O Clock. I will warm myself up for an hour, have break fast, take out my kit and go to the ground at 9 ‘O Clock. At 9:30 Saurav will go for toss, he wins it and selects fielding. I will stand at covers and field every ball that comes to me. Zaheer and Srinalth ball tidy spells. I will take a flying catch, etc. In spite of that, Ponting scores 140 runs, and the team score 359 runs.
“I will open our batting. Initially I will take singles. Then I will charge McGrath. I score 50 in 15 overs. I will never go for paddle sweep, as there will be bounce for spinners. I will play aggressively. We will win and I will get man of the match award”
Then next day Sachin will just repeat his images. This is called imaging techniques. Every successful person uses this. If you use this technique your confidence grows exponentially.
So before you go to bed, lie down and start imaging in your mind. You go to the place, write test well, get short listed, give interview well, results announced, you are selected.
More the depth you imagine more the success rate grows.
I also recommend you to pray and ask the God to make you successful. Please sleep for at least 6 hours.


2.2 THE D-DAY

Get up early & scan the news headlines, which may be asked in the interview. Don’t take tension, be calm and move around a bit quicker than usual. Wish everybody, talk louder and laugh heartily. It should seem to others that you have taken the interview so easily & lightly. But inside you should be composed, confident, fresh, alert and raring to go. Just keep saying to yourself “yes I gonna call it a day today”.
Reach the centre for written test half an hour earlier.

Campus Interview part-2

1.1 APTITUDE

This is the first and most important step in climbing the success ladder. What’s aptitude? It’s ones ability to…, to…, leave it, I am not getting the definition. But let me tell you, aptitude is nothing but the combination of your basics, brain power, knowledge, commonsense, speed, accuracy, intelligent guessing, anticipation, decision-making and above all the positive approach. Aptitude test is like a 100 metre sprint with the lane width of just 6 inches. Overall, aptitude is your logic. Sometimes it is difficult and sometimes easy (Kabhi Kashi Kabhie Rome).
Some have aptitude by birth (they are natural puzzle solvers). They can easily catch up how to solve numericals and analytical problems. They need to identify themselves and polish their approach. Others have to work like dogs.
It took interest in puzzles when I was in 8th standard. That made me learn maths basics well. Maths Olympiad training and exam made me go for puzzles with mathematical approach. My craze for puzzles continued to PU and till B.E. In 1st semester I became the member of mathemagic magazine, which publishes varieties of puzzles from literature to numericals to chess puzzles etc. I seriously involved in solving them and sending answers to the editor. It was only in the second year that I heard that there is a company Infosys that asks only puzzles to recruit its employees. My happiness knew no bounds [patient keliddu mosaru anna, doctor heliddoo mosaru anna].
I wrote the aptitude test for over 15 companies and I don’t know the disappointment of not getting short-listed after the written test. Frankly speaking I never prepared for aptitude tests. That’s why I was seen playing cricket throughout my engineering. So I request you, not to look at me and decide that written tests are nothing. I had a friend who had 78% of aggregate and was good at everything but couldn’t clear written test for 15 companies. At last he cleared somehow and further path was easy for him to sail through. Let me tell you how you could improve your aptitude.
First & second year students can go for puzzles. Buy puzzle books like Shakuntala Devi, George Summers, Narula etc. and try to solve them. If you don’t get the answer, then see carefully the way the puzzle has been solved in the book. If you solve some 200 and odd puzzles then you imbibe the approach to solve any puzzle. This improves your analytical ability. Then you can switch over to numerals. Many companies ask verbal questions, for that you need not mug up the dictionary or thesaurus. You can read different books, novels, and magazines and learn words steadily.
For final year student going for puzzles is optional. It’s better to go for quantitative aptitude book. Agarwal is the best one. Read the solved problems and once you understand them, solve the unsolved ones. For verbal, comprehension and analytical questions you can go for Barron’s GRE or any other good book.
This preparation for aptitude is must for any engineer appearing the written test for almost any company.
The two things that make you succeed in the interview are preparation and confidence.
Preparation + Confidence = Success ---------------------- (1)
After good preparation confidence comes automatically which makes you perform well. So confidence ~ Preparation
So from--- (1)
Preparation + Preparation = Success
è Preparation = Success
2
This implies that if you prepare well, you are already half succeeded.
This was the mistake that I repeated several times. I didn’t prepare well for the interview,( esp. technical skills ) and thought that somehow by luck I might get into but by the time I realized that there is nothing called luck, I had carried my file nearly a deca-times.
After preparation how to smash written test will be dealt later.
Those who intend to copy in the written test should be careful, as some companies ask you to explain how you arrived at the answer, especially puzzles.



1.2 COMMUNICATION SKILLS

In campus interviews, there are many people who don’t know much of technical stuff, but by clearing the written, somehow they get into the company by campus interview. It is because they speak great English. I don’t think it’s much different in walk-in interviews. Having good communication skills is an art, which can be mastered by any one. The efficient and flexible person learns it faster. The English you speak should be error free, fluent and clear. It need not be fast. You should be able to convey yourself well before the interviewer.
I know speaking good English is a problem for many engineering guys; it’s a myth that only English medium guys speak good English. It’s also a myth that they don’t rise above a certain level. But I deny that. I studied my primary level in Kannada medium. But I don’t think I was rejected in the interviews because of my communication skills. My flexibility helped me.
What did I do to improve these skills?
I made couple of English speaking friends at the college and used to talk to them for long hours. English movies did help too. Apart from story and action I concentrated on the accent and the way the actors used to deliver the dialogues. Giving pause and timing were very important. I used to stare at newsreaders and imagine myself reading it. I tried to read newspapers in the way they did. Sunit Tandon was really good.
In home I used to tune to discussions, interviews of stars, sportsmen and follow them. Wasim Akram, Srikanth, Shahrukh Khan really inspired me. One can take a leaf out of Harsha’s commentary.
These are some of the ways by which you can improve your English. You can even try other methods.
Before doing any thing you can sit back and think what you have and what you lack. If your grammar is weak get a grammar book and study it from the scratch. If you can’t spell it properly go for dictionary or scripts and work on it, instead of cribbing about it for years. One should always aim at improving oneself. Always tell to yourself “Next year I will be a better person in knowledge, experience, attitude and everything.”
For 8th semester guys it is better late than never, you can start now while others can learn steadily. One should enjoy learning things and not take it as a burden.
Communication skills are very important for engineers and also for management students. So try to overcome your weaknesses. How do you improve is entirely left to you. It’s beyond just reading the books. It’s better start speaking English with your friends.
Jamat people acquire communicating skills well, so I request them to preach in English.
First and second year guys have enough time if they realize. 8th semester guys should be efficient and fast enough, learn faster and enjoy your learning.
With preparation, I believe even some one like Sadiq* pasha can make it. And without preparation some one like Nayeemuddin** may not make it. Getting through the interview can be very easy if you wish.

* - Till 6 sem he had passed only four subjects viz., M1, M2, M3 and M4. Then he literally went mad.
** - Topper to MMC College, presently doing his PG course in London.

Campus Interview part-3

1.2 TECHNICAL SKILLS


In the early years of engineering, students think that in interviews, hi-fi technology is asked which is very complex and difficult. So they don’t think of learning or refreshing the technical concepts keeping interview in mind. I was also one among them. But the truth is that the companies ask those technical questions which we have learnt like, what is amplifier, counter, XOR GATE, what is microprocessor, what is signal, what are pointers, data structures, what is linking, what are motors, gears etc., depending on your branch.
If they ask something else you can happily say “Sir that was not there in our syllabus”. They switch over.
The only difference between engineers and others is; we learn technical skills and others don’t. So if you want to call yourself an engineer see whether you have basic technical skills.
So right from 3rd semester you start looking back at all the subjects you have steadied and recall their basics now and then.
When you apply, you look at the pattern of interview, the area of work of the company. You can get to know on what subjects they would ask questions in interview. You can study those two, three subjects in depth, I mean in detail. You also have to just touch all the subjects superficially, esp. electives.
As I said, the questions asked by companies vary based on their type (software or hardware) and your branch.
For example, E&C students have to prepare technical in depth for hardware companies like Delphi, L&T, etc. But software companies don’t know much of electronics, So E&C students can relax a bit but you should know at least ‘C’ and puzzles.
Computer guys must prepare technically well. Usually students take their favourite subjects as DSC, Operating System, C++, etc.
For Mechanical boys technical skills are must. If they don’t know technical, they know nothing.

Mechanical - Technical = IP (Ignorant People)

So, most of your preparation time goes for studying technical aspects. Technical aspects means not advanced technology, but only the basics of subjects you studied as I said. The study should be thorough. I will list some of the technical questions asked often later.
All most all the companies ask about your project work in detail. So study everything about all your projects. It’s better if you go through advanced technology in technical magazines and business aspects of the companies.

‘C’

Those who appear for software companies must at least know one computer language. If it’s C, it’s well. So I recommend all most all students to learn ‘C’ in depth by buying different ‘C’ books; Kanitkar is good writer.


1.4 ATTITUDE/ PERSONALITY

Everyone has his own; in-built personality and attitude towards life. It cannot be changed so easily. If some one wants to change them or develop good personality with positive attitude, they require something that many lack. But it’s not impossible. At this stage not to make you boring, let me skip this part. It will be dealt after the interview part is revealed.

1.5 APPLY

The companies that you apply are totally left to you. So before you apply you should have the rough idea about the type of company, its location, salary, bond, probable number of candidates the company requires, etc.
Once you get to know the date, timing and location of the company, the first thing you should do is go to “Google” and then to the company site. Go through their recruitment section; watch out what skills they seek among you, the area in which they work etc.
Then contact somebody who has been earlier interviewed by the same company, or who works in the company or who knows the test pattern of the company. Fetch out sufficient information.

Then sit and decide the subjects you are to prepare; like you may have to study verbal or puzzles, etc. Decide on which technical subjects you are going to prepare and start preparation thoroughly. This should be done minimum of 8 days prior to the interview.
In these days study well. It’s like as if you are preparing for a war. So you should be as serious as hell. Don’t say ‘let me try my luck’. Say always ‘I can do anything and I will do it’.