Interview: Jegaveerpandian Rajendran(Chem-2016)

A brief description of your current profile.

I am currently working as a senior tech associate in Bank of America Continuum India, an IT wing for Bank of America.

 

What are the skills one should develop to follow the career path you have chosen?

Coding and basic knowledge of as well as interest in the IT field is all that is required.

 

What are the soft skills one should develop?

Ans – Nothing specific. I feel that all the soft skills needed are developed by organizing fests, taking different responsibilities, etc.

 

What is the extent to which you should find a balance between work satisfaction and monetary satisfaction?

I, personally, don’t give much importance to monetary gains or benefits. At the end of the day, you should be happy with your job. Whatever you are doing should give you immense satisfaction and pleasure. You just need some basic earnings to survive and so I always prefer job satisfaction over monetary satisfaction. My primary career goal is to get into Civil services and I am currently working only to collect monetary funds for my studies. I work for 5 days a week and attend Civil Service classes on weekends.

 

What are some things you wish you knew in college, in retrospect?

Being in Chemical Engineering, I totally ignored C and C++ though it was a compulsory paper in the first year. Learning to code is very important in the current job scenario. I learned it much later during placements and so, I feel that was a mistake I had made.

 

Is there anything more the T and P cell can do to help the students?

Actually nothing more. They are quite good at their job. However, I feel they should conduct a few more mocks and professional technical interviews.

 

How can one judiciously utilize time after getting placed?

I think the best way to spend time judiciously would be by getting in touch with any alumni working in that company or in a similar field. We should familiarize ourselves with the atmosphere of that company and also get an idea of what skills would be required. Also, I feel that before actually going to work, once we get to know our package, we must plan what to do with the money, whether we want to spend all of it or save some or use it to fund some classes later on or anything else.

 

How permanent is any career choice? Do you feel it is good to switch and experiment in new fields?

If you have a clear-cut idea of what you want in life and you are following that path, then you don’t need to switch but if not, then you should try something new and keep experimenting. I know of many who left jobs which were considered as dream offers during campus placements to work in startups. So basically, it is just your call. You must be daring enough to experiment till you get a job which gives you satisfaction.

 

How do off-campus placements fare with respect to campus placements?

I would definitely prefer campus placements. I feel it’s much easier to get jobs through on-campus placements rather than off-campus ones.

 

How do you know if a particular career option is the right one for you or not? Is there any right way to make that decision?

It is absolutely okay not to know. Most of us don’t know what we exactly want to do even in the final year. It is not necessary to have a clear idea of our career when we step into our first job. If we have a clear idea, it is good but otherwise, we can just go with the flow and try out the best options available. If things don’t work out in our favor we can always choose some other path. Personally, I feel whatever we learn in this college as well as its brand name is a good backup and so we can easily make a switch in our career whenever we want.

 

Would you like to add anything from your side?

Though it is alright not to have a clear idea about your career, one must at least start planning what to do after college right from the third year. Also, I feel that during the placement season we must not panic when our friends get placed in a good company or secure a job with a high package. Money must never determine our career goals. We must strongly believe in ourselves and never get discouraged by those around us.