PlaceKode with Shivam Agrawal placed at Nutanix
Uthaan, the Journalism and Recreational Club of ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, is here with a new edition of PlaceKode. With us, we have Shivam Agarwal, who is presently at Nutanix intern at Nutanix and a Back-end developer Intern at Smallcase, He will be sharing his working experience there and advice on development and academics.
Can you share your approach to balancing academic responsibilities with skill development pursuits?
So, academics are not hectic if I talk about any IIIT/IIT. In our time, I don’t think It was that hectic as well as we had an advantage since that was covid period, so our classes were online which gave us some extra time to focus on polishing our skills. But in general we were in hybrid mode we even saw online phase and offline too, but I still don’t think academics caused any trouble during any co-curricular or any sort of activities.
Now, taking about exams it is obvious that college students are capable of studying 2 to 3 days before the exams so they can manage extra workload.
In my perspective one should start exploring multiple domains from the first year of his/her college and start doing a little bit of CP stuff then from the second year one must stick to a particular domain that interests you the most.
Is an unpaid internship a good idea or not?
I accept that unpaid internships allow you to learn something, and you get to learn technicalities of your subject or stream, but according to me if you are investing your time in something, you should get to earn from it. It improves your will to work as money is a good motivation. But if it is from a big established company like Microsoft, Meta, etc. You can apply for it as these companies don’t usually provide unpaid internships that require you to devote 6 hours a day but a type of training that lasts for 2–3 hours a day.
These kinds of training can be useful as they prioritize you in their hiring rounds like Expedia . But yeah, you can even apply for unpaid internships in small companies if learning is the only motive. But be aware of “fake internships” that promise you some stipend in the beginning but disappear when it is time to pay.
In your LinkedIn profile, you mentioned your involvement in hackathons, so how has participating in hackathons contributed to your skill development and overall career growth?
Hackathons play a big role in upskilling. Usually, hackathons are for 1–2 days, and you create a project from scratch in that time, and when you work on something for that long and that too continuously, you get to learn a lot of things. You get new insights about your work and how to implement things more efficiently.
You even get to travel to such events that are mostly sponsored by the college or the host of the hackathon. So, it allows you to have a short educational trip and helps you learn some new tricks about your stream.
Why did you choose web development and why not another domain? If at any step of your preparation, you got exhausted, how did u tackle that situation?
I’ll explain it in chronological order. In my first year, I participated in a hackathon with my seniors and did a project on web development. There I was fascinated by the stream and thought I should explore it and started learning it. By 2nd year, I was a bit bored with it but then internships helped, I kept on exploring web development side by side and as I was earning it was a good motivation for me to continue then in 3rd year I was again confused about my course of time as I was at the saturation level in web dev, so I decided to work on blockchain as I saw a project on it in a hackathon. But I never left web dev completely. So, I would say it is natural to feel bored after some time so you should explore other streams at that time but never forget your roots and never leave what you learned in the first place.
Sir, since you were an executive member of the Uthaan IIITM club so being in this club how did it affect your skill development process, or in general, does being in clubs play a major role in any interview process?
Being a member of clubs and organizations can have a positive impact on your skill development and resume, it’s important to remember that the quality of your involvement matters more than the quantity of Joining clubs and organizations, especially those related to your field of study or interests, can be a valuable way to develop a wide range of skills. These skills can include leadership, teamwork, communication, project management, event planning, and more. Clubs and organizations often host events, conferences, and meetings where you can network with like-minded individuals, including peers, mentors, and industry professionals During interviews, you can use your experiences in clubs to demonstrate your skills, achievements, and personal growth. Interviewers often appreciate candidates who can provide concrete examples of how their extracurricular activities have prepared them for the job.
For the project of web development whether we should look for ideas on YouTube or try to find ideas on our own .
In the learning phase, it is beneficial to search on YouTube and make projects as this provides you an experience on how to work on big projects. But when you are fully trained in your stream you should make your own standalone project as when you make projects from YouTube, whenever you are stuck at some place you just look it in the video and solve it, but when you work on your standalone project, you search it on the internet and come to learn some more new things.
Even in the corporate world, we are sometimes stuck at some bug or error and we tend to solve it by searching on the internet or asking someone who has already faced that kind of problem as “you cannot know everything”. So, standalone projects help you upskill your searching skills and will definitely help you in the future. So, you should find your own problem statement and make your own project by researching it. These projects also help you in your hiring process as these outshine the more conservative or repetitive kinds of projects
Congratulations on cracking Google Hash Code! Could you share some highlights from the event?
Google Hash Code is an annual programming competition hosted by Google. It focuses on solving real-world engineering problems using computer science and programming skills. Here are some key highlights and common challenges participants might encounter, I was in 3rd yr when I participated in that competition during covid time they give some questions in (DSA and CP) language but the problems are real — life its like case studies and you have to solve the problem according to your understanding
There are many types of distractions in every student’s college life so how did you tackle them?
Create a Schedule Establish a daily and weekly schedule that includes your classes, study time, and other commitments. Stick to this schedule as closely as possible, Set Clear Goals Define your academic and personal goals for each semester. Knowing what you want to achieve can provide motivation and help you prioritize your tasks, Use Time Management Techniques: Techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, where you work for a set amount of time (e.g., 25 minutes) and then take a short break, can help improve your focus and productivity.
Choose a Programming Language Begin with a programming language that is beginner-friendly. Some popular options for beginners include Python, JavaScript, or Java. Python is often recommended because of its simplicity and versatility. There are plenty of free and paid online resources to help you learn how to code. Websites like Codecademy, Coursera, etc. explore other domains as much as you can.
Interviewed by Arijit Konar , Shruti Chauhan , Aradhya Dixit
Co-ordinated by Mrigank Shukla
