Intern diaries 5.0
Interviewees: Aditya R & Abhinand G (Interned at Citicorp)
Interviewed by: Shrieya Shree Senthilkumar
GT: Can you please introduce yourself?
Aditya: I'm Aditya, a final year Computer Science student. I did my internship at Citicorp under the domain trade and treasury solutions at the Chennai city office.
Abinand: Hi. I'm Abhinand. I'm currently pursuing my final year in IT. I interned in the production support domain of Citicorp. I'm excited for the interview!
GT: Can any one of you tell us about Citicorp?
Aditya: We entered the technological part of Citicorp in Chennai. It focuses on delivering products and various services that are easily accessible to people.
GT: How did you guys land at Citicorp?
Abhinand: When I was in my third year, companies started coming in for placement. Among them were certain companies offering a two month internship for third year students. Before this even started, we were briefed by our seniors about the internship season, so we were prepared for it.
Citi was one of the companies that offered a two month internship. We had an initial screening criteria where they shortlisted students based on CGPA. After that, we had online sessions that included an English assessment, a coding round and so on. Finally, we had a technical round followed by an interview round, after which they sent out the final list of students.
Aditya: We had an elaborate online test consisting of verbal, analytical and other quantitative skills; as well as coding and few output questions. We needed to be focused on all of the fields to land an internship at Citi.
GT: What were your preparation strategies for the intern test?
Abhinand: Before the internship season started, we had a couple of online meets with our seniors where they shared their internship experiences. That was very useful. Of course, we also had the internship diaries from Guindy Times where we watched a lot of people talk about their own experience which is also helpful.
I feel like the two useful resources for coding were Geeks for Geeks and Leetcode. In Geeks for Geeks, we have lots of articles which are company specific. That was very useful as the probability of companies repeating patterns of questions asked in previous years is high. Therefore, being familiar with those kinds of questions will be very useful. I spent a month solving Leetcode questions. I highly suggest you doing the same. Going progressively would be very helpful.
Aditya: I followed ACM’s CODE initiative. There was a program designed for 40 days which covers what we have to study and tests us every two weeks. It was a methodical approach, and a really nice initiative.
GT: What do you think will actually help your resume stand out?
Abhinand: Very large technical interviews are mainly based on projects. I would suggest you do as many projects as possible. You could approach professors who are involved in research work as well . At the same time, I suggest that you shouldn’t add a lot in your resume. Make sure you write things that you are very confident about.
Aditya: In my 40 mins interview, 20 mins was purely focused on projects. There should be a minimum of two projects that add more value. If you know any programming language, be particular in mentioning the expertise you have in them.
GT: What do you think are the key points while attending an interview?
Abhinand: You should talk about things that make you stand out from the rest of the applicants. Educate yourself more about the company you are interviewing for. If you familiarise yourself with the company and speak about that in the HR round, that could make a great impression on the interviewer. Adding on, your confidence also plays an important role.
Aditya: If they ask you a problem, work your way towards achieving the optimal solution. Make sure you articulate every point you have in mind while coding.
GT: How did you balance the work life and personal life in Citi?
Abhinand: Our internship was online. It came at a time when we were in our sixth semester, and we had our end semester exams in the middle of the internship. We had so many things to focus on.
Despite this, the work life balance in Citi was really good. We had a lot of time to work on projects and to gain knowledge. We were even able to learn from scratch, do research and move on with the projects. Apart from this, we had many technical events and meetings with higher officials. It was very fun and it took off the stress.
Aditya: It was a pleasurable experience. My mentor was open for suggestions. The balance was really good. They really wanted us to focus on our exams.
GT: What's your advice to juniors?
Abhinand: Start preparing beforehand, about a month before the exam itself. Take your time to learn a lot of things which could be beneficial. Don't stress yourself too much because of internships. If you don't get a particular company, it doesn't mean that you can't get into any. I had rejections from around three or four companies.
Aditya: The interviewer is trying to recruit you so that you can add more value to their company. The most important thing is to learn.
GT: What's your opinion on the Intern Diaries of Guindy times?
Abhinand: I have covered every video of both of the series and it was very comforting. It gave me a lot of confidence because I could directly watch people who got into the company. It was also a source of motivation and it got me excited. Intern Diaries is a great initiative by Guindy Times and it should keep going on.
Aditya: It was nice to watch our seniors talking about how nicely the internship period went for them.
