Case Study – College Placements

Case Study - College Placement

Your final year of college hits like a storm. One minute, you’re pumped about finally graduating. The next, you’re sweating over placement season, wondering how you’ll ever stand out. This is it—the moment where all those late-night study sessions and group projects pay off. Suddenly, companies from every corner show up, each one hunting for fresh talent. The question is, how do you make sure you’re the one they notice?

Getting through campus placements? It’s no sprint. You need a game plan, grit, and a lot more than just good grades. Sure, marks matter, but companies look for the whole package: skills, confidence, quick thinking, and a bit of charm never hurts. Think of this guide as your backstage pass. We’ll break down everything—how to gear up, what to expect, how to handle interviews, and we’ll even dive into a real story about a student who landed her dream job. Let’s get started.

Phase 1: Building Your Arsenal (The 6 Months Before Placements)

The success of placements is determined well before the first company sets foot on campus. The phase of preparation, is where you build the foundations for your success.

Write a Killer Resume: Your resume is your first opportunity to make an impression. It is meant to be a one-page summary of your top achievements.
Focus on Impact: Rather than saying “worked on a project” say “led a 3-member team to develop a project that led to a 15% improvement in process efficiency.” Use numbers to quantify your results.
Highlight Internships and Projects: There is no substitute for real-world experience; specify in detail what you learned and accomplished during your internships.
Tailor it: I am a big advocate of preparing a master resume, but fine-tune your resume (even just slightly) to align it with the job descriptions of each company you apply to.
Upskill, Nonstop: You should identify the skills for your dream role.
Technical (of course!): Become proficient in at least one programming language (e.g. Python or Java), understand data structures, understand algorithms, and/or tech stacks (e.g. web development, machine learning).
Non-technical: Develop skills in communication, presentation, data analysis (Excel, SQL), and/or business acumen.
Soft skills; Communication, teamwork, problem solving and leadership WILL be essential to any role.
Build a Network Post-Haste: Reach out and connect with alumni and seniors from your college program via LinkedIn. Politely ask them about their roles, their experience in the role, and what they think of the company culture.

Phase 2: The Placement Gauntlet (Navigating the Selection Rounds)

When the season starts, you will go through a few elimination rounds to narrow down the candidates.

1. Aptitude and Coding Tests: This is the first gateway. These online assessments evaluate your quantitative ability, logical reasoning, verbal ability, and coding ability, if you’re applying for technical roles. The only way to pass is to practice.
2. Group Discussion (GD): Organizations assess your communication, leadership, and teamwork skills through GDs. Try to make logical points, be willing to listen to everyone’s opinion, and help the group agree on a conclusion, rather than just trying to yell even louder than everyone else.
3. Technical Interviews: This is where you will face domain knowledge-related questions. You will need to answer a few rounds of questions about your projects, internships, and topics that are particularly relevant to your core experience. For coders, this often includes live coding questions using a whiteboard or shared document.
4. HR Interview: This is the last round of the process and will assess your personality, whether you will fit into the culture of the organization, and your professional goals. You should be prepared to hear a few traditional questions like “Tell me about yourself,” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Why do you want to work with this company?”

Case Study in Action: How 'Ananya' Cracked a Top Product Management Role

Let’s look at how these phases come together through the journey of a student, Ananya, a final-year computer science student who aimed for a coveted Product Manager role at a leading tech startup.

The Profile: Ananya had a good academic record (8.5 CGPA), one summer internship as a software developer, and two strong personal projects listed on her resume.

The Challenge: The Product Manager role attracted candidates from all branches, including those with business minors and strong case study experience. Ananya knew her technical skills were solid, but she had to prove her business and product sense.

Ananya's Strategy:

Preparation: She began her preparation three months ahead of placements. She read books such as Cracking the PM Interview and followed product leaders on Twitter. She formed a group with two friends to review product case studies on a weekly basis. They took turns to the raise questions such as, “How would you improve Instagram Reels?” or “Design a fitness app for elderly individuals.”
The Interview Process: She cruised through the initial coding and aptitude round, but faced a challenge in the technical round when she was asked to explain the architecture of her project. The last step was the product interview which she was looking forward to.
The Case: The interviewer gave her the following problem: “We are a food delivery company. We’ve noticed a 30% drop-off rate between users adding food to their cart and completing the payment. Diagnose the problem and suggest solutions.”

Ananya's Approach:

Clarification: She didn’t jump to solutions, she asked for clarification, “Is this drop off happening on our app, website or both? Is it related to a specific payment method or restaurant type? Has there been a new version of the app recently?
Plan: She outlined her plan, “First, I will want to first understand the user journey and possible points of friction. Next, I will create a list of possible hypotheses related to the drop off and ways to measure the hypothesis. Lastly, I will offer a solution based on the hypotheses.”
Thinking: She thought aloud some of her ideas for the problems possibly associated to the drop off, high delivery fees presented at the end, no option to pay with their preferred payment type, long and complicated check out processes, technical glitches, etc.
Recommendation: She wrapped up with, “My first hypothesis is that surprise costs at checkout (taxes and delivery) are the biggest reason for drop off. I’d recommend making the total costs visible on the restaurant page. Another solution could be to have more digital wallets, as well as a ‘save card’ feature to easily check out. ‘/we could A/B test a friendly message to 5% of amount of users on the extra fees that could drive pointer of ‘conversion.”

Your Final Lap

Landing a job isn’t just about knowing the right stuff—it’s about grit. Look at Ananya. She didn’t get lucky; she put in the work, planned her moves, and kept sharpening her skills. Rejection stings, but honestly, it happens to everyone. It doesn’t say anything about who you are. Take something from each interview, tweak your game, and keep your eyes on what you want.

Walk into every interview with your head up. Preparation matters, sure, but so does showing them how you tackle problems and think on your feet. Your shot at that dream job? It’s real. Go get it.