PWC - Technology Consultant

Name: Vaishnavi Mishra

1. Which company have you been placed in and what’s the job description?
>> I have been placed in PWC and my job profile is technology consultant. My primary job is to provide solutions for the companies which come to PWC for consultation of their business problems.

2. Tell us something about your college life and experiences. Were you a part of any club or society throughout your college life and how did they help you?
>> I had an amazing and diverse college life. It was a type of roller-coaster ride where I made great relationship with people and spent some of the best time. I think I was fortunate enough to make some close friends from the first year only. Yes I was part of EEE Society and IETE student chapters in which right now I am the President and Vice President respectively. These two clubs helped me a lot in different ways, not just academically but also personally. It was fun to be a part of these clubs as along with technical skills, I got the opportunity to build great relationship with seniors as well as juniors who eventually ended up being my good friends. They also helped me to gain confidence and have a good communication skill which ultimately helped me in my interviews and as well as in my personal life. Personally I think being the part of any club or society will definitely help you in one or the other way as it helps us to grow as individuals.

3. What message would you give to the first and second year undergraduates on effectively using their time and maintaining their academic as well as social life?
>> I would say that these four years are very precious to you all as you will grow as a person in different ways. These 4 years give you the freedom to try different things in your life, yes you will make mistakes but you will also learn from them. Balance is the thing that everyone should maintain, yes it’s difficult sometime but you should understand your responsibilities as well as enjoy your life. Use your 1st year to explore your interests and take part in different activities to learn & enjoy. Use the time to know about your interest by trying different things whether it is software or core. Enjoy your college life and don’t mug-up everything. Use your time to build a strong foundation so that whatever you want to pursue will become easy. I would suggest interacting with people, forming bonds, communicating with your seniors, this all will definitely help you in some ways and you will make great memories at the end.

4. How did you discover that “this particular sector” is suitable for me or I have interest in this? How did you carry forward in this?
>> From 1st year onwards I tried to explore different fields. I did coding in my first year and took part in workshops which were conducted like C and C++ workshop. I gave IOT a try and developed an interest in it. So during SMP which is conducted by EEESoc during 3rd year, I worked on Smart mart project. During covid while exploring and learning, I developed an interest towards core electronics. So, I started preparing in electronics domain. I did projects in this domain like designing of synchronous FIFO memory. So, these projects helped me to discover my interest in this sector.

5. Many of the students have interest in both core and software, what would you suggest to them?
>> I will say explore each sector, you have got enough time right now. Explore, see which sector makes your work enjoyable. Do projects, learn and at the end see what you want to do. Pursuing both fields at the same time is not a good idea as you won’t be able to concentrate on both fields at the same time which will eventually lead to division of your focus. You might have heard you can’t sail on two boats at the same time. So explore and make the choice according to your interest.

6. What are the technical skills that are important for EEE graduates?
>> Basically it depends on which field you are working or interested in. If anyone is interested in electronics domain then one must be sound with digital and analog electronics, CMOS digital design and verilog language (HDL language) and for those interested in electrical domain should focus on DC machines, Control theory etc. and MATLAB which is one of the most important skill that an electrical engineer graduate should have.

7. How early one should start preparing for internships and how important an internship is? Where did you pursue your internship?
>> There is no fixed time for starting your preparation. Yes, I would say find your interest in work and go with the flow. Eventually your preparation will start. Internships start from the end of 2nd year only. You can also apply for research internships in IITs like Kharagpur, Roorkee or Bombay and you can do the project under professors. You can check research areas of the professor from the college website and apply for an internship. To the answer of how important an internship is I would say that it is both yes and no. “Yes” in the sense that you have edge from other in interviews as it shows that you have an experience of working and you have something to speak on and “No” as it’s not that necessary that if you don’t do an internship it will be a disadvantage.

8. What are the projects you have done in 4 years and how did they help in your placement and internship?
>> I did some of the good projects. I did home automation using MATLAB which was a part of SPP conducted by EEEsoc. In 2nd year, I took part in the e-Yantra competition in a team of 4 in which we made a mocking bot using an embedded system, OpenCV, machine learning. I also did the SmartMart project based on warehouse automation. In my 3rd year, I did a project on designing of asynchronous FIFO memory using EDA tools (Electronics design and automation). I would definitely say that these projects helped me in my interviews and provided me an edge.

9. What was the selection procedure of your company? Can you repeat some of the important questions from each round of your interview?
>> There were 4 rounds including the written test, 2 technical and 1 HR round. In the first round, I was asked about my IoT based project Smart Mart. The interviewer asked me about the different protocols that I used and many more technical questions. The second round was director round in which he asked me how I will help their organization as it deals with IT companies and my interest is in electronics field. I answered it very briefly which I think was a very crucial question of the whole interview. Last round was the HR round, the basic questions were asked like “why should we hire you?” and “Being the president and placement going how are you able to manage things” and a few more general questions.

10. What is your advice to the juniors who want to get placed in the field you’ve chosen?
>> For this field, you should acquire good reasoning skills, aptitude, and verbal and communication skills. Consultancy requires you to socialize as much as you can because there you have to deal with the clients and need to express yourself very well. So you must have good communication and problem-solving skills and a little bit of idea about financing would be helpful.

11. What are your future plans? Would you like to go for higher studies?
>> I have not decided yet about further studies. For now, I want to pursue my career in the electronics domain, so right now I am more focused there and want to get experience in this field.