Paving Her Way to Maersk – The Story of Shrishti Kanchan (BDVA’18)

Shrishti Kanchan (BDVA Class of 2018) recently got placed at Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, after several rounds of strenuous tests and interviews. We caught up with Shrishti to know more about her success story.

Hi Shrishti, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your course at SP Jain?

I completed my Computer Engineering in May 2018. Since I wished to pursue higher education, I would regularly look in the newspaper for new and exciting courses that would help me adapt to the demands of the modern workspace. Once I found out about SP Jain’s Big Data program, I attended a student info-session and realised that this was the course that interested me the most. Applying for the program was one of the best decisions of my life yet.

In just 6 months, the program managed to transform me completely. The course was structured in three modules. The first 2-month module focussed on the basics like Maths and Statistics, while the next two months delved into advanced courses like Machine Learning, Python and R, SQL, Data Structure, Algorithms, and more. In the last module, we had to choose a specialisation – Finance or Marketing.

You recently cracked the interview at Maersk and got placed even before completing your course! How did you achieve this?

Needless to say, my anxiety levels were quite high on the selection day. The day started with a preliminary round (Aptitude Test and Personality Index Test) at Maersk. Since I already knew that there would be an aptitude test, I brushed up on my knowledge accordingly. After I cleared the preliminary rounds and the test in Excel, I was shortlisted for the Personal Interview. For this final round, I brushed up my technical knowledge and read in depth about the company, which helped me a lot.

Did you receive adequate support from the SP Jain community during this process?

Oh, it was beyond adequate! My constant source of motivation was Abhijit Sir (Dr. Abhijit Dasgupta – Director of Data Science) who kept pushing us to attain our goals, helping us understand our strengths and weaknesses. We had faculty from across the globe, including Dr. Joseph Konstan (Director – GroupLens Labs, Minneapolis, USA), who had come to teach us Recommender Systems.

We also participated in several Corporate Grooming Sessions and Mock Interviews, which were recorded and played back to us later – I can’t tell you how valuable this turned out to be for us to improve our interview skills. Our placement coordinators Malabika ma’am (Malabika Ahuja, General Manager – Corporate Relations) and Ravi sir (Ravi Kapadia, Manager – Corporate Relations) also had a great role to play where they lined up so many good companies for us to interview with.

What tips would you want to give the current SP Jain students who will be preparing for their placements soon?

You must be confident about yourself and your abilities, which will help you reach great heights. Read up a lot about the company you are interviewing with. Even if you don’t crack your interviews with the first few companies you interviewed with, don’t lose hope. There are plenty of other equally good firms out there who could use and appreciate your talents. All the best!