Hello friends , its an honour to have my dear Friend Jugantor Chetia on Rendezvous with Sandeep . Today, I will have a chat with this Dudester geek of N.I.T Durgapur .
JUGANTOR CHETIA:- JUG
SANDEEP CHOUDHARY:- ME
ME: Hello Jugantor, its my pleasure to chat with you on "Rendezvous with Sandeep".
JUG: Me Too. :)
ME: Please give ur brief introduction to our readers.
JUG: Well, ahem !! umm...I am Jugantor Chetia, a 2008 ECE passout from NIT Durgapur. Basically from Assam. Presently I am working as a project assistant in IISc, Bangalore. For all those who don't know what IISc stands for -- Indian Institute of Science.
ME: T ell us about your job profile and, How do u relate ur job profile with ur interest?
JUG : My research interests are basically oriented towards VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) Circuits Design -- dealing with transistors and stuffs. My job here basically deals at the VLSI Systems/Architecture level. I am , along with my team mates here working on the development of a runtime reconfigurable platform (processor). I dont want to go too much into its details, for I believe that might go above you guys' heads :). If anyone is particularly interested, he can surely contact me anytime. So, basically I believe now I have acquired a good hand at the VLSI systems level and having tasted it, I plan to go down the level into the Circuits domain and figure out how Circuit level issues impact the performance at the architecture l Level. Who knows , some other sunny day, I might land up working at the nano level :D
ME: After fetching job in one of the INDIA’S BEST PSU NTPC ,Why did u choose to do fellowship in IISC banglore.?
JUG: well, ya.. I would say this was one hell of a decision for me. Giving up a govt. job and that too of the kind of NTPC.. you have to hear a lot .. from your parents, neighbors and all your well wishers :) . But then, for me, I always had in my mind to go into deep electronics and explore its exciting world. I would say the turning point was the computer architecture course in my 5th sem. I thoroughly enjoyed it and almost made up my mind to pursue higher studies at some point and go into deep down electronics, work in some R & D sector in a semiconductor industry. I was of the view that NTPC wasn't going to provide me that (Disclaimer: This is totally my perception. Viewpoints may differ !!).Now, don't ask why I sat for NTPC. The IISc fellowship offer came to me after I got a job in NTPC, during my winter interns there. I had done my summer interns there on the power profiling of the H.264 Decoder. I thoroughly enjoyed the group there, the prof. and most importantly the work. So, I thought, this was a golden boot for me. I can work there, add the relevant research experience in my resume, add some papers to it and also might get the prof's recommendation. The prof. is a big guy in his field, let me tell you that. So, the decision was pretty straight forward. :)
ME: Jug ,what tips you want to give to our readers regarding their campus placement preparation.?
JUG: Tip 1. Be confident, dont feel nervous. Always remember, they have come to select you,no to reject.
Tip 2. Keep a smile on your face at the time of interview.
Tip 3. get some formals.
Tip 4. Try to look into the eyes of the interviewer as much as you can. eye contact helps.
Tip 5. regarding written exam, get some good quant skills. Practice R.S.Agarwal.
Tip 6. Choose an area of interest which you think you are good at. As for me, they asked me questions on digital electronics and one application oriented question.
Tip 7. If you have already got a job and are sitting for your 2nd job, prepare well, as to why you want a 2nd job.
Tip 8. A very important question for non-CS/IT guys: why are you interested in joining an IT company ?
Tip 9. If you have good acads, you are almost thru.
Tip 10. For those who dont have very good acads, pick up your area of interest and orient your answers towards that, so that the interviewer starts asking you questions on that and you can impress him quickly. :)
ME: Tell us somethimg about ur research work and project u carried out to strenghten ur profile .
JUG : Well, projects -- it all started with a small project in IITG. The turning point was my summer interns at IISc. I was well motivated to get myself coupled with a lot of guys to work with and finished with a pretty satisfactory number of projects by the end of my undergrad. most of my projects were related to my area of interest. But my suggestion is : even if u cant get a project of your interest, do something.. keep yourself busy and keep strengthening your profile. About my research work, as I have told earlier, most of it is concentrated towards the VLSI systems design.
ME: What strategy one should adapt while preparing for exams like gre and tell us in brief about application procedure and study material for GRE.
JUG : Oh ya, for me, GRE was one hell of an exam and that too I had a tough time preparing for it, as I was working too. So, my 1st suggestion, try writing the exam while you are studying. Frankly speaking, I am not the best person to talk about GRE as I didnt score well. Additionally, I am not very strong in English. I would suggest you better contact guys like Sudharsan Narayan (GRE: 1560). They can guide you better. Regarding study material, I guess Barron and Kaplan are enough. You do need to give lots and lots of tests. If you have a good vocab, you are half way through.
Application procedure. -- this is one of the most important steps and my sincere request to all MS/PhD aspirants, don't ever neglect this step. You need a minimum of 1.5-2 months to select the universities thats best suited to your profile,your interests and keeping in mind your financial expenses. I had the added advantage that I have a huge network abroad that comprises of school friends, seniors and ofcourse college friends and seniors. That means if you have a good network, do use that. If not, create them. Mail IIT guys via orkut and make them your friends. Use their knowledge to your own advantage and to know how they make things work. I am really thankful to all who have really helped me a lot.
Anyway, following are what I kept in my mind while deciding over the univs to app, acc. to preference.:
1) The ranking and reputation of the univ. But believe me, this is just one criterion. Dont base your selection of the univ solely on rankings. Rankings can be deceptive for they depend on a lot of factors.
2) Hows the univ and the department, the profs in my field. Go thru his projects and his publications. If he has got loads of publications and that too in recent conferences, that implies the prof is a good one :). I think I should have given this factor the topmost priority .. its really important !!
3) Expenses. Do you have enough finances to fund your education even if you get an admit ? Do remember that its extremely difficult to get aid during MS, atleast in the 1st sem/yr ? Do mail students in that univ to know abt the aid conditions and also on campus jobs ? Orkut will be of great help in this matter.
here is an example that happened to me. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor was in my dream cards. It has a damn good VLSI group. but this university is pretty costly and also I came to know by mailing one guy in U Mich that it hardly funds MS students. Subsequently, I had to drop it.
4) The job scene after MS and also oncampus jobs during MS.
5) The funding scene.
6) How many Indians ? too many indians means again the same competition for GPA, oncampus jobs and stuffs .. yeaks .. I hate that !!
7) Hows the place ? and how are the babes there ... hehe .. US is a place to enjoy and so, keep the enjoyment factor also on your cards. :D
8) Apply to few ambi, few mod and few safe univs. and yea... BE AMBITIOUS , yet safe.
ME: From which universities u got the admit and tell us about ur specialization ?why did u choose this subject for research.
JUG : I applied to 12 univs in the US.. I know the no. is big, but I had no other option. I have to get out of India this year by any means, for if I dont, I know I will be left nowhere :).
Till now, I have got admits from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Arizona State University and Vanderbilt University.
I have apped for VLSI Circuits design. The reason, I think I have already answered why I want to go into this field(scroll up).
ME: Tell us something about challenges u faced in ur life while preparing to get an admit from good university and how did u tackle it.?
JUG : well, the biggest challenge was to convince my parents that I am not joining a highly paying job in NTPC and in turn joining a comparatively low paying job in IISc. Frankly speaking, very few people outside the engg. domain have heard about IISc. So, you can understand how tough it was. Secondly, I had to get few publications out to make my staying at IISc worthy enough. Getting a publication in electronics and that too in a dead field like VLSI architecture is real tough. I really had to dig my ass out to get one. Secondly, you really need to do a lot of work before selecting a university to app into. You need to mail the Prof., PhD or MS students there to know how the place is , how the dept. is and all tits and bits. This job, many a times, turns out to be a very important factor in your admit.
ME: What is ur mantra for.success ?
JUG : My mantra: Let people keep on talking shit about you. Its all your life and you have every right to live your life the way want. Atleast if you fail, you wont have anyone else but only you to blame. ("Jab We Met")
ME: Jug, tell us about ur experience at IISC BANGLORE.?
JUG : 1st of all, please dont create a hype man about my IISc thing. I know its pretty difficult to get in here, but if you try well, you can definitely make it to this place. IISc is hungry for good people.
IISc has got a very nice campus, excellent atmosphere for research and bla bla bla ... but the best part, you can never know how big the person sitting next to you is.. he/she might turn out to be some visiting prof. from Univ. of Pennsylvania (this is what happened to me :D)
ME: What else u want to share with our readers who are preparing to pursue their higher studies and want to do research work?
JUG : well, if you are seriously into research, then don't think much about money matters as of now. Think of that as investment :). Secondly, I believe its a fun to study abroad (atleast I believe so), So Stay Ambitious and Stay Connected !! and check out these sites : www.edulix.com , www.i20fever.com
ME:Any incidence of your college life you want to share with our readers ?
JUG: Aah ofcourse !! College life is the best part of your life and you are surely gonna miss it badly once you are out of it. The fun that you use to have in your hostel is something you will always miss. Every incident is worth preserving. But yea.. I had a small group there .. the kamur group -- Me, Anuj , Anupam, Dipak , Manash .. this is something I will always remember. Every moment with these guys was full of fun and only fun.
ME: What do u want to say about this initiative (about this blog)?
JUG : This is an awesome step. Hats off to Sandeep. Every good college has something like this. All IITs have a superb alumni. NIT Trichy has a group called ROTGAD (realization of the great american dream :)). So good job Sandeep.
ME: Thanks a lot for giving your precious time .I Hope our readers will surely get benefited from this enlighted discussion.
JUG : My Pleasure
Do comment on this post so that we can come up with more interactive sessions in near future.
