Srinidhi Sridharan is a masters student in Embedded Systems at Chemnitz University of Technology. She spoke to us about how a career counseling session with intap network took a bright turn in her job search journey. We put together a few questions from the interview below to share with you!
Introduction
intap: Hello Srinidhi! Happy to have you with us today.
Srinidhi: The pleasure is all mine. Happy to be here.
intap: Before we dive into the topic, could you briefly tell us about yourself?
Srinidhi: Hello, I am Srinidhi, and I am a graduate from TU Chemnitz. My area of specialization is Embedded systems. I recently accepted a job in a growing company in Berlin named Embeddeers as an Embedded Software Developer and would be starting soon.
intap: Congratulations! Could you tell us about Embeddeers and what exactly is the role of an Embedded Software Engineer?
Srinidhi: Embeddeers develops software for the automotive sector. They provide advice and services in the development and positioning of both hardware and software. Initially my work will include testing and will be slowly moved on to development once I understand the working mechanisms.
intap: Interesting! What were your previous qualifications and professional experiences like?
Srinidhi: I have a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering. During my second year I realized that I am passionate about programming and decided to pursue my further education in Embedded Systems by pursuing Masters in Germany. I worked as a research assistant in the University during my Masters. I worked with optimization of IoT based smart applications in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) during this role. I also worked as an Intern at Grid Singularity GmbH based in Berlin where I was given the task of developing a dashboard to examine number of users using their platform and to observe their behaviour.
Getting in touch with intap
intap: How did you get to know about intap network ?
Srinidhi: In December 2021, I attended the Career Café event organised by intap network. Experts from Goethe Institute were invited as speakers. During the event, I learnt about intap‘s other career focused networking events, one of which was Hike2Career event which I took part in. This is where I got the opportunity to interact with intap team members and found out about their career coaching service for the talents. I went ahead with the process straight away.
intap: How was the overall experience of these events for you?
Srinidhi: It was amazing. The first event Career Café was online where we learnt about some tips and tricks to improve our German language skills. The second one was an outdoor event – Hike2Career in which we trekked in the beautiful surroundings of Saxony along with 15-20 other international students and professionals. Along the way, we got to network and enjoy some cookies with Glühwein. Overall, these events were informative and joyful.
intap: How helpful was the coaching with intap for you?
Srinidhi: Very much so, I should say. Earlier, I faced a lot of difficulties with not being able to get through the initial filtering process of the companies. Even with an interview at hand, the employer had a difficult time combing through my CV for skills and the interviews would go downhill. After my one-on-one coaching session with Swati I received advice on how to restructure my CV as per German Standards. I formatted and shaped my CV smartly, summarized my professional experience and education and placed as many details as possible in a crisp and clear way.
At our Hike2Career Srinidhi was able to connect with likeminded internationals.
Landing a job as an Embedded Engineer
intap: What results did you see after this?
Srinidhi: The first interview call came within a week and the calls kept on increasing every week. I could get through the initial screening easily now and I continued preparing for the one-on-one interviews thoroughly. Even though the first few did not go as well as I expected them to be I was still able to estimate my strengths and weaknesses during the process and worked on them to perform better the next time. From all the offers received I happily accepted the one from the company Embeddeers situated in Berlin for the position of an Embedded software developer.
intap: Could you walk us through the interview process for Embeddeers?
Srinidhi: The interview was in two phases.
1. Getting to know you – In this phase, I received information about the company. It was more of an interactive session where I introduced myself. Then, we went on to discuss about what the company‘s expectations are from a possible future employee and vice versa.
2. Tasks – Once they understood that I could be a good fit, I was assigned a set of 4 tasks to solve. The main intention behind this was to understand how far the candidate is willing to absorb new things and how much he/she can apply the existing knowledge individually without outside help. I prepared a presentation based on my understanding of the tasks and discussed the same with the interviewer in a later meeting. After a few days, I received a job offer.
intap: That was a lovely talk. Thank you for taking your time for this. We wish you all the best for everything that is to come.
Srinidhi: It feels really nice sharing this experience, too. Thank you again for this opportunity.
We hope this article was able to motivate and provide you with a gist of what you can expect from a potential employer and what problems you may face with your job applications. When in doubt, you know where to knock! We look forward to hearing from you!
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