CDAC PG Diploma program: A blessing for unemployed engineers
Every year only 20% of all the engineering pass outs in India land in a job. This is a universal fact. If you are an engineering pass out desperately looking for a job or a job aspirant who feels your technical skills are low or a technical geek whose communication skills are low compared to others, then you are in the correct place. If you are a non-technical guy, CDAC turns you into a person who fits well in the IT industry.
I have encountered many engineering students irrespective of their branch landed in this situation where they struggle for job after getting a degree in hand. Even though many colleges provide campus placements, only a handful of students will get an offer letter. After a couple of job trials, many of them finally resort to private training institutes. This buys some time but ultimately leads to same situation after few months. Some resort to backdoor methods where they pay some money to consultancies to get a job offer. This work only for a few but brings some headaches in the future. What happens when that company wants to cut its costs? You are the first target. In this article, I will explain one of the reliable, safest and legal routes to land in a decent job in IT industry.What is CDAC?
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is a research and development organization under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, India. It was founded in 1988 by the then Prime Minister of India, Rajeev Gandhi. There is an interesting story behind its setup. When India tried to buy one of the Cray Computers from US, they denied. So to counter answer those, India started its own research institute - CDAC. Different areas of C-DAC's research include high performance computing, grid and cloud computing, multilingual computing, cyber security, health informatics, ubiquitous computing, and education & training.
Under Education & Training, it started "Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS)" in 1993 to meet the ever-increasing skilled manpower requirements as well as to supplement its intellectual resource base for research and development. How to approach CDAC?
Every year, CDAC conducts an all India level entrance exam C-CAT(CDAC's Common Admission Test) for students who are willing to join its PG Diploma Courses. C-CAT is usually conducted in June (for August admissions) and December (for February admissions). Exam is a cake walk for an any average engineering graduate. One month of preparation is enough to crack the exam. Even CDAC's official website provides you the book names needed for preparation. Results will be announced within a week and then counselling starts. It lasts for another 2 weeks and then classes start. Students will be given admission only in those courses they opted when applying.What we learn in CDAC?
CDAC provides you the top-most faculty to teach various computer subjects. Even a student from non-engineering background can cope up with most of the subjects. Teaching on each subject(module) lasts for a few days to weeks. Then comes a lab exam and a viva. Viva plays a major role where it covers most of the interview questions on that subject. Then next module starts and process repeats. Business communication is one of the most appreciated modules in the whole curriculum. They teach how to behave in an interview, what questions you can expect, how to prepare your resume and the dress code you needed. In one shot, they teach how to clear the HR round.How CDAC assures you a placement?
After 4-5 months of rigorous schedule, then comes the project and final exam conducted by CDAC Pune. Entire project has to be done in the campus under the guidance of the teaching staff and research faculty. Then starts the most magical thing 'Placements Season'. It starts with the best companies in the IT field. Everyone gets utmost 10 chances to clear an interview. I bet you can clear even in the first three companies if you work hard for that 6 months of time. It continues till all or most of the people had offer letters in their hand. In my batch of 90 students, nearly 95% got placed in the first 30 days, and remaining 5% are also placed in the next month.
One last thing I forgot to say, the fee for the whole program is Rs.89000/- including books, internet and learning material. Actually it varies with different courses. Even though it is a bit expensive, you don't need to think much as it is very less investment for your future. The strong point is it is from the 'Department of Electronics and Information Technology'. If you think that I can pay the fee and spend 6 months of time leisurely, then this course is not for you.
In the next article, I will come up with more details regarding different courses in CDAC and how to crack the C-CAT exam.
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