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Rachit Jain – Geek on the top | “Stop starting, start finishing: Don’t just give up on things and then start doing something else”

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Geek on the top is all about success stories of Geeks who are working hard to chase their goals and are the inspiration for other geeks.
 
Rachit Jain is an IIT Roorkee Alumnus and a Software Engineer at Microsoft. Rachit has his programming Youtube channel named “Algorithms With Rachit Jain”. He believes that his YouTube channel empowers other students to transform their lives, become a “problem-solver” and achieve their dream jobs.
 

 

How does it feel to be working at tech giant Microsoft?
1.) You realise how important the brand is and the power it brings to your personality.
2.) You realise how things are different at tech giants as compared to start ups.
3.) You realise the perks associated with tech giants – food, transport, medical, business trips etc
4.) You realise the opportunities within the same company and you can shift teams within the organization to ensure you are always on the career path you want, learning the technologies you want.
5.) If I didn’t say it already, it feels great.

Please explain your journey from being an Electrical Engineer at IIT Roorkee to be a Microsoft star?
1.) 4 years is a huge time –
    a.) Worked on Competitive Programming a lot.
    b.) Developed Android Apps, Machine Learning projects and Backend Dev.
2.) Internships in Grofers & Flipkart gave me a professional touch about what to expect in a career in Software Engineering – the Goods, the Bads.
3.) Minors in Computer Science helped me build more credibility towards Software Career
4.) Was a part of the Development Society of IIT Roorkee, IMG – Information Management Group – learnt a lot about how Internet works and web development aspects.
5.) These were the things that opened my gates to cracking the Microsoft interview.
6.) Since I had a mixture of development skills plus strong data structure concepts, I quickly learned the new technologies at Microsoft and deliver quality products.

How should one prepare for giants like Microsoft, Google? When should students commence their preparation for the same?
1.) Google process is much different than Microsoft. For cracking Google, focus a lot on Competitive Programming. You should be able to easily crack Codeforces A, B, C, D Div2 problems and implement them quickly. You should also know about Segment Trees, Graph Theory, etc.
2.) Microsoft focuses more on LinkedLists, Stacks, Queues, Binary Search Trees, Binary Trees, etc. Ofcourse, these are subjected to change, but the general trend suggests its easier to crack Microsoft as compared to Google.
3.) Students should start as early as possible. They should do Competitive Programming religiously for 1-2 years to be able to easily crack the coding interviews.
4.) To be really productive in cracking interviews, jump away right to GeeksForGeeks and start exploring the ‘Bhagavad Gita’ as it has all the topics, explanation and code.

Do you think being an IITian played a crucial role in your win?
1.) The journey of becoming an IITian transformed me drastically – I learnt how to approach new problems in life, and the importance of right attitude towards success, failures, misery, etc.
2.) The IITian stamp does strengthen my resume and helps me build credibility and trust easily.
3.) It also enabled me to have a strong networks with high skilled IITians working in big 4 and other great firms.
4.) My YouTube channel for programming is another thing that exhibits my skills and knowledge.

How did you come to know about GeeksforGeeks? How did it help you?
1.) I regret a bit that I didn’t try GeeksforGeeks before 3rd year. I only did Competitive Programming before. I realized that most of the interview questions are pretty much easier than Competitive Programming questions, but still, there are many classic interview questions that have some particular solution which might be hard to crack in 45 mins in an interview.
2.) GeeksforGeeks provides the right experience and the vision in which students should prepare and what they can expect in coding interviews.

You are a deep follower of Data Structures and Algorithms. Do you think it is the most important subject? If not, which are?
1.) It’s super interesting and makes you a “problem-solver”. You learn how to approach new problems, break them down into smaller problems and then put the pieces together to build a complete solution to solve a particular problem.
2.) It’s indeed the most important subject needed to be a great programmer and also crack the coding interviews.
3.) Operating System, Networks are other important subjects which might be asked in interviews.

You like imparting knowledge for which you have a youtube channel as well. What keeps you attached to teaching?
1.) There are many skilled people in the world, but who is ready to give time to make an impact in the life of juniors or less-skilled people?
2.) My YouTube channel empowers other students transform their lives, become a “problem-solver” and achieve their dream jobs.
3.) Emotions are very important in my life, and someday seeing that I am a part of the reason behind “their success in life” and “achieving their dream job” is a heavenly feeling. If my audience connects with me, it motivates me.
4.) Very less people are blessed to explain their thoughts and knowledge clearly, and I try to spread education and right mindset through my YouTube channel.

How Electrical Engineering taught you time management and to perform well in fields other than your interest?
1.) I have maintained a good CGPA, very strong Data Structures, and Algorithms profile and also acquired development skills like Android App Development, Backend Django Development, Machine Learning, lost 20 Kgs in my college life.
2.) I was able to split my 4 years into months dedicated to one of the above spheres that I mentioned. I used to study for 12-14 days before my ETE & MTE, and that was enough to score a 9 pointer. Again, I am always able to share and express my thoughts clearly and that helped me score good marks in examinations as well.
3.) I started realising that to perform good in any field, just focus on the story! Understand what it’s about, what it is trying to do, and how it is trying to do. If you develop this story, you can simply perform good in that field. I don’t pick up topics one by one in detail, I rather first have an overview about what it is, and build a rough story about it.

College life has always been considered an amazing life by students. What is your catch on that? How should one utilize the time while in college?
1.) Realise that 4 years is a huge time.
2.) Have fun, don’t always be a robot and disciplined.
3.) Do introspection – this will help you come back to track and make up for the days when you were not disciplined
4.) Start building the story – don’t just read and learn! Understand why it is the way it is, what other alternatives it could have, and why this one shaped out the way it is.
5.) Utilize the breaks and lectures – think of Coding Interview problems when you are alone walking or taking a bath or getting bored in a lecture.
6.) Stop starting, start finishing: Don’t just give up on things and then start doing something else. Start off with Android dev, finish it and maybe then after sometime pick up building RESTful APIs in Django and finish it, and so on…
7.) Enhance your communication skills – Preparing for 3 years and then failing because you weren’t able to explain your thoughts is a bummer!

What is your one in a million advice to students?
It’s not about how much gifted you are, it’s all about how you react to the failures and convert them into success.
 

If you know a top Geek whose interview should also be published, please drop an e-mail to review-team@geeksforgeeks.org.

Let the top geeks inspire other students!!


Last Updated : 06 Oct, 2023
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