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I got this amazing opportunity to intern at Zomato for the role of Software Engineering. It’s a 6-month internship starting from January 2022 till July 2022. Getting an internship at a company like Zomato is a pretty big thing for me, and that too getting it off-campus, with the help of LinkedIn.
This blog is regarding the things I want the other aspirants to know about, which covers everything from the importance of LinkedIn in getting an internship anywhere off-campus to a detailed hiring process I went through to get it.
Why I Am Writing This Blog?
I have been reached out by many people on LinkedIn since the time I have posted about getting an internship at Zomato, and it’s tough to reply to every message and answer similar kinds of questions, that is why to give most of the aspirants a detailed reply I am writing this blog.
Another reason to write this blog is to help clear the misconception that there are some fixed methods to get an internship or a job, like
- On-Campus Placement Drive
- Company Career Pages
- Job Portals (like Indeed, Internshala, etc.)
The most underestimated job-seeking method is through messaging or cold messaging on LinkedIn, that is how I got the internship. I agree that the probability of getting an internship or a job is lesser compared to other methods but, it allows you to get an opportunity that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise like Zomato was for me.
My Hiring Process
Reached out to HRs and Recruiters of Zomato 💻
I started with updating my LinkedIn profile with everything I had done till then, so that when I reach out to people and they take a look at my profile they find something relevant for their use.
Next, I started growing my LinkedIn network towards the companies I was targeting, and Zomato was one of them. I started sending out connection requests to all the HRs and recruiters of Zomato, I even sent out requests to managers of Zomato as there could’ve been a possibility that a company manager takes a direct interest in my profile.
Got connected 💪
After getting connected with a couple of Recruiters, I began sending messages to them, a unique message for each one of them. The key was not just to message them, it was to attract their attention in a minimum span of time.
For that, I used to make sure of a couple of things like I am pretty active on LinkedIn, and due to which I came across a LinkedIn post shown below 👇
Here as you can see, the company is looking for Full-time Android Engineer, which means that hiring for the tech team might be active right now. So, this was my cue to start sending out the messages, as if they are looking for full-time employees, then there is no harm in asking for an internship. One thing I kept in mind before texting them is that I used to see that, is the recruiter or the HR online now? As it’s evident that I won’t be the only one reaching out to HR, that’s why, if someone is active on LinkedIn and a new message comes in then, it would be on the top of the list, at that time it wouldn’t make a difference that how many people have messaged the Recruiter till then.
I think I might have reached out to at least 9–10 Zomato employees for this, and the one which worked out for me was pretty basic, but the important thing that helped me grab their attention was to attach my web portfolio at the bottom of the message.
Why that’s important is because I have designed and built my portfolio on my own and treated it as a project itself, as according to me that’s the quickest way to demonstrate your work or at least give an idea of your skills.
Check out my portfolio for reference 👇 Mayank Aggarwal Portfolio I am a final-year student pursuing BTech in IT. My domains of interest are FullStack Development, Machine Learning…mayank0255.github.io
I Got A Reply 🎉
This is the reply I got from them, and I replied as soon as I could, so that I can get a follow-up reply instantly. Observe here, that the recruiter said,
Hi Mayank, as there is some time till your graduation, I’d suggest we discuss internship.
So, in my previous message, I didn’t mention that when I am graduating, still the recruiter mentioned it, which means that the recruiter at least checked out my LinkedIn profile or my Portfolio from where they got this information. So, I was able to grab the recruiter’s attention, and then I got a reply back which further concludes that they might’ve gotten impressed by it.
First Interview 🎓
After having a small conversation on LinkedIn further to what I talked about in the previous step, I got a 30-mins Zoom call to invite link 🎊
The call was scheduled for the same day, and I was pretty nervous as I didn’t have the time to prepare for it, and I didn’t know that would it be a basic conversation or a Tech Interview.
Then started the call, and it was just one person in front of me and it was Gunjan Patidar, CTO of Zomato itself on a one-to-one call with me 😲Though I think I was getting nervous unnecessarily as he asked me a simple question to tell everything about me to him from the skills I have, projects I have worked on, my previous internships, etc.
After this, we just had a conversation about Zomato, the tech team, and he told me that after this there would be one HR interview which is basically like a formality. So, in short, I had the internship at this point 😁
HR Interview
This was a short conversation in which basic HR questions were asked, and then questions like the joining date, role, etc., were asked.
After the call, I got the internship offer letter 🎉 🎊 on the next day itself.
So, this was my hiring process, there’s no guarantee that this is the process for everyone as I approached the company differently, and that’s why the cold messaging on LinkedIn was the key for me. I have heard Zomato hires a lot of candidates On-Campus as well, but unfortunately, it doesn’t hire from my college.
I recommend the aspirants to get active on LinkedIn, and become a part of it as opportunities through it are endless. Being active includes getting in touch with people not just to get an opportunity out of them but also to have a casual talk, to gain some of their experience and guidance.
Another thing is to keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date, and it’s not just about filling in the information, it’s also about putting it in a certain way and it’s also about putting the correct information, there shouldn’t be any false information there.
My next blog will be on “How To Take Full Advantage Of LinkedIn”, where I will be writing a complete guide for LinkedIn.
FAQs
Questions I have been asked frequently on LinkedIn regarding my Zomato Internship
- Question 1: It’s written on their career page that Zomato hires only through referrals, is that true?
- It does hire through referrals, but that’s not the only method, as they have mentioned one more thing on the career page that they will find you if you have what it takes, that means you will need to standout from other candidates.
- Question 2: Can you give me the name of the contact?
- Sorry, I can’t do that, and its not about a particular person to the opportunity, its about grabbing there attention in the minimum span of time.
- Question 3: Was it On-Campus or Off-Campus?
- This was Off-Campus, through LinkedIn.
- Question 4: Does Zomato hires On-Campus?
- Yes, it does hire On-Campus, but I am not aware of the name of the colleges.
- Question 5: Were you asked DSA questions in the interview?
- No, I wasn’t, and I think that’s not something they were looking for.
Thank you so much for reading this. I am glad to share my experience and help and motivate the others through this. Let me know in comments if there’s something I missed that you would like to know 😄