What Recruiters Actually Look For in Fresh Graduates

I've sat on the hiring side of campus interviews for the last six years. Here's what consistently moves the needle.

What Doesn't Matter as Much as You Think

• Pure CGPA above 7.5 — there's a sharp diminishing return after that.
• The college tier, if you can demonstrate skill in the interview.
• Number of certificates, especially the random Coursera ones.

What Actually Matters

1. One real project you can talk about for 30 minutes — what you built, what broke, what you'd do differently.
2. Communication clarity — can you explain a technical idea to a non-technical interviewer?
3. Curiosity signals — did you read about the company before walking in?
4. Ownership stories — anything where you led, even a college fest stall, beats five generic internships.

The Underrated Skill

Writing. Cleanly written code, cleanly written emails, cleanly written documentation. It's the cheapest thing to get right and the rarest skill to find.

If you fix that one habit before placements, you'll stand out without doing anything else.