Alekhya Chakrabarty at Constellation 2026: What Makes a Fresher Stand Out in a Job Interview?

A degree might get a student shortlisted, but what happens when the interviewer asks, “What have you actually built?” This is where many fresh graduates struggle to explain their abilities.

At Constellation 2026, InfoEdge Senior Vice President Alekhya Chakrabarty addressed this issue at Polaris School of Technology. He discussed hiring trends, changing employer expectations, and what companies look for when evaluating freshers. His observations stemmed from the hiring landscape, shaped by platforms like Naukri.com.

Students who are preparing to enter the job market should pay attention to the point he raised. Certificates and academic qualifications alone cannot tell an employer how well someone can work.

A Degree Is Not the Whole Story

Students spend years getting degrees and collecting certificates thinking they will help them to stand out in placements. While academic qualifications still matter, employers want to see what a candidate can do with the knowledge they have gained.

Mr. Chakrabarty talked about the changing hiring priorities. And companies are increasingly interested in qualities like curiosity and learning ability. A fresher may not be aware of all the tools or technologies that are required for a role, but the willingness to learn something new and work through a problem can make a strong impression.

For students, this means spending less time collecting certificates simply to add another line to a resume and more time developing skills they can demonstrate.

Why Curiosity and the Ability to Learn Matter

No student enters a job knowing everything. Employers understand that freshers need training and time to settle into their roles. What matters is how they respond when they encounter something unfamiliar.

Do they try to find an answer? Can they understand feedback and improve their work? Are they willing to explore a problem instead of waiting for someone to provide the solution?

These are the qualities Mr. Chakrabarty brought into focus. Students can start developing them during college itself. Taking up an unfamiliar project, trying a new technology, or finding a better way to solve an existing problem can all provide useful learning experiences.

His Advice: Build Three Projects, Each Better Than the Last

One suggestion from his session was particularly specific. Mr. Chakrabarty asked students to work on three projects of increasing difficulty.

The idea is simple. A student should be able to show how their work has developed over time, rather than present a portfolio of similar beginner-level assignments.

For example:

Project 1: Build a simple app that demonstrates your understanding of the basics and your ability to take an idea and turn it into a working product.

Second project: Do something more demanding. Use more tools, add new features, or solve a problem that needs more thinking.

Third project. Do a project that combines different technical concepts and where you have to make your own decisions. Give recruiters something more substantial to discuss than a list of skills mentioned on a résumé.

Don’t Just Build a Project. Be Ready to Explain It.

There is another side to project work that students sometimes overlook. During an interview, simply saying that you developed an application is unlikely to be enough.

The recruiter will ask you why you chose a certain approach, what went wrong during development, or how you would improve the project today. These are questions for which the students should have answers.

Mr. Chakrabarty also stressed the value of presenting a problem in a structured manner. Candidates should be able to explain what they were trying to solve, how they went about it, and what the outcome was.

A project becomes much more meaningful when the person who built it can explain the thinking behind it.

What Students Can Learn From His Session at Constellation 2026

Mr. Chakrabarty’s advice to students preparing for placements comes down to a few practical points:

• Don’t use your degree or certificates to prove your skills.
• Bring curiosity to your everyday learning.
• Work on three projects, each one more difficult than the last.
• Keep a log of problems you encountered and how you solved them.
• Practise explaining your work without relying on memorised answers.

A Better Way to Prepare for Campus Placements

Placements often become a priority towards the final years of college. But the preparation for a first job need not begin in the placement season.

The projects students take up, the questions they ask, and the effort they put into understanding technology can all add up over time.

Alekhya Chakrabarty’s address at Constellation 2026 gave students a useful way to look at their preparation. Instead of asking how many certificates they can add to their résumé, they can ask a more important question: what can they build, and can they explain how they built it?

That shift in approach may help them walk into an interview with something more convincing than a list of qualifications.