There is no particular favorite time to start with search for off-campus jobs as it is dependent on the companies as in when they notify for a hiring process. There are off-campus drives of a lot of mass-recruiters in IT industry like Infosys, WIPRO, TCS, etc. Also a lot of core-software companies and internet technologies companies also hire majorly through off-campus. You have to look up at their career portals or other postings by them to keep a track of their hiring process.
Generally in Off-Campus Placement there are 3 major rounds:
- Written round
- Technical Interview
- HR Interview
Now based on it one must prepare right from the written round by preparing for Aptitude tests (Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, Logical Reasoning). There are are various books as well as websites which need brushing up of 10th level mathematics, English and analytical skills.
For the technical interviews one must prepare with proficiency in atleast one programming languages and some related technologies with good concept of algorithm, data structures and databases.