I am in the 7th semester of a B.Tech. program in CS. Earlier I was an avid programmer in C++. Due to various reasons, I completely lost interest. How can I acquire some skills so that I can find a job soon?

Make some Cool Projects in the field that you are interested in. There are lots of online Project Tutorials. You could try those, it improves your knowledge of the Subject as well as helps you showcase your abilities in Future Interviews.

Good to know that you are interested in aquiring skills and still interested in development. Since you have mentioned about c++ so I am assuming you want to aquire skills in c++. Though this does not mean you can not go with any other language. Learn Algorithms & Data structure and implement as much possible by urself. Learn about memory management, processing optimizations in code. Solve problems from http://spoj.com, http://codeeval.com. Also try to solve problems from http://topcoder.com, http://codechef.com. I think this is sufficient for you to aquire skills.

Since you had experience working on C++, it shouldn't be hard for you to regain command on any of OOP languages, find a simple language like perl or python and try to reach at least a moderate level of proficiency.

Perhaps this page/chart can help you: http://blog.codeeval.com/codeevalblog/2014

I think this will help

The question is do you lost interest in programming or only C++. If in C++ then try some other languages. But if you do not like programming at all, then do not worry still there are lots of good areas you can work on. May be its the time for you to search for other subjects which you are intersted in. If you like databases, then you can start some oracle certifications. Which will help you getting value and the scope of Database Administrators is much. Or you can see your interest in Networking, CCNA and CCNP are very good courses to start with. Similarly there are lots of other business analysts, Administrators, Professionls who really do not need to program. If you find your interest is shifting, then focus on other subjects which you like.

Question is do you want to be a developer or not. If you want to stick to being a developer. Well all you need to do is go through algorithm and database courses(find one basic and one intermediate course for both on Coursera ) and you will be prepared to sit for placements. If you are also planing to sit for off campus placement its better to have some sort of development experience. If you don't want to stick to development then you can go for a switch and prepare yourself for profile like Business analyst, management etc, i mean whatever catches your interest.

First identify the reason why you lost interest in programming. Be honest with yourself! Most of the time it is because you start out with something infeasible, and later end up doing nothing. Possible solutions (Note that some solutions might not work out for you, but don't give up) - 1. Try out different technologies. If you stick to C++ only, you might not feel motivated. Learn about web development, and make some thing nice in it. Try out Android development. It might be a little frustrating (slow emulator), so don't push yourself too much. Try out functional programming (like Haskell). 2. If you want to stick with C++ only, explore various things you can do with it. I will name some - high performance computing, GUI programming, game programming, networking etc. 3. Sign up on algorithmic programming contest sites. Codeforces, Codechef and Topcoder are excellent. To keep it short I won't explain how to approach competitive programming. You can refer to related questions on Quora. 4. If you don't feel like programming -- don't program. Give yourself two days of time to think what you want to do. Contribute to some open source project? Compete on Codeforces? Learn new language? Or just follow a course on Coursera? Do whatever, but do it with utmost dedication. If you don't enjoy what you are doing, do something else.

It would say get avid again with c++ first. Atleast this would help you gain interest in programing again. But do this quickly. As soon as you feel you have got a grip, try exploring new things like Data Structures or Android App development. You can try Database Administration (for Oracle or DB2 and get certifications done) also as the Datawarehousing and Business Intelligence (BI) are the fields at boom these days esp. For Banking and Pharma & Life Sciences Domain. Learn Unix also if you going into BI or datawarehousing. These all will keep you in pace with the market and give you an edge for placements and later in your work.