placement feedback guide

A collection of personal experiences and company details from Placement Session 2007-08

SPO IIT KANPUR

OVERVIEW OF PLACEMENT SESSION 2007-08

Program
B.Tech. B.Tech.-M.Tech. (Dual) M.Tech. M.Sc. (5 year) M.Sc. (2 year) OVERALL

Average Salary (lacs)

6.74 9.49 5.94 6.59 5.04 6.57

Percentage Placement
96 98 94 71 54 90

NOTE: There was a very high deviation in the compensation offered by the companies. While the highest package offered was 24 lacs per annum by Schlumberger, the IT companies offered packages round the corner of 3 lacs per annum. The average package also varied from department to department.

foreword ...

I am pleased to write this foreword on a wonderful idea from our student volunteers at Student Placement Office (SPO). Those who work at SPO have ample opportunity to interact with the placement officers from various organizations. Through these close interactions we learn about the requirements of companieswhat they look for in a prospective employee and what are the offers that they bring along. Also, we learn that where in general the students of IIT Kanpur excel or fail. We believe the students of IIT Kanpur have potential to attract the best companies with attractive profiles. However, in reality it is not always true! We have witnessed the wrong decisions of students while balancing their aspirations and abilities. To be successful in placement, we in SPO believe that we need to prepare ourselves better for facing the companies while at the same time we should know our strengths, weaknesses, liking and disliking. However, this is where the maximum confusion lies among students--what to prepare, which company to target, what should be the most important parameter to decide for a job, etc. The end result of this is delay in getting a job or getting a job which one dislikes, which leads to anxiety. Realizing this, the SPO and especially the student volunteers at SPO have been running a dedicated campaign for educating the student body on right decision making and better preparation. The Placement Feedback Guide is also an effort in this direction. Being in the form of a book it will be a permanent companion to a student. We believe and hope that this guide will be effective in helping the students. I congratulate the student volunteers and SPO staff for working for this guide. I would like to thank our Director, DOSA and DRPG for providing the necessary funds for transforming the raw idea into the present book. Also, I look forward to an updated edition of this guide next year where the input from present batch will become immensely useful. Wishing you all the best in your search for The First Job -Bharat Lohani (Chairman, SPC)

thanks ...

... for providing us with the minutest details... ... for patiently addressing all our queries... ... for taking out time to pen down your valuable experiences... ... for sharing with us, your journey into the corporate world...

The Class of 2008 We owe this to you.

contents ...

I. The Key to Success Ankit Jain How to go about securing your dream job

II. Meri Kahani Experiences of selected individuals during the Placement Session 2007-08 and their suggestions

a. Sheeraz Ahmed b. Nikhil Suri c. Mayur Dixit d. Siddharth Sodhani e. Niranjan Srinivas f. Rahul Pitty g. Cherian V. Mathew h. Ankur Aggarwal i. Nishant Singh j. Krishna Khandelwal k. Garima Joshi

7 10 12 15 17 21 26 33 35 38 40

III. Company-pdia Placement procedures of selected companies

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SECTION III

though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending

the key to success ...

When you are up against your first placements, the most important things are: 1. Identify yourself - who you are and what suits you the best. 2. Weigh all the options that are available in front of you in terms of pros and cons. 3. Prepare well according to your own interests and go ahead with confidence in your interviews. :) I. Self Evaluation This is the first step towards landing a good job. One needs to identify oneself before setting his/her goals and priorities. To meet this end, ask the following questions to yourself1. What are my skill sets? What are my strengths? 2. What kind of a work profile will suit me? Remember it is your first step into the corporate world and you do not want to end up in the wrong job. 3. What are my long-term goals? If you are able to identify them, try connecting the dots backward. Ask yourself, which route takes you there in the best possible way. What will help you? 1. Talk to alumni working in various sectors. Get a realistic picture of the work profiles. Are they happy with their job? Ask them how they found out what they wanted. 2. Use the PAS feedback database to get easily available feedback. 3. Do not keep any pre-conceived notion on any of the options right at the outset. Get to know as much as possible and then only weigh your options. Hard Fact: Keep in mind your academic performances and your qualities while analyzing yourself. II. Analysis of the available options Having determined your own goals, strengths and weaknesses, you should evaluate the available options on the following parameters: 1. Profile offered by the company: a. Kind of company and the work that it has offers. Often many companies do not elaborate the profile correctly in the PPTs. Quiz the company officials thoroughly to get the real picture.

b. Try to identify what value would you add to yourself while working in the company and at the same time, what value would you add to the company. It is very important to know your responsibility in the company. 2. Growth in the company. While the initial salary packages can be very high in many of the companies; the growth might not be that good. On the other hand, there might be companies which offer low initial packages but the growth opportunities might be tremendous. 3. Compensation Package: How it scales up over the years. 4. There is also a trade off between joining a start-up versus a brand name. While in a start-up, your word will count more; in a big brand name you would be working in projects worth a lot of bucks. III. Placement Preparation Once you have narrowed down on the options that suit you and your target companies, get on the ground level and start preparing. The sets of preparation vary from sector to sector and company to company. Some of the following points will surely help you: 1. Prepare basic interview questions well. List of such questions is easily available on LAN. 2. Read the websites thoroughly before going for interviews. 3. Compare your skill set to the skills that the companies require and start filling in for the gaps. 4. Make groups in your departments/wings and prepare together. It helps as you yourself might not know what your mistakes are. Fellow batchmates observing you will point out your faults. 5. There has been a very strong feedback by many companies complaining about communication skills lacking in the students. Make constant effort to present your thoughts in an organized and effective way by discussing a lot in groups. Here is a basic set of DOs and DONTs to be followed by you during the course of the next semester: DOs: During the placement semester: 1. Attend PPTs and ask questions. Be decently dressed in the PPTs and adhere to punctuality. Make notes during the PPTs; the companies nearly divulge the exact set of qualities that they are looking for. 2. The first step to start placement preparation is to make your CV. Do not delay the first version of your CV beyond September starting. Get your CV reviewed by alumni in the company that you are applying to, by your close friends and from someone who does not know you to get a gauge of whether you are able to reflect yourself properly on paper or not. 3. There would be a lot of sessions and workshops that would be organized by the Students Placement Office. Attend them sincerely.

4. Adhere to the deadlines set by the SPO very strictly. They have been set keeping in mind your own good. During the placement season: 1. Be punctual. Arrive 10 minutes before the interview at the interview venue. 2. Be very sure before applying to a company. 3. Be confident about yourself. You might falter in an interview. Learn from your mistakes and move ahead. DONTs: During the placement semester: 1. Do not leave everything for the last moment. Prepare well in advance. Do not wait for the semester to end and the placement season to start. Utilize your placement semester well. 2. Avoid walking off in between the PPTs. It creates a very bad impression in front of the companies and reflects indirectly in the final recruitment. 3. Do not be complacent even if you have a very good CV. There have been instances that even ten pointers have not been placed till the 10th day. During the main placement phase: 1. Do not panic and start applying to every company in the order set by the office. Do not be misled by the herd. Do what suits you the best. 2. Do not set your expectations very high. Be realistic. -Ankit Jain Overall Placement Coordinator (2007-08)

The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." - H.W. Longfellow

sheeraz ahmed... itc

Now I can do this in at least two ways. I can either go about preaching the ideal path, the way it should be, which most likely would be etched into your minds by the time you read it or else I can narrate the way I did it, which was far from being ideal or perfect. I prefer it the latter way as then the accounts sound much more credible in my opinion. So, till halfway through my 3 year I knew little about placements, to put it euphemistically. I first started seriously thinking about placements when the seniors who got selected in Mckinsey came to talk to us. I felt like consulting was something that should keep me interested long enough. But as placements were almost a year away I thought it was safe to postpone further consideration and I did for almost seven months until the start of my 7 semester. Thats when you better become serious unless you are in the mood of some real experimentation. As soon as the semester started I was greeted by an incessant chain of PPTs. Now just because the way I put it doesnt diminish their importance. The only suggestion regarding PPTs is: never leave one if you think theres even a remote chance that you might interview for the company. You can be selective though based on what are you looking for, like in my case I did not go to the PPTs of those companies which offered IT profile because coding is not where my strength lies. Next important step is resume making. God bless Mckinsey for motivating a characteristically lazy piscean as myself to make a good two page resume. On a serious note, its better to have your resume ready well before the SPO deadline because you generally dont make a sterling resume in one shot. Bug your friends and seniors for feedback and incorporate if you judge them correct. Remember its your resume and you should gladly burden the responsibility of making it stand out. That by no means hint to faking achievements, for instance it might come as a surprise to few but people who shortlist resumes actually know that institute team of any sport has only one captain. So, finally I had attended enough PPTs, completed my resume and made some changes to fit different profiles and had a notion of what kind of company I wanted to join. What I chose to neglect was preparation in the domain of written tests. Now, you might be very good at mathematics and data interpretation might sound like a trivial exercise but when it comes down to solving some 30 odd questions believe me its practice that counts and not just knowing the stuff. To sum it up, if you are not already preparing for CAT as was the case with me, it never hurts to solve a few of the papers, revise a few formulas and visit a few tricks.
th rd

shezzy153@gmail.com Interviewed by: McKinsey, Lehman Brothers, NVidia, ITC

sheeraz ahmed
Comes in my first company: Mckinsey. As a part of preparation I devoted time in thinking about the HR questions, clarifying each and every point in my resume and doing case studies. My first interview started on the age old note of, tell me something about yourself. It proceeded through a few more questions to a case study of estimating the number of marriages in India per year. I fell for THE FRAMEWORK which is not the best thing to happen during a case study but thanks to the interviewer that I recovered and did a satisfactory job. In my second interview it was again some HR questions followed by the case about increasing the viewership of channel V. It being one of the very few channels I ever watched I did good justice to this case. The results came and I made it to the next round. My next interviewer jumped directly to a case which involved the cutting down of time spent in a medical procedure. Here, some of my Robin Cook novels and the series Lost came to help and I was able to think in a medical fashion providing suggestions which the interviewer regarded to be good. But well, looks like I was destined to go for more interviews. So, a halfhearted goodbye Mckinsey. The end semester exams got over and placement fever engulfed us all. Well as I already talked about my mistake of not preparing for tests it should not come as any shock when I tell you that I did not make it to the shortlists of DB and Capone. So, I have a good CPI and extracurricular and I can do this and that yada yada but it all comes down to the simple fact of doing well in those tests. Not pursuing it any further lets talk about the one I did qualify for and that was Lehman. First interview started with tell me something about yourself (no points for guessing that) and then the interviewers, a panel of three with a lady from HR, started to roll. Questions after questions of long forgotten courses on mathematics and electronics most of which I was able to answer fortunately enough. Then I added that I liked psychology and the guy quipped, Well do you know about Maslow? That was unexpected, I thought. I mean it was PSY151, the course I did in 1 semester but as that is one of the few subjects I loved, I happened to remember enough about Maslow. Guess that was not all as the lady said, So, what do you think about Vrooms model? That was the point at which I chose to lower my weapons. It was far beyond PSY151. So, I get shortlisted for the next phase and am told that I might be a good candidate for quantitative work which is what I wanted to do. Now in my next interview, a one on one, the interviewer doesnt care about HR much except for perhaps that I won Mridaksh. With that little digression he is all probability and matrices and permutations and risk and so on. I got almost all of them right. So why didnt they select me then? Well, as it happens to be the case there was another round of interview for two people with quantitative aptitude, I being one of them. This was the one which made the difference. One of the interviewer was standing right over me asking why I had lower percentage in *ahem* class 10. Then he couldnt seem to believe that I wanted to take up a job after a good academic record. I tried and explained but nothing seemed to convince him. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin was when I was tested on market awareness and that happens to be the field I cant boast about as I always thought such encyclopedic knowledge would not be used to test a candidate. Guess I was wrong! I hadnt lost my hope thinking I did pretty well in the other two interviews but my optimism was not rewarded. They left with the feedback that I was the kind of student who would surely go for a scholarship. Well, goodbye to you too Lehman.
st

sheeraz ahmed
As I lay in my bed, my mind was invaded by a flux of thoughts. What was wrong that I did not make it the first day? I mean my friends always told me that I will and I felt confident too. I was disappointed beyond words could contain and I did not sleep too well, introspecting and thinking and suspecting myself. It was very difficult for me but I resolved to prepare for the next day and perhaps for the one of the few companies left that actually interested me. I read almost all I could find on the website about ITC; that was the best I could do then. The day began and I was able to maintain a demeanor that revealed very little of the chaos inside of me. It was a few hours before my first round would come so I decided to appear for Nvidia test with literally no hopes of making through as I knew the questions were going to be based on digital circuit design, something I hadnt visited in quite some time. It was a subjective test and I gave it an honest try, leaving some of the most obvious ones but tackling some others which didnt require much of factual knowledge. Coming back to ITC, the first round was a group discussion wherein we were supposed to rank some objects on the basis of their perceived utility for the survivors of a plane crash in a rainforest. The key was to pick up the right spot to put your point and the authenticity of the point. I didnt do much talking but instead made a few good points. I was shortlisted for the next phase! Back in the hostel, I was easing myself with a light discussion over lunch when I came to know that I was shortlisted for Nvidia. My first reaction was that it cant possibly be true, but then it was. I dont know if I can convey the confusion and indecision I faced at that time with two interviews scheduled at the same time with entirely different nature of work. I had no time to visit any of my courses on digital circuits and so the interview with Nvidia was more like a candid discussion. The interviewer told me that he liked me as a person and that he was impressed but opined that I wouldnt be a fit for the company. Actually that was more of a mutual conclusion we reached at after 30 minutes of chatting (cant exactly call that an interview). Now we are nearing the climax here. I went back to ITC for the interview but after a few starters I was told that they had nothing else to ask. Now that was a first timer, was it some new technique of stress interviewing. But apparently it wasnt! I was asked to take 15 minutes to take a walk and then tell them if I would like to join the company. So, I walked and after talking to a few seniors at ITC I told them that I wanted to. The last interviewer was a big shot in the company and was very interactive. We talked for sometime and here was a person who actually believed that I was not going for higher education. And so I got the offer My main motive to narrate my exact experience was to point out some obvious mistakes, some play of luck and some general preparedness. How you prepare yourself for the placement season is your prerogative. There are footprints but the best way is to just use them as heuristics and prepare the way that complements you the best. I could just hope that what I said was beneficial to you guys. If you still have some details to discuss or any other thing that you think I might be able to help with, you know where to drop in an email.

nikhil suri...

transocean

From dawn to dusk my interviews with Transocean This is a very short story. In the scheme of the stories that make up a life, hardly worthy of more than a paragraph in hindsight. But in foresight probably worth much more, but only if done with complete honesty. My sincerity to this aim is yours to judge. My introduction to Transocean started with the selection of a close friend for summer internship in it. Over the summers I got a good second hand view into the company through his experiences and observations. Come, the placement season and I was targeting the financial companies as my first choice. Failed to make it through to the interview shortlist of every single one of them that came in the first two days for reasons ranging from low test scores to low CPI. I was dejected a little but I was expecting the same mostly because of my low CPI, and so it didnt dampen my spirits as much as it did those of my friends who didnt get selected after the interviews. Day three was when I first saw my name in a GD shortlist for Transocean. Apparently I had done well in their written test. And they didnt mind my resume either. The same day Schlumberger refused to consider me for their GDs. A weird contradiction considering that eventually Trans found me good enough to hire but Schlum didnt even think me good enough to give a look in their GD round. By the end of the placement process, this had happened often enough and with amazingly competent people to lift my faith from the company short listing procedures. For our GD we got the topic, Social networking sites. After a few minutes of thinking someone started the GD, and I was the third person to speak and went in favor of them. It so happened that none after me had the good sense to take an opposing view. Consequently, people coming in later into the GD did not have many points to speak, and a few probably lost out on the chance to going into the next stage. Our GD concluded with everyone nodding their heads in unison to the topic. It was overall a pretty lame affair. I got selected for the interviews. As per Rishi(one of the interviewers from Trans and an alumni), they selected everyone who put forward coherent, well-formed thoughts. They were basically looking out for hints of a logical thought process. The company announced two rounds of interviews for final selection. The first round was a very quick(2-5 minute) elimination round in which it was clear that the recruiters merely wanted to decide on their doubts about a few candidates. These people were asked to introduce themselves and state the reason for their interest in transocean, while the rest were let go with questions like 'have you had your food'(not joking! one person was asked the name of his HOD and

nikhil.suri.india@gmail.com Interviewed by: Schlumberger, Transocean

10

nikhil suri

then they thanked him and told him that they'll talk to him in the next round). I belonged to the latter group and after a half-hearted enquiry into my B.Tech project they thanked me and told me to wait for the second round. After the first round was over, they decreased the shortlist to 20 from an intial 30 odd students. Then they did a very interesting thing. The recruiters spoke to us and told us that they thought it unfair that the first student who comes in has no idea about the questions hes going to face while the later interviewees get a chance to gain from his experience. So to overcome his they handed us copies of the evaluation sheet they were going to use to decide on us. The sheet included topics like personal presentation, strengths, weakness, risk taking ability, and mostly the usual HR interview topics. After about four hours of wait for my turn I was called in for the second round. It started off as a stress interview. They didn't even ask me to introduce myself, instead straightaway started off with 'Why Transocean'. I had barely spoken a few points when they literally jumped onto me in hindi,'arre yeh toh BHEL mein bhi hota hai', 'aur yeh interest hai toh ONGC join karo'. I defended each of my reasons and countered every point they raised,while trying to not get hassled, to the point of fighting it out with one of the interviewers that the profile for ONGC did not suit what I was looking for. He finally told me to trust him that similar work was done by ONGC as well. Apparently they were looking for aggression, so this went in my favour. Later they asked questions like 'how is the flying of an helicopter different from flying of a bird'. Something I reasoned out aloud and answered. Asked me a few simple questions on probability, all the time trying to hassle me, and rush me. Then came questions about how do I think I will adjust to the Transocean life, my strengths and my weakness. Thereafter they gave me a moral dilemma question of where my brother was in peril and I had a company responsibility worth millions. I was asked to choose between the two. I started off by stating that incase there was nothing special I could do for him, I would attend to my responsibility. Then they insisted that none else could help him. To which I bluntly answered that then I would abandon the company and go to my brother's help. They tried pressurizing me with question of my irresponsibility towards the company but I refused to budge. A note of caution: In the rapid fire stress situation, in the middle I was asked the question of whether I attended the Trans ppt. A 'yes' literally slipped out of my mouth, despite the fact that I had not. They then asked questions to corroborate the fact, of which I then cooked up answers to as I did not wish to back down. However after the interview I realized that there was no way that they would not have realized that I had bluffed. As soon as the next candidate came out, I went back to the room and admitted my mistake to the panel. I just barely made it. I almost sabotaged what had been a good interview. I went back to my hostel room, convinced that Id lost my chance that day. I noted down the time for the written test of the company coming the next day and went off to sleep. At around midnight I was woken up the continued pounding on my door. My overjoyed friends barely containing their joy informed a half-asleep me of my selection into the company. I later found out that had I not gone back in that day to tend the apology, I wouldnt have been writing this as a success story.

11

mayur dixit...

db

Placements!!! The single most important but most neglected thing for junta herewe will get a decent job here as we have done many things at campus or we cant aim for most wanted jobs as we neither have good academic record nor we were different in extra-curricular, lets see what happens! These are the statements passed by many here which by far seems correct if there would not have been a term defined as Preparation. From my personal experience and from all those which I have seen or heard, this is the most powerful factor which can outperform any kind of luck or past experiences. Starting from identifying our interests, attending PPTs, making resume to the final interview..each step has its own significance and cant be taken as trivial. So, lets start.. The first thing I did was to identify some of the companies; I would like to get into and started collecting points for resume relevant to those firms or sectors. This is very important as requirements for finance may differ from that of consulting or Core and so on. So, as per the profile offered by these firms, things should be highlighted in the resume. Resume making should start ASAP so that there is much time to get it reviewed by seniors in those firms or by friends as this is a long iterative process. In my case, every other person pointed out some or the other statements which can be made better. Also resume making should start from scratch and not by save as the resume you have got from your friend or senior with your name. There are lots of resumes shared which can be looked upon for getting the idea of how to use strong verbs, what to emphasize in 1 or 2 page resume, formatting, etc but at the end, the resume should be yours completely. Now, concentrating particular companies, I would start with Mck which especially requires preparation of Case Studies other than normal HR questions. Since, first short listing was done on the basis of resumes, so again its very important to highlight some spike in your career in the best possible way. The interview had 2 rounds initially after which one shortlist was given. In the first one, after asking some questions from my resume, like why consulting, about internship,etc..I was asked a case to estimate the washing machine market of India..I was asked to think and come up with some answer and take as much time as I want. I just focused domestic market but was then asked to look for industries also L I lost some track here and was not able to clearly see what is the market to washing machines as far as industries are concerned apart from textilesthen I was asked to list out the factors of buying a new washing

chaoticmayur@gmail.com Interviewed by: McKinsey, DB, LB, CapOne

12

mayur dixit
machine, I said the obvious ones and then was asked to come up with a number depicting the number of machines which will be sold next year..I was not at my best but somehow got some answer which the interviewer said is ok and the interview ended up in 30 minutes. Later on, for the second interview, a partner called me in. He asked me about my pre IIT experiences and about my family background. Then he gave me simple case to calculate the number of cricket bats sold per year in India and then the market of this commodity. I did the case quickly and told him the steps and final answer which he said that that looked somewhat on the lower side and then asked me to leave. I asked me some questions and the interview was over in 15 minutes!!! L came and I was not there. shortlist Next, there were I banks..with me in front of them having no idea of finance, job profile and so on. But attending PPTs and talking to seniors in these firms helped a lot. I got my doubts cleared on how to prepare for them and what all to show in the resume. Preparing for CAT helped in getting through the written CAT-type test of DB and was shortlisted on the basis of resume in Lehman. But still what special to prepare for these banks when you dont know a b c d of finance and havent shown any interest in them previously? Now here come the friends :D One of my dept mate who got PPO from Lehman gave me the basics of derivatives and finance and I discussed my doubts with him and then with other junta, Started reading Economic Times on daily basis and some chapters of Hull. Solved puzzles (available on LAN) and looked upon some current market news and funde of bonds, shares, stocks, etc. Its not that they want you to know finance but the point is that priority will always be given to those with some financial background, so why not prepare?! Now on the day of interview, I had DB, Capone and Lehman in line. Starting with Capone..1st interview, 5-6 minutes duration, total HR types with question like why Capone, why not further studies, about internship, about one extra curricular activity in IITK and one incident where I worked in a team and got some results. Short listed for the second round in which I was given a case study, I started good, understood the problem and suddenly 10+0.5 = 11.5 made the scene bad L up later part but ..I screwed came up with correct conclusion (dont know how, perhaps Mck preparation helped J not ) but was selected for further rounds..Capone chapter over.

Second was DB. 1st interview..2 interviewers in the panel..again was asked why not further studies, why not core job and why finance..be prepared for these questions, if you yourself are convinced about these, then only you will be able to get them in your ideas, but dont lie!! Then I was asked about my optimization project and one puzzle (I already knew some modification of that puzzle) and was asked to write an algo using dynamic programming to solve that puzzle!!! I was asked many questions on algos L ..probably they misunderstood me as CSE guy :P but somehow got answers to most of them after taking some time..interview lasted some 25-30 minutes and was shortlisted for 2nd round. There were 4 people in the panel, including VP. 1st question again why not further studies!! UffI nearly laughed there that I am not tired of answering that question and completely convinced them about my plans and why I think

13

mayur dixit

about my career in that waythey asked why you dont know much about finance, some basic questions on derivatives, stocks, bonds (please read about them from investopedia). It lasted for about 20 minutes and went well. Finally got a call from DB.

Last was Lehman. 1st interview..could not have been worse..1st question about one of my project and I was not able to answer some of the questions they asked, 2nd question onwards maths and puzzles (revise MTH 102 and 103matrices, +ve definite, differential equations), was asked to count number of edges in a 6 dimensional cube, to complete a totally arbit sequence, Hessian matrix, optimization techniques, risks, hedging, and what not L they asked me what I will offer to Lehman and I still said Maths J finally . Was not expecting to get short listed but again against the expectations, was shortlisted for the second round. Now there were 4 panelists..one of them started firing questions one by one on me..asked me to manage resources to build a bridge, about my poor financial background, and now here come..my mobile started ringing..imagine now..a total stress interview with you not able to even speak what you want to and your mobile suddenly starts ringing, I somehow managed the situation and at the end, one of them said that it was a stress interview, so dont feel otherwise J the 3rd round, totally HR..about me, went to my family, my education, hobbies, why I banking, how to differentiate between Lehman and other banks, preferred location, etc. So, these were my interview experiencescrux is to prepare and prepare, think a lot about yourself, which profile suits you, consult seniors, ask questions and understand that the deciding factor is your impression in interview and nothing else. For any further queries, feel free to contact me at chaoticmayur@gmail.com.

14

siddarth sodhani... adobe

Thinking about what to do after graduation here, the first option that came to mind was CAT. Seniors would advise CAT tou de do, keep an option open. Agreed on to the suggestion and joined IMS for the same. Intern brought an entirely different exposure of research. The feeling that you owe a thing and then came the time to decide between Core job or GRE. CAT took a back seat then for the obvious reason, it could be given later as well. Talking to seniors got an impression that a core job in software company is at times not challenging, all you do is code and thats it. But a 3 months of exposure during intern, I thought was not sufficient to do research for the coming 5 years. Then I decided, lets give a shot to job first and if I like the job, I could very well go for Ph.D. and if core job doesnt excites me, CAT as an option tou hai hi!!! And there it was, a focus to get a good job at a firm which could give me sufficient exposure for the next 2 years and henceforth decide Ph.D. or MBA. The target was set, saw feedback of various seniors on the portal regarding the interview process etc and how one should prepare for it. One thing I realized during placements is, be focused. Dont sit in companies just for the sake of it because once you apply for a company, the drive inside would tell you to study for the same and then the vicious circle would be set up. You wont be able to put in good effort in focus area of yours, which obviously would affect you. But let me tell you, its a tough call to not sit in a good company like DB, Lehmann, Mckinsey etc. The peer pressure during that phase would be high, but go ahead with the same. Focus and prepare well. At the end what matters is, which company you are placed in and not the Day you were placed, work that you would perform and not the package they would offer, satisfaction at the end of every day and not just the salary day. Starting on with preparation of resume, I knew that at no stage during the placement process, my resume would have to come across a shortlist scheme wherein the answer would be yes or no at the end of 40 seconds. Applying only to core companies, I had to keep my project descriptions short and crisp. For a core company, when you are sure that your resume would be seen only during the interview, you are not expected to do much beautification. You can very well highlight stuff using bold/italics and explain during the interview. 2 page resumes for a core company is expected, as 1 page wont be able to cover your project details. The way I proceeded to make my resume was, made half page paragraph for each of my projects explaining myself what I did, and simply recalling back how did I proceed then. Writing that gave me deeper insight and was very much clear during the interviews.

siddharth.sodhani@gmail.com Interviewed by: Tower Research, Yahoo, Adobe

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siddarth sodhani
To make these descriptions small, selected important words which should be there and then made 4 points for each of the project. Trust me, this would take a lot of time. Its not easy to write a project description in 4 lines which should cover each and every aspect of it. Be ready with questions like, importance of your project, its uses in the real world, the reason you it was done etc. As I wrote before, once I focused myself for core companies, started preparing for the same. Companies ask very trivial questions in the interview. At no stage, I felt that I didnt know this or that. What matters is you should be precise, which cant be the case if you are not prepared. Tech interviews do expect you to answer with technical jargons. Saying things like, I remember, it used to happen with some handler which would do something is not at all appreciable. Stop saying words like some, and be precise and hence prepare well. I regret today that I prepared well for interviews but not for tests. Tests are very important, as they are the short listing phase in any core company. I didnt prepare much for HR questions because I thought that most of them are impromptu and ask me about what I am. I was confident that I could explain what I mean and hence didnt prepare much on HR. For core, revise courses of your second year which are fundamental courses from your department. Once the schedule was out, I sat and decided in what all companies I would apply and what would be the priority order, if selected in both. Just as a suggestion, dont just sit in for every company on each day, until one day that you decide you want to sit in just 2 companies and just crack them. Companies are here to take you but you need to perform well in the interview.

6 December 07: Started the day with another bright morning, the test got delayed and was shifted to 2 in the afternoon. After giving the test, I generally used to go to room and slept for sometime until the results for short listed candidates are out. Got selected for interviews and had the first interview at 11:00 in the nightL . The interviewer was pretty cool and helpful, after a 10 mins discussion on intern project, we went ahead with some coding exercise to convert a number into hexadecimal and print it. He figured out bugs in the code and made me correct them. Talked about various operating systems concept like Memory Management and some algorithmic questions on Binary Search Tree. He asked a simple trivial puzzle as well. The interview went on for 40 mins and next was scheduled at 12:30 am..!! The lady who took the interview asked a well known puzzle on clock and then she asked me about my GRE score. Then was the time that I converted the Tech interview into HR interview. Gave her fundaes about why core job now and she was impressed. J During that time, students who couldnt clear for the next round were sent to room and I was asked to wait. That gave a hint that either it would be another interview or I am selected. Waited and the last interview was scheduled at 2:45 am in the night. Got pretty tired by that time and couldnt even solve a simple coding problem. The interviewer laughed saying probably its late night issue. Then we just had a talk on BTP and some stuff on Hashing algorithms and we were done. The results were announced and I got placed. The day was mine or better to say the night was mine: P Talk to yourself during the entire interview, let your mind speak and do have the attitude that every job is mutual relation. Its not that you need a company, company also needs you.

16

niranjan srinivas...
I. Tower Research Capital

lehman brothers

I had my first interview with Tower Research. The interview lasted one hour, and the interviewer started with my resume. He asked me to explain my MSc. Project, which I did. I think I managed to convey the central idea of the project, and he seemed happy with it. I had practiced this earlier and that helped. Next, he went over the written test that we had taken the previous day. He asked me whether I had tried any of the questions after the test. I was honest and told him that I did not expect to get short listed for Tower, since I had not done the C/C++ intensive Computer Science questions in the test and had done only the language-neutral / algorithm-based questions, and because I had two other interviews today, I had spent my time preparing for those. He was happy with that answer and asked me to try some questions in the interview. I came up with an answer to one question, to which he gave me two hints to improve. I managed to use them in making the algorithm more efficient. Then he asked me some reasonably easy puzzles which I answered without difficulty. Lastly, he asked me to solve another question using an algorithm and a similar sequence of hint-giving and algorithm-improving followed. By the end of this interview, I was very confident and totally tension-free. This was because I had performed my very best in the Tower interview, and I couldnt imagine how I could have done better, given my background (limited CS) and preparation. In that sense, this interview made me lose all my interview-anxiety, and was crucial to my placement day J II Deutsche Bank a)First Interview: There were two people in my panel, one guy seemed senior, and the other, maybe an Analyst with a year or two of experience. He started with Why are you quitting Math for Finance? and I explained that I knew that Finance today was largely mathematical and quantitative, and that I hope to leverage my Math-Stat skills in the industry. After that, he asked me some questions on one of my projects in Mathematical Finance. He followed that up with some very easy questions, including pricing forwards etc, and then some general questions on Mathematical Finance, including Martingales, Stochastic Calculus, etc. This part was quite mathematical and non-trivial, and since I had prepared very well I answered all the questions, and he was impressed.

niranjan.srinivas@gmail.com Interviewed by: Tower Research, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers

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niranjan srinivas
Then there were some general questions - why DB and whether I had given GRE and what my score was. I knew Im not good at lying, specially under-pressure, so I told them my true score (however, this meant that I had to spend a few minutes convincing them that I am not applying this year.) After that, I was asked whether I had any questions, and I asked some about the various roles inDB etc. b)Second Interview: In this interview there were four members on the panel, including one from HR. They said they were tired and that I had to drive the interview, which I was happy to do. I started introducing myself and then they wanted to know a bit about my projects etc, and then asked me some easy questions on them. One of them asked me some questions on derivatives (I had done a course on them) but they were rather easy as well. Then they asked me whether I had any questions on DB or if I knew enough about them. I said confidently that I had done my research on them and that I knew DB well. (I said this because I expected questions on DB from them, which I was confident I could answer.) However, they were happy with that and ended the interview there. This was one of the shorter interviews, and after the interview I was wondering if I should have asked a few questions instead of what I said, but thankfully it turned out well. I think it is best to be aggressive in any I-Banking interview. III Lehman Brothers a)First Interview: I had taken my resume and documents in a Counseling Service folder, hoping that an interviewer would look at that and ask me about my role there. That happened in this interview, and I got to tell them about my role and responsibilities as a Student Guide in my second year right in the beginning of the interview. Then, they looked at my resume and began some general chit-chat on world cricket (my resume has a lot of cricket in it.), the Australian team, the Indian team, differences between the two etc. This was very easy talk and I made some points about the Aussie Cricket infrastructure etc. Then, I was asked a couple of puzzles which I answered. The next question was to give an instance where I worked in a team. I had a well-prepared answer here relating to the cricket team and was midway through it when the interviewer interrupted me and asked another puzzle (!). I think my answer must have bored him too much J So probably its good to keep your answers on the shorter side J was alright, and I got very close but did not quite solve it. This puzzle The interviewers stopped me and said I had gotten close enough and that I can stop attacking the puzzle (I think they mustve been impressed with me already, or they just got bored with the puzzle / my attempts at it.) Then, I was asked whether I had any questions, and I asked them some questions on the various roles at Lehman, and a few others. That ended the interview.

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niranjan srinivas
The next question was to give an instance where I worked in a team. I had a well-prepared answer here relating to the cricket team and was midway through it when the interviewer interrupted me and asked another puzzle (!). I think my answer must have bored him too much J So probably its good to keep your answers on the shorter side J was alright, and I got very close but did not quite solve it. This puzzle The interviewers stopped me and said I had gotten close enough and that I can stop attacking the puzzle (I think they mustve been impressed with me already, or they just got bored with the puzzle / my attempts at it.) Then, I was asked whether I had any questions, and I asked them some questions on the various roles at Lehman, and a few others. That ended the interview. b)Second Interview(HR): This was the trickiest interview of the day! When I went in, I was very confident, probably a bit over-confident. I assumed that the HR interview would be a cake-walk! (Which it wasnt.) The questions were hard right from the start: How do you rate (on a scale of 1-10) your performance in the previous interview ? Why ? How do you expect to perform (on a scale of 1- 10) in this interview ? Why ? Based on each of my answers, there were supplementary questions. By this time all alarm bells were ringing and I was focusing majorly on the interview ! Then, I had to answer Why Finance? Why Lehman? etc and my answer to the latter led to a discussion on ethics (which I did not anticipate!) Should one always do the good thing to do or the right thing to do? I tried to avoid giving a straight answer but was then asked to give a Yes/No answer to a situation. Thankfully, after some thought I managed to give the answer she wanted J Then there were some questions on myself, what my friends would say about me, whether Ive received criticism from others, and the like (for the latter, I rehashed my prepared answer on my weaknesses.) Finally (!) the interview ended with some questions on my family. Lessons: Although by the end of the interview she was very pleased with my answers, there were lots of tricky moments in between. Take the HR interview very seriously, and do not assume it would be a cakewalk ! Always say the most politically-correct things (regardless of what your real opinion is !) and research the company thoroughly. I had done my homework on Lehman and that really helped me. c) Third Interview: The third interview started with the classic Tell me about yourself. I was mid- way into my prepared answer when one of the two interviewers interrupted me and asked me which IIT-coaching class I had gone to in Chennai. Apparently we were both from the same coaching class there (!) This was a surprise during the interview.

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niranjan srinivas
Then, the other interviewer took over and asked me some basic questions on my MSc. Project (which is on Risk Management.) I could see that he was not a math-person so I explained my project to him in simple terms (practicing this helps !)Then, I was asked Why finance and more specifically Why finance in industry as opposed to working as an applied math person in Mathematical Finance in a University? This was another question I had prepared for. Then I was asked who all I was interviewing with, and since by then I knew that I did not make it to the second interview in Tower, I mentioned that I had interviewed with Deutsche. After this I was asked some questions on my interests in various groups in Lehman, then my opinion on the finance industry in general, and then, finally, whether I had any questions. I said I had no questions, which seemed to surprise both interviewers. I clarified, saying that I had asked all my questions in the previous Lehman interviews, and that I was happy with the answers I received, and so I did not want to ask questions just for the sake of asking questions. This was the truth, I did not want to repeat questions, and further I was wary that before the final results the interviewers might discuss with each other, and I did not want them to think that I had asked the same questions in two interviews (!) J they seemed happy with that answer and that ended the interview. In any case, This had been my sixth interview of the day! Be prepared for a long, hectic day during the placement process. However, focusing on the interviews will not really be a problem; your adrenaline will take care of that! All the very best!!!

20

rahul pitty...

futures first

I would tell you how I started with the preparations and what all things I focused on. It will look like these things may be achieved in a months time but I would suggest you to start at least 3 months before placements because I did that and then also felt the shortage of time. Before going further would like to say, feel free to contact me any time for all the gyaan related to interviews or any thing. I used to constantly take feedbacks from my seniors and believe me that was the best source of learning. Pre Placement Season At the beginning of the 7th sem I had made up my mind that I dont want to do MS or Phd but I was still confused between MBA and job. So I decided to prepare for both, which later on I realized that there was a lot common in the preparation of the two. After deciding this, the next question that came to my mind was what kind of job I want? To answer this question I needed to develop basic market knowledge about the various sectors and the companies in those sectors which I did by regularly updating myself through newspapers, internet, business magazines etc. At least a month before the placements I was sure that I would apply only for consulting and finance profiles, since there were more than 5 companies on a single day so having a preference helped me focus better and do well in the interviews. Resumes: It is the very first test of your creativity by any company and is equally important like any interview. I tried to add some spikes in my resume which is required for both consultancies as well as finance. I started making my resume in September and after hundreds of changes and feedbacks from the seniors (which is most important) and it took me more than a month, so start with resume as early as possible PPTs: The most important thing that you learn in ppts is the details of the work profile which you wont find any where else. It is the best place to get an answer to all the questions in your mind. So I would suggest you to try and attend as many ppts as possible not because of the compulsion in attendance but for its benefits. In any ppt make sure that the company tells you the breakup of the compensation package as there are many hidden expenses included in the package.

rahul.pitty@gmail.com Interviewed by: DB, JP Morgan Chase, KPMG Consulting, Futures First

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rahul pitty
Preparation: This is the most important input in getting a good job. This basically includes 3 things, Discussions: We used to make a group of 8-10 within our department and sometimes in my Group wing and discussed on any topic for 15-20 minutes. It would be just like a bulla session but in English and an element of formality involved in it. After the GDs the participants gave the feedback to each other which was most important. For GDs try to keep yourself updated with the current affairs coz most of the times the topics are related to recent happenings. And one more thing dont feel shy or left out, say whatever you want to say even if you think that the discussion is chaotic. Case Studies: Make a group of 3-4 people one would be the interviewer, an interviewee and the rest to just watch and would give the feedback at the end. Take up any case from the numerous case books available on the LAN and conduct such sessions. How ever tough or easy the case may be you always learn how to structure the problems and the basic knowledge which is applicable in most of the cases. Do solve lot of puzzles, this will further add to your logical thinking. This can be best done while you go to the canteen every night because a discussion can add a lot dimensions to it.

Interviews: The basic mantra for a PI is to show a positive body language, be cheerful and Personal speak confidently. This basically involves the HR questions and questions related to the stuffs written in your resume. This round is conducted by every company irrespective of whether it is a core or a non core company. I prepared myself for general questions and also participated in various one on one interviews with my friends, initially I thought that such interviews with friends wont be a formal one but I was wrong, it helped me a lot later on. Workshops: There would be numerous workshops conducted by the companies and the SPO. Dont miss out on any of them as it is the most easy and effective way to learn. Deutsche Bank (Written Test + 2 rounds of interviews) Written Test: Contains 2 sections, 1st of math and data interpretation and the other related to market awareness and finance. The former was the most important and it can be easily done in the given time. In my case I also answered the market awareness questions because of which lot of finance questions were asked in the interview.

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rahul pitty

Interview (1st round): It was a combined technical and HR interview. Why DB? or Why finance? this question was asked to each and every candidate. Since I was the last in the panel the interviewer was bored of the same kind of answers again and again so he literally started laughing when I was answering. But this is where I tried to keep my composure and continued with the answer and at the end he was convinced. Since I had done well in the market awareness section in the written test, they made me solve the remaining questions also. During the interview it all depends on you where you want to direct your interview. If you claim that you know finance then be ready to face some never heard questions, it doesnt matter whether you answer it correctly or not but be confident in what ever you say. They asked me an easy puzzle; make sure that you talk to them while solving telling them what your thought process is. All this done took me to the next round. Interview (2nd round): The interviewers were the senior officials of the company and it was an HR round. Very much similar to the 1st round if you remove the puzzles part. I had to convince them that I am really interested in the company. Questions: Tell me something about yourself; tell me one thing not mentioned in your resume, why we should take you? etc. Some general tips regarding the company, dont worry if you have a low CPI, you just have to prove your mettle in the test and the interviews and you will be through, girls can feel better as they are given some preference. Before the test and the interviews make sure you know how the market was recently (Sensex, Nifty etc) oil prices etc. Spend some time on the website of the company. JP Morgan Chase (GD + Interview) Group Discussion: Family run business can never become a successful MNC. Group of 16 people, the discussion was a bit chaotic so I had to look out for a chance to speak and capitalize on it. Speaking too much wont help rather speak sensible, there were people who just spoke once and were shortlisted. Having knowledge about various companies helped me lot in putting good examples. Interview: Again a combined technical and HR interview. Questions related to general terms of market and finance world like What is P/E ratio?, Infy has a P/E ratio 45, what does that mean?, How do you decide the credit rating of any company?, name any 5 stocks which are doing extremely good. I did not know answers to most of the questions but they wanted to check my thought process, how logically I can answer the question. They wanted those candidates who would go for an MBA after working for 3-4 years with them, some questions on my family background. At the end again how confident you are with your answers is all what matters.

23

rahul pitty
KPMG Consulting (GD + 2 rounds of interview) Group Discussion: Based on a case In the parliament there is a debate on whether they should cut the subsidy for the IITs because the students take up non core jobs or move out of India without serving the nation, we were supposed to come up with a solution whether this subsidy cut should take place or not. Initially every one was given 1 minute to speak, 12 people in the group and I was the 10th to speak, this gave me sufficient time to think but on the same hand I had to make sure that I say something which the 9 people before me havent spoken, so it was a bit tricky. After that the floor was open for discussion for 10 minutes, make it a point that this is not a debate so its not necessary that you take a positions for or against the topic, I had made points both in the favor of the issue and against it and it was appreciated by the moderators. Interview (1st round): I had to tell something about myself in not more than 45 seconds, so I focused more on my extra curricular activities and the volunteering work instead of academic achievements which I felt most of the other candidates too had a decent one. Case: Delhi airport has a terminal which is being utilized only upto 60% of its potential, still the authorities are planning to make a new terminal, what could be the reason behind it. There can be numerous reasons to this, I gave a few good reasons and I was through. Like, the international flights are concentrated on a particular time of the day like at the night or early in the morning so during that time only one terminal might not be sufficient. Having more terminals would reduce the transit time and that will result in an efficient use of the runway and would smoothen the air traffic. I gave only these two reasons and tried to explain it in detail. Puzzle: It was only me to whom a puzzle was asked and the interviewer assured me that he wont evaluate me on this. The puzzle was there are 10 lions and a sheep on a lonely green island, sheep can eat grass and survive, lions can also survive on grass but that is they would like to do the least. Lions can eat the sheep but the catch is that which ever lion eats the sheep would turn into a sheep, now I am one of the lions so will I eat the sheep? Assume that all the lions are equally intelligent. Although I had no clue how to solve this but I went ahead with the problem logically and the interviewer helped me, at the end I answered the question. There could be some tricky answers also to such questions which one should definitely say if you can think of any, like I said that in the minds of all the lions there would be an element of fear for eating the sheep so I would think a step ahead and eat the sheep and the other lions wont eat me due to this fear in their minds. Interview (2nd round): As soon as I entered the interviewer said I remember you, this was because we had some exchange of views during the ppt. In this round they made all the nine candidates solve the same case. It was about the truck industry in US, I was shown some data and graphs related to various business sectors in the industry and was asked to interpret things like why the profit margins are different in any two sectors, what would be the effect if a Japanese player comes in etc. To answer this having a basic knowledge of the terminologies would help a lot.

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rahul pitty
Futures First (2 written tests + 2 rounds of interviews) Written Tests: 1st test had only mathematical calculations, since it was only 6 minute test so I did not wasted my time in selecting the questions, I went on and solved the first 25 out of 40. 2nd test had math and DI questions for 30 minutes; I tried to do selected questions this time. Preparations for CAT helped me lot in doing this test. The company had an absolute cutoff in both the tests. Interview (1st round): Why trading and not aerospace? the very first question fired on me, I gave a positive answer stating why I find finance more interesting instead of saying anything negative about aerospace. What is 77^3, 141^2 etc some of the verbal calculative questions asked in between, although these are very uncomfortable questions I tried to kept my composure and gave an approximate answer to these questions which was acceptable. Some simple puzzles were asked. After some time the interviewer started pitching for me and telling me stuffs about the company, this is where I was almost sure of an offer. There was no 2nd of interview for me.

25

cherian v. mathew...

lehman brothers

1 Tower Research Final Result : Offer. 1.1 Written test - 45 min The written test was quite lengthy for the given time - in general most students didnt do well, at least I didnt do that well because of the time. 1. Given a huge file of words, write a program to print all distinct words in it, in ascending order (huge means wont fully fit into memory). 2. Given 2 strings, return the pointer to the first character from the end in string 1 that does not appear in string 2 in better then O(mn) (means O(mn) is not efficient enough). 3. There are 2 arrays A[] and B[] where B[i] is the frequency A[i] in the array A[]. Given the array A[] and the fact that all elements of B[] except 1 are divisible by 15, find the value in A[] whose frequency count isnt divisible by 15 (solution involves finding the sums of each column of bits). 4. What does the keyword static mean in various contexts in C? What is the difference between char[] and char*? 5. Write a class such that only one object of that class can be created. (Google for Singleton and design pattern). 6. Given n points (xi, yi) find m and c for the best straight line approximator yexpected = mx + c such that _(y ? yexpected)2 is minimum. When minimum what is the value of _(y ? yexpected)? (only 1 guy attempted this question and got it correct, mostly because this was the last question and there wasnt time) 1.2 Interviews Three interviews of 1 hour each : 1.2.1 Interview 1 : Taranbir Singh BT CSE 2006 : 1 hr Started with About you Went through written test, asked me to attempt all questions I didnt attempt Went through Resume, talked about internship projects Asked a bit about my finance project, asked a few questions like Which exchange would you find commodity futures traded on. I knew some of the answers, didnt know others - I guess I was asked these questions only because I said I did a finance project. Would you prefer to develop mathematical models or to develop the trading infrastructure? 1.2.2 Interview 2 : Saurav Jindal BT CSE 2001 : 1 hr Started with About you Questions from resume. Puzzles

cherianv@gmail.com Interviewed by: Tower Research, Goldman Sachs ,LB, DB, McKinsey

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cherian v. mathew

There are 25 horses, and you can have races where 5 horses can race at a time. Find 3 fastest horses in minimum number of races (7 races). Given a bar, if you cut it at 2 points, what is the probability that you can form a triangle? Given k sorted arrays of size n, merge them into a sorted array in O(nk log (k)) time (use minheap to extract the minimum of k elements). There a lot of coins placed in a line some heads, some tails. You know total coins, number of heads, are blindfolded, cant see or feel a head or tail. Divide into two piles such that both have equal number of heads. Questions you have? I asked about how he decided to join Tower after his BTech. Asked about JEE Automation that he did and drew parallels with Placement Automation. 1.2.3 Interview 3 : Utsav Maitra MTI CSE 2007 1 hr Puzzles There were 7 guests at a party + a host. 1st guest shook hands with 1 guy, 2nd guest with 2 guys .... kth guest with k guys. How many people did the host shake hands with? k was either 6 or 7, probably 7 I dont remember exactly. The Red-Blue Hat Prisoners puzzle: if prisoner guesses colour of his hat he lives else dies. Idea is to save as many prisoners as possible. Actual solution saves n-1 prisoners but I hadnt heard this puzzle before so somehow got a solution that saved n - log(n) prisoners. He was happy with this answer since he hadnt heard this solution before. Given a round table and a lot of round disks, develop a strategy where you win always given that you and opponent have to alternately place disks and the last guy to place a disk wins. Puzzle where you have a square spiral path. In one move you can move forward as many times as you want if you go straight or if you are at a corner, move inward to the next corner. The person to reach the centre of the spiral wins. You have to develop a strategy to win. He asked me the 8 ball weighing question but I told him I had heard it. Questions you have? I asked about his plans for the next few years. 2 Goldman Sachs 2.1 Written Test - 2 hrs I kind of knew how to do all the questions but made a calculation mistake in two qs. Apparently, they shortlisted only those who scored above a certain cutoff (which was high). 1. Given a pointer to the head of a linked list, insert a new node at the end of the list in constant time. 2. Print permutations of a set of integers 3. Standard deviation of length of a chord from a point on a circle in a random direction. 4. Find derivative of f?1(x) at x = 0 given f(x) = Rx 3 (t4 + t3 + t2 + t)dt (use the fact that f?1(f(x)) = x and differentiate both sides) 5. What is the probability that 7m + 7n is divisible by 5 if probability of m being odd is twice as ms probability of being even and similarly n is thrice as likely to be even than odd. (find the probabilities of m,n being even and odd, then takes each case and find the probability that in each case 7m + 7n ends with a 5 or 0 by taking all possible last digits of 7m and 7n)

27

cherian v. mathew

6. Function that returns 1 if input binary tree is a binary search tree without using any assignment statements, loops, arithmetic operations in the function. (obviously you use recursion. They defined a BST so you neednt even have remembered what it was) 3 Lehman Brothers Final Result : Offer I used almost the same resume as for McKinsey except that I didnt mention anything about my US patents this time - I had a nagging feeling that McKinsey rejected me in the last round because they thought that I wouldnt join. 3.1 Interview 1 : 3 interviewers : 30-40 min I was the last person to have his first round interview with Lehman that day. Why Lehman? About you. Given a round table and a lot of round disks, develop a strategy where you win always given that you and opponent have to alternately place disks and the last guy to place a disk wins. Asked about my finance project. I talked about it for 2-3 min. I related it to actual problems which companies like Air India and Infosys face 3.2 Interview 2 : one on one : 30-40 min Puzzle: Measure 15 minutes using wicks that take 60 min to burn out. I solved it and gave a way to measure m _ 60/2n How many edges are there in a 4D cube. The rest of this interview was seriously bad I was asked if I had taken any extra math courses (I said no). I was asked for my grades in the basic MTH courses (all Bs, though I gave a semivalid reason for it). In the middle, was asked for my GRE score. I was asked to write Taylors series for 2 variables (I didnt even remember it for 1 variable but anyhow ended up deriving and writing something which turned out to be the MacLaurin series for 2 variables which he pointed out and I corrected to make it the Taylors series). He asked me to prove that sum of 1/n diverges. He asked me if given that I knew a stock price would go up or down by at most 10% would it be a good idea to buy or sell it? I answered all of the questions based on MTH101 but I had totally lost touch so was not at all sure if the answers were correct. Maybe he knew I would be out of touch and wanted to see how I handled the situation? 3.3 Interview 3 : HR - one on one : 20-30 min Why Lehman? What expectations do you have? Will you choose DB or Lehman? How will you handle a situation where you are doing well in your job but are not getting promoted due to some business reasons? What are your non negotiables in your job.

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cherian v. mathew

How do you value one job over another? At one point she said that Lehman is open to people who are trying to experiment by taking an IBanking job (I feel she slightly went on the defensive here). I asked her quite a few questions : If I asked a Lehman analyst what the biggest plus and minus of Lehman was, what would he say? Are you able to distinguish between candidates who are really interested in finance vs candidates who do it for the money? How do you ensure that people work well in teams given that promotions are for individuals. I had audited a course on HR (MBA616 I think) - I asked her a few questions on how Lehman handled certain organizational issues I learnt about in the course. The course was pretty useful because I felt I knew what was on her mind during most of the interview (and I think she knew this too). 3.4 Interview 4 : HR - 3 interviewers : 40-50 min I dont think any of the others had a 4th interview - even last year I think everyone had 3 interviews with Lehman, so dont expect a 4th interview - I think I had a 4th interview because they somehow knew I had an offer from Tower and wanted to see whether I was serious about Lehman. Why Lehman? Career plans? Why not a software job. Why not an MS/PhD? Why not an MBA now (replied that I was able to appreciate and enjoy my Btech in CSE more than some others since I had prior exposure to computers and programming and I wanted to first work before pursuing an MBA so that I could appreciate it more)? Was again asked for GRE scores. The interviewer who earlier asked me my GRE score earlier was also on this interview panel. I gave the same answer. Programming was my strength so I kept pushing it saying it would help me do better than others in a non coding job also. The seniormost interviewer mentioned that several CSE students he interviewed gave the impression that coding was mundane and boring and had no use which he felt was not at all true. I said that I would like to use what I had learnt in 4 years at CSE - IITK in someway that would help me finish work faster/in a smarter way in comparision to others. I gave an example of the way I approached a course project to substantiate. Given a job where you learn a lot but get paid a little less vs a job where you learn less but get paid double, which would you choose? (I chose the first option, they said an investment banker would opt for the 2nd. In these questions, make sure you have a reason for your choice - I realized only later that this might have been an indirect way of asking Tower or Lehman) Given that the 2nd interview wasnt so great, I think this interview is what made the difference - the fact that I did not attempt to hide my strength and instead decided to project it in a positive way. 4 Deutsche Bank 4.1 Written Test - 40 min 28 questions, 18 quantative + 10 financial awareness, negative marking. I took one pass through the Quant section, leaving about 5 questions, went on to the financial section, realized I wasnt going to score

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cherian v. mathew

that well there so went back to Quant eventually attempting all 18, having to guess 1 answer since I ran out of time. I attempted probably 2-3 in financial. The test matters a lot to get shortlisted - some CSE students didnt get shortlisted apparently because of a low test score. I would suggest that focus should be primarily on the quant section rather than the finance section - a friend in CSE who said he did well in the finance section didnt get shortlisted. 4.1.1 Quant 1. Find next in sequence : 10,1,.......7,7...11,5 - dont remember the rest of the sequence but it looked random initially it but if you take the difference between alternate terms an obvious pattern emerges . 2. Probablity of two people telling the truth = 0.4,0.6 - what is the chance that they are inconsistent in what they say ? 3. A 3 digit number is a square less than 500, the reverse of the number is also a square. on repeating last digit still a square. What is the difference between the initial square, its reverse. 4. In a 1000m race if x gives y a head start of 40 meter, x wins by 10m. how much will x win by if y gives x a head start of 40m 5. With 16 matches, how many distinct triangles can you make? 6. You row at 7kmph in a calm lake. fisherman drops something 14 km upstream and the river current is 3kmph, how long will it take to reach you (14/7 = 2hrs ). 7. The sum of the multiples of 7 between 200 and 400 is what (trick was instead of calculating, to observe that the answer is odd and of the 5 options, only one was odd)? 8. Sum of consecutive page numbers in a book starting from 1 to n is 1000 - one page was repeated. which page was it? (idea was to subtract each choice from 1000 and see if it was n _ (n + 1)/2) 9. Last digit of 508508 10. 6 men + 4 women. Make a committee of 3 from them - Guy X wont be with Guy Y. Guy Y will be only with Woman Z in committee. How many ways of making the committee? 11. Run in circle of radius r. 1st 30 seconds at r meters/min, then next 1 min at r/2 m per min next 2 min at r/4 and so on. ratio of times taken in round n, previous round 12. |(x ? 11)/2| < 3 what is the range of x? 13. number of integer solutions to 3x + 6y = 13 (take 3 common on LHS and the answer is clear). 14. 5 students give an objective exam (+1 for correct, 0 for wrong) with 5 questions each with 5 choices. Their answers were given in a 5x5 matrix. Given they all got different marks, who got the lowest. 15. A,B,C,D stand in a line in increasing order of height. Given that X was shorter than Y but didnt stand first, and (a few more conditions) , who stood last? (X and Y had been specified as one of A, B, C, D - I dont remember exactly since I gave the test 10 days back). 5.1.2 Financial 1. Rupee-dollar exchange rate (options were ranges of 1 rupee answer ws 39-40) 2. value of some index (some non-Indian East Asian countrys stock market - I forgot the name) 3. Effect of interest rate cuts on a bond coupon 4. Simple question on call option - which of following is not true about it 5. 1st Indian IT company to be listed on Nasdaq

30

cherian v. mathew

6. Given a pie chart where it showed that for capital, a company relied 80% on equity and a small fraction on debts, what investment strategy is the company using? Conservative/Aggressive? 4.2 Interview : 3 interviewers : 30 min I was the last person DB interviewed that day. Why DB (2 min) Can some work you did at Microsoft be used in DB (I wasnt at all expecting this but thought and found that an algo I designed could be applied to a problem in the stock market domain)? Estimate your quant score. If you add your quant score to the avg finance score would that be highest overall score? Asked me to redo the pie chart question. I got it correct I think though I didnt attempt it. They asked why I didnt attempt finance (Reply : I wanted to do on thing well and time was a constraint). Puzzle - express JEE rank as xy + yx (put y=1, x = rank - 1) Didnt Microsoft give you a PPO (I said no, which was technically true)? Why not Microsoft(note that they asked this though Microsoft was scheduled on Day 2) (2 min)? Why not Tower Research (5 min)? Towards the end, the interviewer said I am sure you are going to join Tower Research and not DB. They also seemed to have decided before I came in to the interview that I would get an offer with some other company and would not choose DB - kept attacking the answers I gave to Why not Microsoft/Tower. In hindsight maybe I shouldnt have listed all the 4 tech companies I had interned with. 5 McKinsey 5.1 Interview 1 : Palash, Partner : 30 - 35 min One of 24 partners. 12 years at McK. IIT Kharagpur 1993, IIMA 1995. Case : Current demand for (artificial) knee implants in India. Asked questions to see if age, economic status was an issue. Key issue : Person had to have knee problems (age based segmentation) and had to be able to afford a surgery (income based segmentation). Split by age : 0-15, 15-35, 35-60, 60+ : 30%,30%,30%,10%. Estimated % in each category with knee problems. Split by economic status : Low, Low and Upper Middle and Upper Class : 30-40-20-10. Upper - almost certainly go for replacement - 90% of the 10% Upper middle - can afford it but significant cost so 50% of the 20%. Ignore lower middle, lower. Distribution of the 9 million people : Rural Urban I suggested 70-30, he said take 50-50, forgot why. Asked what factors will determine acceptability of product? A : Marketing, safety, proof that operation was worth it. Gender : women tend to have arthritis more than men. Asked me to give a recap of what I did in the case till then. What questions do you have? A: How do EMs decide between Position in Corporation vs Partner - relative advantages? What kind of person would prefer a partner role and what kind of person would prefer a position in a corporation?

31

cherian v. mathew

Asked about high points in career, fraction of engagements McKinsey was able to make a definite impact in. 5.2 Interview 2 : Rajat, Partner : 15-20 min About you. (interrupted me when I mentioned the Best Senator Award) About Students Senate. Who decides the best senator award? Why do you think you got the award? (talked of an initiative) Situation where you led a group of students on an initiative or project? What did you learn? (talked about Placement Automation) What would the Automation Coordinators would say about me? What are your career plans? What if not McKinsey? Opinion/view on the nuclear deal that is in the papers? Growth of cars vs growth of motorbikes - which would grow faster in % terms? A: Economic factor the main reason to go for bikes. Shift from lower middle to upper middle, increasing growth rate for cars more than for bikes. Questions you have? 5.3 Interview 3 : Jatin Pant, Engagement Manager : 35-40 min Asked about background (schooling). After JEE, why IITK? Are you applying (I said that Id given GRE, indicated that whether or not I would app would depend on how my McK interview went. Just for the record I eventually applied only to MIT and Stanford)? Asked about cases in previous rounds. Estimate the number of people who watched the India-Australia 20-20 semifinal in South Africa (on TV/stadium). Divided into Indians, Australians, Rest of theWorld. Divided rest of the world into cricketing and non cricketing nations. Divided cricketing nations into the nations whose teams were there in the other semifinal and other cricketing nations. Divided Indians into rural, urban and NRIs. Ended up focusing on Residential Indians - rural vs urban. Assume DD is broadcasting. Two drivers : have access to a TV showing the match and also have free time. Urban : people wouldnt watch if they arent free. Rural : people wouldnt watch if there was no electricity. Assume 50% electrification. Age factor : Very old and very young (< 5) wouldnt watch. Women wouldnt be as enthusiastic. 90% men and 50% women. Was asked to stop, look back and formalize everything done and summarize what was done. I related TV advertising rates to a online revenue for ads model I developed in my internship on which a worldwide patent was filed. Any questions? Asked about how an EM chooses whether to become a partner vs becoming a CEO/senior manager at a corporation. Asked if McKinsey had a standard way of solving business problems in engagements and if so how one retained ones creativity.

32

ankur aggarwal...

pwc

Goldman Sachs (Quant profile) Test: It was a test checking your logical reasoning with three Written subjective questions on Probability and three on general algorithm of programming. They were checking our quantitative ability and programming skills as well. Interview(1st round):It was a technical interview in which they started with asking some basic questions on probability such as Moment-generating function of Normal distribution, one algorithm problem and one problem from signal processing. I could not do the last one but rest all went fine. Interview (2nd round): It was an HR interview. They enquired about my programming skills, career interests and future plans. Mistakes I did: I took it for granted that being from a non-CSE dept they wont be ask me questions from OOP and related concepts (like Polymorphism and Virtual functions). However, they expected the candidate to be well aware of all that. Lehman Brothers Interview (1st round): It was a stress interview and I was asked a variety of questions and the interviewer was trying to prove me wrong at each and every time. There were questions like: What is the probability that the fan would fall in the next 10 minutes?, What would you do if you had to spend Rs.100 and bring back Rs.30 in doing a list of things which cost more than Rs.100? I lost my temper as I was not giving a satisfactory answer. Then he asked some puzzles which I could solve but then again, he started asking questions from Economics as I had done a course on it. I was not in a situation to give any satisfactory answer. Mistakes I did: I got stressed out when I should have had the confidence. Therefore, I could not give answers properly.

agankur21@gmail.com Interviewed by: Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

33

ankur aggarwal
ITC Discussion: They divided us in groups of 10-15 people and gave us a case study to discuss. Group They were looking for candidates with the ability to come up with new points, rather than the speaking a lot. Interview (1st round): General discussion on my resume and very casual in terms of HR such as justify your CPI of 8.3 in EE (and do you think it is good) and some technical questions (how does an AC work?, how does a vibrator work?). I was not able to answer them. Mistakes I did: I could not understand why I was not selected for the company and asked them to give me a feedback. They said that the following aspects were reflected in my interview (which led to me being not selected): lack of sound technical knowledge, good confidence but not a very good command over spoken English, and that I was not able to justify my lower CPI very effectively. Deloitte test: General ability test (similar to CAT). People studying for CAT can easily clear it. Written Interview (1st round): It was very interesting in the sense that the whole discussion went on my interests such as why liked Ayn Rand and what exactly I liked about her, what did you learn after leading so many teams, etc. So it was very cool and I went to the next round Interview (2nd Round): It was same as the previous one but this time it was quite informal as the interviewer was eating and asked me to eat something and chatted with me for sometime. Then he gave me a case study: to estimate the number of televisions in India. I tried to do so and gave the final answer I got. Then he asked me a few more HR questions and the interview ended. I did: I did not give proper time to think and replied as soon as I heard the question, and Mistakes this depicted my aggression and impatience. PWC test: General ability test. People studying for CAT can easily clear it. Written Interview (1st round): Asked some HR stuff such as why I want to join PWC, what according to me is a leader etc. In technical, they asked me from DSP which was my field of specialization so I did well in that. So overall it was a cool interview.

34

nishant singh...

intel

To start with the write-up I would like to declare that the information being provided here should not be considered in any way sufficient to get a job and any claims of irrelevance may not be redirected to the author :D Well I may be the most suited guy for writing this cause I have seen it all during the recruitment process and I would try to take you through the problems one faces during the process and what I think one should do to not lose pace during these times. What I would also like to touch upon are the initiatives one should take way before the recruitment process in order to be well prepared at the D day rather than crunching at the last hour. Problems you might face before handMost of these problems are something you will create for yourself and as it is, you are the only one who can do away with these problems. Well I would list out all the dilemmas(:O) you might face:1. Lots of semester load to deal withwhat to do.how to start: First of all dont give yourself this crap that you cant find time. This is the most common crap people come up with. The second point people give is that the professor is breathing down their neck and they need to meet deadlines etc etc. Well in either case I would say that if you have started your preparation at the end of august or mid sept, even with these problems you will easily complete the course I just mentioned. 2. Well I am super man and I want to do GRE/CAT/ land the best job ever: First of all if you think that you are a superman and you can actually do this, you are welcome to do so. But for the unlucky people who are not blessed with superhuman capabilities, I would like you to follow these pointers. Spread out your preparation for each. CAT preparations only require you to brush up your English, rest is a piece of cake. So CAT preparations generally can be carried out hand in hand with your job preparations, moreover the DI preparation for CAT might come in handy. Well as for GRE preparations I would suggest get an early date, way early in Sept and get it over with. Later it will only clutter up your schedule and generally dates in November tend to screw up the whole schedule itself. 3. Oh.I have my exams.I have CAT the next day..Placement is about to start what to do?...

nsinghel@gmail.com ?????? Interviewed by: Tower Research, Google, Intel, Microsoft PWC Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte,

35

nishant singh... singh

Well most of these questions wont come if you have covered up your course material. But generally its the non-ideal reality that hits you hard. You might be just half way through your preparation, CAT might be already out of the bag and GRE would have somehow made its way to November to screw you up. Well this is the time to prioritize things. Set your priorities which are best in line with your career goals. You want a job/higher studies/management. You cant pick out all three; not even two. You only get to choose one. So, if you want to have your options open prepare early, otherwise, keep yourself satisfied with one. If you set your priorities, you have lesser to prepare, you can be more thorough at what you prepare and you have the edge at least on those guys who have not set their priorities. The D-day:Well if you have gone through the previous sections you are more so ready to get grinded. In this section I would like to underline all the dos and donts during the placement procedure. These hold for all people whether they are prepared or not with their course material and with their barrage of HR questions. Dos1. Prepare for interviews and GDs s much as possible. Mock interviews and GD sessions with wingmates will help. Practice your interview questions before a mirror. Try practicing talking smoothly rather than vomiting out crammed up answers. Do some research. Concentrate on the company next in line and (re)view their material. Find out the company and job profile. Find out if you and the job they offer are a perfect fit. Be thorough with your resume. Resume is like a pledge and if you are slack with even a single point it is treated like cheating. Constantly review the job database.

2. 3. 4.

Donts 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Dont sulk- Sulking is not going to help your cause. It might push you to the limit. Dont rush through interviews Dont be low on confidence. Dont get frustrated. Dont compare- Many people below you in capacity and capability might have already been placed and many much better than you might still be in line. Dont freak out- This is my example. I applied for a company in which I didnt intend to go and ended up getting a spot offer in that. I couldnt sit for the procedure further and my dream company was yet to come. Just learn from this and try not to get into such a situation.

?????? Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

36

nishant singh... singh

Well all the above dos and donts are just what I should have done and what I shouldnt have done. Please refer to other seniors feedbacks to get a picture of a total loser and then try not to be one(:D). I believe if you are in line with this, you are already sitting with a job. Got a job, now what? Well you have a job, it means you did most of the things correct. Now come the unique cases. These cases might be multiple job offers, spot offers etc etc. I can only describe my experience with my share of unique cases. These are multiple offers and spot offers. First of all, always keep in mind the following things1. SPO is there to help you but it cant sometimes 2. Rules are there to be followed and will be broken SPOT OFFER!!!-First of all spot offers are something against the guidelines for the companies. But they do make spot offers. In this case always first consult your most trusted personnel in the SPO and try to have things sorted out with his help. If you are happy to join, accept the offer but if not, try to get out of it. I couldnt, so I dont know the means. You can always find out form the seniors MULTIPLE OFFER!!!- This I think is something you need to decide yourself. Once you have job offers from more than one company, always try to take a clear perspective. You have more than a day to sort this out. Do your further research. This research is how big the company is?/how good the pay package is?/how good your life is going to be?/how good is the work culture?etc etc. Take these things into consideration before deciding. Well in my case I had an option between Intel and some other company. The way I have referred to it makes my choice obvious. My considerations were as follows:1. Intel is the biggest semiconductor company 2. Intel is one of the best workplaces voted over time. 3. Intel is a giant and has a long history compared to the other company which was a startup. 4. The pay was initially not clear but turned out to be equal( I dint consider it at tat time though) Some other factors were also there. Like I would like to pursue an MS later and Intel would surely help my cause. These are the ways one should think before accepting an offer. Always keep in high regard your life and your convenience at the job you are selecting. Then the money might play a big role and your career too but still I would recommend your life and your convenience comes first. AFTER GOT JOB!!!- Go on a trip of India. Find your inner peace. Do some meditation on the Himalayas. Do a padayatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Do whatever you want but please pass in all the courses of the final semester. Also try to cover up the course material relevant to your job before joining. I think it would help. But first and foremost, give a big treat and have a bash.

?????? Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

37

krishna singh... nishant khandelwal...

deutsche bank

It all started with the question of whether I should go for higher studies or prepare for CAT or finance or core. I had absolutely no idea about what to do. After the internship it was clear to me that I wont be going for a core job or for higher studies. As soon I came back from internship I took a course in finance and that helped me a lot for my interview preparation. Believe me, you have to prepare for placements no matter how good you are at speaking or you have exceptionally good extra-currics. The sooner you realize this, the better it is. Pre-Placement Season PPTs: PPTs are very important to get an overall view of the opportunities you will be having for placements or the kind of profile that a company offers. If you are interested in a particular company, talk to the seniors who are working in that company and from there youll get an honest feedback about the company and whether the profile suits you or not. Resume: Believe me your resume has to be perfect. In your resume, highlight your strengths and the skills which the company is looking for. I feel that my extra-curricular and summer internship was my advantage and therefore I mentioned it in such a way that on reading my resume anybody will ask me more about that. Go through you resumes again and again and youll see the improvements. Take help from your wing mates and your close friends. In fact I prepared my complete resume along with a friend. ET: For business awareness ET is the best thing to read, this will help you not only in tests (for companies like DB) but also for interviews. Interview Experiences DB: Had a quick first interview which was mostly HR. No puzzles were asked from me, as I told them that I am not very much interested in mathematics and number crunching. Questions like Why finance? Why DB and some applied questions on Futures, Options and Derivatives. (Read John C. Hull that will help you). It was more of a chat than interview. As soon as my 1st interview was over I was asked to go for 2nd interview. This one was a bit technical as many questions from finance course, which I did in 7th semester, were asked. I did a term paper also in the course but hadnt prepared for it before interview and the result was there in the interview.

krishna.khandelwal07@gmail.com ?????? Interviewed by: DB, Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC Appeared:Goldman LB, Capital One, McKinsey

38

krishna singh... nishant khandelwal

They grilled me on that and I was not able to answer many questions (do prepare thoroughly on whatever you have written in your resume). Besides the technical part some questions on my family background and my dads business were asked and some situations were given and I was asked how I will respond to such situation. One suggestion from my side: DONT get involved in last time discussion on any of the puzzles or finance questions before interviews. CapOne- I dont know what they were planning to do in interviews. They called me for interviews, threw 2 questions at me, wrote something on a paper and before I knew interview was over. Between my two interviews I had a gap of 4-5 hours. I watched 3-4 episodes of Friends and was all charged up after that. Lehman- When I went for the Lehman interview, I came to know that they have no openings for Investment banking and they had come for exotics. (Do enquire about the profile that the company is offering). Interview was a big mess for me, they kept on asking questions on probability and finance and my answer was I dont know As I had expected, there was no 2nd round of both Cap One and Lehman for me. Results came and I wasnt on DBs list. After some time I was informed that I am selected and I was first on the waiting list. Anyways it ended well for me. General tips for interviews and its preparation: Get in touch with seniors who are currently working in the company you are interested in, they will help you a lot. Resume should be perfect, whatever you have done present it efficiently highlighting your qualities and that required by the company. Do take help from your close friends and wing mates. Since the 7th semester is very hectic, start preparing for it from the starting of the semester. Read ET if you are interested in financial job or go through your basic courses if you are interested for core job. Dress well for interviews, shoes should be comfortable, dont smoke in between the interviews and if you do then put some deodorant before interview, buy a nice pen and a nice folder for the interviews I think this is all I want to share with you guys if you feel like asking anything contact me.

?????? Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

39

garima joshi... schlumberger nishant singh...

7th semester is a time when one has to seriously think what one wants from life and why. While making the career choice it should not be about blindly following what others have been doing but identifying ones interests and then preparing accordingly. In my case I was convinced that I wanted to app and that job was just a backup. Nevertheless it didnt mean that I would take up any job. It was important to me that the company suits me well and that I suit it well too. The first 2 months I was busy preparing for GRE and hence didnt have much time to prepare for placements. But I kept on attending all the PPTs to find about the kind of work done, the kind of people who work there and the subsequent growth opportunities. That also helped me in identifying the companies that I need to target. Next was the resume making. It involved talking to few of the seniors and then tailoring my resume according to the companys requirements. Another issue was that looking at my resume the companies shouldnt feel that I intend to app too and hence I had to very carefully choose the stuff that I wanted to mention in my resume, even if that meant concealing some of the achievements because they gave the impression that I would eventually go for higher studies. Also its important to be completely honest in the resume or else one can falter in the interview process. I was shortlisted for Capital One and ITC before getting into Schlumberger RDM. Capital One Initially there was a written test comprising of DI type of questions. People preparing for CAT definitely have an edge over the ones not preparing. I feel practicing a few questions a week before the test suffices. On the final day there was initially an interview of about 5 mins in which they asked me to describe a situation where I worked in a team. Then there was a case study round. It was a slightly involved case on the credit card industry and involved a lot of calculations. There were 3 different credit card strategies with different rates of interest and credit limits and we had to choose the best strategy for the company. I came up with correct strategy and hence got through the first round. The 2nd case was that of Dominos evaluating a new scheme wherein they would offer a 30% discount instead of 100%, in cases where the pizzas could not be delivered within 30 minutes. Next the discount was changed to 70%. I was asked to evaluate the on-time delivery that they can risk not to have in order to make the same profit as they make when they give 100% discount and have 90% on-time delivery. Then I was asked to plot a graph between on-time delivery and the discount offered and interpret it. It was there that I lost track and couldnt come up with the right conclusion. Nevertheless I was selected for the next round.

garimaj.iitk@gmail.com ?????? Interviewed by: Capital One, ITC, Schlumberger Deloitte, PWC Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC,

40

garima joshi nishant singh...

It was a behavioral interview wherein I had to describe them 3 situations in detail. During the entire interview the interviewer kept writing something on the paper. The key to this round was choosing the right incidents and then describing each and every point in detail. It lasted for about 30 mins. Ideally there were to be only 2 rounds of case interview and one behavioral interview but I was again called for a 3rd case interview round. It was very similar to the 1st case except that the credit card company was replaced by a dish-tv one. This one didnt go very well as I was very much exhausted and hence faltered at several places. Here I would also like to mention that the case solved in the CapOne site is very useful and if one solves that, one can easily solve their cases on the interview day. I hadnt practiced any case before but studying that case helped me immensely on the final day. ITC The GD was easy, based on a case study. The first round of interview started with general HR questions like tell me about yourself, why ITC, why not so good cpi in first year and so on. Somehow the mention of industrial tour came and from there on, all the questions were based on TATA steel and steel-making in general (we went to Jamshedpur for our industrial tour). In case of ITC it is very important to know about the company fully. Hence reading the companys website before the interview helps. I was asked its motto and when I answered it correctly the entire panel was very impressed. The 2nd round was a oneon-one interview. What went wrong here was that I knew about my major projects (like btp, summer intern) very well but didnt remember the exact details of the TA project that I had done during my 3rd semester. The interviewer somehow found that project quite interesting and kept on asking me questions about it and I couldnt answer many. Later, he jumped onto the term paper that I had written for one of the psychology courses and again I stumbled. Hence I feel I didnt know my resume too well at that time (just focused on the main projects) and perhaps that went against me. Transocean and Schlumberger After 2 days of giving interviews, I was totally dejected the third day. Its here that friends help a lot and they made sure that I remain positive and confident. I was hell bent on cracking Schlumberger RDM. It was the last of the companies that I had targeted. The group activity of Schlums was again easy and I got selected for the next round. Since my btp is funded by Schlumberger it wasnt tough for me to convince them. My interview was mostly based on my btp work and a few questions testing my basics in manufacturing processes. The general HR questions were like: why Schlumberger, any failures in life, how I tackled them and so on. The interview didnt last too long. I couldnt attend the informal session as I had Transocean interview at that time. Transocean had initially one GD. The first interview round was just for 1 mins. Nothing was asked and I was called for the 2nd round. The 2nd round was like a stress interview. A number of hypothetical situations were thrown at me and I had to tell them how I would respond to them. They were just trying to check if I was mentally prepared for taking up a job in Transocean. It was very important to be pragmatic and honest in this round rather than giving ideal answers.

?????? Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

41

garima joshi nishant singh...

At the end of the day I got job offers from both Transocean and Schlumberger RDM. Making the choice wasnt that tough. I was very clear about the kind of job that I would like to do and hence I chose Schlumberger RDM. I knew that even if I am not able to get a good school this year then a job in a R&D industry would definitely accentuate my chances of getting one next year. These were my interview experiences. I feel the most important factor is definitely preparation. I feel I wasnt prepared that well and hence had to initially face lots of failures. But still one has to remain aggressive in the coming interviews and try to remain positive. Knowing ones resume is also very important. Just have faith and you can crack any interview J

?????? Appeared:Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, ITC, Deloitte, PWC

42

AMAZON
Selection Procedure: Round 1: Type: Written Test Duration: Level of Difficulty: Difficult Relevant Course material: Data Structure & Algorithms Special Tips: Knowledge of Database and Operating System will give an extra edge. Round 2, 3 & 4(if required): Type: Personal Interview (Technical/HR) Duration: Approx. 1 Hour interviews were mostly technical, with strong emphasis on Algorithms and DS. The Sample Questions: convert Rupees into Euro and then Euro into Yen and then continuing in this One can way can get back to Rupees. In certain cases he/she invests 1 Rupee and gets 2 Rupees in return. Write an algorithm to figure out such cases and relate to Graph Theory Problem. Special Tips: Knowledge of Puzzles and Brain Teasers would be helpful. You can look up such things on Orkut communities for Puzzles J ready to sit for long hours. Amazon has a rigorous procedure. Be

CAPITAL ONE
Round 1: Type : HR/Informal Interview Duration : 5-10 minutes Sample questions: Why Finance? a situation where you had to work in a team successfully (if not, how did you Describe convince the team in your favor?) instance where you had shown some Leadership quality! Give an

44 1

 Questions regarding Internships, Projects, and any obvious career possibility as reflected by the resume (Example: Further studies, Core Jobs) etc. Why CAP ONE & expectations from Company?

Round 2 & 3: Type: Case Study Interview Duration : 30-40 minutes each of these rounds, you will be given a case study related to Banking involving simple In Mathematics. There will be certain conditions given and you will be required to reach at some logical conclusion. the case study interview, the interviewer is essentially trying to check how logical you think & In how structured is your problem solving approach. Round 4: Type : Behavioral Interview Duration : 20-25 minutes this round, the candidate is required to fill a questionnaire which is meant to judge him/her for In certain competencies required for profile offered by the Company. Special Tips & Comments: Companys website thoroughly! Visit selection procedure is rigorous and tiring. Be prepared for long interviews! The They might take more Case Study interview, in case they find it necessary.

Cypress Semiconductors
Student Feedback on the Stage II of the Selection Procedure held on December 2, 2007 (Cypress Semiconductors takes test in the Qualifying round. Please refer to Cypress Semiconductors Test Feedback for the same) Round 1: Type: Technical Interview. Duration : 15-25 minutes Panel: Either 1 on 1 or telephonic with a senior application engineer in Cypress Sample questions: What skill do you have to be a project engineer?

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 you suitable for the job? What are your career aspirations? Why are have high CPI (9+) then why job and not higher Studies? If you The technical questions will be related to your projects, internship and few from your course work. How did you approach the problem and hoe did you solve the various problems etc. should be confident of whatever you have done and put on your resume (intern, projects You etc.) interview will focus solely on your knowledge of electrical engineering. This Round 2: Type: HR/Technical Interview Panel: Telephonic or 1 on 1 with a senior Application Engineer from Cypress. Duration : 20-40 minutes one will have a mix of HR and technical questions. This They try to look in whether you fit in for the role of application engineer. An application engineer needs to interact with the client and then do the designing of the IC, board etc. as well. this they will go through your skill set, discuss at length various facets of the job profile. They For will guide you through this process to find out how you fit in their setup. again do not boast or present a false picture. They are smart enough to catch any false claims But you will make. you have a high CPI they will discuss your future career paths to know whether you will join If them or not.

Round 3: Type: Thoroughly Technical Interview Panel: 2 interviewers. Duration: 30-40 minutes. They will brush up your resume in terms of the various projects, internships and course work you have done. Then technical questions related to the kind of work you are expected to do in Cypress like System Design Problems. will be asked to solve few design problems on the spot. You Again your approach to your projects is discussed and they try to explore how serious you were about the same. eg. How can you improve the end results of your projects etc.

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 this interview you require strong technical knowledge and thoroughness with your profile. For

Round 4: Type: Thoroughly Technical Interview Panel: Telephonic Interview Duration: 20-40 minutes. more heated one than the previous one but on the same lines. A should have a good knowledge of fields other than your areas of interest. Suppose you are You interested in analog but at he same time you should also know about DSP, digital, microcontrollers etc. They will ask several questions to check how broad is your knowledge base? The questions touch upon the fundamentals of the various courses you have done towards your degree. What they are looking at is how much attention you have paid in your courses.

Round 5 (additional): Type: HR/Technical Interview Panel: Telephonic Interview Duration: 10-20 minutes. this interview they try to find out whether you will e able to adjust in the work environment of In Cypress. Sample Questions: Why Cypress and not higher studies? Have you been to Southern India? Will you have problems with food in Chennai/Bangalore?

Special Tips & Comments: Cypress will ask for three references of people (professors/ mentors in internship) with whom you have worked. So arrange three references before hand only. Cypress evaluates a candidate on the following parameters: Motivation for the job, retention factor, and technical knowledge and how you fit in the role. Companys website to see what is the kind of work they do and how you can fit into that Visit role.

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 Answering technical questions on the telephone is not easy. So dont panic and giv it your best shot. your courses seriously. Pay attention to the courses on digital, analog. Do

DELOITTE
Student Feedback on the Selection Procedure held on December 7, 2007 Round 1: Type : HR/Technical Interview Duration : 35-40 minutes Sample questions: Why Consulting? Questions regarding Internships and projects, like: the aim of doing the project, how did you contribute to the result and what was the benefit? have any experience with programming? Work done in programming was done Do you by the whole class or exclusively by you? about the extra curricular activities that you have been involved in! Tell us Why DELLOITE & expectations from Company? Study: Case studies in Deloitte are generally estimation cases not business cases. Case the amount of ice-creams sold on IITK campus in a month. The emphasis was Estimate less on the final result. What they emphasized on was the approach that one adopts to solve the problem. For example you can approach the problem from buyers perspective etc. Round 2: Type: Stress Interview Duration : 25-30 minutes Sample Questions: o o Why should we take you? They might ask you about your future plans and see how they fit into the companys need. eg: Where do you see yourself, 10 years from now? Sample case study

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 the total number of bricks that have been used in construction in Kanpur city. Estimate Once again the emphasis was on the approach rather than on the final answer. The cases studies test how structured your approach is Special Tips & Comments: Companys website thoroughly. Visit Structure the case study before trying to find a solution. Keep on talking about your thoughts during solving the case study so that the interviewer knows about your approach in detail. Spend decent time on the resume as only this will let you through to the interview. Numbers in the resume are important; rather than saying that you did an analysis which helped a company reduce some expense, it would be better if you can provide a number like, it helped the company save 10%. examples to prove everything you say. Give

Deutsche Bank
Student Feedback on the Stage II of the Selection Procedure held on December 1, 2007 (Deutsche Bank takes test in the Qualifying round. Please refer to Deutsche Bank Test Feedback for the same) Round 1: Type : HR/Technical Interview The want to see how motivated you are towards pursuing finance and whether you have the required quantitative skills or not. Duration : 10-20 minutes Panel: 2 interviewers (HR and Senior from the same desk) Sample questions: about yourself or Walk me through your resume. You should be through with all Tell us the projects and internships (especially if it was in a field related to finance) you have put in your resume. test you have answered the questions on finance they might ask you to justify If in the particular answers. any latest financial happening. eg. Sub prime Crisis in US. Explain (You may refer to How to ace interviews? an e-book available on LAN) Puzzles. Probability based questions. They may also ask you questions related to other maths courses you have put in your resume.

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Sample Question: How can you place two points on a scale of length L such that it will form a triangle? There are n coins and on of them is heavier or lighter than the rest. What is the min no of steps you will take to identify it using a pan? have high CPI (9+) then why I Bank and not Higher Studies?* If you banking and not a core job? Why DB and why not Lehman? Why I are an financially illiterate, they might ask you about things from your own course If you work also to check how hardworking and sincere you are. Round 2: Type: HR/Technical Interview Panel: 4 interviewers Duration : 20-40 minutes is based on the feedback that they get from your first interview and only few move on to the It second round. you want to join an I bank you should know what an I bank does If They try to look in whether you will be able to work long hours or not. second round somebody who knows finance is expected to be thorough with it. If you In mentioned a course, internship or project on finance, they will surely grill you on that. But dont mention anything you are not sure of. (Note: Financial literacy is always a plus point) applicant had done IME 611: Financial Engineering course. Most of his interview was An centered on that only with questions on a combination of call and put option, in-the-money options etc. Otherwise also you are expected to be aware about general financial and business fundas especially derivatives. They will discuss your future career plans etc. * Sample Question: How does a cheque operates? What is a balance sheet? Do you follow the markets? Special Tips & Comments: Always prepare this question: Tell me about yourself but dont cram up an answer or else you will fumble there. Companys website thoroughly. Visit

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 Keep your mobile phone switched off. a good amount of reading finance. It will be a plus point if you are aware of the recent Do financial news and basics of finance. If you are interested in finance it should show that you have worked towards the same. not give run off the mill answers. Do You should be able to convince them on this as retention factor is very important for any firm. *-

FUTURE FIRST INFO SERVICES

ROUND 1: Type: Aptitude Tests TEST 1: It is quantitative test having 30-40 questions to be attempted in a very short span of time say only 6 minutes. The questions test the basic mathematical operation but the crucial thing is speed and accuracy. Sample questions: Calculate 22/31 up to four decimals places. What is value of 24*36? What is the difference of roots of a given quadratic equation? key to selection in this round is to attempt as many questions as possible. The TEST 2: The selected candidates from the previous rounds have to give another aptitude test which has questions of higher level mathematics than the previous one. The questions also include a lot of puzzles. There are say 30 questions to be attempted in 30 min in contrast to first test. strategy is to select the most appropriate one and try to attempt as many as possible. Try to The start with the easiest as attempting all of them may not be possible due to their difficulty level.

ROUND 2: Type: Technical Interview Panel: 1-2 interviewer would test your basic mathematical skills and your aptitude for the profile. The Hence it is important to o through the work profile and its requirements.

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 may ask you puzzle to check the computational skills. They Since it is a financial company expect some questions on probability and statistics. Other questions include: Have you done any courses in the Finance earlier? If yes they may ask questions pertaining to those courses. Why do you want to join our company? Would you not be going for an MBA? What are the management exams you have given and if any, would you leave us to join their MBA? Retention is very important to them. The company basically is looking for a candidate who is not going to leave them to join some management institute after completion of BTech/MTech and if he joins would stay with company for some time. TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS: to be frank about the knowledge of finance. Do not just bluff since it is a derivative company. Try They want people who are interested since they have an induction program for the new recruits to give them the required knowledge. little diplomacy may help in tricky questions with regard to MBA. Like i would be pursuing A my MBA after having some experience etc. standard books on management exams for quantitative section preparation will be helpful Any for aptitude test. There may be a second round of interview as well.

Goldman Sachs (Strategy)

Student Feedback on the Selection Procedure held on November 30, 2007 Round 1: Type : HR Interview Duration : 15-20 minutes Brush through the resume. Discuss project, interns. Reservation about relocation. What do you know about GS and have you seen our website? This and more such questions may be asked to see how well prepared you are. GS and not higher studies? Why Expectation about the work, salary expected and why GS? (PPT and website!!) Sample Question:

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You have done your internship at MSR Redmond. So why not go back to MSR? Why did you give IITJEE? you have a good extra curricular record as well, they might ask you few questions on that as If well. Round 2: Type: Technical Interview Duration : 15-20 minutes Resume may determine the path of resume. Be thorough with your projects and internship. They would like to explore what was the problem and how did you to approach it. GS and this particular profile? (You should be thorough with the PPT and their website) Why Then to test your technical acumen they might begin with the questions in the test itself. May ask you to solve 1-2 questions again to discuss your approach. Sample Questions on mathematics asked to a student of EE: MGF of normalized random variable, fourier transform of a function, few basic questions on algorithms, what is virtual function, inheritance algos etc. So even if you are from elec you should have good idea about coding and algos. Round 3: Type : Technical Interview Duration : 20-30 minutes round is to check how thorough and well versed you are with coding and algorithms. They This might ask you to solve few questions verbally. Then they also check how strong you are at maths. The questions will emphasize on the fundamentals you have learnt in the course work at IIT, but may go a little in depth of the mathematics involved.

Special Tips & Comments: Companys website thoroughly. Visit selection procedure is rigorous. Be prepared for long interviews. The should have strong background in coding. You is very helpful if you know the requirements of the profile. It Makes sure you have all the important details on the first page of your resume. Revise DS if you have done the course.

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Lehman Brother
Student Feedback on the Selection Procedure held on December 1, 2007 Round 1: Type : Technical Interview/ Stress/ HR The interview started with a little bit of Typical HR and then shifted to Probability & statistics and finance (if you have written any course in resume). If you have no idea of finance and you havent done any course on probability or finance, then they asked some basic probability or basic questions from mathematics courses you have done. Be thorough with your BTP, intern and other projects they can ask anything from them. They want to check the sincerity and hard work you have put in any project or activity. You should attend the Lehman Brothers workshop as there were questions on that too. Prepare your resume very well; do not write false information regarding finance, economics or any mathematics course, they would ask questions from them. They were particular about the HSS course, like economics and psychology. The key of the interview was the approach to the problem. Some situation based questions were asked to check the same. Dont get stressed out, as most of the time they will try to contradict you, so be firm on your points. Duration : 15-30 minutes Panel: HR and Senior from the same desk Sample questions: Basic HR questions like, Tell us about yourself, why finance or Walk me through your resume. You should be through with all the projects and internships (especially if it was in a field related to finance) you have put in your resume. Basic mathematical questions (number of trailing zeroes in 10!). They may ask questions from other mathematics courses which you have done. Probability questions (JEE level). Level may be higher if you have done any probability course, and major part of your interview will be based on that. Basic finance questions, like difference between forward contract and future contract. Mostly they will be based on the workshop. analysis of the firm in which you had done Intern. SWOT

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 on basic economics (If you have done any course) like what is marginal utility, Question law of diminishing marginal utility. situation based questions like if I give you 10 million dollar, what will you do? Some Then they will contradict you on each point i.e. a small stress interview. of a problem like land price are growing up, so the farmers are more keen to sell Analysis there land which is creating a food crisis, so what will you do to cope up with the problem. (They will contradict every point). dont have any financial or probability background, they will ask you questions on If you your Internship, BTP project or any project you have written on your resume just to check how intelligent and hardworking you are. You were in technical line for past four years, so WHY FINANCE. (Prepare it thoroughly with some solid reason for this especially if you have a good CPI). Round 2: Type: Stress/HR Interview Panel: 3 interviewers Duration : 15-20 minutes It was a typical Stress Interview, where one of the panelists was asking questions and other two were observing. They asked anything and just shot you with questions and contradictions. Just keep yourself calm and composed. The stress interview was followed by HR interview. Sample Question: Are you organized? If yes than what is the order of certificate in folder? 100 Rs at the starting of the day and you have to save 30 Rs such that you were You have happy throughout the day, so how will you spend? value time? If yes than have you been to every class on time? Do you your skills? What are you give to Lehman Brothers? What can Lehman Brothers do? What do Why Lehman Brothers and not Deutsche bank?

Special Tips & Comments:

Always prepare this question: Tell me about yourself and why finance why not core job. Do not cram up an answer or else you will fumble there. Companys website thoroughly. Visit

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you have done any finance, economics or probability course, then revise it thoroughly as they If will surely ask questions from them. Keep your mobile phone switched off. a good amount of reading finance. It will be a plus point if you are aware of the recent Do financial news and basics of finance. If you are interested in finance it should show that you have worked towards the same. not give run off the mill answers. Do

marketRx
marketRx combines analytics, market research and technology to provide solutions that enable their customers at global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to improve the effectiveness of their sales and marketing initiatives. Their business delivery model combines extensive industry knowledge with global online market research and analytical expertise to deliver actionable solutions in sales force strategy, sales management tactical planning, targeting, brand management, quick-turnaround market research, segmentation, forecasting, sales and marketing metrics, and brand tracking. Selection Procedure: Round 1: Type: Written Test Duration: 60 minutes Level of Difficulty: Easy There were 3 sections in the test: i. ii. iii. Quantitative Aptitude Mathematics Essay Writing

Round 2: Type: Personal Interview(HR/Technical) Duration: Approximately 15 minutes Sample Questions: Why marketRx? are the other companies you are aspiring for? What do you look for in a company Which while making your choice? you know about Operation Research? What do Some classical Puzzles (e.g. Boat Problem)

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Special Tips: Know the company well(History, Market Capitalisation, Services they provide) Knowledge of Operations Research will be helpful. Practice basic puzzles and solve a few CAT papers. Degree Students are preferred over B.Tech Students. Dual

NVIDIA Bangalore
Students Feedback on the Selection Procedure held on December 2, 2007 Round 1: Type : Written Test (Software or Hardware) Duration of Test : 60 minutes the questions were subjective in nature. All company had offered two job profiles. Based on the profile there were two tests, one for the The Hardware & the other for the Software. The candidates were free to choose any one of the above tests. Hardware Test: of Questions: Approximately 10 Number Difficulty: Difficult Level of Course(s): EE370 Relevant Basic Programming questions were also given. (ESC101 Level) Some knowledge of Data Structures and Probability might be handy. Software Test: of Questions: 8 Number Difficulty: Difficult Level of test, the candidate should be proficient in C++ coding. For this Round 2: Type: Personal Interview Duration of Interview: 30-40 minutes interviews were more or less technical. The Hardware Section: interview, the candidate was asked to solve the question(s) which he/she either In this skipped or did it wrong in the Test.

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 Additional data were provided in case the candidate desired for the same. Questions based on Summer Internships & Projects Why NVIDIA? you know about the products and business of NVIDIA? What do Software Section: Questions regarding Summer Internships & Projects. Questions regarding any other relevant courses or work experiences (if any).

PANGEA3
Pangea3 provides legal process outsourcing services, utilizing client dedicated teams of lawyers and engineers in India and the United States to deliver best-of-breed patent analytics and patent drafting, contract drafting and contract management, legal research, competitive intelligence, electronic discovery, and document review services. Selection Procedure: Round 1: Type: Written Test Duration: 60 minutes Level of Difficulty: Easier than CAT Format: CAT Based Round 2: Type: Group Activity Duration: Varies from 50 minutes to 2 hours. Format: The candidates were called and were asked to describe their B.Tech projects to the group one by one. The description was to be done in a Layman term so that everybody can follow them. The group was supposed to ask questions. The moderator took an active role in the discussion and finally the group was enlightened about what Pangea3 is all about. The discussion was more an informal one. Round 3: was not meant for all the candidates. However, in a few cases officials might go for this This round as well.

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 Type: Personal Interview(HR) Duration: Approximately 10 minutes Informal. Very Special Tips: Study the basics of Intellectual Property Rights, Patents etc. the Companys website. Visit Brush up the fundamentals of your B. Tech Project. ready to sit for long hours in the Group Activity. Be

RENAULT NISSAN
Round 1: Type: Group Discussion Duration: Approx. 10-12 minutes Number of Persons: 12 Format of the GD was usual. The topics given were relevant to Automobile Industry in India. The In the end, all the candidates were asked to suggest some innovative steps that might lead to betterment of Automobile Industry in our country. Special Tips: should have a good knowledge of Indian Automobile Industry for performing well in this One GD. Round 2: Type: Personal Interview(HR) Duration: Approx. 10 minutes Sample Questions: HR questions like Tell about yourself? Where do you see yourself 10 years from Usual now? Why do you want to join Automobile Industry? Questions on Relevant Project work (if any). Special Tips: Project work related to Automobile industry will come in handy!

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SCHLUMBERGER
Round 1: Type: Group Discussion (Case Study) Duration: Approximately 45 minutes Format: There were 2 groups in this round, consisting of 5 members each. Both the groups were given a case where they were stuck in some deserted place and they had to rate 15 things in an order depending on their importance for survival of the group. The groups were given 10 minutes to think and rate the things individually. Then both the groups had a discussion for 15 minutes regarding the order. Finally, there was one member called from each of the group and was asked to conclude the discussion in 5 minutes. Schlumberger was offering 2 job profiles, Field & Research, Development & Manufacturing (RDM). Field Job: Round 2 & 3: Type: Personal Interview(HR) Duration: Approximately 15 mins. Sample Questions: Why Schlumberger? some instance where you had shown some team work. What was your specific Describe role in it? related to Summer Internships. Question Special Tips: Companys website properly. Visit the a little History of Oil Exploration in India. Study RDM Job: Round 2: Type: Personal Interview(Technical/HR) Duration: Approximately 20 minutes interview was more on the technical side. The Sample Questions: Why Manufacturing? Questions related to your technical skills. related to BTP (Detailed) Question

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 Special Tips: your manufacturing courses. Revise Be thorough with your B. Tech Project & Internship Project. Knowledge of Autocad and other such software would be of great help.

SHELL TECHNOLOGY INDIA

Round 1: Type: HR+Technical Interview Duration: 40 mins Panel: The interview panel consists of both the HR and Technical people. This time there were 3 persons on panel: an HR manager, one engineer (varying with departments) and one line manager. The resume asks you beforehand to mention two of the recent done projects with a brief description in 150 words. The interview starts with brief 5-10 min description of one of your project. HR questions that follow are:The What were the conflicts that came during the project if it was a group project? How did you manage them? How did you manage the time required for it? How the task distribution was done if project was a group one? What was the outcome of the project? Technical questions will pertain to the basics required to complete the project. The main stress of the interview is to check the problem solving approach of the candidate and The what the he actually did when a problem was posed to him/her. interview tests the candidate on 4 parameters called CART Capacity, Achievement and The Relationship all covered in HR and fourth is Technical.

Round 2: Type: Case Interview Duration: 80+ 40 mins The background for this is already given one day before in the Shell Recruitment Day (SRT) one day before the final day. One case study is given with sufficient reading material and time which is followed by an interview.

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 Sample Case Study (given this year): There is a fictional country in which the company SHELL operates and you are the manager of the branch of company that operates in this country and is reeling under some crisis. The reading material for the case study is 20-25 pages containing the emails of the locals, the newspaper cuttings and reports from the local population. Each was given 80 minutes to go through the material. interview asked you to identify the issues involved in that situation and then the key issues The even among these. This was followed by a brief presentation of 2-3 mins in which one was supposed to tell which among them were short term issues, which long term and which one the medium term. was an open ended case study in which a candidate was supposed to give a stand and This justify himself. Round 3: Type: Group Discussion Duration: 60 mins background of the GD may be the case study itself as it was this year. The Topic (given this year): Shell wants to do some social investment in the same country referred in the case study earlier. 5 people selected for this round were divided in 2 groups of 3 and 2 members respectively. The The group of 3 members was given 4 issues on which company should invest and decide upon 2 of them. The same was done for group of 2 members with another set of 4 issues. The groups in the end were combined and of 4 issues (2 from each) decided by them, they were supposed to decide on 2 of them. the end when they had decided on 2 of them, the group was told that there occurred a natural In calamity in that country. In this changed scenario how should the company proceed with sharing the investments? After this the 5 candidates were taken to a room where they were made to sit on a panel and the Shell recruiting team then starting bombarding question posing themselves as reporters. They were posed with all kind of questions: choose that issue and not another one? Why the particular investment as decided by the group will lead to more increase in the goodwill How of SHELL? main aspect is to put to test the techno-managerial skills of the candidates. The

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TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS: not take any project report, diagrams of the projects done by you. Just tell them orally during Do interview to avoid stressing questions from the technical interviewer!!! Speak only in the GD if you can do some value-additions. prepared for quite a lengthy process till you get selected. It takes almost one whole day Be during the entire process of selection!!!

UBS(IT)
Student Feedback on the Stage II of the Selection Procedure held on December 2, 2007 Not necessarily in the same order and may be in one go. (So you have to be at your best for one and half hour) Round 1: Type: HR/Technical Interview. Duration : 30-40 minutes. Panel: Video Con They will test your fundamental skills in OS. Your quantitative abilities will also be put to test. Sample questions: multithreading? What is synchronization construct? What is should be confident of whatever you have learnt in your curriculum for this round. You interview will focus solely on your knowledge of electrical engineering. This Round 2: Type: Technical Interview Panel: Video Con. Duration : 30-40 minutes one will focus on your language skills. This year one candidate was asked a lot of questions This on C. They will test your quantitative skills. By asking some questions on mathematics here as well. Then they may test your managerial abilities as in how good are your Comm. Skills, leadership abilities and how well can you cope in a tight situation. lot of non-conventional technical questions will be required which require out of the box A thinking. They want to see how you approach a particular problem.

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Special Tips & Comments: Keep your mind open and think in different dimensions, while answering non-conventional question. should have a good background in software engineering and management. You Companys website to see what is the kind of work they do and how you can fit into that Visit role. You should be aware about the profile details as in various locations offered etc. Answering technical questions on the video con is not usual. So dont panic and give it your best shot. your courses seriously. Do

VIA
Round 1: Type : Written Test It is to test your basic programming and Data Strcuture Knowledge. Duration : 10-20 minutes Consisted of three subjective questions questions were required basic C programming and knowledge of basic data structures . The The first two question involved implementation of Stacks and Graphs . The third question was a testing question in which the applicant was required to debug a program. The questions were highly logical and were of a high standard. Round 2: Type: Technical Interview Panel: 2-3 Duration: 60-90 minutes. Questions were asked on the basis of the written exam. candidates understanding of the questions was tested thoroughly. If you coldnt answer any The of the questions they might ask you about your approach towards that question and help you reach a solution. So if you are not able to solve any question in the exam, come back and think and discuss the same. Further questions were asked based on Data structures and programming. interviews were very interactive. The Awareness about the companys operations and work profile will give you an advantage in the interviews.

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Round 3: Type: Technical Interview Panel: 2-3 Duration: 45 minutes is a thoroughly technical round where the emphasis is on testing your programming and DS This knowledge. Special Tips & Comments: Prepare the regular HR Questions as well, they might ask you in the first round. Companys website thoroughly. Visit Keep your mobile phone switched off.

YAHOO!
Student Feedback on the Selection Procedure Round 1: Type : Written Test Duration : 60 minutes The interview tests your basic knowledge of Algorithms Networking -Unix and O.S. Database Management

are expected to be thorough with these areas so it is advised that you brush up the basic You concepts. They may ask you about the courses and projects you have done. Hence, brush up!! Round 2: Type: Technical Interview Duration : 40 minutes Questions were asked from random topics such as Orthographic Projections in TA101 or Diagonalization of a matrix. So make sure you revise whatever you are putting on your resume. General understanding of computer science related topics was tested and questions were also targeted towards the departmental courses you have done. Sample question: A code involving link lists and pointers was asked. It was required to be robust and free of errors and exceptions.

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Round 3: Type : Programming Round ( Held in CC- Linux lab) this round, the candidates were given a question with hints/steps to attack the problem. They In were required to code it in Java/C++ and run the program. Sample question: Suppose you have a large number of files and you have a list of words. Now you need to find those files which contain all these words. The code should have a small runtime. Hints were given such as search for a particular word in all the files using some data structure and then repeat the process for all words. Then take intersection of these files to arrive at the answer. Round 4: Type : HR interview was a general kind of interview. It Candidate was asked about his family background, why he wants to join Yahoo!, why not go for higher studies etc. Special Tips & Comments: Possess some knowledge about various topics under computer science. selection procedure is rigorous and tiring, it might extend to late hours. The Interview is equally crucial so prepare the expected questions in advance. HR will also help you if you are able to identify the needs of the company in temrs of the kind of It candidate they are looking for. So contact seniors working in Yahoo! J

TRANSOCEAN
Round 1: Type: Group Discussion Duration: 15 minutes Format: think 1 minute Time to Discussion 10 minutes Conclusion 4 minutes observer in the GD took care of these time limits. The Sample Topics: good for cricket in India? Is ICL

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 Academic System at IIT K Child Labour Special Tips: Make sure you reach a conclusion. try to speak at the cost of cutting down chances of your group members. Do not Round 2: Type: Personal Interview(HR/Stress) Duration: Approximately 30 minutes Sample Questions: Why Transocean? Dilemma Questions Moral Based Questions Resume Questions , such as: Weird i. ii. Special Tips: Stay Calm & Confident. Be Honest and DO NOT LIE. Companys website thoroughly. Visit the Feedback of Students on the Test held on November 29, 2007 Duration of Test 60 Minutes Number of Questions Approximately 125 the questions were Multiple Choice Type. All There were 6 sections in the Question Paper: Section English Grammar Maths Pattern Matching English Logical Reasoning Data Interpretation Eye Sight Test Number of Questions 20-25 20-25 15-20 8-10 6 15-20 Level of Difficulty Easy Very Easy Easy Not so difficult Easy Easy What is the difference between the flying of a Helicopter and a bird? How many stairs are there in Lecture Hall Complex?

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English Grammar : the sentences. Correct the blanks with the most appropriate word. Fill in Comprehension Passage Maths : Trigonometric Relations Permutation & Combination Quadratic Equations Coordinate Geometry Logarithms All the questions involved Class XII level mathematics. Pattern Matching : Some pattern was given with blanks left at few places. Students were asked to fill them with the most appropriate choice English Logical Reasoning: Few Statements were given. On the basis of the given statements students were asked to derive a logical conclusion.

Interpretation : Data were given and simple question were asked on their basis. Graphs Sight Test : Eye difference between two similar looking sentences. The difference could be a Find the spelling mistake, a grammatical error or a punctuation mark difference. Special Comments: Paper was lengthy. Question is crucial factor. Speed preparing for CAT or other such examination may have an extra edge Students the trigonometric relations and values. Revise

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BOSTON ANALYTICS
Round 1: Type: Written Test Duration: test had mostly aptitude and logical reasoning questions. The test pattern was very similar to that of CAT. So going through some sample papers and The preparation material for CAT will help. Round 2: Type: Group Activity Duration: participants were given Lego blocks and were asked to construct structures. The Instructions were given for the same. Adherence to instructions was emphasized upon. Playing along with the groups was also given importance to. T hrough this they were testing candidates team skills, leadership skills and how will you can execute an instructed task in a team. Round 3: Type: HR Interview Duration: round will focus on your general personality and your CV. This based questions were asked. Extensive cross questioning was done. So prepare and brush up CV all the projects you have done. Some simple mathematical/puzzle problems were also given which required presence of mind Read about the company, its work areas, newer operations etc. Specific questions about the company were encouraged . Retention is another area crucial for the firm as they just set up a new floor in Pune. Tips : prepared for questions on the basis of your answers. Be Have a good idea about the companys activities and pay attention to the ppt. Go through their site carefully. Ask specific and not general questions. examples wherever you can. Cite

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HSBC
Round 1: Type: Written Test Duration : 1 hour Type : Quantitative, Passage Reading, Flow chart fill up (based on algorithm) Preparation for the CAT will help you in this exam as well. You may go through the preparation material for CAT to prepare for this test. Round 2: Type : Technical Duration : 25 mins Sample questions: They asked about 60 percent of the courses done during the BTech/MSc/Dual/MTech programme. Questions were mostly technical. have done courses on Probability and Statistics that will give you an edge but be If you thorough with all the concepts. Questions were simple based on fundamental concepts related to that particular branch. e.g. to a Mathematics & Scientific Computing student some of the questions asked were - What is Cauchy convergence? - Define Widening Numbers. - What is Poissons concept? Round 3 : Type: HR Duration : 25 minutes Sample questions: about yourself whatever you have not written in the C.V. Tell me you take drop of two years after passing 12th? Why did Your academics will not be of any use during your job, is it okay for you? your Departmental Rank? What is puzzle was asked regarding advertising. A simple Puzzle: I want to advertise my products in a newspaper or using pamphlets as which one will be a better medium to advertise my product. I had to answer that question based on some facts given in the question. The puzzle involved simple mathematical reasoning. your future plans? What are

your family background What is

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Special Tips & Comments: confident during the interview. Be should behave like a person who can be trusted upon. One should be yourself. You Retention is very crucial for the firm.

RIO TINTO
Student Feedback on the Selection Procedure Online form All the applicants had to fill up an online form which was very important. One must take his time to fill up the form. The online form plays an important role in recruitment. Contents of the form- personal details, questions whose answers are often written in resume (as they dont ask for separate resume), have you ever lived in remote areas , work experience & internship experience etc. One telephonic interview was also taken, but they told that this was of no use and they might not take it from next year onwards. Round 1: Type: Written Test (Psychometric Test) Duration : 25 mins to 30 mins for each section Questions were from: Quant, Pattern Match, Verbal Analysis. also CAT material will help. Here Round 2: Type : General HR Duration : 40 mins Questions were based mainly on the online form. They explore you as individual testing your leadership and team skills and how well you can gel in their company. Sample questions: What did u do in internship? Give an example where you showed leadership skills. One of the questions they asked me wasSuppose you had fight with printer operator. Now you have to print a page of paper, what will you do so that you are able to print that page of paper. What are your favourite courses? What do you like about the academics of your institute?

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Round 3: Type: General Duration : 20 minutes Sample questions: As the work location is in Australia, so they asked what will you miss mostly about India if any? Will my parents allow me to join this job? They were telling about their company itself for most of the time during round 2. What are your future plans? What is your family background?

Special Tips & Comments: Communication skills matter a lot. you have an internship in Australia then you have better chances of getting selected. If has higher chances of getting selected if he has work experience in remote areas. One Student should have good academic qualification (preferably CPI >7). After all these procedures a medical test is also taken to test whether the boy/girl is physically fit or not? (student is checked for TB, HIV etc)

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memories ...

the team ...

M o h u n t a S a c h i n

S u ji a n a

A s h w a n i

S h a h e e n R u c h i M a y u r DL e a s y i& g o n u t : AB dh i& t a at t C h a n d e r

Overall Placement Coordinators (2008-09): Rahul Sharma rahuls@ +91-94503-43191 Kaipa Karthik kkarthik@ +91-98385-09836 P. Ravi Kumar pravik@ +91-99563-25354

The Students Placement Office Address: 109, Outreach Building, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur - 208016 Phone: 0512-259 4433/ 4434 Website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/spo