Last year, almost at the same time, I had a lot to thought
to. I had to continue my MBA entrance preparation, I didn’t have any job offers
yet and by looking at the way I was rejected on both occasions I had a lot to
ponder over. Day zero was approaching soon, where you are allowed to sit in
multiple companies. In my case, I had to try my luck in Accenture, Infosys, and
Wipro. It was a tough time, dilemmas were hard and there was always a state of
conflict in mind for which way to choose. On one hand, I could have continued
with my MBA preparation and relied solely on luck for day zero, on the other I
could have devoted few precious and crucial moments from my MBA preparation
time to day zero preparation. Finally I decided to go for more secure option
and prepare for day zero first, as it would be ok not to get into a good b
school but getting out unemployed would be far tougher.
I was planning to devise a strategy that could work for both
the MBA preparation and placements and I guess I planned for more than 20 days
and ended up with nothing, riding on 2 boats, sinking again and again and
somehow still manage to continue the journey. When the final dates were
announced for day zero, I made my mind to switch to the technical studies
again. The ‘Let us C’ book I bought in 10th standard was opened
again, Sumita Arora of 12th class for C++ was also searched, then we
have our reference books for BE subjects and all the PPTs and PDFs. It’s like
you have to study entire engineering in a week and you don’t know how to start.
If you ask your seniors, all they will tell you if it is your day then you will
crack it and that further confuses you as instead of a luck factor you are
searching more for a set formulae which you can follow to assure your success.
ACCENTURE:
Accenture is always the most preferred company in my college
and cracking it is comparatively easy as it always takes the major chunk.
Another relief was that all those who got above 65% in 10th, 12th
and graduation have to appear in only 1 interview, rest people followed a more
rigorous procedure of clearing a written first and then appearing for separate
technical and HR round.
Along with resumes and mark sheets it’s always better keep
the originals of all your identity proofs and their photocopies. It’s better to
apply for passports and have them with you though they are not necessary still
you have to apply for them sooner or later so better done before. Interview
days are more like war preparation. You iron your formals a day before, search
for a good tie, search for a friend who makes the perfect knot for the tie, polish
your shoes, shave and cut your hairs. You mug up many important things that you
have never thought about like “about yourself”, “ your strength and weakness”
and while preparing lots of funny answers come into your mind but you try to
focus on interview preparation. You receive lots of ‘all the best” messages and
when you finally arrive all you can see is plain and tensed faces of many other
people wandering here and there with their folders and resumes. All the modern
tip top girls are well dressed in suits and all the cool dudes look decent and
sober. Formals become such a fascinating things for college students, that they
start taking random pictures of one another and selfies to later update it on
facebook and whatsapp.
You can feel your heart ticking when people are called for
their interviews and those who come back are chased by so many; at times the
person gets fed up by telling same things again and again to many people. Anyway
it’s always a good practice to ask others what they were asked as many
questions are repeated and you will have an idea about what kind of questions
are asked and you can discuss answers with other people so just in case even if
you are not knowing anything you would have an idea on what to reply on that. Some
people make really big notes about common questions asked in interviews but I
would advise against it. I would rather say prepare bullets of important point
as in this manner you would be able to cover all the important points you want
to answer and you would be able to speak in more interactive and convincing way
instead of trying to remember the big answers you have written.
The waiting time is like going through ages, you keep on
reviewing your resumes and documents. You check whether you are looking perfect
or not. You take deep breaths and think about the worse that can happen; even
the atheists start praying for a while. The terrifying experience of others
daunts you and you are already nervous, there is sweat on even the pores of
your fingertips. You put yourself into an imaginary interview trying to answer
all the questions nicely. I guess 10th Sept was the day we gave our
Accenture interviews.
Students were getting call in order of their college
aggregate. My name was supposed to come around 1 PM, indeed it was called to
come out of the hall but then not for the interviews. Many like me were stuck,
and we had no idea what is going on then we found out that our forms have been
lost. So, after some ‘hungama’ we had our forms and then lunch time was called.
So we got to wait for 1 hour, this 3 hours delay indeed made my mind a little
unstable, still as the moment arrived I calmed myself. Finally my name was
called, I went in the room greeted the gentlemen sitting over there who would
decide my fate today.
They asked normal questions like,” how are you feeling”, and
I replied normally like excited with a little ornamentation like “This is the
day we wait for throughout our college life and I am happy to be part of it
now” making sure I won’t cross the over smart line. They asked me “Why
Accenture”, I said the same conventional answers “It is a big brand , growth
perspectives are nice and stuff” with a little bit of my inputs like “ I talked
to seniors and they are very happy in Accenture”. The fellow asked to elaborate
seniors’ experiences, now here is the catch I didn’t know any detailed story so
I used my mind at the time, made up 2 stories of praising Accenture and the
interviewers were happy. Then there were questions on my project, easy one
though.
I think in every interview there comes a deciding point
where you can assure your selection. It would definitely pop up and you got to
realize it. My deciding point came when the technical person asked “what if I
gave you a task and you are not able to solve it, there are no solutions in
book or internet” what would you do then? I gave some general answers like
“would ask seniors or would ask you “and he kept on cutting every point like “I
am not picking your phone, I am on vacation and all”. Finally, I relaxed for a
while, took some time to thought and replied “ I would implement a partial
design making sure all the important requirements are covered and rest when you
would be back I would ask you to help me to complete it. He seemed satisfied
and I was relieved that at last I had one normal interview in my life. They ask
you questions like whether there would be location issues or timing issues and
for a safer site it’s better to reply that you would work anywhere for whatever
time.
If they ask you “Any questions for us”, then do ask
questions that are not stupid or very general. Just explore the company’s site
or search on net and come up with a good question that should look like general
and personal like “I am good at this and this technology so whether I could get
projects on this”, “I am good at poetry and singing so will this company
provide any platform for this”, and never ask questions like “What you think
about me or how well the interview went”. Keep calm, stay smiling, don’t get
nervous, they will try to make you nervous; they might bombard you with
multiple useless questions still think calmly and come up with a logical answer.
INFOSYS:
We didn’t have much time to speculate about our Accenture
results as we have to be ready for INFOSYS. I guess it came on 13th
September I don’t remember exactly. Now there is no such privilege of direct
interview in Infosys, everybody has to clear the written test. The good thing
is they recruit a major chunk of all the written selected candidates so it
plays a key role.
Infosys has a very annoying online form that we have to fill
first. It works on only internet explorer and it searches into database after
every entry you are filling so it takes at least 2/3 hours to fill that big
annoying form and it would be advisable to use a very fast internet connection
for it else you would be stuck somewhere in between and have to start afresh.
Infosys written test is of very good level to be very
honest. It’s not as easy as generally written tests are. You would definitely
require some practice and you would definitely need to work on your speed if
you want to clear this test. If you do not have an MBA preparation background
then it would be better to have at least a week’s preparation to be on safer
side instead of playing with luck. Many good candidates were eliminated in the
written test which seriously shook their confidence so I would suggest not to
take it lightly.
Those who clear written go for HR+technical round. HR
happens first, one thing I would like to say is that I had my best interview
experience with Infosys. The interviewers are very polite and friendly and they
really treat you very nice and make you as much comfortable as you can. HRs was
very experienced, everyone was 45+ and they all talked very decently. The HR
person started with saying “It must be really hot and uncomfortable for you
people outside”, it’s good to see someone is empathizing with our condition.
After the usual questions, he came to my hobbies which he
has seen from the resume. We started talking about chess and he asked me how to
teach a person chess who knows nothing about it. I started with very basic
steps and the main purpose of the game and then gradually upgrade of that
person to higher tricks and allowing him to retain what he has learned. Then he
asked me 3 strategies to win the game in few steps which I knew luckily. Then
we started talking about few of the skits I narrated, directed or took part of.
It was enjoyable as hobbies are something fun to explain and the interview
becomes very comfortable.
After the HR, it was time for the technical interview. The
technical person scanned the form we had filled and also he had the rough sheet
that I had used for the written test. He pointed to some rough work and asked
me the question, luckily that question screwed my mind a lot and I read that
multiple time during the test so I was able to recite it as it is, then he
asked few more questions of test which also I was able to tell him. Then he
came to my project, which was a profiler collecting statistics for JAVA
programs and displaying them as charts. He asked me what’s the use of this, I
replied we can tell whether a program will run on a particular system or not
and how well it will run, still he wasn’t satisfied. He asked the same question
in a more complicated way, I replied taking a little more technical perspective
that if the profiler is saying you require 512 mb ram and u are having only 256
then you can’t run that program on that system and I took an example of GTA SAN
ANDRES game which recommends a minimum 512 MB of RAM, he asked how to resolve
the issue then now if we now the problem. I replied “ We can compromise on some
other parameters to make it run at least like in SAN ANDRES we can reduce the
resolution and then we can run it on 256 MB RAM too”, and bam he was satisfied
only a 2 minute technical session and all we discussed later was “ who could be
a better prime minister, Narendra modi or Shivraj Singh Chouhan”.
He gave lots of points against Modi which I gradually and
patiently countered. At the end he said by the way I want to tell you that I am
a die hard Modi fan, I said “Yes I know, that wasn’t hard to guess”. He told me
that I can leave now but as soon as I reached the exit he called my name again “Mayank,
come here, one last question for you”. He asked me if I have to choose what
will I pick “Accenture or Wipro”. Now, it was really a trick question and I was
almost about to spit out my gut feeling but suddenly my brain said “Halt, stop
, thamba ! There is some trick in the question, why he asked it explicitely”. I
then replied “Given any choice, I will choose Infosys but if the choice is
between Accenture and wipro then I will choose…( Again I paused a little
thought for a while and then replied) Wipro”.
“Why Wipro” He asked clearing catching my bluff. I replied
because I would like to work for an Indian company first and secondly Accenture
gives joining very early but I would like to take rest for a while after
college, again Infosys is the best which generally gives its joining around October
and Wipro in January (That was the trend that time). Now, the trick is whatever
the obvious or logical answer may be, whenever you sit into an interview, all
you got to show is that you are interested in only that company only and would
choose it at any other cost and won’t prefer any other company. I left again
and again he called me at exit “ MAYANK” , “yes sir” I replied, “ Enjoy your
rest of the day”, he said with a very teasing kind of tone and I understood
what he meant.
WIPRO: Wipro gave a last minute shock, earlier
everyone with 75+ aggregate had to sit for direct interview but then they
increased it to 79+ something at the last moment. So we all prepared for the
written test too, it was an adaptive test with 5 sectional and there was a
minimum attempt range decide for every section so one has to manage time pretty
well, also once attempted you can’t go back to the previous question. Many who
failed to clear Infosys written test cleared this once and many who got through
Infosys didn’t make it here.
My wipro interview will remain something I am personally
proud of because it was one interview I think I cleared because of sheer
presence of mind and common sense instead of knowledge. It was a 100% technical
interview, not even a single HR question unlike others who were having HR
weightage greater than technical. I was asked to make programs of Linked List,
trees and other data structures which by that time I had forgotten. But I
somehow recollected the 2nd year memories, started with algorithm
and with the help of interviewer himself made many new logics for all the
programs which really impressed him. So again that is one very crucial thing,
unless you are asked a very specific question and you have no clue never reply “I
don’t know”. You have to find a way to attempt, it may be very odd or abstract
way but still somehow you have to approach the problem given and try and give a
satisfactory answer because many a times they are not at all looking for
answers all they want to see is how you will approach a problem that you don’t
have much clue about.
I was asked all the forms of normalization of a database in
the end and I got stuck at the 4th one. The interviewer asked “What
happened”. I said “I don’t remember it is Boyce Code or Backnus Normas”. He had
a huge laugh then and asked me “When did you study database”. I said “6th sem”
. “What sem is now “. “ I replied “7th sem”. He again laughed and
said “You forgot it pretty soon. I said “Database is not really one of my strongest
subjects”. Again it’s ok to accept your flaws within a permissible limit,
because even the interviewers know that you are but human and you can’t know it
all. “Any question for me”, He said in the end. After thinking for almost 30
seconds I said no. He again laughed and asked “Why no”. I replied “Because I am
very tired and completely blank right now”. He told that I can leave now.
I wasn’t expecting to clear Wipro interview, Accenture and
Infosys I was but not at all wipro. There was a second round also and the news
was that those who were called for the 2nd round are rejected.
Anyway the judgment day was 17th Sept, we all gathered in our
college hall. Individual names were announced for every company and it was a
relieving moment to hear my name in the Accenture list, followed by Infosys and
surprisingly in Wipro. A perfect 3 on 3, I remember earlier we used to think
that we won’t take placement from mass recruiters and as they take a huge chunk
they are easy to crack but once you go through it you know they are not. There
are lots of factors and variable and a single little silly mistake can really
cost you a lot. You have to be very careful yet calm at each step.
The worst thing about placement is that most of us can’t
enjoy if you succeeded because there are many who were deserving, even more
deserving and talented than you who didn’t make it. You have to be with there with
your friends and make sure that they won’t lose themselves and it’s not the end
of the world. Many hearts are broken after the placement time because most of
the people have their eye on mass recruiters and all in all one become very
mature after going through it. There are people who updates their status as “The
harder I work, the luckier I get”, well hard work indeed pays of but surely
luck has its role in life too and that you can understand only when you get
through something you were not at all expecting or you didn’t make it to
something you thought you were the most deserving person to get to.
In a nut shell, good marks would certainly makes a good
impression but they are no sure shot gurantee of success so don’t run too much
behind college marks instead focus on developing a sound technical knowledge.
Communication skills, huge benefit in mass recruiters, if you are able to speak
then even if you have zilch technical knowledge, there is high probability you
would get selected. Extracurriculars, if you don’t have then there is no
disadvantage but if you are having then surely you can divert your interview to
them at any time and make a better impression.It's a good think to understand the name of the meaning of every company, their logo, their tag line, and the names of people who are at key positions. For more details you can refer
to this link : http://mayankviews.blogspot.in/2014/07/placement-guide-for-freshers.html
Even those who aren’t allowed to sit in the placements
should stay with their process throughout as there is a lot to learn and experience
on such occasions. It’s one experience of life you should never miss and you
should be there to cheer up your friends. It’s a day long process, and the
participants are really tired, a little help at that time would really strengthen
their moral and cheer up their spirits. Anyway, that was day zero, I would wind
up the series with the dream companies, Adobe which I didn’t make it and Amdocs
where I am presently working.
PS: Shortly after day zero, I became ill and had to quit my
MBA preparation: P :P
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