Tag: Chemical

Nirbheek Biswas

Pre-Placement Preparation, Group Discussions, Placement Experience, Interview

Profile at a Glance:

● 3 internships
○ 3rd year summer: R&D at Aditya Birla Group (Grasim)
○ 2nd year summer: R&D and Business Development at Nanologica AB (Sweden)
○ 2nd year winter: R&D at Ultra Pure Analytics
● Activist and Member -Saathi
● Course on Wheels and Second in Regional Stage of Global Student Challenge

Pre-Placement Preparation

I personally had a lot of experience in R&D but was unsure if that’s what I wanted to do mostly because of dismal CPI. I also had a slight knack for finance and wanted to give it a shot but was scared that it might be too late to start. I would advise that you figure out what to do from the start or maybe eliminate the things you are sure you are not interested in. This would make the preparation that ensues less tedious and more organised.
I also started pursuing my passion for fitness more seriously this semester, this helped with the stress and also helped me organize my day slightly better as everything could pivot about my gym sessions. I feel having a hobby could really be beneficial and you would have something else to discuss apart from what is on your resume.
You could easily end up giving close to 50 aptitude tests in a short duration so I kid you not prepping for it as early as possible is the best thing you could possibly do. I was preparing for CAT so that was kind of taken care of, working on speed math and some amount of English would come in handy as well.

Group Discussions

Having a GD group and discussing various GD topics (at least 10) would be the smart thing to do. I made the mistake of not having such a group and would deem myself as lucky to have cleared two rounds of GD, but I wouldn’t lie, I have always had above average speaking skills and I usually don’t get flustered in large crowds.
I started working on my Resume and HR doc around the 27th ( I would suggest you start earlier if possible), ask for help from seniors, your friends and people around you, everyone would have something valuable to offer. Write and rewrite your answers, lie if you must, give as many mock interviews as possible. During the interview I felt confident because I had spent so much time preparing and the stories I was going to tell felt compelling and had meat to them.
Dr. Reddy’s had a pretty long test, they had a core test which was surprisingly quite easy, along with other tests which focused mostly on pattern recognition and completion of sequence, followed by a lengthy and to be honest quite taxing psychometric test. Each candidate had to also submit a 2 minute video talking about what they could offer as a chemical engineer, to my surprise all three people in the panel had seen and could remember instances from the video.

Placement Experience

For me Day 2 Slot 2 was Day 1 as I had zero shortlists on day 1. Slot 2 begins around 6, I had decided to wake up early that day and spent most of my day in solitude, I had mostly stopped looking through my resume and the HR questions and focussed more on get into the right frame of mind. I had promised one of friends a few days back that I would get selected in the first interview I gave and that somehow gave me a lot of positive energy and confidence.

GD Round 1

We got divided into groups of three, each group had 10 individuals, I personally felt that my group was slightly tougher compared to the other 2.
We had been given a brief description of a method to produce nano-particles that could carry an API, followed by a few questions (all related to the engineering aspects of the method) that were given and we were supposed to discuss on those lines. Another thing I noticed was that the adjudicator of the GD was really attentive and made sure each of us got a chance to speak and express our views. We were also given a sheet to sign out names on where the judgement criteria was clearly written and the points for each of those criteria stated individually.
I might have had an edge in the first GD as the topic was quite similar to my work in Nanologica AB, but I decided to keep that to myself and let others decide where the discussion would go. I don’t feel that starting a GD is quintessential but if you do, you should have a clear direction in mind and something valid to speak.
I personally like to take my time to understand the topic and figure out who else is doing well, being courteous and raising your hand whenever you want to express your opinions is usually considered to be a good habit, I also always try to ensure that people get to finish what they have to say and try to correct people as humbly as I could possibly could.
I personally felt that the first GD went pretty nicely and I was quite sure that I would clear the round. I had to wait for a long while to get the result, it helps if you have someone reliable to accompany you and also carry along some food.

GD Round 2

As expected I got selected for the second round, which I felt would be a technical round (had prepared a lot for it) but this was also a GD round. 10 of us got selected, 4 from my group and 3 each from the other groups. This GD started a bit late as we had to wait for a few other candidates who were busy with other interviews, this gave me an opportunity to have a conversation with
the panelists, this was a great opportunity to find out about them and also what they were looking for, I also got to know that after this was the last round which was supposed to be a HR round, this gave me a much needed confidence as I well prepared in my HR preparation.
The second GD was similar to the first one, it was actually the topic given to the third group, I think I struggled a bit in this GD mostly because everyone in this group was quite good and had already cleared one obstacle.

Interview

We later got to know that this GD was conducted to create somewhat of a pecking order, with the ones on the top more likely to be selected.
I was placed third. The guy before me was offered a spot offer so I was a little tensed as I had to live up to the expectations.
The panel had 3 individuals, with mostly one person (technical background) asking the most questions.
The interview started with them asking me about the coat buttons (like should they be open or should they be closed when you sitting etc), I think this was more of an icebreaker and also to see the candidates presence of mind. This was followed by general questions about my internship at Aditya Birla, I was quite confident in my work there so I dwelled into the details of my project.
This was followed with just general questions about my background, people I admire the most, qualities I would like to inculcate, things I’ve learned from my parents. I answered these questions quite comfortably giving them ample examples and instances that have shaped me into the person I am today,the interview ended with me asking them about whether Dr. Reddy’s plans to focus on creating their own API’s in the future and questions about the program that they were offering,the interview was quite short, probably did not last more than 10 minutes.
After this they asked me to leave the room, I knew they had given a spot offer to the candidate before me so I was quite disappointed as I was about to walk out of the room, just as I was about to step they asked me to wait outside the room for a minute, after a quick discussions they called me back in and offered me the job, they asked me specifically that I don’t tell anyone about it.
When I walked out of the room about 10 of my friends had gathered outside and from the huge smile on my face they could tell that I had been given the offer and they ended up creating a lot of noise.
To be honest the fact that the 2 candidates above me in the pecking order had rejected the offer might have helped me in the end. They panel called me again after all the interviews were over, approximately two hours later by then my suit was in shambles and we had a small discussion about the incident that ensued after they gave me the offer. We discussed how I had talked about the importance was honesty in my interview and how I had let them down, I apologised for my behavior and promised that this would never happen again, to my respite this was enough and I was offered the job.
I would like to reinstate that I was quite lucky that I got selected in Dr. Reddy’s, in no other turn of events would I have made it and knowing that probably was a very freeing thought, I was willing to persevere and I feel that is what it boils down to in the end, placements are weird and things happen that you would never expect, all you can do is think of it as one interview at a time and give your best shot.

Arundhoti Nayak

PrePlacement Preparation, Procter n Gamble, Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, General Fundae

Profile at a Glance

  • A bit about my background I have been involved in IIT Bombay Racing for past three years which makes electric race car which we take into the competition in Silverstone, UK.
  • 2nd year (Junior Design Engineer): Battery and battery management System
  • 3rd year (Design Engineer): Data Acquisition & Controller Area Network
  • 4th year (Core team member): Chief Operations
  • 3rd year summer internship at Monash University, worked on energy consumption for the production of H2/Cl2 in electro dialysis cell.

Pre-Placement Preparation

  • Practiced aptitude daily from Indiabix
  • Placement Aptitude Test (pariksha.com), from here I got to know what are my weak topics and practiced accordingly.
  • Core preparation from the material shared by Department Placement Coordinator
  • MOST IMP FOR PnG: “64 HR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS”
  • Read a book: “How to make friends and influence people“

The last 2 bullet points were the most important for my PnG prep. From 64 HR interview question I prepared/ discussed the first 45 questions, from here I got to know how to frame my answers (keep some loopholes in your answers from where they can ask the next question.)
Since I was sure where I want to work in I filled only 14 Jafs and PnG as my only Day 1 company (its okay to fill less jafs, don’t get intimidated by your friends filling 30+ jafs). Do your research well on the companies.

Procter n Gamble

Round 1

The interviewer gave a brief intro about himself.

  1. Tell me about yourself.
  2. What does your father do?
  3. In which places have you stayed during your father’s transferable job? What is your hometown?
  4. Proudest moment of your life.
  5. Tell us about a situation where you had to present something in front of a panel (the question was something related to it). They wanted to know where I have defended myself before.
  6. Tell us about a situation where u have saved significant amount of resources (human, money and time). Told them about my 2nd year in IIT Bombay Racing where we designed BMS (in house) saving 1 lac and got it done in a couple of months. completely technical
    a. What is a BMS?
    b. What exactly does it do?
    c. What is passive balancing? Why does the measuring temperature of cells help?
    d. What is the definition of power density?
    e. Why don’t you use high power density cells?
    f. What is iso-spi communication? Why do you use it instead of can?
    g. What is spi communication?
    h. How the BMS data does exactly helps? Can the driver manipulate anything in the BMS from the dashboard?
    i. How do you calculate the total energy required by the battery?
    j. How do you cool you battery? What are the total number of cells
  7. Explain a very difficult situation and how did you overcome it. explained an incident from racing
    a. What are the types of motors?
    b. Is it two wheel drive?
  8. How do you ensure knowledge transfer in your team?
  9. Explain a decision in which everyone wasn’t on board, how did you explain others and bring everyone on board.
  10. Tell us about a situation where you had very limited resources with a time limitation. How did you overcome it?
    There were 2 situational questions among which I remember only 1.
  11. How would you prioritize 4 projects whose submission deadline are as follows: next day, a week after, a month after, a year after respectively.
    The interview ended with me asking him what exactly does his job description is, just to gain an insight and to end it on a good note.

Round 2

Interview started with a brief introduction of both of them. They gave disclaimer that they will be taking down notes on my answers and I shouldn’t be bothered about it.

Tell me about yourself.

Explain us about the summer internship project
a. How was it impactful?
b. How did you base your data from? Is this the only way to get your results? How did you validate your results?
c. What is the innovation you did?

Explain about your current position of responsibility- core team member, IIT Bombay Racing.
a. How did you inspire your team members after the disaster in dynamic events in UK this year?
b. Why do you think people should be there in team, what is in their minds to stay in the team

  1. What is one of the situations in which you have taken a lead, and how did you overcome the situation?
  2. Tell us about a very difficult decision
  3. Tell us a difficult phase in your life, when no one was standing with you. How did you face it, what did you learn from it?

Now starts the situational questions. They told me now we are starting the situational questions, we want to study your behaviour, your body language, how you react in the situation and your thinking process.

  1. Given you join in PnG in a managerial position, there are 15 employees working in the company for past 5 years, there is a reform in the company’s rule, 5 of them are neutral, 5 of them optimistic, and 5 of them pessimistic about it. The 5 of them who are pessimistic are working at the end of the manufacturing line (i.e. if they don’t work no product gets delivered). How do you convince them?
  2. Suppose you work in a group of 2. Your co-employee is always behind your tail, disagreeing with you always. Now one fine day she started shouting on you in the cafeteria because you forgot to give her some update on something. How do you deal with the situation?
    a. Will you be able to keep your calm?

Then the interviewers wanted to know if I had any questions for them so I asked again from both of them what their scope of work is. Each of them explained their work in jest. But interviewer 2 wanted to know why I asked them these question so I mumbled that oh my god that’s a lot of work. They laughed at this comment and we started talking about general life. The interview ended on a good tone.

Round 3

Again started with brief introduction and tell me about yourself

  1. Proudest moment of my life.
  2. Do you want to be in manufacturing or supply chain
  3. Will you do an MBA in future?
    It was a general discussion about my likes and dislikes.

General Fundae

  • Have a chewing gum before you enter the interview, it eases your mind.
  • Sit upright, back’s straight (practice it if necessary)
  • Don’t cross leg (an extremely defensive position)
  • Don’t lock your hands (again extremely defensive position)
  • It’s okay if you stammer a bit, but rectify it and consciously keep in mind not to do it again.
  • Be patient, don’t show a slightest amount of annoyance on your face though however pissed off you are at inside
  • Try to say limited and important things, mention the points you want them to know, keep the ball on your side of the table. Maintain eye contact with your interviewers.
  • Be confident, don’t be afraid, smile a lot, you can even crack jokes if you want. Take your time to answer the questions.
  • Last don’t follow any of the above and do the way it naturally comes to you. In the last minutes whatever others say doesn’t matter a lot.

Philosophy

Think consciously about what you like and what you don’t like. A bit of soul searching never hurts anyone.
For me I was very sure that I want to work in either supply chain/core companies, and don’t want to do my Masters/PhD right now.
Talk to your friends/ seniors whom you trust, and limit those number of people whom you turn to for suggestions, because too many suggestions can be confusing!

Atharva Modi

PrePlacement Preparation, Deutsche Bank, Bain, ITC, Cairn India, General Fundae

Profile at a Glance:

  • Top 10% of the class
  • 3 internships:
    • 3rd year summer: R&D at Dr. Reddy’s Labs
    • 2nd year summer: Supply Chain Lead at Xynteo (Plastic Maker Hubs)
    • 2nd year winter: Analyst at NextGen PMS (worked on impact assessment and conceptualising CSR projects)
  • General Secretary, Hostel-5
  • Core experience in form of two electives: ‘Course on Wheels’ and ‘Techno-commercial aspects of fine chemicals’
  • Always involved in sports and adventure activities

Pre Placement Preparation:

Decision of Profile to apply for:

After my diverse experiences, it was difficult for me to choose any of the field. I liked bits of every one of them, but was highly unsure about core or consulting or management or finance or even opting for civil services. But, I was clear that I will not apply for software, coding & trading profiles. This automatically left me with fewer options in finance profile. Also, my internship at DRL taught me that somewhere I lacked the patience and grit for research.

It was somewhat clear to me that I will not sit for CAT or GRE this semester partly because I wanted a break from studies and want to explore the practical world, and partly as I didn’t want to create more options for me.

Going for civil services is still in back of my head. I felt in the end that one can afford to prepare for the exams like CAT and simultaneously get an upper hand at placement tests (Aptitude+Verbal).

Balancing Between Different Types of Preparation:

In the mid-semester I was inclined towards consulting and keeping core profiles as my backup. But, as shortlists of companies uncovered around mid-October I found myself shortlisted in only one Day-1 consulting firm and again the indecision creeped in. I did not have many friends who got shortlisted in consulting firms which halted my preparation with the case interviews.

I consciously attended most of the relevant pre-placement talks and alumni talks. These ppts and sessions gave me an overview of work each type of firm and its employees do. I took notes in each of them which proved to be helpful down the line. They also helped me to show several ways to prepare for placements, but in the end we must devise a way of our own.

Also, for group-discussions preparation, we formed a group and discussed at least 10 topics of different genres in the group. By the end of October, I was facing aptitude tests and buddy meetings (consulting; (un)fortunately I had only 2 of them, but people with more shortlists were really busy with these). I was not prepared with any of these and they went not up-to the par. I was not shortlisted in the most tests in this time range and if buddy reviews are a truth (and yes they are), then they must be not so good for my performance.

Just after the end-sems we were facing a mountain of tests and they kept us engaged from 7 in the morning to 1 in the night. There were breaks in between but the whole process was tiresome and I could barely manage any time to prepare for interviews, core or case interviews in the last week. Suddenly, I had to come out of the hibernation and as always being a last-moment performer, gave my best shot to prepare stories and HR questions in the last two days.

I got shortlisted in 4 firms on Day-1. All of them were in slot-1:

  1. Deutsche Bank
  2. Bain
  3. ITC
  4. Vedanta (Cairn) Oil & Gas

Deutsche Bank

Round-1 involved a panel of 2 equally participating members (A & B):
A: Hi Atharva, I also wanted my son’s name as Atharva, it is a nice name but people suggested that it’s very difficult to pronounce, so we chose another one. Is it really that difficult for people?
I: I don’t know if it is difficult to pronounce as no one calls me by my first name. Even my mom sometimes calls me Modi. Actually, my teacher in 10th class also changed the name of her son to Atharva. It seems she was inspired by me.
A: So, what’s the meaning of your name?
I: (with little stutter) The name is derived from name of Lord Ganesh and even is name of one of the four Vedas. If we go by literal meaning it means “a spell of holy magic”.
A: So, let’s see your magic then
I: Of-course!

After this feel-at-ease start to the interview, the next part of interview went pretty normal including general questions like:

  • Tell us about your background?
  • Explain your project at DRL.
  • How did you benchmark the supply chain in your project at the intern at Xynteo? (“Benchmark” was a word I used as an exaggeration in the resume and later needed good preparation to defend the word; SO BEWARE!)
  • Why Finance and why not supply chain? (Supply chain profile was protruding from my resume) (I should have been well-prepared with this question, but spontaneously I generated an escape relating to the power & impact of finance guiding the market and supply chain projects.)
  • Why not become our client instead of joining us? (Based on my impromptu answer to above question)
  • What is the difference between a point and a line?

Questions for the interviewer: I asked the interviewer about is there a possibility of a recession in recent times and will it affect their work as an investment banker and another question on the effect of new technologies like AI on value of their work. Both questions received interesting responses.

The second round also involved few probability problems and an unconventional pricing case.

  1. We have a bus with seats numbered from 1 to 100. There are 100 passengers waiting outside numbered 1 to 100. The passengers enters the bus according to their number and the seating policy is such that each ith passenger is obliged to seat in ith place if its seat is empty. If the seat is already occupied it can take a seat on any of the empty seat left. Only the 1st guy has a privilege to have a seat of his choice irrespective of seat’s number. Find the probability that 100th guy occupies the 100th seat.
  2. You are selling your institute. Estimate the value of IIT Bombay.

Questions for the interviewer: Again I asked the same questions to the panel this time and I think here even they realised the danger AIs possess to their job!

Bain

I was aware that I did not have enough practice for the Day-1 consulting interview but I was ready for any kind of “humiliation” I may face. The interviewer began with questions like “Why consulting?” and “Why Bain?” to which I stammeringly responded via my prepared answers. Then we started with the case which went as follows:
“We are a regional parcel company and we decided to lease driverless electric trucks as a substitute to diesel trucks and in the pilot project we faced additional costs more than the expected. Should we go ahead with the project?”
The interviewer basically tested how I will compare the costs of both the fleet type and how comprehensive my segmentation is. Then she provided me data about the segmentation of the costs and asked for what factors to consider to improve the costs. We settled on the long-term financing of the project instead of single-year project to get a discount from the vendor. The case ended with pretty bad calculations from my side and I was much assertive for my kind of brute-force calculations for simple oral problem. The interviewer didn’t like me a bit and even I didn’t adored her expressions. My review came out that I should try for other firms and I was out after a single round. It was an experience for which I was pretty much ready.

ITC

I knew after the GD that ITC was my best shot. I was not prepared as I should have been with my resume and core aspects. Thus, I was left with the only good choice of being confident on my 3 years of engineering studies and prepare for every word in the resume. Guide the interviewer your way, and this can be done by writing down answers to all the common questions and discuss them with your friends to see which way they can go ahead.

ITC Group Discussions are generally based on ranking of characters or importance of things in the given case. There are fixed 6 cases from which they ask each year. You can get these topics from google or seniors or internship junta. We practiced two of these GDs in the group and for the rest I personally prepared a framework.

General tip: Of-course giving a direction to the discussion shows your skills and increases your chance of selection, but don’t initiate just for sake of doing it. Create a solid base for the discussions clarifying the case to all the members of the group.

The first round of interview had a 2-memebered panel- probably one HR and another relatively recent alumnus of IIT-B. They started with asking about my background right from family to college life. Then they moved on to the core internship and I explained the internship using a flowchart I prepared. At last the interviewer offered me his coffee which I graciously accepted.
Below are the questions (in order) they asked me:

  • How did you plan your experiments? How many experiments did you perform? Can you give us a number of papers you read on the topic?
  • How the levels of variables were decided (related to Design of Experiments)? Was some statistical analysis involved in it?
  • So, why were you late in obtaining results from your experiments?
  • How were you elected as the General Secretary? Was actual “polt” involved?
  • What is your favourite subject? (I said that I liked the most practical applications of engineering. Do this daring act only if you are confident enough.)
  • Tell us practical examples of isobaric, isochoric and isothermal process. (I converged my whole answer to the tea making procedure. They were seeking for something more industry related, but it worked)
  • Draw refrigeration cycle. If we open the door of a refrigerator in a closed room, what will happen to the room’s temperature? Which law governs it? (I stumbled in drawing the refrigeration cycle, but later part of the answer was answered handsomely.)
  • What else you do apart from your academics and work as General Secretary? (I mentioned my hobbies of sports and music and was able to convince them that Ultimate Freesbie is actually a game and its tournaments are played in Mumbai.)
  • Explain the event you wrote in “Mind over Matter” section of the application form. (They read your application before the interview. Be prepared with it.)
  • Are you comfortable if you get a job in Mumbai? (Quite a weirdo from a manufacturing job, but answered in a positive.)

Questions I asked: We all know that IoT and AI will bring the next big disruption in supply chains globally. How this incoming technologies affect ITC? Are we working on the same?

The second round of interview had 2 senior members from the company and both looked knowledgeable in every aspect. I entered the room along with a Mongini’s guy, which brought a genuine big smile on my face and our conversation started with the charming cake.

  • Where are you from? Why are not you going for an MBA like your brother? (Hearing in their ppt helped me answering the second part.)
  • Are you a chemical engineer by a chance or by choice? (I said partly by choice, and related the versatility of Chemical Engineering to my likings.)
  • How can you apply Bernoulli equation to the Wall Street? (This question was coming from my last answer. I just said it is a differential equation which can be applied to any type of flow in different forms being money, energy or material.)
  • Give an example you use Bernoulli’ equation in real life? (I moulded the answer from basics of flow in a convergent pipe which finally went to Venturimeter with the help of interviewer.)
  • How do you manage to get such good grades handling this PoR and other stuff? Din-raat Mugte rhte ho? (I said that I have cracked the grading system in the institute and good grades require a very different kind of study. I moulded my answer towards my habit (not really :P) of scheduling things and studying attentively in the classroom.)
  • What is your favourite subject? (I said that I like most practical applications of chemical engineering, but if they force me to choose one I will go with Mass Transfer.)
  • Tell us names of different types of column you studied? What is the use of packing in a column?
  • Why did not you get a PPO at Dr. Reddy’s? (The question came as a shocking end for me as I had prepared an answer for consulting firms as “I wanted to reject core sector so I made it clear at the end of the intern”. Now spontaneously I had to prepare an escape about my choice to go to a manufacturing unit rather than R&D sector. It was a genuine belief and thus went all good. I will highly recommend being thorough with such questions beforehand.)

Questions I asked: Are we allowed to change the divisions in ITC? (This question was accompanied with a lot of knowledge I gathered from their website and talking to an alumnus between the interview. The interviewer looked surprised by my knowledge about their work culture, but in reality it was just a glance on their ‘careers’ webpage.)
We all know that IoT and AI will bring the next big disruption in supply chains globally. How this incoming technologies affect ITC? Are we working on the same?

Cairn India (Vedanta Oil and Gas)

I was the last person to go for Cairn’s interview. I was already feeling hungry and tired and will suggest all of you to take enough food with you. I knew that interviewers are focusing more on core knowledge related to upstream processing of oil & gas and adaptability of work on the drilling site.

GD for Cairn had 8 people with 10 minutes to speak. The topics were very vague. Some groups had a lot to debate and our group did not even had much to speak for the whole time.
Our GD topic: Have the nuclear tests of Pokhran in 1999 helped India or not?
The selections at the end were much random and people who spoke well enough or even initiated and directed the conversation were left out. Don’t get disheartened if you are the victim in such a case.

Tell us about yourself.
 Why it is important to remove water from natural gas?
 What are the methods used to remove water from Natural Gas?
 Can molecular sieves be used for extremely low concentration of water?
 What is ethylene glycol? What are its industrial uses? Can it be used to remove water from NG?
 Which will need more work: Same flow rate of API 35 crude or API 20 crude at similar conditions? (I clarified them if it was same mass flow rate or volume flow rate. This was something I learnt from case interview preparation.)
 This job will require working on the site, are you fine with it? (Again, I did not say a yes or no directly but went on to ask questions on which my decision will be based on.)

Questions I asked:

  • The work profile just mentions ‘Operational Excellence”. What does the work actually include? I want an exposure to overall process from raw material procurement/extraction to the consumers; will I be able to get this in the role? (As the jaf did not include much information in it and they did not have a ppt, this questions become relevant and actually shows your interests in the job.)
  • You can easily afford living in a metro city. How you manage your life switching between site and home?
  • What is the individual’s progress in their company? How many years does a person have to work on site?
  • Why Vedanta merged with Cairn?

The second round of interview was very chill and I even didn’t carry my resume in there. There were 3 people in there, most probably from HR department. They asked me to describe my 21-22 years of life and later I went on explaining them my and family’s whole journey from childhood to being a 19-year old job applicant. At last they just confirmed if I was fine with working in a 21 day work 21 day off format.

General Fundae:

  • Make resume realistic and simultaneously write down explanations for each and every word of it to a depth of 3rd level. This means you must be able to explain every term in the explanation of the description of your projects. Brag about yourself by playing with words and mention well-thought explainable numbers in the resume.
  • Make notes in every PPT you attend. They will help down the line.
  • For consult preparation, one has to be interactive and proactively practice with friends and seniors. If you don’t have any friends preparing for it, making new friends is the best thing you can do here or else you can also take help from several online case practice platforms. Form one or two case groups, practice and monitor the performance regularly. Analyse the practiced cases individually and give as much time to this crucial step. Analysing the cases means seeing how others have solved it, what was the best way for you, what factors you missed in the case, trying different types of frameworks on the same problem, etc. Finally, you have to be firm in your aim to join consult which keeps you going all the way.
  • I will strongly recommend solving guesstimates and basics of profitability and market entry cases to everyone irrespective of their target companies. They can be asked in a different format in any interview and become an important metric of rejection by the company as it happened with my most friends.
  • Preparing a timeline and most importantly sticking to it will surely take you places. Read this book, get experiences from seniors, attend sessions and make your own tailored plans from mid-October. Timelines may include preparation for tests, group discussions, case interviews, etc.
  • For the last 2 days I was preparing the HR questions and brushing up my resume points. Fortunately, I got help from my friends at the last moment to make explanations for resume points which will not generate doubts in the mind of the interviewer. I should have done this preparation much before I did. I penned answers to most questions linking them through “stories and events through which I learnt this…..which led me to believe this…..”. Writing down your answers is an excellent way to refine your answers and making them perfect. Instead of keeping generic answers try to relate all your answers with experiences from your life. This makes a good connection with the interviewer and also make you stand-out from the crowd.
  • People facing problems in communication in English language must improve upon it as at last what matters is how you express your views in the interview in this language. You can start by regularly reading newspaper and at least one article aloud each day. Don’t hesitate in conversing in English with your wing-mates and close friends. Encourage, Not MOCK!

ALL THE BEST!