Anurag Khandelwal
Message I would like to be very practical and share some of my experiences. Before anything else, you may like to download all three editions of “Be Prepared” from DC. These books have interview experiences of students of three batches of previous years. Personally, I got immense help from all these books.
Resume Related DO NOT FAKE ANY POINT IN RESUME EVER ! Believe me guys; I have seen my batch mates not getting the job just because even after doing every other thing right they were not able to defend that particular single point of their resume. Having said that, some of the points can be written in a better form to portray some different qualities (conveying the same work). Be careful in what you write about your second year internships. People tend to write many fancy words and could not defend in the end. Refer to the standard resume workshop ppts available on DC (Opera, Mc Kinsey etc.). Download a list of action verbs. Review by seniors generally takes a week’s time. Try to send your resume just before weekend so that they can review it without delaying so much. Do not let your resume getting over reviewed. People will keep suggesting things on your 20th version too. Somewhere down the line, you will be required to take a call and stop.
Pre-Placement Talks It is important to attend PPTs of all the companies relevant for you. You can always pick out things from the PPT to answer questions like why do you want to join our company? ; Why do you think we should hire you? ; What is so unique about us as compared to competitors? Take notes during PPTs. At least note down what is unique about that company? ; What are the qualities they are looking for in a candidate? These things help on the interview day when one does not have enough time to go to the internet. One can just look at the notes and frame answers of some standard HR questions. If you are unable to go to a PPT, request your friend to take notes and consult him later for the info. If there are multiple PPTs in a day, decide amongst your friends and try to cover every PPT.
ITC Process Resume Shortlist (30 mech + 30 Chem + 20 elec), followed by case-based GD (20 minutes) shortlist of around 30 followed by 2 interviews (mix of both technical + HR). 9 people were made final offers, 8 joined in the end. Note: Please do not have the mindset that only high CPI students can crack ITC. One needs to have a decent CPI to get shortlisted. After that, it all depends on GD and PIs. Out of the 8 students who joined ITC this year from IITB, 4 of them had CPI in the range of 8 to 8.2. So, don’t just drop this company from your target list without giving much thought.
Group Discussions ITC always has case based GDs. Most of you guys would have experienced this in your 3rd year also. Generally, they come up with the same standard cases (This year may not). But, I will advise you to contact 3rd year students after they have their GDs during internship selection process to get the flavor of the cases. All the standard fundae of GDs are applicable here also, which you will hear from a lot of people in due course of time.
Interview I had 2 interviews each of around 45 minutes. Both can be divided into 3 phases (Normal HR + Technical + Not so normal HR). One thing is for sure, Expect anything in an ITC interview. Each of us had different type of experiences. Therefore, a lot depends on how well you answer the very first question, tell me about yourself. If you are able to justify this answer in the interview, I think you will be in. So, prepare this answer well. Select three qualities of yourself that you would like to tell the interviewer. Keep some examples or stories ready to back them. At the same time, be ready with the 4th thing that you don’t like about yourself (basically a weakness). If you try to portray yourself as someone who is in deep love with chemical engineering, then be ready to answer some chemical engineering fundamentals. Those who are genuinely in love with chemical engineering should not hesitate at all and earn some brownie points.
Technical Be ready to be grilled on all the technical stuff that you have in the resume especially the internships and technical projects. Go through reports and PPTs that you have made in your internship period. Find out the current status of the project you have done. Business aspect of your project should be clear to you. Prepare one or two courses very well. They sometimes ask which your favorite course is and then accept you to answer all the questions. Refer to a mail sent by Pratik Behra for the core preparation strategy. Ask dual degree batch for the same.
Bottom line is if you claim something in the interview , you must be able to back it up .
Human Resources HR is a very crucial part of ITC interview process. You must spend a good amount of time in preparing for the normal HR questions. Two resources are: o 64 HR questions o HLPQ (available on DC) Google yourself, look into various aspects of your life, pin them down. Do not wait for the last week for HR preparation. You may not be able to sit in peace in the last week. In case you have multiple shortlists in the same slot, be ready to defend yourself when they ask what your preference is. They will ask you about your higher study plans. Be diplomatic in answering such questions. Some value based HR questions can be asked. There may be questions on ethical issues related to cigarettes.