Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Your seniors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur were your true well-wishers, they shared their placement interview questions for you. 🙏
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Filter interviews byIndian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur Placement Interview Questions
Updated
27 Dec 2024
20 interviews found
I applied via Campus Placement
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume short-listing was done on the basis of CGPA, extra curricular activities and only those having a overall strong profile with a good balance of PORs and academics were short-listed
Tips: Well, one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that your resume needs to be perfect from you side.When I say perfect, it means there should be no typographical errors, no spelling or grammatical mistakes. It should be edited properly and thoroughly checked so that any chances of mistakes can be nullified. Your resume should have information related to projects (research or applied), any intern-ship or other experience of similar kind, relevant courses ( finance or statistics course, in this case ), positions of responsibilities ( PORs ), extracurricular activities and other skill sets. Points in resume should be concise and self explanatory. You should keep in mind that the interviewer takes only a few seconds to review a resume and therefore appropriate details in your resume should be highlighted to make it easy for interviewer to review it. For Deutsche Bank, having a intern-ship experience or a academic project in finance or a foreign exposure definitely helps. PORs also helps in the same fashion. Your resume should be as uncluttered as possible and at the same time should have all the details of above mentioned things presented concisely.
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It was the first time in many years that DB decided to have a group discussion round. So most of us did not have anyone to share their experience with us. We had around 6 people, at once, in this round. Personally, It was a good experience for me, although I did not read about this topic much and had a discussion with my friend about net neutrality just a few minutes before my GD. I spoke against net neutrality contrary to all other five candidates with me. I described how moving away from net neutrality will help in providing resources to more people and open up the gates of world of internet to the deprived ones. I was objected by al,most everyone in the group but the idea is to maintain your cool, listen to other candidates and try and defend your idea and express your opinion about the topic.
Tips: Some basic tips for every group discussion goes without saying. Starting or ending the course of discussion definitely helps but at the same time it is important to understand that it is not a compulsory action that needs to be taken .I observed it in my discussion that people were so much adamant about initiating the discussion that the moderator had to request people to calm down and not create a fish market there. The idea is to think wisely before you speak. After hearing the topic, you should take your time decide whether you wish to speak for or against and then think of various points and aspects of the topic. Its always helpful to take a pen and a notepad so that you can write the points in short which you can refer later in the discussion. You should NEVER switch from the stand you have taken in the beginning. This is regarded as a weakness so NEVER do that. At the same time it not at all means that you should initiate a war of words(quarrel) with the candidates who has expressing the opposite opinion in the discussion. You need to be humble, polite while you talk. Do not use HINDI/any other native language in the discussion. Be confident while you speak and let other other complete. Try not to interrupt someone and avoid blame game to other candidates, be generalised in you opinion instead of grilling other candidates. If you plan to start the discussion, It would be helpful if you describe the problem briefly, lay down the important points which you think needs to be discussed also can suggest the way discussion can be undertaken and at the same time invite other candidates to share their views when you have finished sharing yours. If you are planning to conclude a discussion, you must remember that its a discussion and not a debate, so it is not necessary that you discussion will end up with one party emerging as correct, so you should try to jot down all the points mentioned by the two parties during the discussion and a give a generalised overview of the discussion, instead of forcing your own opinion onto it. You can try and discuss the pros and cons that were explained by different candidates and try and give a possible solution to make the system better.
Topics of GDs for DB are generally based on the current issues in the country . So you should read about current issues as that will help you to use the recent events and other highlights during the discussion to support your point.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was the first candidate from the short-listed candidates to be interviewed so the interviewers were not bored of taking interviews. The interview started well. I was not able to answer the very first finance question that they asked me related to P/E ratio. But, after that I was able to answer all questions comfortably. So overall the technical interview went well.
Tips: You should be aware of all the current issues. For that you can read Economic times follow Bloomberg, Business Insider regularly, talk and discuss with your other friends to learn more about the same. For the finance topics, you look at Khan Academy lectures on finance. They are very concise and at the same time introduce you to the basics of finance. You can also look at J.C. Hull's Options futures and derivatives. Sometimes they may ask some puzzles. For that Braingle.com and TechInterviews is a good site to begin with followed by PratikPoddar's CSE Blog. Its important that you remain confident throughout the interview. Its okay if you don't know answer to all the questions being asked. You can politely mention that you do not know answer to the following question and that you will follow up on the same after the interview and then at the end of the interview you can followup with the interviewer. This shows that you are interested to learn new things and are not here just because you are short-listed. It is good to ask question related to the company at the end of the interview. You can frame questions based on PPT of the company.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: All the questions were standard HR question. Other than the negative quality question, all the other question passed swiftly.
Tips: Answers should be prepared to these standard HR questions. Negative quality question should be answered carefully so that it does not influence your interview much.
Skills: Confidence, Finance Current Affairs, Finance Basics
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Kanpur
Motivation: I wanted to get some experience in finance and understand more about investment banking. This was the main motivation for me.
Funny Moments: I was held on the negative quality question for quite a few minutes. They asked me who are my friends here at IITK and asked what would they say about my negative quality. I happened to take up one of my friend's name who was one of the guys offered a PPO from DB and was also under the mentorship of one of my interviewers. He almost gave this a guy a call to enquire for my negative qualities. I ended up laughing over this incident in the interview which was not received pleasantly by the interviewer. One lesson learnt from this incident was t never laugh unless the joke is funny to interviewer :P :P .
Experience: Resume short-listing was done on the basis of CGPA, extra curricular activities and only those having a overall strong profile with a good balance of PORs and academics were short-listed
Tips: Well, one thing that needs to be kept in mind is that your resume needs to be perfect from you side.When I say perfect, it means there should be no typographical errors, no spelling or grammatical mistakes. It should be edited properly and thoroughly checked so that any chances of mistakes can be nullified. Your resume should have information related to projects (research or applied), any intern-ship or other experience of similar kind, relevant courses ( finance or statistics course, in this case ), positions of responsibilities ( PORs ), extracurricular activities and other skill sets. Points in resume should be concise and self explanatory. You should keep in mind that the interviewer takes only a few seconds to review a resume and therefore appropriate details in your resume should be highlighted to make it easy for interviewer to review it. For Deutsche Bank, having a intern-ship experience or a academic project in finance or a foreign exposure definitely helps. PORs also helps in the same fashion. Your resume should be as uncluttered as possible and at the same time should have all the details of above mentioned things presented concisely.
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It was the first time in many years that DB decided to have a group discussion round. So most of us did not have anyone to share their experience with us. We had around 6 people, at once, in this round. Personally, It was a good experience for me, although I did not read about this topic much and had a discussion with my friend about net neutrality just a few minutes before my GD. I spoke against net neutrality contrary to all other five candidates with me. I described how moving away from net neutrality will help in providing resources to more people and open up the gates of world of internet to the deprived ones. I was objected by al,most everyone in the group but the idea is to maintain your cool, listen to other candidates and try and defend your idea and express your opinion about the topic.
Tips: Some basic tips for every group discussion goes without saying. Starting or ending the course of discussion definitely helps but at the same time it is important to understand that it is not a compulsory action that needs to be taken .I observed it in my discussion that people were so much adamant about initiating the discussion that the moderator had to request people to calm down and not create a fish market there. The idea is to think wisely before you speak. After hearing the topic, you should take your time decide whether you wish to speak for or against and then think of various points and aspects of the topic. Its always helpful to take a pen and a notepad so that you can write the points in short which you can refer later in the discussion. You should NEVER switch from the stand you have taken in the beginning. This is regarded as a weakness so NEVER do that. At the same time it not at all means that you should initiate a war of words(quarrel) with the candidates who has expressing the opposite opinion in the discussion. You need to be humble, polite while you talk. Do not use HINDI/any other native language in the discussion. Be confident while you speak and let other other complete. Try not to interrupt someone and avoid blame game to other candidates, be generalised in you opinion instead of grilling other candidates. If you plan to start the discussion, It would be helpful if you describe the problem briefly, lay down the important points which you think needs to be discussed also can suggest the way discussion can be undertaken and at the same time invite other candidates to share their views when you have finished sharing yours. If you are planning to conclude a discussion, you must remember that its a discussion and not a debate, so it is not necessary that you discussion will end up with one party emerging as correct, so you should try to jot down all the points mentioned by the two parties during the discussion and a give a generalised overview of the discussion, instead of forcing your own opinion onto it. You can try and discuss the pros and cons that were explained by different candidates and try and give a possible solution to make the system better.
Topics of GDs for DB are generally based on the current issues in the country . So you should read about current issues as that will help you to use the recent events and other highlights during the discussion to support your point.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was the first candidate from the short-listed candidates to be interviewed so the interviewers were not bored of taking interviews. The interview started well. I was not able to answer the very first finance question that they asked me related to P/E ratio. But, after that I was able to answer all questions comfortably. So overall the technical interview went well.
Tips: You should be aware of all the current issues. For that you can read Economic times follow Bloomberg, Business Insider regularly, talk and discuss with your other friends to learn more about the same. For the finance topics, you look at Khan Academy lectures on finance. They are very concise and at the same time introduce you to the basics of finance. You can also look at J.C. Hull's Options futures and derivatives. Sometimes they may ask some puzzles. For that Braingle.com and TechInterviews is a good site to begin with followed by PratikPoddar's CSE Blog. Its important that you remain confident throughout the interview. Its okay if you don't know answer to all the questions being asked. You can politely mention that you do not know answer to the following question and that you will follow up on the same after the interview and then at the end of the interview you can followup with the interviewer. This shows that you are interested to learn new things and are not here just because you are short-listed. It is good to ask question related to the company at the end of the interview. You can frame questions based on PPT of the company.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: All the questions were standard HR question. Other than the negative quality question, all the other question passed swiftly.
Tips: Answers should be prepared to these standard HR questions. Negative quality question should be answered carefully so that it does not influence your interview much.
Skills: Confidence, Finance Current Affairs, Finance Basics
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Kanpur
Motivation: I wanted to get some experience in finance and understand more about investment banking. This was the main motivation for me.
Funny Moments: I was held on the negative quality question for quite a few minutes. They asked me who are my friends here at IITK and asked what would they say about my negative quality. I happened to take up one of my friend's name who was one of the guys offered a PPO from DB and was also under the mentorship of one of my interviewers. He almost gave this a guy a call to enquire for my negative qualities. I ended up laughing over this incident in the interview which was not received pleasantly by the interviewer. One lesson learnt from this incident was t never laugh unless the joke is funny to interviewer :P :P .
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: DB directly shortlisted from resume. There was no test. After the initial shortlisting procedure, I had a months time to prepare.
Tips: I had started preparing for my resume from August when SPO had asked to send in master resume. After making a rough draft I had sent it to a lot of seniors from my department who were placed in different companies and edited it accordingly.
Round: Test
Tips: I had used the material from T.I.M.E and also from CL to prepare for it. Also,there were some classes arranged by SPO and CL which I had joined.
Round: Group Discussion
Tips: I did not prepare much for the GDs. I just participated in 3-4 mock GDs organized by the placement preparation cell.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: I had prepared all my interns and projects along with the courses written in the resume. I had prepared my answers from all the basic questions which are generally asked in an interview and was very thorough with them. I had also gained sufficient knowledge about the work profile of DB along with all major deals in the past year. Specially, for DB's interview I had also prepared for the current affairs by reading newspapers daily for about 3 months and also kept up to date about some major happenings in and around the world such as Syria happening, US shutdown, crisis and bubbles, etc.
I had my interview scheduled at 6:30 in the morning with DB. My first interview went really well and the person told me that I should definitely see the next panel.
Tips: Please do not write those courses in your resume which you found tough as it will create problem at the end moment when you have to prepare so much.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: My second interview was fine and most of the questions were from current affairs and my resume. They also asked me to guesstimate in this interview.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: In my third interview I messed up some economics related concepts.I thought they wouldn't like me but I was called again
Round: HR Interview
Experience: My fourth interview also did not go well but then somebody from the HR hinted that they liked me for a certain profile and would want to know my take on that.
General Tips: Be yourself and give your best shot. Have faith in yourself. Do not panic.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: DB directly shortlisted from resume. There was no test. After the initial shortlisting procedure, I had a months time to prepare.
Tips: I had started preparing for my resume from August when SPO had asked to send in master resume. After making a rough draft I had sent it to a lot of seniors from my department who were placed in different companies and edited it accordingly.
Round: Test
Tips: I had used the material from T.I.M.E and also from CL to prepare for it. Also,there were some classes arranged by SPO and CL which I had joined.
Round: Group Discussion
Tips: I did not prepare much for the GDs. I just participated in 3-4 mock GDs organized by the placement preparation cell.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: I had prepared all my interns and projects along with the courses written in the resume. I had prepared my answers from all the basic questions which are generally asked in an interview and was very thorough with them. I had also gained sufficient knowledge about the work profile of DB along with all major deals in the past year. Specially, for DB's interview I had also prepared for the current affairs by reading newspapers daily for about 3 months and also kept up to date about some major happenings in and around the world such as Syria happening, US shutdown, crisis and bubbles, etc.
I had my interview scheduled at 6:30 in the morning with DB. My first interview went really well and the person told me that I should definitely see the next panel.
Tips: Please do not write those courses in your resume which you found tough as it will create problem at the end moment when you have to prepare so much.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: My second interview was fine and most of the questions were from current affairs and my resume. They also asked me to guesstimate in this interview.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: In my third interview I messed up some economics related concepts.I thought they wouldn't like me but I was called again
Round: HR Interview
Experience: My fourth interview also did not go well but then somebody from the HR hinted that they liked me for a certain profile and would want to know my take on that.
General Tips: Be yourself and give your best shot. Have faith in yourself. Do not panic.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Around 55 students were shortlisted for the final round
Round: Interview
Experience: I was asked by a very senior guy why I wanted to join a finance firm despite of having a good record in chemical engineering. He then asked questions from my resume and we talked about MBA as an option and why I did not want to go for an MBA straight after college. It was more like a discussion.
Round: Interview
Experience: The second panel had 2 people from Corporate Finance and one from Markets. They asked me questions from Chemical engineering, a business study that I had written on my resume and a couple of maths puzzles. The interview went pretty smooth.
Round: Interview
Experience: The final round had 2 senior people from markets and one from Corporate Finance division. They started asking about my internship and how I could relate it to the situation in India. Since my project was on wind energy, they asked me to draw a comparison between wind, solar and thermal energy and which is a better source. They also asked about finances related with the establishment of a wind farm. Then we had a discussion on counseling service, reasons for suicide and what could we do to stop the,. Then they asked about the difficulties I faced in public relations.They were not judging me on finance and were trying to have a conversation with me, testing my confidence.
General Tips: Be calm and you can do well
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: Around 55 students were shortlisted for the final round
Round: Interview
Experience: I was asked by a very senior guy why I wanted to join a finance firm despite of having a good record in chemical engineering. He then asked questions from my resume and we talked about MBA as an option and why I did not want to go for an MBA straight after college. It was more like a discussion.
Round: Interview
Experience: The second panel had 2 people from Corporate Finance and one from Markets. They asked me questions from Chemical engineering, a business study that I had written on my resume and a couple of maths puzzles. The interview went pretty smooth.
Round: Interview
Experience: The final round had 2 senior people from markets and one from Corporate Finance division. They started asking about my internship and how I could relate it to the situation in India. Since my project was on wind energy, they asked me to draw a comparison between wind, solar and thermal energy and which is a better source. They also asked about finances related with the establishment of a wind farm. Then we had a discussion on counseling service, reasons for suicide and what could we do to stop the,. Then they asked about the difficulties I faced in public relations.They were not judging me on finance and were trying to have a conversation with me, testing my confidence.
General Tips: Be calm and you can do well
College Name: IIT KANPUR
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Interview
Experience: DB did not focus much on HR as I had an internship in finance.
Tips: Do your research about the firm you are interviewing with. Questions
like why finance, why DB are very common.Prepare well and be confident.
General Tips: Have mock interviews with friends.
Do not panic. Manage your time well. Ask one of your friends to accompany you and handle your phone.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: DB did not focus much on HR as I had an internship in finance.
Tips: Do your research about the firm you are interviewing with. Questions
like why finance, why DB are very common.Prepare well and be confident.
General Tips: Have mock interviews with friends.
Do not panic. Manage your time well. Ask one of your friends to accompany you and handle your phone.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Interview
Experience: 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.
Round: Interview
Experience: 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 hadn’t prepared for it before interview and the result was there in the interview.
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 dad’s business were asked and some situations were given and I was asked how I will respond to such situation.
Tips: DON’T get involved in last time discussion on any of the puzzles or finance questions before interviews.
General Tips: 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 you’ll 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 you’ll 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.
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, don’t 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…
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: 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.
Round: Interview
Experience: 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 hadn’t prepared for it before interview and the result was there in the interview.
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 dad’s business were asked and some situations were given and I was asked how I will respond to such situation.
Tips: DON’T get involved in last time discussion on any of the puzzles or finance questions before interviews.
General Tips: 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 you’ll 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 you’ll 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.
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, don’t 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…
College Name: IIT KANPUR
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: 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 wasn't going to score 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 didn’t 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 didn’t get shortlisted.
Quant
1. Find next in sequence : 10,1,.......7,7...11,5 - don't 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. Probability 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 don’t remember exactly since I gave the test 10 days back).
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 country’s 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
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?
Duration: 40 min minutes
Round: HR Interview
Experience: I was the last person DB interviewed that day. 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 shouldn't have listed all the 4 tech companies I had interned with.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: 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 wasn't going to score 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 didn’t 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 didn’t get shortlisted.
Quant
1. Find next in sequence : 10,1,.......7,7...11,5 - don't 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. Probability 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 don’t remember exactly since I gave the test 10 days back).
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 country’s 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
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?
Duration: 40 min minutes
Round: HR Interview
Experience: I was the last person DB interviewed that day. 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 shouldn't have listed all the 4 tech companies I had interned with.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Deutsche Bank did not have any aptitude test, only resume based short-listing.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This round was a mix of HR + Puzzles + Balance Sheet and lasted for 25 minutes. Panel was of Corporate Finance people. I performed average in this interview. However after a long wait they sent me for the next round.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round was mainly focused on Current Affairs and Finance and lasted for 40 minutes. Panel was of Business Associate (senior most person on the panel). India. A lengthy discussion followed and at the end of this discussion he was quite happy. I was immediately sent for the third round.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: It consisted of core and HR questions and panel was of IITK alumnus. After this round I was informally offered the job.
General Tips: 1. Even when you are unable to answer questions, don’t get bogged down or disheartened remain calm.
2. DB quite often takes stress interview. Just keep your cool and smile while answering questions.
3. If you do not know any answer, there is no harm is admitting that.
4. Be confident. Know your resume inside out.
5. Practice a few HR interviews before the actual one.
6. Also communication skills in English are very important.
Skills: Probability and Statistics, Financial Economics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: Deutsche Bank did not have any aptitude test, only resume based short-listing.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This round was a mix of HR + Puzzles + Balance Sheet and lasted for 25 minutes. Panel was of Corporate Finance people. I performed average in this interview. However after a long wait they sent me for the next round.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round was mainly focused on Current Affairs and Finance and lasted for 40 minutes. Panel was of Business Associate (senior most person on the panel). India. A lengthy discussion followed and at the end of this discussion he was quite happy. I was immediately sent for the third round.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: It consisted of core and HR questions and panel was of IITK alumnus. After this round I was informally offered the job.
General Tips: 1. Even when you are unable to answer questions, don’t get bogged down or disheartened remain calm.
2. DB quite often takes stress interview. Just keep your cool and smile while answering questions.
3. If you do not know any answer, there is no harm is admitting that.
4. Be confident. Know your resume inside out.
5. Practice a few HR interviews before the actual one.
6. Also communication skills in English are very important.
Skills: Probability and Statistics, Financial Economics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This year we had a resume based shortlisting across all IITs. There were around 35 students who were shortlisted form IITK. But, most probably DB would be continuing with its aptitude test based shortlisting, like the previous years (they ask around 25 aptitude questions, and 1 essay on some current topic).
Tips: DB resorts to resume based shortlisting again, they give a tremendous weight age to your CPI , any background in finance (intern in financial firms or on some related topic, so you see a lot of ECO and Maths Students being shortlisted.) Also, they look at the overall profile as well, but the above 2 factors were the most important this year. A comprehensive study of any of the CAT Maths material of CL or Time will suffice your preparations : focus more on how fast you can solve a problem.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1.This was a mixed interview of both HR and Technical.
2. It lasted for 30 minutes. I entered the room and was greeted by 3 people, shook my hands with all of them.
3. They asked me if I was hungry or not, I told them that I was thirsty rather and they offered me a Tropicana. (The reason I am citing this is, after my selection, in the night Mr. Nishant told me that this had set up the tone in the room, because the earlier 4 candidates whom they interviewed were too shy and refused to have anything, they judged it as my confidence rather, though it was never an intended one).
4. I was asked about how many companies I was interviewing in slot 1, and they seemed to be impressed on hearing the number 7.
5. They asked me what my preference order was, and I told them the truth that I would definitely interview with DB, Credit Suisse and Worldquant, and if time permits maybe with BCG or Opera.
6. Then they asked me to give a brief introduction, and asked me to stop when I was talking about my intern at Morgan Stanley and the paper I published over there. Mr. Nishant asked me if I was offered a PPO by them, and I told them the truth about my mentor not finding any position for me. He gave a sarcastic remark at MS, that going by the markets, its evident that they are not in a good shape now, and all I did was smile.
7. I was asked that if I got an offer from Morgan in my 8th sem, would I go. I told them, that if I got into DB/WQ/Credit Suisse/BCG , then definitely no, o/w yes. The reason I cited was that, inspite of all the money, I had to go through the entire placement procedure which in itself was a big pain, then an offer after that doesn’t help, they could have given it earlier. All three of them laughed and I seemed to have convinced them. I was asked to explain my work there, which I did pretty well.
8. I was also asked if I sat for DB during the intern procedure and I again told them the truth, as I have written earlier.
Tips: They weren’t judging me on finance or quant, because of my CPI and previous background as an intern. A lot of people were grilled on these though, if they said they were interested in these and all. They were trying to have a conversation with me, and testing my confidence, and when I came out of the room, I knew I had done well.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: 1. It was the second technical interview and the panel was of Mr. Vikram Khanderia (Business Head) and a senior person from algo- trading. It lasted for 20 minutes.
2. I entered the room, greeted them and was asked to describe myself in one minute.
3. I did that pretty well as I thought. Mr. Vikram asked me to explain my paper in Morgan Stanley to the two of them, I took a pen and paper and tried explaining them the whole of it. I actually did pretty bad (I had explained this to others quite well earlier, maybe I became a bit nervous.) They didn’t get the full essence of the work, though understood that it was very valuable to the firm.
4. Then I was asked a very trivial question as to rank the Bonds, CDS and Loans in order of the interest rates they offered, and give an explanation on the same. (I had worked on these instruments during my intern, so was asked this). I knew the order and told them that, but struggled for around 5 minutes with the answer. Then they told me the reason for it, and I was just repenting the way my interview was proceeding.
5. Then Mr. Vikram asked me to tell three important things that were currently happening in the world of Business. (I never used to read ET, but read it the previous day). Told them, that Cinemax had just acquired PVR , and as soon as I told it, he just stood up and lashed at me that how could a small Indian company acquisition affect Wall Street. I then understand what a mockery I had made (and was mentally prepared for the Credit Suisse interview after this, because I was sure to be kicked out from here.)
6. Continuing, he wrote three things on paper : Fiscal Cliff, Euro-Debt Crisis and the Palestine war and asked to me explain all of them. I knew the 1st two very well, and started. Though I wasn’t very convincing because I had become a bit tensed, but still I told all that I knew about them in any order though not very confidently. I was asked some counter questions, which I answered and a small discussion followed as to how could the war affect the oil prices in India and gave some logical explanation.
7. Then, the other person took a piece of paper and told that If he folded it 100 times , what would be its total width, if the width of one side is 1 unit.
8. I found it out and told the answer was 2100 . He asked me to calculate it, and I still can’t believe I told them it was 1024 (210 ) * 1024, and then he asked me re calculate it. I immediately realized what a fool I was making of myself, and told it was 1024* multiplied 10 times ~ 1030. (which was right :P). I was asked to leave.
9. I came out and told the volunteers that I had messed it up and there was no chance I would get selected. So I was going for the CS interview. I was asked to wait for a minute and then the volunteers entered the room and after a minute asked me to go and meet Mr. Vikram.
10. He asked me what my concern was, I told him that I was sorry to have messed his round after such an awesome round 1 and that I won’t get selected. He gave me a smile and said that they had really liked me. I asked them if I would get an offer, because it would be my dream come true so early in the morning, He told me that there were SPO clauses that he couldn’t tell me, but ‘You are intelligent enough to understand. If I were you, I would put my suit off and go out for a drink :P’ ). I was overwhelmed, had a firm handshake with the both of them , and there it was at 9.50 AM. in the morning.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: This year we had a resume based shortlisting across all IITs. There were around 35 students who were shortlisted form IITK. But, most probably DB would be continuing with its aptitude test based shortlisting, like the previous years (they ask around 25 aptitude questions, and 1 essay on some current topic).
Tips: DB resorts to resume based shortlisting again, they give a tremendous weight age to your CPI , any background in finance (intern in financial firms or on some related topic, so you see a lot of ECO and Maths Students being shortlisted.) Also, they look at the overall profile as well, but the above 2 factors were the most important this year. A comprehensive study of any of the CAT Maths material of CL or Time will suffice your preparations : focus more on how fast you can solve a problem.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1.This was a mixed interview of both HR and Technical.
2. It lasted for 30 minutes. I entered the room and was greeted by 3 people, shook my hands with all of them.
3. They asked me if I was hungry or not, I told them that I was thirsty rather and they offered me a Tropicana. (The reason I am citing this is, after my selection, in the night Mr. Nishant told me that this had set up the tone in the room, because the earlier 4 candidates whom they interviewed were too shy and refused to have anything, they judged it as my confidence rather, though it was never an intended one).
4. I was asked about how many companies I was interviewing in slot 1, and they seemed to be impressed on hearing the number 7.
5. They asked me what my preference order was, and I told them the truth that I would definitely interview with DB, Credit Suisse and Worldquant, and if time permits maybe with BCG or Opera.
6. Then they asked me to give a brief introduction, and asked me to stop when I was talking about my intern at Morgan Stanley and the paper I published over there. Mr. Nishant asked me if I was offered a PPO by them, and I told them the truth about my mentor not finding any position for me. He gave a sarcastic remark at MS, that going by the markets, its evident that they are not in a good shape now, and all I did was smile.
7. I was asked that if I got an offer from Morgan in my 8th sem, would I go. I told them, that if I got into DB/WQ/Credit Suisse/BCG , then definitely no, o/w yes. The reason I cited was that, inspite of all the money, I had to go through the entire placement procedure which in itself was a big pain, then an offer after that doesn’t help, they could have given it earlier. All three of them laughed and I seemed to have convinced them. I was asked to explain my work there, which I did pretty well.
8. I was also asked if I sat for DB during the intern procedure and I again told them the truth, as I have written earlier.
Tips: They weren’t judging me on finance or quant, because of my CPI and previous background as an intern. A lot of people were grilled on these though, if they said they were interested in these and all. They were trying to have a conversation with me, and testing my confidence, and when I came out of the room, I knew I had done well.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: 1. It was the second technical interview and the panel was of Mr. Vikram Khanderia (Business Head) and a senior person from algo- trading. It lasted for 20 minutes.
2. I entered the room, greeted them and was asked to describe myself in one minute.
3. I did that pretty well as I thought. Mr. Vikram asked me to explain my paper in Morgan Stanley to the two of them, I took a pen and paper and tried explaining them the whole of it. I actually did pretty bad (I had explained this to others quite well earlier, maybe I became a bit nervous.) They didn’t get the full essence of the work, though understood that it was very valuable to the firm.
4. Then I was asked a very trivial question as to rank the Bonds, CDS and Loans in order of the interest rates they offered, and give an explanation on the same. (I had worked on these instruments during my intern, so was asked this). I knew the order and told them that, but struggled for around 5 minutes with the answer. Then they told me the reason for it, and I was just repenting the way my interview was proceeding.
5. Then Mr. Vikram asked me to tell three important things that were currently happening in the world of Business. (I never used to read ET, but read it the previous day). Told them, that Cinemax had just acquired PVR , and as soon as I told it, he just stood up and lashed at me that how could a small Indian company acquisition affect Wall Street. I then understand what a mockery I had made (and was mentally prepared for the Credit Suisse interview after this, because I was sure to be kicked out from here.)
6. Continuing, he wrote three things on paper : Fiscal Cliff, Euro-Debt Crisis and the Palestine war and asked to me explain all of them. I knew the 1st two very well, and started. Though I wasn’t very convincing because I had become a bit tensed, but still I told all that I knew about them in any order though not very confidently. I was asked some counter questions, which I answered and a small discussion followed as to how could the war affect the oil prices in India and gave some logical explanation.
7. Then, the other person took a piece of paper and told that If he folded it 100 times , what would be its total width, if the width of one side is 1 unit.
8. I found it out and told the answer was 2100 . He asked me to calculate it, and I still can’t believe I told them it was 1024 (210 ) * 1024, and then he asked me re calculate it. I immediately realized what a fool I was making of myself, and told it was 1024* multiplied 10 times ~ 1030. (which was right :P). I was asked to leave.
9. I came out and told the volunteers that I had messed it up and there was no chance I would get selected. So I was going for the CS interview. I was asked to wait for a minute and then the volunteers entered the room and after a minute asked me to go and meet Mr. Vikram.
10. He asked me what my concern was, I told him that I was sorry to have messed his round after such an awesome round 1 and that I won’t get selected. He gave me a smile and said that they had really liked me. I asked them if I would get an offer, because it would be my dream come true so early in the morning, He told me that there were SPO clauses that he couldn’t tell me, but ‘You are intelligent enough to understand. If I were you, I would put my suit off and go out for a drink :P’ ). I was overwhelmed, had a firm handshake with the both of them , and there it was at 9.50 AM. in the morning.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Since it is a Finance profile, it would help if you have any finance /economics/ MBA projects to write about. DB looks for a good CPI and decent projects or extra curriculars and interest in the finance sector. It also wouldn't hurt to mention your technical skills here.
Round: Test
Experience: Since most of the finance work in India is back office (with all due respect to all those who have been placed in this sector), you have to be comfortable with numbers and calculations. The test is a typical CAT type paper mostly concentrating on quantitative analysis and data interpretation. There is also a bonus finance section for those who have knowledge on the subject.
Again practice cat type papers well and sit with a knowledgeable friend of yours to discuss topics in finance.
Tips: The short listing for the interview is based on both the performance in the test and the resume. (More on the test)
I never got through any of those tests. people who prepared seriously for CAT breezed through the test and I was left to bite their dust. I didn't make it into any of the good (read well paying) jobs during on the first 4 days.
Realize when you are in a recession period, no job comes easy. Most of us who are not insanely intelligent like that one dude in your wing need to practice hard for the test to get through. In a recession/slack scenario core companies save the day. Don't neglect your core courses.
General Tips: Internship: (attention third year people!)
When it comes to the placement interview, internships play pivotal role. There are rarely any interviews where the interviewee isn't drilled on their internships. So, please don‟t treat an internship as a paid vacation. Good work done during the internship gives one the confidence that can very well bowl the interviewer over (as it did in my case :D). Believe me confidence does much more than get you a job; it determines success and failure in mostundertakings. Internship gives you the first chance to build that up … use it!
Pre Placement Talks:
Please attend the ppts of at least those companies which fall into your sector of interest. At ppts you get to see a lot more things than the boring presentations and the pay package. Most companies bring along with them alumni who have spent a few years in the company. Observing or interacting with them will give you a good assessment of what you are going to be a few years from now if you join that company. For example I observed that alumni of XYZ Company were not as upbeat and confident as alumni of ABC Company (names have been hidden on request ;) ) even if XYZ was paying plenty more than ABC. I knew then and there that I would want to join ABC and never applied to XYZ. Be sure to utilize them and be sure to clear all your doubts and conceptions. Once you start attending presentations you will observe junta asking questions just to score brownie points with the speaker. Believe me it won't help one bit in landing them a job!
Resumes:
Making an appealing resume is the single most important step in the placement process and IITK is notorious for its bad resumes, so attend workshops. Like most IITK junta I sucked at making a resume (and still do), but whatever little skill I have, I got through workshops. One workshop I would advise everyone to attend is the resume making workshop of McKinsey. Get your resumes checked and edited by those who have been through placement especially by those from other IITs (I know this will hurt a lot of egos, but IITB's resumes are some of the best. Those dudes have mastered the art of making an impact with whatever little they've got, while we excel at doing exactly the opposite :P). Prepare an impactful resume and don't submit the same resume to every company, make changes based on the profile.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: Since it is a Finance profile, it would help if you have any finance /economics/ MBA projects to write about. DB looks for a good CPI and decent projects or extra curriculars and interest in the finance sector. It also wouldn't hurt to mention your technical skills here.
Round: Test
Experience: Since most of the finance work in India is back office (with all due respect to all those who have been placed in this sector), you have to be comfortable with numbers and calculations. The test is a typical CAT type paper mostly concentrating on quantitative analysis and data interpretation. There is also a bonus finance section for those who have knowledge on the subject.
Again practice cat type papers well and sit with a knowledgeable friend of yours to discuss topics in finance.
Tips: The short listing for the interview is based on both the performance in the test and the resume. (More on the test)
I never got through any of those tests. people who prepared seriously for CAT breezed through the test and I was left to bite their dust. I didn't make it into any of the good (read well paying) jobs during on the first 4 days.
Realize when you are in a recession period, no job comes easy. Most of us who are not insanely intelligent like that one dude in your wing need to practice hard for the test to get through. In a recession/slack scenario core companies save the day. Don't neglect your core courses.
General Tips: Internship: (attention third year people!)
When it comes to the placement interview, internships play pivotal role. There are rarely any interviews where the interviewee isn't drilled on their internships. So, please don‟t treat an internship as a paid vacation. Good work done during the internship gives one the confidence that can very well bowl the interviewer over (as it did in my case :D). Believe me confidence does much more than get you a job; it determines success and failure in mostundertakings. Internship gives you the first chance to build that up … use it!
Pre Placement Talks:
Please attend the ppts of at least those companies which fall into your sector of interest. At ppts you get to see a lot more things than the boring presentations and the pay package. Most companies bring along with them alumni who have spent a few years in the company. Observing or interacting with them will give you a good assessment of what you are going to be a few years from now if you join that company. For example I observed that alumni of XYZ Company were not as upbeat and confident as alumni of ABC Company (names have been hidden on request ;) ) even if XYZ was paying plenty more than ABC. I knew then and there that I would want to join ABC and never applied to XYZ. Be sure to utilize them and be sure to clear all your doubts and conceptions. Once you start attending presentations you will observe junta asking questions just to score brownie points with the speaker. Believe me it won't help one bit in landing them a job!
Resumes:
Making an appealing resume is the single most important step in the placement process and IITK is notorious for its bad resumes, so attend workshops. Like most IITK junta I sucked at making a resume (and still do), but whatever little skill I have, I got through workshops. One workshop I would advise everyone to attend is the resume making workshop of McKinsey. Get your resumes checked and edited by those who have been through placement especially by those from other IITs (I know this will hurt a lot of egos, but IITB's resumes are some of the best. Those dudes have mastered the art of making an impact with whatever little they've got, while we excel at doing exactly the opposite :P). Prepare an impactful resume and don't submit the same resume to every company, make changes based on the profile.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: I thought I had not done very well. They were looking for good performance in the Quant Section which had many questions on Probability and Statistics. I did not do well in this section. However, I was short-listed.
Round: Interview
Experience: By the time my interview turn came for the interview, the interviewers were running out of time. They just had 10 minutes per person. (They had a flight from Lucknow!). As I entered, I was told to quickly tell about me, why finance and why not a PhD. He asked a question from the test paper. I think the interview lasted less than 10 minutes.
Round: Interview
Experience: This round also lasted for about 10 minutes. This time it was more finance oriented. He asked some basic questions on Forwards, Futures and Options.
Tips: Deutsche Bank did not select me. I thought it was mainly because of my test score. I was later told that it was because they thought I did not fit the profile well.
General Tips: The Decision Making Process: Like most people at IITK, I was in a dilemma of what to do after my graduation. Broadly, I had two options in front of me – Core (PhD/Job) and Non-Core (MBA/Job). I had already had some research exposure. I had worked on some good research projects during my internships and also at IITK. Although I thought I was good at research, I wanted to explore working in a corporate environment as I had never done that before. Also, the life as a PhD and thereafter, seemed less action packed and less dynamic for me. Maybe I could do it at a later part in my life, but for now I decided to explore the Non-Core sector. I was looking for a company which would give me business exposure as well as an opportunity to learn and develop my skill set.Amongst the non-core sectors, Consultancy with its varied exposure seemed the best to me. I thought FMCG gave a wonderful leadership experience and was my second preference. Finance involved too much numbers and probability (something I’m not good at). But still it was my third preference (amongst the options available) as I am quite interested in the financial world. Analytics and then IT followed. Despite the heavy pay-package, the Oil sector did not attract me a lot. I did not prepare for it but still applied as we had very few good options this year.
Experiences:
1. In general, I would say that my preparation was good as 5th year had a lot of time.
2. It’s fun to prepare, especially HR and giving and taking mock interviews.
3. Shocks and Surprises – I was told that anything can happen during placements and it turned out to be true. The McKinsey shortlist came out in early October and I was not short-listed. I had not expected this at all and had even started practicing case studies long before. This left me really disappointed.
4. Try to do things early, November gets really busy – End Sems, CAT, Revise everything (I was not able to revise Fluid Mechanics).
5. Prepare for tests well, they matter a lot – if you score very well in the test (top few), the interview process would just check that you can talk, solve puzzles and you are interested (you will join). Besides, sometimes it is difficult to judge who is better by the interview process – the tests score matter then as they are the only objective score that they have (apart from CPI).
6. Know Probability well – learn Probability and Statistics and maybe even Stochastic Processes if you have not done these courses and you want a job in Finance/Analytics.
7. Don’t just prepare for consultancy / finance / FMCG – less than 10 people got placed in these companies. Prepare for other companies as well. Have a backup plan ready and do not lose hope, the scenario is bad – it’s not your fault – things will improve!
Skill Tips: 1. Make a good resume – bug your seniors.
2. Practice for aptitude tests – otherwise the one’s preparing for CAT have distinct advantage.
3. Improve communication skills – do lots of mock interviews and GDs.
4. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst – the scenario is bad – even the best can be in for a long placement season, and feeling bad about it will only make matters worse – it’s just your first job – in the long run of your career, these fluctuations won’t matter; what will matter is, how you handle these fluctuations.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: I thought I had not done very well. They were looking for good performance in the Quant Section which had many questions on Probability and Statistics. I did not do well in this section. However, I was short-listed.
Round: Interview
Experience: By the time my interview turn came for the interview, the interviewers were running out of time. They just had 10 minutes per person. (They had a flight from Lucknow!). As I entered, I was told to quickly tell about me, why finance and why not a PhD. He asked a question from the test paper. I think the interview lasted less than 10 minutes.
Round: Interview
Experience: This round also lasted for about 10 minutes. This time it was more finance oriented. He asked some basic questions on Forwards, Futures and Options.
Tips: Deutsche Bank did not select me. I thought it was mainly because of my test score. I was later told that it was because they thought I did not fit the profile well.
General Tips: The Decision Making Process: Like most people at IITK, I was in a dilemma of what to do after my graduation. Broadly, I had two options in front of me – Core (PhD/Job) and Non-Core (MBA/Job). I had already had some research exposure. I had worked on some good research projects during my internships and also at IITK. Although I thought I was good at research, I wanted to explore working in a corporate environment as I had never done that before. Also, the life as a PhD and thereafter, seemed less action packed and less dynamic for me. Maybe I could do it at a later part in my life, but for now I decided to explore the Non-Core sector. I was looking for a company which would give me business exposure as well as an opportunity to learn and develop my skill set.Amongst the non-core sectors, Consultancy with its varied exposure seemed the best to me. I thought FMCG gave a wonderful leadership experience and was my second preference. Finance involved too much numbers and probability (something I’m not good at). But still it was my third preference (amongst the options available) as I am quite interested in the financial world. Analytics and then IT followed. Despite the heavy pay-package, the Oil sector did not attract me a lot. I did not prepare for it but still applied as we had very few good options this year.
Experiences:
1. In general, I would say that my preparation was good as 5th year had a lot of time.
2. It’s fun to prepare, especially HR and giving and taking mock interviews.
3. Shocks and Surprises – I was told that anything can happen during placements and it turned out to be true. The McKinsey shortlist came out in early October and I was not short-listed. I had not expected this at all and had even started practicing case studies long before. This left me really disappointed.
4. Try to do things early, November gets really busy – End Sems, CAT, Revise everything (I was not able to revise Fluid Mechanics).
5. Prepare for tests well, they matter a lot – if you score very well in the test (top few), the interview process would just check that you can talk, solve puzzles and you are interested (you will join). Besides, sometimes it is difficult to judge who is better by the interview process – the tests score matter then as they are the only objective score that they have (apart from CPI).
6. Know Probability well – learn Probability and Statistics and maybe even Stochastic Processes if you have not done these courses and you want a job in Finance/Analytics.
7. Don’t just prepare for consultancy / finance / FMCG – less than 10 people got placed in these companies. Prepare for other companies as well. Have a backup plan ready and do not lose hope, the scenario is bad – it’s not your fault – things will improve!
Skill Tips: 1. Make a good resume – bug your seniors.
2. Practice for aptitude tests – otherwise the one’s preparing for CAT have distinct advantage.
3. Improve communication skills – do lots of mock interviews and GDs.
4. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst – the scenario is bad – even the best can be in for a long placement season, and feeling bad about it will only make matters worse – it’s just your first job – in the long run of your career, these fluctuations won’t matter; what will matter is, how you handle these fluctuations.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
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