Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) Graduate Engineer Trainee (Get) Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: 60% through out Career

General Tips: The interview last for 20-30 minutes.The questions asked to me were related to my BTech curriculum i.e. instrumentation related topics.You should be calm and use your presence of mind.I was able to answer most of the questions asked by the interviewer.
Skills: Communication, Body Language
Duration: 1-3 Months

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: While applying in different companies I simply altered my hobbies and projects in the resume to make them compatible with the profile I was applying for, rest all was kept the same.

Round: Test
Experience: The first round was the written test. The paper tested our skills in verbal ability and our knowledge in the core subjects. The technical questions were asked from ‘Thermodynamics’ and ‘Machining’. The technical part of the paper was difficult and required an in depth conceptual knowledge to solve the questions. Hence knowing the concepts was a must. Some questions involving multiple concepts were also asked; like in one of the question they merged the JCB with hydraulics and created a hybrid question. The test only had objective questions. Nearly 25 people appeared for the test and the company shortlisted eight candidates for the next round.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: The next round was a group discussion (GD). The topic of the GD was regarding the lokpal bill. My group consisted of 8 people and all of us got shortlisted for the next round.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a telephonic interview and was conducted in front of a company representative. His main aim was to judge my body language and my speech whilst I reply to the questions asked by the person on the other side of the telephone. The interviewer enquired about my internship and the work I did during my internship. He also asked me the reason for my low grades in spite of having good technical knowledge which was proven from my performance in the written test. I tried to explain him the reason for my low grades but he did not seem convinced. He brought up the same point time and again during the interview that in spite of having good percentage in the 10th and 12th board exams why had my marks been going down regularly since then.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: Jindal Steel is a core company for Mechanical Engineering students. I knew about it and its operations by browsing through its website. They were not so much interested in what I knew about the company but were interested in what I had written in my resume.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The resume is more than just mere personal information form – it should give a complete picture about the candidate since it is the first impression the interviewer gets about you.I wanted to get recruited in a core sector company. I wanted to work in a company related to power sector consequently I designed my resume accordingly.
Tips: Do not lie. In case if you fail to respond to questions asked from the points that you mentioned in your resume you might squander your chances of getting recruited to the company. Hence be truthful when you mention anything in your resume, at the same time be concise and precise because the interviewer cannot spend a lot of time on a single resume.

Round: Test
Experience: First I contacted some of my seniors who were working with the company. It is from them that I learnt that a lot of questions from power system protection are asked in the written test. In general if you search the internet about the type of questions asked in these tests you might get some awry information. The main reason being that the same company might turn up in different colleges with different profiles consequently the questions asked in their tests might vary from college to college; hence in order to avoid such discrepancy it is always suggested to consult some of the seniors.
The company conducted a technical written test. The questions were majorly from control systems and further from PID (Proportional Integral Differential) control systems. There were also some basic electrostatic questions. Few questions were also asked from power and machining, though we were expecting a higher proportion of power related questions. The company had come to the campus to recruit for their steel unit and power unit, consequently knowledge on control system and power was a must.
The test was an objective online test – but it was not an elimination test.
Tips: A candidate appearing for this company’s written test should have good level of knowledge in control systems and power.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I along with my friends practised for the GD. We would conduct the mock GD amongst ourselves.The GD topic that was allotted to my group during the GD round was FDI in retail. The topics allotted to other groups were on cricket and the ongoing (at that time) Anna Hazare movement. The GD was again not an elimination round.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The first interview was conducted by an alumnus of our institute. He began by asking me for a brief introduction. He wanted a brief reply. Then he enquired about my 3rd year internships. I had done my internship as a project manager in L&T power. The work that I did there was based on how an idea or a concept is translated into reality. He asked me to explain the kind of work that I did there and why I chose that internship. He also asked me to explain the SLD of a power plant. SLD stands for a single line diagram and is drawn for study of huge power plants and refineries. An SLD is analogous to the electronic diagrams drawn to study electronic circuits. He was surprised at how much I managed to learn from the internship that lasted for duration of only two months. I replied that the underlying principle behind whatever I learnt there was the concept of “relaying” which I was quite proficient in.
Next he started asking me questions that I had not anticipated. He asked me to explain the differences that I thought existed between the kinds of work that I did in L&T and the work I would be expected to do in Jindal steel. I replied to it by explaining the differences in the kind of business the two companies did.
He enquired whether I had questions to ask. Generally people tend to ask some crappy questions like ‘What is the growth of the company?’ and the likes, but i earnestly suggest that if you have attended the PPT then ask some questions from the points mentioned during the PPT which showcases your attentiveness as well as genuine interest in the company’s work. During the PPT I had learnt that the PLF (Plant Load Factor) of the company is very high I asked him to explain me the reason for this this; also the company had a huge ongoing project in Orissa I asked him about the future plans of the company in Orissa and the problems that the company is facing with respect to the development of a current project. I asked these questions to show him my level of interest in the company and also that i was attentive during the PPT.
Then he moved over to my 2nd year projects. I did my 2nd year internship in NDPL (North Delhi Power Limited). He asked me to explain the kind of work I did in this internship. Power companies are generally involved in one of the 3 businesses: generation, transmission or distribution. NDPL is involved in distribution of power. I told him that the project i worked on was minimization of harmonics in distribution system. He asked me explain the reason for these harmonics in the distribution system which is a major headache in such companies. I told him that the non-linear loads like the refrigerators and air conditioners were the major cause of such harmonics. Next i told him the measures that were adopted by NDPL for control of harmonics.
He then moved over to the minor project that i did. The project was a simple one and this aroused his amazement. I explained that the project was allotted only 2 credits and also told him that through the project i learnt the usage and properties of various components like capacitors, resistors and the likes. He was convinced with my reply.
Important Tip: I would recommend that one should do a thorough research on the kind of business of the company in which one did his internship in  or is applying for a job because it is very essential to know the place where one did his internship in and where one is going to go to.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This interview was supposed to be an HR interview but the interviewer eventually drifted over to technical aspects. He guessed that since I had done all my internships in the past in  power sectors my area of interest would be power and also since the company had very little to do in power sector and more in the mining sector I would have to go a through a new beginning all together. I explained him that the internship I did was not about power generation or distribution, but was about protection and relaying; I told him I did the work that a maintenance engineer would do. He was convinced that the power industries do indeed possess a wider scope.
He asked me about my birth place and also enquired about my family background.
He then asked me to explain my major project. I told him that we were supposed to do our major project in the next semester. However, I still gave him a brief idea about my major project. I told him about the future prospects about my project and also the kind of difficulties that I was likely to face. He asked me some basic questions pertaining to the project which I managed to answer quite easily.
I had also mentioned photography as my area of interest. He asked me to explain the specifications of the camera used in the photography section in the hobbies club.
He lastly asked me to specify that if given an option to work either in a well-established company or in a growing company  where work would be more but incentives would be less then where would I prefer to work. I replied that I would be prefer working in a growing company like Jindal steel because that would enable me to learn more and also deal with newer technologies because in established companies still obsolete technologies are used.
Tips: I would suggest that one should never refer any website for framing answers to HR questions. You have to speak about yourself only and frame your answers after giving a detailed thought to your abilities/strengths/goals etc. Also it might prove to be beneficial to consult some seniors who has been working in the same company or has some experience with HR interviews.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: Jindal Steel is a very reputed company and the main source of information was the pre placement talk given by the company.

Round: Test
Experience: Pure technical.
Study Physical Metallurgy and mechanical metallurgy... as well as Iron and Steel Making.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It is better to start gd. Give a good start. Whatever you speak, be confident and be loud. You should be very active during gd. Giving chance to the person who is silent throughout the gd will increase your point.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Question asked :
Name, position in class, project(industrial), about parents.
Corex process, Difference between corex and BF, Supply of O2 in Corex etc...
BF operations, RAFT, Temp. difference between slag and hot metal and reason for that difference, position of tuyers in bf and justify its position.
Types of steel in LD converter, Quenching medium and best quenchant.
Type of work you wish to do. How long you wish to work for this company, planning for further studies or not ..

General Tips: CPI is the most important thing. Along with CPI they also check weather the interviewee is having knowledge of basic things or not. In short CPI and knowledge both matters alot.
Skill Tips: Whatever you speak be confident in that. You should have very sound technical knowledge. Show interviewers that you are desperate to join their company. Sit straight and be bold and have confidence on yourself.
College Name: NIT RAIPUR