HGS TECHNOLOGIES Associate Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I started preparing my resume somewhere around August end. I spoke to a few seniors about it and read quite a few resumes, especially of those seniors who either had a profile similar to mine or had secured jobs in fields of my interest, eg. Consulting, finance, etc. I also attended the Resume Writing Workshop conducted by McKinsey and Co. on campus and cleared a few doubts there.
Tips: I would advise you guys to start preparing your resumes well in advance, it is not something to be kept for the last minute. Being the first form of acquaintance between you and a firm, it is a highly important document and the way you highlight your strong points and attributes can go a long way in shortlisting you from amongst the hundreds of resumes that they have to scan. Also, it is important that you be able to speak on any point in your resume in detail, hence you must be sure of what you are writing in it.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The procedure of selection for Opera Solutions was a set of 4 interviews, each having a case study and some HR questions. The initial shortlist had around 22 candidates, after the first 2 interviews around 10 candidates were selected for the final rounds. Finally 3 candidates were made offers.  There were no GDs, only case interviews. The first interview had a case involving a music company which scouts for amateur talent and launches them. They want to enter India and want you to analyse the market and suggest if its feasible or not. The interviewer gave a lot of data related to market share of pop music, bollywood, devotional music, etc and it suggested that the market share of the genre related to the company is very little. However I think what worked best was that I also pointed out certain solutions which could make it feasible, such as merging with another company in a genre where the given company has core competencies in. I think this was the high point of the interview which I atleast would like to believe compensated for a later interview that I did not do well in. Another interview had a case where a pharmaceutical company in the US wants to enter India. A set of constraints and data was given and I was asked to calculate if it should actually setup a manufacturing facility in India or manufacture in the US and transport to India. I did not do well in this one, I wasn’t being able to come up with a figure. Both the interviews had an HR component where I was asked about my strengths and weaknesses, about Mood Indigo and my academic record. I was asked to describe myself. I was also asked to talk about my co-intern’s project in ITC (she was also interviewing with Opera). In a subsequent interview after the shortlist, I was asked to estimate the market for Maruti cars, domestic air travel. They weren't expecting too much detail, the interviewer was more interested in the approach. point.
Tips: I attended most of the initial PPTs. One does get a good understanding of what a firm does and where exactly do you fit into it, you also understand what they are looking for and what is the extent of their operations. I must admit though that I found my interaction with seniors, especially those working in those firms was more informative and fruitful. They can give clarity in certain grey areas that companies might stay non-committal on.ending across links/documents would help us compile a single point resource) . I prepared for case studies from the material I took from seniors, most of which is available on the LAN. For case studies I prepared with a friend and sometimes in groups of 3. I think this method is better than individual preparation because the other person can point out where you are going wrong, you get a different perspective and at the same time you can prepare in a fashion where one interviews the other and vice versa, so you get slightly comfortable with how an actual interview might feel like. It is however important to ensure that the person you are preparing with is competent and complementary to your skill sets, so that you can improve upon aspects where you might be lacking in.

General Tips: Case studies and HR questions. One should be very comfortable with points mentioned in the resume and should be able to talk at length about any . I guess it'd just be shifting a little from being myself if you know what I mean. A lot of seniors would give you a lot of fundae, but at the end one must remember that unless one is comfortable with a certain way of speaking or certain method of solving cases, it wont look genuine. For example, one need not thrash out every single detail of a case before beginning to solve it, sometimes the interviewer might get impatient or might think you are trying to buy time to think by asking unnecessary details. So if you are the kind of a person who can intuitively draw good conclusions at the outset so as to decide which direction to proceed in and hence which questions to ask, you can surely go ahead and do that, you need not also ask questions that you know are not required. Case interviews are very feel-good interviews, even if you make a mistake you will be guided back on track by the interviewer, hence I personally would recommend that you stick more to your general approach to solving cases (if you know it is a good one and works of course) and not try to change too much just because a certain senior did it in a different way.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY