Hindustan Unilever Executive Trainee Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The initial shortlist was done on the basis of resume, CGPA and Branch.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It was a case study based GD. Three minutes time was given to read the case which was about a plane which had crashed and the whole scenario was explained. There were 7 survivors and one had to choose an appropriate leader among them who would lead them either out of the jungle to nearest occupied area or help them survive to wait for reinforcements.
It is always good to read the case early and look to initiate the discussion. But be careful to let others read as well. I did the same. Next after putting your points try to steer the discussion in the right direction. People were getting very emotional and excited and were looking to speak without bothering that rest of the participants were listening to them. There was a time in the GD when 5 people out of 8 were speaking at once leading to chaos. I opted to keep quiet and tried to listen as much as I could, appreciating good points put up by few of them. Finally, I interrupted to tell them to speak one by one and passed the discussion to one of them, who was making some valid points. At the end, look to conclude while taking into consideration valid points put up by others (this demonstrates you are an active listener) and add your own creative/innovative points. There were two observers both of whom took my final HR interview.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: In technical round they were three interviewers one was an electrical engineering alumni of IITR who asked me technical questions and rest were mostly observing. Firstly, I was asked Tell me about yourself? I explained about my life at IIT Roorkee, about my participation in Cognizance, about my hobbies like squash and then about my family. I went on speaking for about 15-20 minutes, I was hoping they would interrupt me at some point. Finally, I was left with nothing to say as I had told them everything. They were like Phew!!  As if I was telling them a story. Next, they asked about my internship. What did I do? How as an electrical engineer I gave my inputs to the internship?
Next, they asked about my B.Tech. project? My guides name? What I was doing in the project? I explained it all on a sheet of paper. I don’t think he was able to understand what I was telling, so he interrupted.
Then he asked about my favorite subject in electrical engineering and my grades in that subject. He also inquired about my department rank.
Next he asked me some technical questions: What is floating point neutral? What is earth résistance and some others. I was able to answer most of them and rest which I didn’t know I told him after some deliberation straight away that I didn’t know the right answer. One important thing that helped me here is that I spoke put my thinking process and the interviewer also helped me to reach the final answer. Finally he asked me to tell something interesting about myself? That ended the interview.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: For the next round, there were two interviewers; they asked me why my SGPA had fallen in last semester? I told them as it was a tough semester in EE nd hence my SGPA had dropped. Next they asked me about how I manage conflicting priorities in life. I answered to them in reference to the previous question that after scoring less SGPA in the last semester I was disappointed and in some part of my mind I was blaming my participation in Cognizance as the reason for it. This semester I had to choose to be the convener of the festival. It was an important decision as it would affect my studies. I told them as studies were my top priority in IITR as it always has been. Rather than giving up on the team which I was to lead, I told them I decided to take this as a challenge and correct my mistakes. And now my aim is to score an SGPA over 9 this semester while conducting the festival successfully. They looked impressed and this ended the interview.
Tips: Study your resume well especially internship. Don’t add any internship (2nd year) where you haven’t done anything.Prepare your technical/core subjects practical/application based. Last but not the least, be yourself.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They have a resume based selection in the first round. After that they have a group based case study. They have a very limited no. of these case studies and you can browse different interview experiences to have a prior knowledge of these case studies.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In the interview you have to dazzle them with your core knowledge. Anyways they took the two guys having highest CGPA. They selected 2 out of 5 and one of my friends interview went very well but to my surprise he was not selected. They asked mostly about quality control tests, slump, compaction factor and some common sense questions related to civil engineering.
Though I didn’t get into ITC, what i feel is that they are looking for people who are good at academics but also have certain amount of extracurricular activities to their credit. They want people who have had experience of working in the field and in a team. For them it is very important that you have very good team ethics and extremely profound leadership qualities.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Initially there was selection based on a minimum CGPA criterion and the resume. The shortlisted candidates were called in for a group discussion (GD).

Round: HR Interview
Experience: There were only two rounds of interviews. They were both HR and technical interview. They asked me a lot of general questions like tell me about yourself and what sets you apart from others. They asked me why should Nestle choose me and over other applicants and also inquired about being relocated, working on weekends and on working in a rural area. They wanted to know what motivates me and also about my family and family background. In all they wanted to know more about my personality and whether I will fit into a team environment. They asked me to give examples where I had worked in team and how did I handle tough situations. Besides these questions they also asked me the following questions:

1) Why didn’t you go for an MS?
I told him that I'm not interested in doing MS. I supported my argument with these two points.
I always wanted to work in the industry (in field), and both my internships were in the industry
I rejected an internship offer from "Cadence" (which was a research oriented profile)


2) Will you be able to work at our plants located in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh?
Me: I'm from South India. I survived in Roorkee (Food, weather everything was new for me here etc.) for more than 3 years. This gives me the confidence that new places are not going to be an issue for me.

On the technical side they asked the questions mostly from my final year B.Tech thesis project and one of the guys asked me question from instrumentation as well.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: There was a resume based selection in which they were looking for guys with overall good personality with a little bit of technical background. There was no written test.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In the interview they were not concerned about my technical knowledge. I had prepared for technical questions related to my internship and my final year thesis project but I was asked no questions from the same.

They inquired about other aspects of my internship and grilled me on the same. So my advice for all those appearing for Nestle is that they should prepare for the internship properly. They also asked me general HR questions like what are my strengths and weaknesses. They were interested in knowing about my long term and short term goals and where do I see myself after 5-10 years.

They also tested me on my knowledge about the company. They asked me what do I know about Nestle and what all Nestle products have I used. They also asked me questions about Nestle’s competitors and their products.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The CV submission was open for only BTech Industrial Engineering. So quite a few. But keep a decent CGPA and some innovative projects.

Round: Test
Experience: It was quite easy but lengthy at the same time.
Tips: Practice CAT question :verbal and quant thoroughly
Duration: 45 minutes

College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Logical questions and mindful questions