Hindustan Unilever Interview Questions, Process, and Tips for Freshers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This is the most important part of the placement procedure. All your shortlists are based on how well you can portray what you’ve done in insti and before. Start writing your resume as soon as possible, the first deadline is typically somewhere in October and a resume generally needs 8-10 revisions.
Tips: 1. Start every line with an action verb.
2. Keep the no. of words to a minimum.
3. Remove all the unnecessary words you can. Nobody likes reading stories.
4. Each point should show impact. More than what you’ve done, you should tell them how differently you’ve done it and how it made a difference to the organization and team you worked for. (Common misconception is that impact is only in terms of numbers, this is not the case). I agree this can get very difficult but this is what differentiates and ordinary resume from an extra-ordinary one. So think!
5. Finally, keep the technical part as simple and coherent as possible. Remember an HR is going to be reading your resume.
6. Exaggeration is fine. Say you increased the number of events from 3 to 6. It is okay to write that you brought about a 100% increase in the number of events. But at the same time NEVER write anything in your resume which you cannot explain or substantiate with examples. This gives a very bad impression to the company.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: This is a normal round with a given topic.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This is a must round in every company.
Tips: An excellent way of preparing this is writing everything down as experiences. Begin from your school days and think about any activity you’ve been part of or anything you’ve mentioned in your resume. Write down three points about what you did as part of the team or project and three points about what you learnt from it. This really helps. Especially the writing down part, since you can’t remember everything you thought about. This becomes a ready reference just a day or two before your interviews. Do not make the mistake of not preparing enough for HR.
This is as important as any other preparation you have to do for placements. And WRITE stuff down!"

Round: Other Interview
Experience: This was a phone interview. Two people on a conference with me. One guy was asking me only core questions randomly from all subjects ranging from IC engines to fluid mechanics. The other guy was asking me about my previous internship and about how my work affected the factory. They also asked me to give examples from personal life, where I exhibited leadership skills etc. This interview went on for about 45 minutes.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I was a bit nervous in ITC GD which resulted in my loud voice and dominating nature. The case was one of the typical cases of ITC which I missed during preparation; as a matter of fact they haven’t changed it since 3 or 4 years. It did not go that good but I was sure if 4 people would be selected from my group then I would be in. But by that time I was ready for HUL’s GD. It was a fresh new case which I forgot by the way (:P). The group was big (12 students) and I gave some good ideas (I think so). The key is “never give up on quality, safety and ethics”.
Well HUL is famous for taking only one or two guys, on top of that, rumor was that it would take only chemical guys, so I didn't had much hope with HUL, on the other hand, I was 100% sure to get through ITC (my profile and everything just matched with ITC and my friends also boosted me for the same). But I don’t know what was in my fate, at around 10:00 PM, the results of ITC’s GD came, and I was not shortlisted, all my hopes were shattered and everything turned into fume. They took only two students from my group and I was completely hopeless as I wasn't preparing for BCG, screwed up Diamond and ITC was gone. Only chance was in HUL (about which I was not sure) and Opera. I still remember that time, my wing mates helped me through that situation and boosted me a hell lot and soon I saw a ray of hope. 20 minutes later, HUL’s result came out and I was shortlisted for the interview. I decided to prepare as much as I could for HUL and revised all my stuffs all the night. I had 4 interviews next day but I didn't sleep even after going through 2 GD’s and 1 aptitude test. Finally the day came. I couldn't sleep last night.

Round: Interview
Experience: My first one was scheduled with Opera. I was taking it very lightly. The guy was from USA. I did my intern in Canada, so we did a little bit chit chat about that and we had a very nice conversation. He seemed happy with my attitude. He gave me a business case on Casino and after his some help, I finally solved the case and came up with the answer he was seeking. The next interview was with BCG. The bad thing about BCG interviews is that they don’t let you go anywhere else till their process is finished. So instead of going there, I first gave Diamond’s interview and then HUL.Since you would have read a lot about Diamond and BCG interview, so let me come straight to HUL. The first interview was taken by a factory manager. First question was based on pump, he asked about types of pump, NPSH and other relevant things. Then couple of more questions related to thermodynamics. He asked about refrigeration cycle, LMTD, cooling tower, brayton cycle and some more questions. It lasted about 15-20 minutes. I did pretty well and asked about his experience at HUL. It went good and I was sure to get shortlisted for the next round.
After that I was called for second round which was a telephonic interview taken by General Manager of the company Yogesh and there was one more guy whose name I don’t remember. He again asked the questions on pumps, use of pump in our daily life, NPSH, its determination, laws of thermodynamics, perpetual machin, use of second law in our daily life, principle of airplanes, Bernoulli theorem, what happens when you open the door of refrigerator, a heat transfer calculation (I don’t remember exactly) and some more questions in thermodynamics. Finally he asked some questions from my form. He was not satisfied with the answer I gave in one of the questions and he asked me to cite another example. He asked about my strategy on successful conduction of one of my events (Gearloose) and what made it best. Finally there were some formal questions like if I was ready to be posted anywhere and all.

General Tips: I think I answered all the questions very confidently and to the point and elaborated where required. I was very much confident about pumps and cited as many examples as I could. I think this was the best part of my interview. Initially I was a bit nervous but then I contemplated and decided to take proper time to answer each question. I think I satisfied him with every question he asked and that’s why I got selected in the company of which I used to dream since my 3rd year.

Last but not the least, I would like to say that you should know yourself and your shortcomings thoroughly and then do your best to overcome them. This is the single most time when you should devote yourself completely in the preparation (just like JEE time) if you want to get selected in your dream company. As in my case, though I did have good academic background and positions of responsibilities but I used to stammer and was not fluent in English. So I had to work a lot in these two areas in order to do decent in the interviews. I practiced in front of mirror and gave as many mock interviews as I could and that finally gave me result. Remember, nothing is impossible if you want to achieve that. You have to just work very very hard for that.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Its a form which takes in details both factual and personal in the form of anecdotes, essentially a very very concise description of your past experiences at work and how they connect with the qualities required at the job.
Tips: Being genuine here will save from early elimination since there's a long way forward solely based on your answers.
Never give any sort of location preferences when asked, if you are seriously interested!
Touch all key areas in your profile never underestimate any one of them.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: The GD group consisted of all familiar faces which helped in breaking the tension, although I didn't start/direct, I spoke about 3-4 points which I thought were important factors in decision making.
Tips: A tiniest bit of unpredictability lies as always in case of GDs but ensure these-Quality of points put forward (matters more than the quantity)
Show initiative to let others speak as well (Just in case)
Never compromise with key moral conflict areas and don't presume or arrive at a conclusion earlier because it might so happen that you may end up defending yourself for the rest of GD hence not being able to put good points on board.
Duration: 5+15 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The best part of the process I believe because the controls are given to you the second PI begins which means every PI has a different story.
Tips: Communication skills are of utmost importance.
Know your projects and keep concepts at fingertips because a minute or two is what you get to convince the interviewer whether you actually know what you did.
For a MechE student, Revise basics of key department subjects like Applied Thermo-Fluids (Pumps, Condensers, Cooling Towers, boilers, etc.)

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Every level is an elimination round with the trickiest one as last. This is taken by a very senior level manager with around 10 years of experience so he/she knows what he wants and grills everyone on those parameters (who you are as a person). I couldn't know then but when I came out, people told me it lasted for about an hour (50 minutes or so).
Tips: Expect tricky questions both basic technical and HR like -
What is the definition of fun for you? Why supply chain management? etc.
Hold yourself in a very composed manner and know when to stop and pull back in an interview.
Believing that you are the ideal candidate is the first step to convince someone else. Explore Why?

Skill Tips: Thermodynamics Concepts, Mechanisms, and individual project related technical know-how.
College Name: IIT Kharagpur