KC Cottrell Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In the first round of the interview these questions were discussed in detail and various other scenarios were also taken into consideration

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I think I was able to justify my interest in finance which added to my cause.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I had well prepared the initial questions – about myself, why consult and why Alvarez questions which helped me in gaining confidence. It was my only interview of the day so I was quite relaxed. The interviewers also seemed friendly.




Round: HR Interview
Experience: I hadn’t prepared ‘Something that is not mentioned in the CV’ question. I had to come up with on the spot answer which could have been better.

General Tips: Do well prepare your HR questions and work experience part. It really helps on the final day.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: HR Interview
Experience: There were 3 groups formed when the A&M team arrived on campus. A&M conducted 3 rounds of interviews for each candidate and after all the 3 groups had interviewed the candidate, they used to meet and decide on the candidate. Thus the procedure was elaborate but slow. All the interviews were personal interviews.

After waiting outside for almost 7 hours, the interviews were conducted in a very professional manner and the interviewers focus in knowing your past was crystal clear.

Each of the interviewer asked me to go through my resume in a detailed fashion. Each and every bullet point in my resume was questioned and cross questioned. But the interview was not stressful at any point in time. The key reason was that there were no lies in the resume and hence I was very sure about the background of every point (situation, what action I took, why I took that action, what I did, who helped me, how things eventually worked out and what was the result). There were some usual questions as well on strengths, etc. Such questions were few and were randomly thrown at you. Since A&M is mainly a client oriented company who as a part of turnaround would want to “get things done”, I kept all my answers focused towards this theme. Be aware that the interviewers may try to derail you in case you have very well rehearsed answers. So in between questions, there will be some side talk. That can put you off. So being relaxed would help you just laugh/smile that their comments and then continue where you left off. This interview was a walk-in interview for me on day 6, but I had planned on applying here before and hence had some overview of the firm and what it does. That helped me in asking several questions throughout the day. My questions were mainly on switching my focus from IT to operation and finance. At the end of the day, I was told to contact Amit Laud who would be conducting my interview from his base location. This interview was also a personal interview. I googled him and found some details on him. He was an MBA from Wharton, done a stint in Mckinsey, GE and now was the acting CIO for some client company so some questions on IT implementation would be due. I knew that if I get through then I might end up working for him.
Tips: Keep your cool. It is not important to know how to fix laptop or how to fix account statements (if you are CA). But it was more about how you handle such deliberate distracting situations (as if they were your clients) and make the atmosphere friendly.

Skills: HR Skills
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: CV should focus on the skill set previously mentioned. Concise and to the point sentences. Line out projects and internships well. Balance between academia and extra curriculars. Attend the CV making workshop of Opera and work on it accordingly.
Tips: Don’t put things totally irrelevant to the job profile. Don’t write long sentences. Know your CV well for further stages.Anything related to your CV should be at the tip of your tongue.

Round: Test
Experience: Don’t spend a lot of time on one question in quant section. There’s a cut-off in Quant and your focus should be on clearing it. If you clear the cut-off, the puzzle section will be evaluated, where solving at least 2 is generally good enough. Puzzles are hard, and need a lot of prior practice.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Direct selections take place at the end of all interviews after a mutual discussion between all the panels. Know your CV thoroughly. Prepare for some HR questions as well. Puzzle solving and guesstimates are asked, so prepare them well. When you are asked a puzzle, do not sit quietly but think aloud. The interviewers help you structure your thoughts. Most of the times, just knowing your approach is enough for them
Tips: Evaluate the nature of your interviewer for the first 5 minutes and if possible treat the interview like a discussion. They just want to know more about you so tell it to them. Most of them are very friendly, and you will feel at ease. Be confident. Sound excited while talking about your projects/internships. It gives them confidence in you. Be very very thorough with your CV. Nothing gives a bad impression like not knowing about yourself. Ask questions if you have them at the end of the interview.

General Tips: 1: Be Confident.
2: Keep Smiling.
3: Do not be Panic.
4: Remember they are here to hire you but not reject you.
5: Do not loose hope.
6: Believe at yourself.
7: Start preparing early.
8: Do demo interviews with your friend.
Skills: Mathematics, Computer Science
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
Motivation: Every body joins a comapny for making a software or earning money. But I was always motivated to MAKE MONEY. I have taken this job because they have very extensive work in Share Market and they have lots of MBA from IIM's, Lots of CAs, CS. Thats why i have choosen Edelweiss. I have rejected epic System USA for this profile.

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

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Resume building is the most important of all steps. Keep it concise and to the point.

Round: Test
Experience: Puzzles
Tips: Practice as many puzzles as possible

Round: Stress Interview
Tips: Keep your cool, divert interview towards your strong zones

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Guesstimates (basic level) and puzzles. Also know your resume and courses well

General Tips: They want to check your thinking, try every problem given in interview. They would have simple solutions.
Skills: Critical Thinking
College Name: IIT DELHI
Motivation: Application of statistics

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume is the candidates face before the interview. All the things that he/she wants to communicate should be communicated well and in an organized manner. Giving excessive and irrelevant information doesn’t heed well with the company and the recruiting staff. For, non-core jobs a long resume is not necessarily a good resume. They generally prefer a short and concise resume giving only the details relevant to the job profile being offered. For example, for a post of Business Analyst giving a long list of technical and course projects will not help the candidates cause. I personally focussed a lot on Position of Responsibilities and extracurricular activities, especially those showcasing my leadership and oratory skills.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The first interview began with some questions about me. The interviewer asked me to tell something about me and my hobbies. Then he moved on to my resume and asked questions related to my intern and the PORs I had held and asking me to give a brief description about the duties involved. These questions were basically to ease me into the interview. Then he asked the routine interview questions like why consulting, why not a core job, what makes you think you are suited for this job. He asked me to relate some incident that showcased my leadership and teamwork skills. After the HR part, he gave me a case study. I was asked to estimate the market size of the bulbs market in India. It was an easy enough case study and I asked a lot of questions like whether I have to estimate for commercial and domestic both, for bulbs and CFL both etc. The catch in the question was to consider the replacement ratio for the bulbs and CFL.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The second interview also had a similar beginning with the routine questions. Then he moved on to case study which was a number crunching problem. He gave me almost no details and just narrated the situation. I had to as all the questions probing for the numbers and the data. The case went on as he kept elaborating the case with new additions.

Also, the interviewer was senior partner in the firm and I felt that I had made a genuine rapport with him. I felt free and asked him a lot of questions about his job, the job profile and how important an MBA degree is for the future. He explained me the details and I had a very healthy communication with him.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This one was pretty short and quick. The interviewer decided to ask me questions about my hobbies. We discussed about Hollywood movies, actors, football and my other interests. We both shared an interest in Hollywood movies and we had a nice time discussing the merits of my favourite actor, MORGAN FREEMAN. Then he gave me a puzzle. There are 25 horses and only 5 can race in one race. I had to determine the fastest three horses in the minimum number of races (the answer is 7. Try it out. It’s not very tough). I was not able to solve the puzzle on my own but he guided me with various clues and finally I was able to complete the puzzle with his help.
Tips: Be prepared with the routine answers but don’t mug them up. Remember them in points and elaborate them as you go through the monologue. Answers to questions like why consulting and why should we hire you should be prepared very well. Prepare these answers yourself and don’t mug up some standard answers. The interviewer will know when you do that. Prepare some questions of your own about the job and the company and ask them to the interviewer when he gives you the chance. Don’t get nervous if you can’t get some question but instead try a new approach or ask for help.

General Tips: Focus a lot on extracurricular and PORs in the resume but at the same time keep it balanced. Prepare for case study interviews and puzzles. Be through with your resume and why you are there for the interview. Getting selected for the interview means you have an equally good opportunity as anyone else, so be confident.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Motivation: The major information about the company was obtained from the pre-placement talk held by the company at the college campus. Also I talked to some of my seniors working there and in other consultancy firms as business analyst to get a feel about the profile and job description. Also enquiring about the attributes that the company majorly looks for from the seniors helped a lot.