Mecon Applications Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - not selected

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The criterion for applying to the company was based on the CGPA. They looked at the CGPA and over all profile of the candidates.  After the first shortlist there was a group discussion round.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: There were two rounds of interview. In that they asked me HR questions and some core field related questions. The HR questions were on the lines of:
Tell us about yourselfQuestions related to long term/short term goals/Where you see yourself after 'n' years?Question about relocation/working on weekends/frequent traveling/working in rural areas etc.Questions about motivations/upbringing/ethics/moral dilemmas.The core branch related question was from thermodynamic cycles.
Finally they asked me which movie had I watched recently. I told them ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. After that there was an exhaustive discussion on the movie and on its cast and acting.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

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: Test
Experience: Technical test constituted of technical questions, aptitude questions, english questions
Duration: 150 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was related to core mechanical engineering questions.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was an overall personality assessment. Case studies were provided and creativity in answers was seen.

General Tips: Prepare for technical, aptitude well
Practice mock interviews
College Name: IIT-ROORKEE

Round: Test
Experience: This test itself had 3-4 tests. 1st test was Aptitude+ English. One test purely had like unseen passages...Objective questions.
Duration: 150 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: 2nd round : there were two panels, one asked only technical questions and the other technical +HR
(whatever you had written on the form [provided by L&T]). 

Mine was the second panel. From thermodynamics - laws of thermodynamics, fluid- turbines, latest news headlines, some solid mechanics questions, iron-phase diagrams, hobbies.... was asked about each and every word written on that form.

Round: Interview
Experience: 30-40 min. pure HR. He asked me various case studies. They totally analysed a persons behaviour.

General Tips: Only technical knowledge won't do any good, prepare for HR also.
College Name: IIT-ROORKEE

Round: Test
Experience: Fairly easy, those preparing for CAT would ace the first section pretty easily. For the second section, you'd require an ample experience of reading standard comprehension passages. Online reading resources such as the Op-Eds on TIME, The Hindu, NYT would help big time.
Tips: Be composed and conscious of the time. This test is all about pacing ahead of time and hence a hands on practice on all the relevant sections would really help. There are a good amount of resources for both the sections on the web. So be calm and prepare good.
Duration: 120 minutes minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: It was based on what I had mentioned on the pre-interview proforma, which, they usually ask every candidate to fill. A couple of bullets from my resume provided them enough material to frame their questions. Since L&T ECC heavily deals in concreting operations throughout its projects, having studied FRC greatly helped my case. The experience during my internship also helped me to elaborate my experience. They asked some basic questions pertinent to the grade of the concrete, cement employed and the ductility achieved and some general questions such as what are its advantages over normal concrete and how would it help me in contributing positively to their company.
Tips: Nothing much! Just prepare your resume bullet points in and out. Do not add anything new on the proforma. You never know that it might just go against what you say in the interview. People usually flounder in interview because they try to condense a lot of information in a short span of time. Instead just try to be concise and explicit in you writing so that you can elaborate your experience exactly the way you may want to elaborate in the interview. Strictly adhere to the lines mentioned in the proforma.

Round: Interview
Experience: Standard replies did good for me. Just try to mention all the positives in your resume. This is where you will be, more often than not, given opportunity to elaborate on your extracurricular activities and responsibilities. L&T especially with their MT profilers would always want a diversified group who can carry out both Management and Engineering with ease.
Tips: Nothing much. If you survived till here you are highly likely to get through this as well. All the best!

General Tips: Stay Calm. You may not get through companies which your counterparts in Computer Science or other branches would. But if you keep fretting over your past you'd probably ruin your present and it will drastically affect your future. Don't judge yourself by the package you get in the starting. Companies like L&T usually ground their freshies but the longer you stay the more you are of value to the Company. Ask anyone who's been around in the ECC for more than 10 years and they'd tell you the rest. Stay used to of being awake till the wee hours of the morning (for placements at least) as I was not. It did hamper my chances on the first night of the placement. (which is an entirely different experience to share) :P
Skill Tips: Just be prepared with all the tests that you performed in your Concrete/Materials Laboratory. Concrete Mixers, Bleeding prevention mechanisms etc.
Skills: Practical Expertise with your laboratories
College Name: IIT Guwahati
Motivation: L&T ECC is known as one of the most gritty companies and provides an avenue for being a party to challenging projects. The work, its type, and its impact is what drove me personally to apply to it.
Funny Moments: I don't know if it sounds funny, but after sitting in a big shot finance company on day zero at 1 am in the night, and finally succumbing in round 3, it was almost a draught of 7 days before this opportunity came. And interestingly I had not applied for any other company. So, in the hindsight, I actually find myself lucky enough to have got through. Had this gone then.... :D

Round: Test
Experience: 1. Easy level CAT preps. Questions on basic math, Prob. & Stats, Speed
2. Totally English based test, 15 paragraphs 8-10 liners, 3 ques on each, direct and easy ques, answers
available in the paragraphs itself, no deep thinking required, only good Speed required.
Tips: 1. Dist. Time questions, only Speed is imp. Shortlisted 40 of 120 (both BTech and MTech)
2. Shortlisted 15-18 of 40
Duration: 60+30 minutes
Total Questions: 100+45

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: No question on extra knowledge, have clear understanding of things related to your resume
Eg. What is your favorite subject and then questions on that subject.
Eg. Your BTP seems to be quite interesting, please elaborate on it

Round: Form filling
Experience: A form was filled in the interview which consisted of: Personal details, projects, interns, BTP, qualities,
extracurricular activities. Questions were based mostly on this form and some general questions like:
• About Yourself
• Knowledge on finance
• Tell about 3 topics of current affairs
No resume related questions.
Some basic questions were asked:
• What is welding (asked to all candidates)
• Questions on mechanical properties of materials like: What is hardness and tests to measure hardness

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 30 minutes duration.

General Tips: 1. Courses in particular are not required but, should have clear understanding of your project, interns and BTP and general concepts of each coursework.
2. For MME Dept.: You really need to prepare very hard as there are very few companies for our
Dept. Prepare well for your BTP and projects. In the HR interview try to justify each and every point you
speak from your day to day examples.
College Name: IIT KANPUR