Mercurius Advisory Services Business Development Associate Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - It was pleasent experience

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1.Start by telling ur name, your family background, ur strengths and weaknesses, likes dislikes, about ur schooling. A brief introduction about yourself.Smile. :)2.Tell them the qualities which you possess, without getting nervous, tell them that you believe in "Vision and then Action" to complete all your tasks. Try to convince them with the fact that you and ur skills completely match the job profile.3.Start with your strengths. Don't exaggerate ur weaknesses. An apt answer could be "Icecreams, chocolates", depending upon the mood of the interviewer. Another answer could be, "I believe in perfectionism".4.Ask some questions related to the organization. Try to show them that u are keen and interested to join their organization.  :) Listen attentively while they speak  :)
Tips: No need to exaggerate. They don't have to do much with ur family background nd all..Put up everything in brief.Never ask about the perks,salaries and all.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Mainly, you need to have sufficient knowledge about the topic that has been given to u. For that, read newspaper, search Google and latest newsfeed.
Tips: Never interrupt, wait for ur turn. Try to conclude the topic by summing up all the points. Sometimes it may happen that someone else may speak the points which you were about to speak. Do not panic in that case. Try to modify the same point in a different way. Smile :)
Duration: 10 minutes

General Tips: 1.Believe in yourself2.Have faith in GOD3.Be confident and clear4.Do not panic 5. Never try to show your nervousness
Skills: Communication skills, Confidence
College Name: KIIT UNIVERSITY
Motivation: You never lose. Either you win or you learn :)
Funny Moments: Nope. Nothing  :)

Round: Test
Experience: The first round was an Online test.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Second round was a Group discussion
Tips: Understand the GD topic well. In my group every single one got it wrong and completed the GD without realizing that they have got the topic wrong

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Interviews are quite easy. Nothing much will be asked apart from what you write in the resume.
Tips: So be prepared to answer any question regarding the project that you mention in your resume

General Tips: GD was a good experience. Easiest company/interview to crack. So, All the best.
Skill Tips: R S Agarwal is good enough.
College Name: NIT SURATHKAL

Round: Test
Experience: There was Aptitude, Logic and English. Most of the questions were direct and solvable in the time allotted.
Tips: Try to get all the Aptitude question right by practicing a lot of questions. Logic, you can get them right too, try to have a presence of mind.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Once I read the question, I did not panic like many did. Rather I started applying my common sense (helps a lot). There was a group discussion then a question session where everyone can provide their solutions on the problem given.
Tips: Try not to totally think in a subject point of view, rather apply some common sense like you would do in a puzzle. This added to your subject knowledge will definitely make you stand out.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: There was only one interview which included both the Technical and HR questions. It was mostly technical. There were a lot of basic questions on C programming, my extracurricular activities (Autonomous Robotics which included programming) and training in my own field. HR questions were direct and expected.
Tips: Try to be perfect in whatever you do and mention in your resume. If not, then do not mention it. Work on your weaknesses be it communication or programming while trying for an IT company. Your confidence level and positive attitude will take you a long way.

General Tips: If you work on you knowledge and skills, you will automatically be confident.Knowing about the company is important too.
College Name: KIIT UNIVERSITY
Motivation: It is one of the top 4 consultancies and one the best that comes for campus selection in our college.

Skills: Behavioural Skills, Problem Solving Skills, Technical Skill
College Name: SCMS cochin

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Everyone who applied for the company were allowed to give the test. The test was in similar lines as that of CAT (Quant, DI, LR and stuff).
Tips: Try the TIME material (or any other aptitude test material for preparation), Indiabix is an another website for aptitude tests. The more tests you give the more weak points you'll find and the more you can improve on them.
There are a lot of tips available online (far more better than what I could give)

Round: Other Interview
Experience: They directly shortlisted 7 of us for the interview directly from the test. The interview started with some HR questions and they started asking me stuff to test my problem solving skills like the questions that I mentioned in this section. Later, moved on to ask about my experience at the internship and started walking through my resume for some more questions.
Tips: Just be honest and try not to panic if you don't have the solution immediately. Take a 10 second break if need to think (Trust me, this small break goes a long way if you happen to get stuck somewhere)

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Out the 7, they shortlisted 5 for the 2nd round of Interview. This one was very typical to the HR round. Asked me about my hobbies and went in detail for each one of them and then about my future career plans.
Tips: Be honest. That's it!

General Tips: Be patient. Irrespective of the number of interviews you give, you will eventually get the job that suits you the best.
Skills: Ability To Be Involved In Hands On Work, Ability To Justify, Ability To Express Your Ideas, Ability To Analyse, Entrepreneurial Skills, Problem Solving Abilties, Problem Solving Skills, Aptitude
College Name: IIT Bombay
Motivation: Wanted to get into consulting. Didn't get shortlisted in top tier consults. Deloitte is not bad either and is at par with top consults recently

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The students were selected as per their jobs roles, last degree, streams/subjects.
For example(People for business analyst job profile should have an accounts, finance background) Normally engineers were not shortlisted as they believed that now they are only looking for students with normal finance or accounts knowledge, in future if they have jobs for engineers they will be back.
Tips: If you have done your graduation in accounts, finance , or BBA its a great opportunity for you.

Round: Test
Experience: In this round there will be passages, idioms and phrases, you need to read the passage few audio clips you have to carefully listen to the audio the accent will be quite different making it hard to understand.
Tips: Some place quiter will help you a lot.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 10

Round: Telephonic Round
Experience: A normal discussion between the HR and the students, no technical question just some basic knowledge and your introduction.
Tips: Some place quiter and your mobile network should be fine

Round: Test
Experience: Sections:60 min
Reasoning
Excel
Finance

Number of question will be 60
Reasoning question will include some normal English question and some aptitude.
Excel : all the shortcuts, functions and some general formulas ()
Finance: Fundamental finance question, you need to know the terms and formulas(Subjects you can refer to are corporate finance, Financial services in MBA course)

They will select a cutoff, people clearing this round will proceed to further rounds
Tips: -----
You can refer this for normal excel commands or shortcuts

You have to read the Finance part thoroughly.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Tell me about yourself?
Why should we hire you?
Your strength and weakness?
Tell me about Deloitte?

after aptitude we had 3 interaction, 12 students have qualified for HR rounds.

In this round the HR asked about the company and about the interviewer, about his hobbies. They were normally checking the soft skills and vocabulary of the students.
All of the 12 students have easily cleared this round and moved to the next round.
Tips: You just have to be true to yourself and give the answers.
These were not tough questions they were all about you.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: In depth question about finance, how Forex market works, situational based question, financial terms, Services provided by Deloitte, balance sheet problems, money market, dept market , current Sen-sex.
Some question asked.
Walk me through a cash flow statement.
What is working capital?
How is the income statement linked to the balance sheet?
What is a deferred tax asset and why might one be created?
Tips: You have to go through corporate Finance and Financial services.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The normal HR Rounds turns a bit harder,
You will be asked to implement different financial tool in the current market scenario, How will we contribute in the growth of the organization, here they will also discuss about the package and different allowances provided by the company.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This round is for welcoming all the candidates who have cleared all the above rounds, This round was taken by onsite employees in our case and Australian Client, who will give the brief Idea of how everything works.

Skills: Soft Skills, reading and listening, Excel Skills, Finance Basics, Reasoning Ability, Ability To Cope Up With Stress
College Name: KIIT University

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The minimum cut off was 60 percent and above

Round: Test
Duration: 30 minutes

College Name: MIT College Of Engineering