Nalco Graduate Apprentice Trainee Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Interview
Experience: Simple HR questions were asked along with questions on specifics of the company.
Tips: Don’t upload information that you cannot justify.

Round: Test
Experience: Pretty easy test.

Round: technical + HR interview
Experience: The technical questions are pretty tough, HR questions are pretty standard and easy. Simple HR questions and questions related to your department
Tips: One should prepare a lot of technical questions.

Skill Tips: Internships and projects in your own department subjects is encouraged. Team involvement is encouraged.
Skills: Good communication skills
College Name: IIT-Kharagpur

Round: Resume Shortlist
Tips: Prepare on the basis of your resume and gather company info. Be sure of why you want to join the company and how can you handle the rigors of field work in a core job. No technical questions.

Round: telephonic interview
Experience: Preliminary check of the candidate.
Tips: Check for tips on how to appear in a telephonic interview in a calm and relaxed state of mind.

Round: Test
Tips: Preparing from the CAT study materials helps a lot and the website provides sample question and answers for preparation. Answers in the personality questionnaire are checked for any inconsistencies. So try to be natural.
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interview by an engineer related to your core field, checks for the candidate’s technical proficiency and team work skills. Questions are usually straight forward and some technical questions will be asked.
Tips: The candidates must remember specific details of his internship experience as it usually decides the interview outcome The usual preparation for appearing in an interview should do.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interview by a senior engineer. Interview is usually informal in nature and any doubts regarding work life are explained. He may check thecandidate’s software skills.

General Tips: The company looks for motivated candidates to work for the company. Aspiring students should have a clear idea of the work environment and the safety precautions it entails, the potential dangers of field work in a remote area. Go though the responses in the previous editions of Tnpedia and get the details from seniors who got placed.
Skill Tips: CGPA > 8 is usually preferred though not mandatory, Must have a clear idea of the basic engineering principles. Ability to work in a team is essential for the company. The company often asks for prior experience of managing multiple tasks and meeting deadline. Quantitative Language and Non-verbal skills are checked in the online tests. Internship in the Core industrial field are highly preferred. The candidates are often selected on the basis of the work performed in their internships.
Skills: Quantitative skills, Verbal & Non-verbal
College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Simple HR questions. Specifics of the company. Why do you want to join the company? What do you understand about safety? These were some of the common questions asked to applicants.
Tips: Don’t upload information that you cannot justify.

Round: Test
Experience: Pretty easy test (Focused areas: math ability, verbal ability, and a psychometric test)

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The technical questions are pretty tough.
Tips: One should prepare a lot.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: HR questions are pretty standard and easy. Simple HR questions and questions related to your department
.

Skill Tips: Good academic credentials, but you don’t require a very high CGPA. Team involvement is encouraged. Internships and projects in your own department subjects is encouraged. Good communication skills are important.
College Name: IIT-Kharagpur

Round: Test
Experience: They have a long short listing process. Online aptitude test, 3 short essays etc but mostly, short listing is resume based. There is a telephonic round as well but questions for the same are known well in advance. Few keywords for short listing are 
1 .Technical Skills 
2. POR
3. Cross - Cultural Experience 
4. You get bonus points if you have done some project related to energy, environment etc and have been exposed to an atmosphere where safety practices were critically followed.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: I had 2 round of interviews. Few people had even more than 3 rounds. I was told that I am being given an offer during my 2nd round itself.

Round 1. – Interviewers- Three in no., 1 Australian, 2 Indians.
Round 2. Interviewers- Five in no.- Three Australian. 2 Indian( Don’t know if anyone of them was an engineer. Mostly HR people.)

Because few of the interviewers were Australians, it became all the more important that I spoke slow and it should be clear to everyone.

General Tips: If you are targeting day one companies than you need to have certain spikes in your resume. These spikes can be academic, research based, internships, POR, extra currics etc. What most of us do not realize is that interview preparation in itself is a very good spike which can definitely get you shortlisted in more no. of companies and increase your chances of getting selected in each of them. I would just suggest. Take good amount of time in deciding what you really want to do. If you decide that you want do a job after your education at IITK, then prepare well for it and earn it.
Skill Tips: The thing that went well was that most of the questions I was asked were expected so I had already prepared for them. They look for certain traits in individuals.
1 .Technical Skills 
2. POR(not necessarily in extra currics, even a good project management counts)
3. Cross - Cultural Experience(Adaptability-because you are placed in Australia) 
4. Confidence 
5. Outgoing Nature
6. Interest in energy/environment etc.


I could present that I have most of these traits. I could not prepare well for aptitude during my placement preparation which I should have. I gave few aptitude test but did not get selected. I had some amount of bad luck in BCG and Diamond both in pre interview process and during interview, but that is something which can happen so it is advisable to be mentally prepared for it and try and get shortlisted in as many companies as you can.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Everyone who had applied was allowed to appear for a psychometric test. This was a test to determine whether the person is suitable for the position or not. A psychometric test is a way to analyze test taker’s personality traits by analyzing whether one’s response to a situation remains same if the same question has been put differently.
After the psychometric test there was a written test for the selected candidates. The test was simple and not so tough and had general questions from verbal ability, quantitative ability and logical reasoning. You just need to make sure you don’t commit silly mistakes and you will be able to clear the test easily.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Next round was a group discussion which was like a group case study. The general theme of the case study is mentioned below.
Case Study based on the production capacity of a plant. Various variables were given along with target production of that day. The group had to discuss upon various issues and use the most optimum conditions keeping a right balance between target and safety requirements.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The personal interview had HR questions. The HR questions were nothing extra ordinary but the normal ones that are expected in any personal interview. They included details about me, my strengths and weaknesses, my long term and short term goals. Also they also asked me whether I would be able to adjust to field life easily.
Besides these questions they had few plant related questions. This was about the working of the plant and about how you are going to respond to a certain emergency situations if they arise. These were related to production, work culture and working of the labour union. Besides this there were questions about extraction of metal and in my case the metal was copper.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: resume shortlisting
Experience: You need to answer 3 questions as a part of application process. Spend a lot of time answering those questions. You’ll also be sending your CV in this stage. I was asked various questions like why Rio Tinto, what are the products of Rio Tinto, where is it operating in India, etc. There was also a question based on sustainability development in mining companies.
Tips: The last thing you would want in your application is a spelling mistake. Review those 3 questions as many times as possible. Be very specific in your answers. Go through the company website, wikipedia and other material for information about the company. Your answers should show that you are genuinely interested in the company and that you have done research about them beforehand.

Round: phone interview
Experience: All the questions were HR oriented.
Tips: Be very loud and clear during the call. If you don’t understand anything, don’t hesitate to ask the interviewer to repeat the question. Give an alternative phone number along with your mobile number and make sure you have that mobile also with you during the stipulated time of the interview.

Round: Test
Experience: They are very easy when compared to other companies. You need not worry about them. There will be a big personality questionnaire that you need to answer.
Tips: Don’t lie much but make sure that your personality that you are projecting matches with the company’s requirement.

Round: Interview
Experience: Almost all the questions were HR oriented. My interview lasted around 45 mins, though it was quite less for others. A few questions are the same as the phone interview. Most of the questions asked were test the personality of the candidate.
Tips: Don’t be nervous and shy during the interview. Be honest, don’t lie. Try to show that you can adopt to new environments very easily. Talk about your foreign intern or any other international experience you have had. Mention your leadership and team work skills wherever possible. Prepare for HR questions. Talk to as many alumni as possible and make sure that you mention it during the interview. The interviewer might ask you if you have any questions about the company or job profile. Prepare a few smart questions for this. Have some sense of humor. In my case the interviewer was laughing for almost all the time.

Round: Interview
Experience: This is the final stage and a few students will be shortlisted based on performance in the first interview. This interview is very short. The interviewer told me that they just want to take a 2nd opinion on the candidate before confirming the offer. There might be some technical questions along with questions based on your resume. A few questions asked in the first round might be repeated.
Tips: If you make it to this round it means you did good till now. So be confident and show the same enthusiasm during this interview also. Be very thorough with each and every line in your resume. Don’t exaggerate too much about the projects and interns in your CV. I know someone who got rejected as he exaggerated about his work in the internship and could not explain that during the interview. You’ll need to ask some questions about the work profile in this round as well. So prepare some good number of questions.

College Name: IIT-Kharagpur

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Based on your answers in application form and CV
Tips: Study about the safety considerations taken in the industry. There will definitely be a couple of questions on it.Try to highlight leadership skills and team activities.

Round: telephonic interview
Experience: Mainly HR questions like your goal, why Rio Tinto, which industry you would like to work, etc. Some questions might also be about your internships and your learning from it.
Tips: Be at ease, and do not panic. Try to sound natural, and not as if you are reading it out from somewhere.

Round: Interview
Experience: Two rounds of interview, depending upon your performance in 1st one. Interviews in general were not very stressful, they usually start off with a few general questions – tell me about yourself, competency based questions, etc. Then they ask: Why this industry and why Rio Tinto – everyone has different answers and there’s no right or wrong but you should be convincing enough, while answering these questions. Expect some questions on what you have mentioned in your CV - internship, projects and extra curricular activities.
Tips: Do not bother for the exact answer. If you are not very sure, just let them know. Be loud enough in your thought process. If CGPA is very high ( > 9.0) or research type internships, then be prepared to face questions like why not going for higher studies, why this particular sector, etc.

General Tips: Think of the possible questions and make some points well in advance, that would help (certainly no need to mug up everything, but make them as guidelines, so that you do not miss any important points). Be confident while answering questions, be cheerful and well dressed. Be prepared to substantiate every point mentioned in your CV ( by citing situations, examples, etc) All the Best !!
Skill Tips: CGPA more than 8.0 is must. Any leadership position, entrepreneurial activity would make candidature strong. Projects related to field work, foreign exposure,etc would help. Candidate should have decent knowledge about Rio Tinto’s activities. And be prepared to face some questions on the same.
College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Round: online application
Experience: Register on the website and fill up the essay questions.
Tips: Take your time to answer all the questions with patience. Do a little research on the background of the company Be slow and clear while talking. Be prepared with the standard questionnaire related to the resume/application filled previously.

Round: telephonic interview
Experience: A list of people selected from the applications was sent and slots allotted for telephonic interview. It was an HR interview and no technical questions were asked.
Tips: Do not read out the answers written in the application form.

Round: Test
Tips: Basic quantitative questions. Fill the personality questionnaire patiently. Check that the internet does not get disconnected in between the test

Round: Interview
Tips: Things you need the most: 1. Confidence 2. Appropriate attire (formal wear) 3. Brush up all the basics related to your department subjects 4. Be thorough with the work done at internships and projects 5. Being a girl adds to the probability of getting selected (but it also depends upon their requirements) Do not be nervous, the interviewers were very friendly. Ask relevant questions when given an oppurtunity to know more about the company.

Skill Tips: Team work, social involvement and sports are most looked for along with adventurous nature, confidence and a willingness to work at remote locations. Exposure to mining and machinery is important. Any project with dedicated work is appreciated. Foreign internship or conferences can add to the cross-cultural experiences.
College Name: IIT Kharagpur