RR Ispat Senior Engineer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute’s placement cell norms.
I prepared my resume keeping in mind the areas of interest that would suit the company’s requirements. The companies that recruit students from all departments usually tend to recruit students seeking interests in general management related (non-technical) subjects, I knew about this and while applying to non-core companies I specified my areas of interest as these subjects.

Round: Test
Experience: Since I gave the test as a civil engineer, the questions in the written test were based on structural engineering. The paper required a lot of practical knowledge of concepts taught in the class – the bookish knowledge that we had gained in the past 3 years was not sufficient to solve the questions. A technical internship in some core company would have certainly helped one’s cause in solving the question paper. Questions like ‘What is the concrete grade used in plumbing works?’ were asked. There are no such books that can be referred to solve these questions; however some sample papers are available over the internet that can be used as a sample guide before appearing for these tests. The paper also consisted of sections on general aptitude and logical reasoning. The general aptitude section included questions on mathematics and verbal abilities. Someone who has prepared for CAT won’t find it difficult to answer these questions. A total of 10 candidates were selected for the next round. Also an in-depth knowledge of the code IS456 is a must for all the civil engineers appearing in this test.
Tips: I had not prepared for CAT which proved to be a major drawback for me. However I used to practice certain questions from CAT books which did help a bit in tackling the aptitude questions. I am also very good at mathematics – consequently mathematics was never an issue. I knew that the sole problem I would be facing will be with the verbal ability section. At the start of the recruitment season I faced a lot of problem in the written tests mainly because of the English section, I failed to qualify the written tests of some companies but eventually I garnered experience with each failure and finally managed to crack the tests of some companies like Deloitte, ZS Associates and some others.
So basically what I observed in these written tests is that the level of mathematics and logical reasoning questions is quite easy but on the other hand the level of verbal ability questions asked in these tests is at least a couple of notches higher than the usual.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The final round was the interview round. The duration of the interview was 15 to 20 minutes. In the interview both technical as well as HR questions were asked.
The technical questions asked were form topics like geotechnical, structural and fluid mechanics. The questions asked were:
1) When salt is added to concrete what effect does it have on the concrete’s strength? Does the strength increase or decrease?
2) What do you know about black cotton soil?

The company recruited 7 people overall out of which 4 were from civil department.
Tips: One must be prepared to answer any question related to core subjects while applying in a core company. For instance if a company wants to recruit candidates as structural engineers then the company need not necessarily ask questions related to structural engineering only. They would quite certainly ask you any technical question related to your areas of interest specified in the resume.

Some consulting company websites offer sample case studies. I referred these case studies which proved to be beneficial in context of some companies like Capital One.

The most commonly asked HR (Human Resource) question “Tell me about yourself.” generally proves to be decisive question. This question tends to direct the flow of the interview, thus one must appropriately frame an answer to this question before coming for the interview.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: I got to know about the company and the profile through the pre-placement talk held prior to the final placement. During the pre-placement talk they told us about the job profile and actual work expectations with if we get recruited in the company.