Saint-Gobain Management Trainee Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I was a bit nervous in ITC GD which resulted in my loud voice and dominating nature. The case was one of the typical cases of ITC which I missed during preparation; as a matter of fact they haven’t changed it since 3 or 4 years. It did not go that good but I was sure if 4 people would be selected from my group then I would be in. But by that time I was ready for HUL’s GD. It was a fresh new case which I forgot by the way (:P). The group was big (12 students) and I gave some good ideas (I think so). The key is “never give up on quality, safety and ethics”.
Well HUL is famous for taking only one or two guys, on top of that, rumor was that it would take only chemical guys, so I didn't had much hope with HUL, on the other hand, I was 100% sure to get through ITC (my profile and everything just matched with ITC and my friends also boosted me for the same). But I don’t know what was in my fate, at around 10:00 PM, the results of ITC’s GD came, and I was not shortlisted, all my hopes were shattered and everything turned into fume. They took only two students from my group and I was completely hopeless as I wasn't preparing for BCG, screwed up Diamond and ITC was gone. Only chance was in HUL (about which I was not sure) and Opera. I still remember that time, my wing mates helped me through that situation and boosted me a hell lot and soon I saw a ray of hope. 20 minutes later, HUL’s result came out and I was shortlisted for the interview. I decided to prepare as much as I could for HUL and revised all my stuffs all the night. I had 4 interviews next day but I didn't sleep even after going through 2 GD’s and 1 aptitude test. Finally the day came. I couldn't sleep last night.

Round: Interview
Experience: My first one was scheduled with Opera. I was taking it very lightly. The guy was from USA. I did my intern in Canada, so we did a little bit chit chat about that and we had a very nice conversation. He seemed happy with my attitude. He gave me a business case on Casino and after his some help, I finally solved the case and came up with the answer he was seeking. The next interview was with BCG. The bad thing about BCG interviews is that they don’t let you go anywhere else till their process is finished. So instead of going there, I first gave Diamond’s interview and then HUL.Since you would have read a lot about Diamond and BCG interview, so let me come straight to HUL. The first interview was taken by a factory manager. First question was based on pump, he asked about types of pump, NPSH and other relevant things. Then couple of more questions related to thermodynamics. He asked about refrigeration cycle, LMTD, cooling tower, brayton cycle and some more questions. It lasted about 15-20 minutes. I did pretty well and asked about his experience at HUL. It went good and I was sure to get shortlisted for the next round.
After that I was called for second round which was a telephonic interview taken by General Manager of the company Yogesh and there was one more guy whose name I don’t remember. He again asked the questions on pumps, use of pump in our daily life, NPSH, its determination, laws of thermodynamics, perpetual machin, use of second law in our daily life, principle of airplanes, Bernoulli theorem, what happens when you open the door of refrigerator, a heat transfer calculation (I don’t remember exactly) and some more questions in thermodynamics. Finally he asked some questions from my form. He was not satisfied with the answer I gave in one of the questions and he asked me to cite another example. He asked about my strategy on successful conduction of one of my events (Gearloose) and what made it best. Finally there were some formal questions like if I was ready to be posted anywhere and all.

General Tips: I think I answered all the questions very confidently and to the point and elaborated where required. I was very much confident about pumps and cited as many examples as I could. I think this was the best part of my interview. Initially I was a bit nervous but then I contemplated and decided to take proper time to answer each question. I think I satisfied him with every question he asked and that’s why I got selected in the company of which I used to dream since my 3rd year.

Last but not the least, I would like to say that you should know yourself and your shortcomings thoroughly and then do your best to overcome them. This is the single most time when you should devote yourself completely in the preparation (just like JEE time) if you want to get selected in your dream company. As in my case, though I did have good academic background and positions of responsibilities but I used to stammer and was not fluent in English. So I had to work a lot in these two areas in order to do decent in the interviews. I practiced in front of mirror and gave as many mock interviews as I could and that finally gave me result. Remember, nothing is impossible if you want to achieve that. You have to just work very very hard for that.
College Name: IIT KANPUR