Transocean Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Test
Experience: The test was very easy. No preparation required. Just after it we had Group discussion (2) 1st: One group -Case study, another group - On privatization of IIT

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Transocean had initially one GD. The first interview round was just for 1 mins.

Round: Stress Interview
Experience: A number of hypothetical situations were thrown at me and I had to tell them how I would respond to them. They were just trying to check if I was mentally prepared for taking up a job in Transocean. It was very important to be
pragmatic and honest in this round rather than giving ideal answers.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: It was very simple. No preparation required.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Different groups were made and given different topics.
Tips: Have strong views and sound reasons to back them in GD’s and presentation. They had one to one conversation with each candidate following the group discussions on his personal views on the case. Read the cases fast yet carefully.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Apart from the questions mentioned, resume based questions were asked.
Tips: Prepare HR well and do good homework on knowing about the company. It reflects in your interview and the questions that you ask.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: After a few minutes of thinking someone started the GD, and I was the third person to speak and went in favor of them. It so happened that none after me had the good sense to take an opposing view. Consequently, people coming in later into the GD did not have many points to speak, and a few probably lost out on the chance to going into the next stage. Our GD concluded with everyone nodding their heads in unison to the topic. It was overall a pretty lame affair. I got selected for the interviews. As per Rishi(one of the interviewers from Trans and an alumni), they selected everyone who put forward coherent, well-formed thoughts. They were basically looking out for hints of a logical thought process.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The company announced two rounds of interviews for final selection. The first round was a very quick(2-5 minute) elimination round in which it was clear that the recruiters merely wanted to decide on their doubts about a few candidates. These people were asked to introduce themselves and state the reason for their interest in transocean, while the rest were let go with questions like 'have you had your food'(not joking! one person was asked the name of his HOD and then they thanked him and told him that they'll talk to him in the next round). I belonged to the latter
group and after a half-hearted enquiry into my B.Tech project they thanked me and told me to wait for the second round.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: After the first round was over, they decreased the shortlist to 20 from an initial 30 odd students. Then they did a very interesting thing. The recruiters spoke to us and told us that they thought it unfair that the first student who comes in has no idea about the questions he’s going to face while the later interviewees get a chance to gain from his experience. So to overcome his they handed us copies of the evaluation sheet they were going to use to decide on us. The sheet included topics like personal presentation, strengths, weakness, risk taking ability, and mostly the usual HR interview topics.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: After about four hours of wait for my turn I was called in for the second round. It started off as a stress interview. They didn't even ask me to introduce myself, instead straightaway started off with 'Why Transocean'. I had barely spoken a few points when they literally jumped onto me in hindi,'arre yeh toh BHEL mein bhi hota hai', 'aur yeh interest hai toh ONGC join karo'. I defended each of my reasons and countered every point they raised,while trying to not get hassled, to the point of fighting it out with one of the interviewers that the profile for ONGC did not suit what I was looking for. He finally told me to trust him that similar work was done by ONGC as well. Apparently they were looking for aggression, so this went in my favour. Later they asked questions like 'how is the flying of an helicopter different from flying of a bird'. Something I reasoned out aloud and answered. Asked me a few simple questions on probability, all the time trying to hassle me, and rush me. Then came questions about how do I think I will adjust to the Transocean life, my strengths and my weakness. Thereafter they gave me a moral dilemma question of where my brother was in peril and I had a company responsibility worth millions. I was asked to choose between the two. I started off by stating that incase there was nothing special I could do for him, I would attend to my responsibility. Then they insisted that none else could help him. To which I bluntly answered that then I would abandon the company and go to my brother's help. They tried pressurizing me with question of my irresponsibility towards the company but I refused to budge.

Skill Tips: In the rapid fire stress situation, in the middle I was asked the question of whether I attended the Trans ppt. A 'yes' literally slipped out of my mouth, despite the fact that I had not. They then asked questions to corroborate the fact, of which I then cooked up answers to as I did not wish to back down. However after the interview I realized that there was no way that they would not have realized that I had bluffed.
College Name: IIT KANPUR