Turnaround International Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In the first round of the interview these questions were discussed in detail and various other scenarios were also taken into consideration

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I think I was able to justify my interest in finance which added to my cause.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I had well prepared the initial questions – about myself, why consult and why Alvarez questions which helped me in gaining confidence. It was my only interview of the day so I was quite relaxed. The interviewers also seemed friendly.




Round: HR Interview
Experience: I hadn’t prepared ‘Something that is not mentioned in the CV’ question. I had to come up with on the spot answer which could have been better.

General Tips: Do well prepare your HR questions and work experience part. It really helps on the final day.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: HR Interview
Experience: There were 3 groups formed when the A&M team arrived on campus. A&M conducted 3 rounds of interviews for each candidate and after all the 3 groups had interviewed the candidate, they used to meet and decide on the candidate. Thus the procedure was elaborate but slow. All the interviews were personal interviews.

After waiting outside for almost 7 hours, the interviews were conducted in a very professional manner and the interviewers focus in knowing your past was crystal clear.

Each of the interviewer asked me to go through my resume in a detailed fashion. Each and every bullet point in my resume was questioned and cross questioned. But the interview was not stressful at any point in time. The key reason was that there were no lies in the resume and hence I was very sure about the background of every point (situation, what action I took, why I took that action, what I did, who helped me, how things eventually worked out and what was the result). There were some usual questions as well on strengths, etc. Such questions were few and were randomly thrown at you. Since A&M is mainly a client oriented company who as a part of turnaround would want to “get things done”, I kept all my answers focused towards this theme. Be aware that the interviewers may try to derail you in case you have very well rehearsed answers. So in between questions, there will be some side talk. That can put you off. So being relaxed would help you just laugh/smile that their comments and then continue where you left off. This interview was a walk-in interview for me on day 6, but I had planned on applying here before and hence had some overview of the firm and what it does. That helped me in asking several questions throughout the day. My questions were mainly on switching my focus from IT to operation and finance. At the end of the day, I was told to contact Amit Laud who would be conducting my interview from his base location. This interview was also a personal interview. I googled him and found some details on him. He was an MBA from Wharton, done a stint in Mckinsey, GE and now was the acting CIO for some client company so some questions on IT implementation would be due. I knew that if I get through then I might end up working for him.
Tips: Keep your cool. It is not important to know how to fix laptop or how to fix account statements (if you are CA). But it was more about how you handle such deliberate distracting situations (as if they were your clients) and make the atmosphere friendly.

Skills: HR Skills
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I think having some good spikes like Big PORs, Intern in well known brands, startups. and consitency in CPI would help you get shortlisted. I was a 8 pointer with a couple of Institute Awards.
Regular tips like making a neat resume etc apply

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It started with tell me about yourself. Then they asked questions on my resume projects to check how well I was able to explain it and if I had not exagerrated in my resume. Finally a guesstimate.

The guesstimate involved calculating the no. of beer bottles sold in Mumbai on a weekend? They told me that I should not calculate, explanation should suffice. The interviews were very friendly and did not put any stress.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Again the interviewer was very friendly. The HR started with Tell me about yourself. We then had a conversation on our hobbies, he was keen to check how passionate I am about my hobbies. Then he asked Why consultancy? Finally he asked me if I had any question for him.(Never say no, and ask a relevant question).

General Tips: Dont lie in your resume
Be happy during the interview! Smile!

"Job to sabki lag hi jaegi"

Skills: Passion, Guesstimate Skills, Honesty
College Name: IIT Bombay

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be prepared with basic CS subjects you will be able to clear all rounds with ease.

Topics to prepare for Accenture Associate Software Engineer interview:

• Java
• SQL
• Agile Methodology
• SDLC

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be confident
Keep it just and short
Explain more about your experiences

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I asked him about the product X? and how important it is for the telecom service providers? is it a big part of their costs ? – he said some arbit stuff – this was a hint that it was a bigger overall strategy case and not into details – so I defined the case as – the CEO wants to know, what to do to increase the profits both in short and long term – he said yes - I immediately moved to the standard profit loss framework and started looking at revenue first - he said OK – I said profit = Price* Quantity and went to pricing... he had said that the telecom service providers were not very sensitive to pricing in the business.. so I dint come to reducing the pricing... I asked about the competitive landscape – our client is 35% business... it went on and on an on ..... could not reach anywhere.. so we went to costs... discussed everything.. excess capacity.. joint ventures.. MnA,..still nothing..so he said.(the discussion was a very intelligent substance discussion.. not general profit loss cases.). – we had a great discussion on both prices and quantity,, why don’t u see decreasing the price – I said.. “ooooooo I thot of it, but then u said that the players are insensitive to price “ - he said “ they WERE, the whole industry as I told u is seeing some problems” – PICK UP THE HINTS... -- once he said this I went to the cost structure of the firm again – I said that our client can play price war only if a) his variable costs are lower than competitors variable costs and he is playing on high investment low variable cost model (reliance model) – he said YES it is exactly this way – I said OK , then let him price X above his variable cost but below the others variable costs and drive the competition away. – I also said, to speeden this up he should in fact price it lower than his variable costs also (extremely low and he can afford it because he has cash with him as he has been on 40% profits for the last 4 – 5 years.. so there should not be an issue on the working capital side – he sair “great” .. he wanted to stop and asked me to summarize the case.. – I summarized the case, and also gave some more ideas like .. seeing the cost and benefit of doing away with excess capacity rite now and adding again when the market is doing good, buying high fixed cost players in the sector.. etcc etc.. a lot more.. – he patiently listened to everything Then he asked me if I had anything to ask him? I asked similar question as I asked in Mck – “ has India become a net contributor to the knowledge base..- he told me about low cost Indian manufacturing.. I said cool... and he said super cool!
Tips: a) work on your resume b) Make the resume in such a way that irrespective of whatever – the you are able to guide the interviewer to THE thing you want to talk about – link all answers to that DO NOT OVERPREPARE – DON’T LOOSE YOUR NATURAL SELF

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Upfront questions – where in the value chain? – ans.. they make towers and maintain them .. and into providing services too.—so I asked details on the portfolio of services and portfolio of work of tower etc. – he gave me everything including margins.. so margins in tower making etc were low – I asked him if he is sure that its not just an accounting issue.—he appreciated the point and said .. no, they do ABC and might be small accounting issues but not really one—I said ok.. and moved on to profitability framework .. revenue – costs --- so I said we will look at the tower making etc.. (pareto) – he said perfect.. – went to revenue... he hinted therez nothing there , I said great! Jumped to costs (didn’t waste time at all) - asked him costs heads .. he gave the following .. – a) Tower making, b) people c) administration (I don’t remember the terminology correctly but the remember the discussion) Discussion on tower making – I said “ so Navneet, what does it include” – he said making and servicing and maintaining and some back office work – so I said following can be wrong (BE CREATIVE, I started throwing solutions/ideas) (i) are the people skilled? Know how much material are they using (extra material = extra cost) (ii) is the quality of material too high (more than required quality increases the costs) (iii) is there rework happening? – are people good?(iv) What kind of designs are there – he said there are various different types of designs – I asked why? – he said no one knows – I said .. are they required? – he said , no – I said then standardize the design! He looked happy – so I started throwing more ! – he said no, lets move on to other ones Discussion on people – people cost = wage * numbera) are outsourced people expensive – yes they are – are they doing some specialized job? – not really, they can be replaced – then replace them b) can we multiskill people – yeah we can – then do that! c) Can we move our service centers to low cost destinations – yes we can d) Can we reallocate people to reduce number of people – yes we can – but can we fire them? – are they unionized? – yes they are and he appreciated the point that I touched upon the fact that the unions are tough to handle ( learning : know your industry, small things can make you win the case Discussion on administration a) planning happening ok? – no – so scheduling, audits have to be done again and again (I did not come up with this point alone. It was a result of a thorough discussion .

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: i said – its an opportunity (no structure , we were taking a walk after all) because it opens up a full market – he said ‘ what shud the competitors do” – I kept on saying a lot of things... - they should lobby with government to stop this .. bla bla bla bla – the discussion was round and round and round.. I was tired with my high heels—then suddenly I said – Arvind can you tell me if I am on the right track ? , am little tired – he smiled and said, ok I again ask you “ what can they do to stop the nano or get ready for the market” – this statement gave me clarity and I said “ ok we can stop nano from coming, or do some other stuff” – he said great , so lets discuss both one by one – (remember that once you asked for clarity then you have to crack the rest of the case, else you are dead) –so I picked up stopping nano to hit the market discussion on stopping Nano to hit the market –
(i) demand side hit – lobby with the activists and say that the infrastructure isn’t ready and hence nano should not be allowed ( he liked it)
(ii) demand side hit -Increase the advertisements on how “Indians have to be sensitive about infrastructure” ( he liked it)
(iii) supply side hit – can we buy out the suppliers? – can we promise them some other meat? – like get them under long term agreements etc
(iv) Supply side hit – can we buy out the low cost suppliers to tatas ( I told them, that my thinking was to stop providing necessary materil that gets into nana
(v) Supply side – can we buy their engineers
(vi) And some more discussion, I don’t quite remember .but ya on similar lines What else they can do till they develop their own low cost (i) can they give fire to second hand car market ( as this is the immediate competition to nano) (ii) he kept on probing me on public transport till I said – why cant they collaborate with the government and make the public transport so easy and good and safe that people don’t need nano! BINGO.. ( he loved it- tho he only got that in my head – amazing guide he is) he still looked dissatisfied and asked me there is something else that is missing.. – something that is a real threat to the competitors of tatas. – we kept on discussing, till I suddenly remembered the team that made the engine is of 30 years average age (READ THE CURRENT ISSUES, IT HELPS BUILD PERSPECTIVE) – so I said “ they have the engineering skills, which can be used to enter other segments (like they can make cheaper engines for indigo .. or come up with new car in ford Ikon category etc).. and this resource is just too good! – BINGO
Tips: a) Be genuine b) Be grounded c) Be yourself d) Be confident e) Be transparent f) Be blunt (but carry it ) g) Connect with the interviewer – genuinely h) Be aware of the current issues

Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Manager + Lead round (not sure what kind of round is this)
Experience: details about the work profile, most of which never happened post joining.

General Tips: If you come from technical background, please do not join PwC SDC and jeopardize our career. There is no technical setup, neither any infrastructure, technical work wont just happen except for few bits n pieces UI work here n there. This is not a company for technical people.
Skills: Communication
Duration: 1-4 weeks