TCS Interview – 28 oct 2007

Just would like 2 share my interview experience with u so that it would be helpful 2 u.
to begin with my written test, it was on 6th Oct 2007 10AM (total in hyd it was on 6th and 7th Oct, daily 4 batches 8,10,12am and 2pm, each batch not less than 1000-1500 people). just go thru previous papers u will go thru it(concentrate on verbal).

Written results were announced on 11th Sept in which 2338 people were shore listed for the interviews on 27 Oct and 3 Nov. God bless I was thru my written which was one of the major hurdle for me which I never cleared in other MNCs I have attended.

My interview was scheduled on 27th oct at 3pm, which was postponed on that day to 28th 10am(sun). On the same day I had 2 go thru all the three hurdles of TCS which being tech, MR and HR interviews.

Technical Interview: was kool and last for a while. It went like
Interviewer: was very orthodox, he never smiled
Me: all the formalities

He: tell me abt urself
Me: bla bla

He: y tcs
Me: career aim was 2 get into MNC tcs being Asia’s no:1brand so tcs

He: y only tcs, there r other companies also
Me: 2 b frank I couldn’t make thru infy because of my mistakes, I have taken feedback from my failures and from that experience now I came up very strongly for TCS.

He: tell me operators in C
Me: (not expecting such a basic question, stuck for a while then) told and deliberately stressed on bitwise, operators, which I wanted him 2, divert into

He: gimme details and examples
Me: all other operators are derived from bitwise told abt gates (STLD)

He: asked me examples
Me: gave him on papers addition with carry and without carry with examples using gates

He: tell me abt DBMS
Me: told basic defn

He: gimme a demo on it for 3 mins treating me as a novice in DBMS
Me: told the basics and went till triggers and its practical implementation where he interrupted me

He: u can leave now
Me: sorry

He: u can leave now
Me: it was a pleasure talking 2 you thank you.

It was very little time since others were tested for long while which made me little tensed. Office boy walked out with a list and gave me a form with greeting me which I was supposed 2 fill which at the same time mean that v r forwarded for the other round.

After an hour..

Managerial Review:

Me: excuse me sir.
He: just wait. Ok come on in

He pretended not noticing me for a while when I was standing as I was not asked 2 sit for some time

He: after few formalities, sit down. Y r u standing., ok tell me abt ur self, I have seen u some where (me smiled)
Me: told and ended say I shared my room here with my roommate

He: is he here, I mean ur roommate
Me: I was confused n realized and told he already got selected in ADP

He: y dint u got into that.
Me: I dint meet the criteria of 70% which I fall shore of 3%

He: if u get an offer in it will u go
Me: no sir, once if I get into TCS fortunately I will commit 2 my principles bla bla

He: if u get both the call letters at the same time n they offer u marginally high then wot
Me: stuck for a while saying practically this situation doesn’t arise the something came into my mind n told TCS

He: be honest
Me: Definitely TCS sir (high pitch)

He: justify that
Me: TCS being an Indian company I feel the pride and prestige 2 work for an Indian company sir. (I couldn’t find a better answer)

He: (showed me some gestures which made me uncomfortable which I dint revealed though) ok sounds good.
He: rate in programming skills on a scale of 10
Me: 6

He: asked same question after asking some other questions
Me: gave same answer 6.

He: is 6 an optimal figure or wot giving same for all the ratings.
Me: actually u have asked me the same question again

He: no I asked technical skills before and now programming
Me: no sir I m quite certain about it sir,

He: oh, may be bcoz I have been doing this from morning so little exhausted
Me: oh, its ok with me sir

He: rate in C
Me: 5/10

He: don’t u think 5 is very less, I mean other guys r rating 8 and 9 r they wrong
Me: no sir, the context they speak is wrong sir, They might have scored 90 of 100 in academics n rate themselves but practically there is difference in real time implementation than the bookish knowledge.

He: so u talk abt practical implementation, wot do u know abt that
Me: actually I have been working for 5 months in Trina systems which is a great company to work with, where I found v need to bridge the gap between bla bla.

He: u got any bond there?, and profile of the company
Me: no, xplained abt previous company

He: rate in communication skills
Me: 8

He: hmm!!, talk abt a topic for 1 min.. wait the topic that u hate the most
Me: stuck for a while saying there is nothing that I hate, anyways will talk abt politics of Pakistan (he smiled), started abt dictatorship, monarchy, Musaraf went 2 hilter also who implemented same policy.

He: do u think Indian politics is good
Me: yes indeed

He: then y is that v r in such a crisis
Me: only thing is v need 2 implement in a proper way 2 get it better and in my defense v have borrowed this from British people who actually are among the super powers and I m sure we will also become but takes time.

He: Wot do u know abt Indian politics
Me: India is a social secular democratic where every one realize rite 2 vote and also ppl are treated as govt bla bla

He: There is a movie rite one day PM
Me: oke okkadu.. and its CM not PM
He: ok what ever, if u r given that opportunity wot would u do.
Me: would reject the offer since I m an IT guy having very narrow scope abt it and in that movie he is a journalist

He: assume u know everything then
Me: related with software life cycle and xplained that I will only address those requirements, which could be met in 24 hrs of time. Will make a quick analysis and also gather the requirement from my subordinates by consulting few and try 2 meet the things which most of consultants suggest and assign the work 2 them making sure they complete in time

He: if u were given a project of 9 ppl out of which one is not working at all and ur project manager, how will you handle this situation
Me: will straight away talk 2 him and give him deadline 2 correct himself, else if I m at the liberty to fire him I shall check his past history based on which I shall tackle. Else I shall report it to my higher officials

He: ok Mr. Rahul have a nice day, all the best
Me: thank you sir

After which most of the ppl were eliminated in this round and fortunately got selelcted and forward for HR for which I had 2 wait for 5 straight hours

HR: he was very kool of all
He: u have been waiting for a long time it seems, did u have ur lunch
Me: no sir, I was expecting for my call
He: oh im sorry
Me: doesn’t matter sir

He: tell me abt ur family background
Me: told and mentioned agriculture as my father’s occupation

He: asked me all abt agriculture, which I was not much aware since I was hardly into the farms but I also, knew he was not aware so managed well with this

He: how will agri develop (something like that)
Me: in agri luck plays a major role. N xplained rains fertility of land added to me saying electricity, irrigation. Agreeing with him I added others then I came 2 know he is acquainted with all these by the way he spoke. Discussion went for long time

He: is TCS a growing company or grown
Me: no company is ever grown sir, and TCS is a large-scale company

He: what does it take for an company 2 grow
Me: initially a small scale company establishes by handling few projects, if they could satisfy their client then they gain good will and publicity which in turn increase their clients. To meet the requirement they need to employ resources and infrastructure

He: so overall v need good manpower. Paused for while n said like you.
Me: flaunted.. n said thank you sir

He: are u re locatable
Me: Hyderabad isn’t my proper n shudnt matter for me and also tcs has a customized environment n it shudnt matter me much

He: any specific platform u r interested 2 work on
Me: anything goes for me sir…bla bla

He: any questions
Me: if fortunately I get selected in this do I need to take any coaching for be in phase with

He: not required bcoz v r not sure which platform v give u and u shall be given training in it

He: ok all the best, u will find ur results in 2 weeks of time. With a firm shake hand greeted me

At last sterday (8th nov) I got my dewali gift which I felt to be very lucky

On the cloud no 9. ?

Call letter xpected 2 be received by end of this month and joining could be in Jan

Cheers frnds. All the best for u and God bless

—The harder I work, more the luck I seem to have—

Rahul Kumar