The Placement Process

Eligibility :

General eligibility criterion for most companies is 60% aggregate, i.e., your average percentage score in all semesters. However, some companies like Microsoft demand a 70% aggregate. So it is advisable to score at least above 60% right from the first semester and above 70% if you have great ambitions.

Another important criterion is that you should have no live KTs, although a few companies may allow up to two. A handful of companies do not tolerate any KTs at all, live or dead. So in short, avoid KTs.

The Process :

Campus placements are provided in almost all engineering colleges in Mumbai University. However, the percentage of students placed and the number of companies offering jobs may vary from college to college. Generally, in all colleges, the average offer is around 3.3 lakh/annum for most IT companies whereas a few finance companies like JP Morgan offer 6 lakhs/annum. Only VJTI is a class apart, where the average is around 5-6 lakhs and highest salaries may go up to 12 lakhs.

Below is the whole placement procedure in general for all colleges.

The four main sections of a placement:

• Introduction of the company
• Aptitude test
• Group Discussion (applicable for a few companies)
• Interview(Technical + HR)

Introduction

This is generally a pre-placement talk where the representatives of the company talk about its history, accomplishments, major services/products, etc. It is, without exception, excruciatingly boring. The only thing you gain out of it is that you find out a few crucial facts about the company which can help you in the interview.

All the queries regarding job profile, location of placement, and other HR related stuff are addressed. So if the company is offering an IT job but you want to go only in the core electronics sector, better not sit for the company. They also tell you about the “service bonds” the company has.

E.g. TCS and L&T have a 2 year bond, i.e. if you leave the job before completion of the bond   period you have to pay a fine of Rs. 50000/-.

Some companies like Philips might not make you sign a bond. Such companies are preferred by people who are sure that they will have to leave their job for higher studies.

Aptitude Test

Aptitude tests consist of basic problems in quantitative ability, logical reasoning and verbal ability. Google the past aptitude test question papers of the respective company, and solve those for practice. Generally, it is seen that the questions do tend to repeat. The website ”freshersworld.com” is quite handy as it has past papers of almost all companies.

Books by RS Agrawal are good for preparation but it is not necessary to solve the entire book. Generally, these tests are easy and just require logic to crack them.

You can also have a look at the questions posted by some students in our community

E.g. L&T have a simple aptitude test but the cutoff is high because they want only few students.

Note:

(i)      CAT students always have an upper edge in clearing aptitude tests. So other students should practice a bit to get a feel of the type of questions and quick methods to solve them.

(ii)    Some companies may have cut-offs in all sections, while some may have no negative marking. So inquire beforehand about the format of the test so you can use the best strategy.

Group Discussion

Not all companies take a GD, for e.g. there is no GD for Accenture. However, you will find that many of the companies with high packages take a GD. GD is usually between 6 to 8 candidates.

There will be a panel of 3 or so 'experts' monitoring you throughout and the duration is usually 20 min. They give you marks on the basis of your content and conduct. Content is the single most important factor in a GD. Conduct, though secondary to content, is also a vital parameter to judge you.

You may be given any topic for GD (political, social, marketing-related) and you will be given around 5 min to prepare your points. Most probably they will shortlist 2 candidates from a group of 8. So make sure you make enough points during the discussion because there is no chance of you getting selected if you keep quiet.

E.g. Philips and JP Morgan Chase take a GD after the aptitude test.

Interview

Interview is the final step in the selection process. Usually, the companies have a single interview in which they ask technical as well as personal questions. However, there can be separate interviews also.

Personal Interview:

The typical questions asked in this interview are:

• Tell me something about yourself.
• Why do you want to join this company?
• Are you willing to work in any office of the company across the country? (Answer should always be yes if you want the job).
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Why should we select you?

All the questions would invariably fall in one of the above type.

Note:

While stating your weaknesses, you should mention how you are overcoming it.

Technical Interview:

Some companies ask what your strong subjects are beforehand, while some might ask about anything under the sun. Nevertheless, the best strategy would be to prepare two subjects thoroughly and tell the interviewer that those are your area of interests if you find that you have no clue about what he is asking.

Most of the companies would be IT related so brush up on the computer languages. Generally they ask only basic questions so revise C++ and JAVA. Also microcontrollers are a favorite topic of the interviewers.

Note:

Some companies like Amdocs may ask you to execute a program in some language. Microsoft has a written technical test.

For more interview questions you can have a look at some questions posted by the students in our community.