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Tuesday, 22 January 2008

Name: Mohit Kapoor

Department: Chemical
FINAL JOB OFFERED: Grail Research
How did you prepare your resume? Any help/material you took/read?
Resume inputs from batch mates & more importantly from seniors. Fine tuning the resume with inputs especially from
seniors or batch mates who are already working helped a lot.
How did you prepare for your interview/GD? Did you work in groups? Any website/material you read/used for
preparation of Case-Studies/HR Questions/Puzzles/Technical/GDs? (Yoursending across links/documents would help us
compile a single point resource)
Importance of mock Interviews & Case studies along with your peers cannot be more emphasized.
Lots of material is available in campus both for case studies and HR questions. “BE Prepared ” gives u an insight into what to
expect in your interviews ?
During Placement Season
What was the procedure of selection in the companies you sat for?

Company 1: Merryl Lynch, Shortlisting based on online form & test, resume. 2 rounds of Interviews.
Company 2: Grail Research, Shortlisting based on test & resume. 2-4 rounds of interviews.

Walk us through the GDs/Interviews of these companies. The questions that you were asked and other details that you
may remember would be of great help. (You may not write the answers you gave)

Merryl Lynch : 1st round had one 10 min interview . Some HR questions & checking basic knowledge in finance.
2nd round had 2 interviews each of 20-30 minutes. Questions on finance, projects, HR, & puzzles in both
the interviews.
Grail Research : 1st round had 2 Estimation Case studies along with some HR questions. For example “ Calculate no.
of cold drinks sold in India in a given year”.
2nd round again was a mix of business case studies and HR questions.
If someone wants to appear for these companies, what all should he/she ideally prepare? (If you could draw from your
mistakes, it would help a lot.)
For students going for Non-Tech companies, neglecting HR questions can be a big mistake (Not particularly sure how imp.
it
is for Tech companies)
“Tell me about yourself” seems to be the most innocent questions of all, but can prove to be a big pain if left for
Impromptu.
As far as case studies go, solve at least 5 different types of case in your group to get a feel for it.
Name: Nitish Garg
Department: Mechanical
FINAL JOB OFFERED: Grail Research
How did you prepare your resume? Any help/material you took/read?
I went to the resume writing workshop of Mckinsey. Got some useful tips from there. Referred to the resumes of few
seniors. Also it’s a good point to show the resume to some good seniors after having finalized it.
How did you prepare for your interview/GD? Did you work in groups? Any website/material you read/used for
preparation of Case-Studies/HR Questions/Puzzles/Technical/GDs? (Your sending across links/documents would help us
compile a single point resource)

Prepared sample answers for the typical HR questions. Many companies ask puzzles etc in the interviews so its always a
good idea to try them before hand. Many good sites are available on googling for “interview puzzles”
During Placement Season
What was the procedure of selection in the companies you sat for?

Company 1:Test- had DI questions somewhat similar to CAT.

Company 2:Online Test – again had DI questions.
Company 3:CAT pattern test.
Walk us through the GDs/Interviews of these companies. The questions that you were asked and other details that you
may remember would be of great help. (You may not write the answers you gave)

CAPONE – Case study. Simple calculation based case. No assumptions etc required. Don’t remember the question though.
But the question could be easily cracked with simple application of maths. One should always ask the interviewer before
making any assumptions. Also there’s no need to panic. One should carefully listen to the hints.
2nd interview was HR. I was asked a situation where I had to take some instantaneous decision on the spot. Was then
asked a situation where I had to plan my work. Was then asked why Capone.
3rd interview was a case similar to the first one.
Merril Lynch – Was asked some general questions on finance, stock markets, derivatives, what I knew about Merril
Lynch. Was then asked to imagine myself as a trader and then quantify the risks I faced in that interview (:O )
Inductis – They ask typical puzzles and some of the HR questions in between, The puzzles can be found on any good
puzzles site on google. In HR they asked why Inductis, what your friends think about you, 3 good and bad things about u,
your favourite leader and what u like and don’t like about him/her.
Grail – Asked loads of cases. First was to calculate the market for a pair of female shoes in Mumbai. You are expected to
ask for all the data i.e price, type of shoes etc. Then was asked to find the revenue of Barista in Mumbai, market for
Laptops in India, all the things you would tell to Wallmart planning to set up retail outlet in India, if you were their
Consultant, market for washing machines in India in 2009. The HR questions they asked were to elaborate on an academic
as well as a non academic project, the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams. HR component was quite less.
If someone wants to appear for these companies, what all should he/she ideally prepare? (If you could draw from your
mistakes, it would help a lot.)

-Even if not interested in CAT, study thoroughly for it for the last one month. You will find yourself having cleared the
written tests of all the companies.
- Prepare for puzzles.You’ll find them on any site on googling.
- Be extremely thorough with each and every point of your resume. There’s nothing as bad as the interviewer asking you
something out of your resume and you not knowing it.
- Prepare specific to the company. If sitting for a finance company you ought to know about stock markets, derivatives,
call/put options etc and what exactly the company does. One should always ask some good question in the end. It shows
your interest.
- Show lot of energy and enthusiasm in the interview. I was given this feedback in Inductis that I seemed to lack the energy
to carry out projects.

Name : B.Nivedita
Department: Chemistry
FINAL JOB OFFERED: Grail Research India, Pvt. Ltd
How did you prepare your resume? Any help/material you took/read?
Attended Resume writing workshop organized by the institute and clarified ideas on structure, content and language.
Collected and analyzed the resumes of several friends who were placed in the companies I was interested in.
Sat down to write a rough draft, then edited several times to include proper sub-categories and tables to improve
readability.
Took the help of good critics and incorporated their suggestions to make my final draft.
The whole process took around 2-3 weeks.
Did you attend Pre-Placement talks? Did you gain anything out of them? Did you talk to anyone else about choosing
between jobs/companies?

Attended the PPT’s of all companies I was interested in. This helped in gaining perspective on the kind of work and a face-
to-face interaction with senior executives which helped in clarifying several issues.
A friendly tete-a-tete with recent alumni of the institute who were placed in those companies made some of those coveted
jobs even more desirable and encouraged me to put in my best in preparing for the interviews.:)
Any website/material you read/used for preparation of Case-Studies/HR Questions/Puzzles/Technical/GDs? (Your sending
across links/documents would help us compile a single point resource)
a) The standard ones include: Kellogg Consulting Casebook, Michigan case guide,Wharton casebook.
b) Case study material from leading consulting firms hosted on their web-sites.
c) A couple of business magazines which discussed real problems in companies in the form of cases.
d) Some of the communities in “Orkut” hosted good puzzle links.
For interview/GD/Test preparation did you prepare in groups or individually? Which one do you think helps the most?
Any details you provide will be of great help.
GD Preparation: In groups of 5-6 people. Picked up contemporary/common GD topics and shared ideas. Attending a good
GD workshop is an ideal beginning for the uninitiated.
HR interview preparation: Spent 3-4 days in general pondering . Being open-minded and critically evaluating oneself in
terms of strong points and weaknesses is vital. Equally important is a general idea on the kind of questions asked under
HR category in one’s chosen companies. Was thorough with all the points in my resume and gave a couple of mock
interviews.
Case study preparation: Did it in a group of 4 people with complementary skills and excellent compatibility.That helped
get assorted points of view during case discussions . One on one interviews is the way to go in the final stage of
preparation, with the self playing the interviewer in a few cases.
The Company in which you got recruited
What was the procedure of selection?\ Roughly how many people were short listed at each level? And how many were
made final offers?

Grail Research, primarily an analytics firm , conducted a preliminary written test comprising an assortment of DI
questions,English comprehension ,numerical ability and a few analytical questions on business situations. These were
doable without any company-specific preparation.Preparing a little for CAT helps though.They shortlisted around 60
people from around 400.Then conducted 2 interviews to shortlist around 25 candidates and in most cases took a third
interview and made offers to 12 students.
Walk us through the GDs/Interviews of this company. The questions that you were asked and other details that you may
remember would be of great help. (You may not write the answers you gave)
There was no GD even though 60 candidates were shortlisted. They proceeded directly to interviews, primarily guess-
estimates in 2 rounds. The final round before selection was with Amit, the country head, who again asked a couple of
guess-estimates with very little focus on numbers but taking in the approach of the candidate.
Some number-crunching was required,but approximation was encouraged overall.
My cases were pricing of an airline ticket and revenue of a restaurant in one day -both pretty simple cases.Proceeded
systematically to arrive at reasonably accurate final answers.The interviewer was quite helpful and pointed out a couple
of mistakes , and I corrected them immediately after reasoning them out.
The second round was with Amit who asked me the revenue that PVR cinemas made in a day in India.Outlined my
approach
first.Started with no. of PVR cinemas in the country,screens per PVR,seats per screen,cost per seat etc to arrive at a rough
number. He was convinced but then asked me to get more accurate,and to solve the case with minimum assumptions.So I
proceeded further to classify the screens in terms of language of a movie and included occupancy rate to refine my
calculations.I further related occupancy rate data to newspaper ratings of a movie and the possibility of getting one
information from the other.That was the final detail.Was made an informal offer then and there.
If someone wants to appear for this company, what all should he/she ideally prepare?

Attend the PPT. Go through the web-site. Take a few CAT pattern tests to brush up fundaes. Read the newspaper (any
standard
daily) to improve and refine your ability to comprehend information in good English.
Try your hand at a few basic guess-estimates, knowing some basic statistics about India can help.
Do a couple of business cases to get a feel of common industry issues like growth,pricing of product etc.
Dress confidently, be yourself in the interview and solve the primarily numerical cases with minimum mistakes.
That should get you the job.
ps:GD may be part of selection procedure in future years.
Other Companies in which you were shortlisted
What was the procedure of selection? What all happened in your GD/Interviews? Anything you remember can be of great
help.

Company 1: BCG
Direct shortlisting based on resume. Decent CPI, some exposure to organizational leadership, a good skill set represented
through extra-curriculars/sports is one way to get shortlisted. Writing the resume well without underplaying achievements
or exaggerating them is essential.
Prepared case studies for the BCG interview. Was given 2 cases primarily business cases by 2 interviewers.One was about
growth prospects of a company manufacturing valves.Was quite a disaster since I was nervous and intimidated by the
interviewer.Felt like a stress interview even though BCG did not believe in the concept.(In contrast,was very cool-headed
in Grail interviews and it sure helped)
The second case was about a tractor manufacturer losing market share in Maharashtra but doing well in other arts of
India. The interviewer was friendly and i had calmed down. So quickly figured out that the soil conditions were different
and hence required
tractors of a higher horsepower.But then elaborated more on this,becoming complacent overall and not probing other
possible reasons.Was then asked to do a role-play as a consultant convincing the manufacturer to adopt a new strategy.Did
it well,but could have been more open-minded to all issues.
Company 2:Capital One
Was asked a very simple guess-estimate about the earnings of a credit-card company with the launching of a new
scheme.Did well,but the next question about how a change in one of the variables would affect profit,was ill-
explained.Realised I had become over-confident about solving the guess-estimate easily and hence messed up the second
part.
Most importantly,at one point during a casual conversation with the friendly interviewer,I let slip that my first interview
was with BCG.I think that was uncalled for and raised the bar of his expectations and might have even seemed slightly
boastful. Something any sensible candidate should avoid.
I was never very keen on Capital one,and so they weren't keen on me either :) .Good Chemistry,but no job offer!
Company 3:
Never attended interviews of Lehman or Shell,because my interests primarily lay in Consulting and related fields like
analytics.
Your key learning from these experiences? What mistakes did you commit?

CASE SPECIFIC mistakes: Needed more structure…Instead of opening up ‘n’ dimensions to a case,explore the few key
ones
rigorously. Don’t be messy on paper. Read the interviewer’s demeanor and play along accordingly.Drive forward your
point in
an assertive fashion. Modesty or politeness is secondary.At no point during solving the case should you panic and let the
logical
flow of thought go astray. This is very vital.Sometimes solutions are reached very fast.That does not mean the case is
over,there
may be other aspects you have to look for.
Never drop your guard during seemingly-casual conversations or let slip unnecessary/unflattering details.
General Tips
Overall, any particular mistake that you committed during the whole process?
Nervousness leading to loss of ability to think clearly.
A not-so-organized way of writing down details during solving a case.
The back of the mind notion that it is either this company or “My life is doomed !”
Any key tips for interview-day, viz. dressing, etiquette… ?
Dressing-suiting up with good formal shoes is a confidence builder. This goes with a decent looking folder with only
required papers and a pen.More important is wearing a confident look, keeping a not-too-rigid face and talking
impressively.
The rest should hopefully fall in place and help one get placed in the dream company !
Did you apply off-campus? Where? What was the procedure? Any memories?

Did not apply off-campus and hence made no memories !