Candidate-Experiences |   5002

Candidate-Experiences

Hi Friends,
 
I am Arindam Banerjee from College of Engineering & Management, Kolaghat. CTS came to our campus on 7th Jan, 2011. The recruitment process had two parts:
 
1.Written Test ( pen and paper)
2.Interview (Technical and HR together)
 
At around 9:30 am the ppt began. Cognizant HR Manager Mr. Nilanshu Ghosh gave a presentation on Cognizant, and after that we were send for the written test. Cut-off for the written was not disclosed. There was no negative marking.
 
About 280 candidates appeared for the written. Before the start of the test, we were given 20 mins to fill up a form. After filling it, it became a complete CV. It had questions like 10th marks, 12th marks, SGPA. We were asked about our Software proficiency, our hobbies, strength & weaknesses, what do we have in us that will help us in the IT industry, what do we expect from Cognizant, etc. This form was attached with our answer sheet.
 
The written test started at 11:00 am. It had 2 parts:

1. Analytical: 30 questions (30 mins).

It contained Syllogisms, Data Interpretation, Data sufficiency, Coding-Decoding, Next Figure in the series, Puzzles. More or less it was the same kind as given in Freshersworld.com do R.S. Aggarwal (Logical) thoroughly. Questions were very easy, so don’t worry about the cut-off. Keep your cool and do as much as possible. It’s safe if you do more than 20.

2. English: 25 questions (30 mins).

It had 2 passages (1 short, and another long). They were worth reading, because the questions were very simple and direct. Other questions were: Finding the correct and incorrect sentences, finding the incorrect part of a sentence, arranging a group of sentences in an order so that they have a meaning. Overall it was an average English paper.

Be careful guys. Don’t let the invigilator have any misunderstanding about your fairness in the written paper. If they even suspect someone of cheating, they will cancel his/her paper and will not even let him/her know about it. In our college, 25 candidates were disqualified because of suspicion. So its better to stick your eyes to the paper and not even look anywhere during the 60 mins. You will not have a second chance, and nobody to complain.

At 2:00 pm our results were declared. 198 candidates cleared the written. there was 28 panels interviewing simultaneously. Each panel had 6 to 7 candidates for interview. Though my name was the second in the list in my panel, I was send first. The HR was a man in the late 30s or early 40s.

 
I: May I come in Sir.
HR: Yes come in.

I: Good Afternoon Sir.

HR: Good Afternoon. Sit down. What is your name?

I: Arindam Banerjee Sir.

He was having my answer sheet and my form with him, and he searched it out from a bunch of forms. He was now seeing it thoroughly. Since he didnot ask my CV, I wondered whether I should give it to him myself.

Before I could decide that, he asked me his next question:
 
HR: Ok Mr. Banerjee, Tell me about yourself?
I: Told. (Place of birth, Schools name, 10th and 12th Exam board, 10th and 12th %, B.Tech CGPA till now, hobbies, strengths, Role Model). I said my Father is my role model.

HR: What does your father do?

I: Told.

HR: What does your mother do? Do you have any sibling? What does she do?

I: Told.

HR: So you live in Burdwan?

I: No Sir. I live in Birbhum.

HR: What is your stream? It is written CSE here. What is full form of CSE?

I: Computer science & Engineering Sir.

HR: What are the subjects that you know?

I: C and Data Structure.

HR: But you have written only C in this form. (In the Software Proficiency column).

I: Actually Sir, the invigilator guided us to write only the languages we know. Since Data Structure is not a language, so.

HR: You should have written it. Write it now.

He gave me the form, and I added data structure.

HR: You know any OS?

I: Yes sir. Windows-XP and Linux (debian).
 
HR: Add them to your form.
I added.

HR: Do you know SRO-Linux or Oracle-Linux?

I: No Sir. Sorry Sir I never heard about it.
 
HR: In which file is the entire user data stored in Linux?
I: Told.
 
HR: What is the command to find out all the running processes?
I: Told.
 
HR: Are you sure?
I: Yes Sir. (Actually I was not sure at all).
 
HR: Do you know RDBMS?

I: Yes Sir. I know Oracle-8.

HR: Add it to ur form

I added.

HR: What other languages do you know?

I: I know C++ and Java Sir.

HR:  Add it to your form

I: Sorry Sir I am not so confident in that.

I did not add it.

HR: You are confident in C?

I: Yes Sir.

HR: Sure.

I: Yes Sir.
 
HR: Write the program structure of a simple C program.
He handed me a paper, and I wrote in it. He also gave me 2 SQL queries. I could not do the second one.
 
HR: What is an array?
I: Told. Array is a linear Datastucture.
 
HR: What is Data Structure?
I: Told.
 
HR: What is Linked List?
I: Told. I also mentioned doubly Linked List.
 
HR: What are Indexes?
I: Could not answer it accurately. I said they are used to point to different cells in an array. He said me the correct answer.

HR: What is your project?

I wanted to give him my project report, but he said he only wants to hear about it. I explained my project.

My project was based on Video Compression.

HR: (After listening). There are many algorithms on Video Compression. What is special in your project?

I: Told.
 
HR: Why Cognizant?
I: Told.

HR: Can you relocate anywhere?

I: Yes Sir. (Told that I love travelling, and my father had a Transferable job, so).

HR: Ok Mr. Banerjee. That’s all. You may go now.

I: Thank you Sir. (And I left).
 
I had a feeling that my interview was disastrous. My Voice was shaking, and I am very weak in Technical.
 
My Spoken English is not good either.
 
At 7:00 pm Cognizant HR Manager made an announcement that 109 candidates have been selected. He said that CTS has created history in Kolaghat, because no company have ever recruited such a large number ever before. It was getting cold in the evening, and everybody was tensed. My name was called out, and I could not believe I got selected in spite of such a bad interview. Actually I was more than happy.

I would like to thank God, my Parents, my dear Sister, and all my dear friends.

My advice is keep yourself calm and try not to get tensed the whole day. We had an Infosys on campus the previous day, and I made a terrible mess of my Infosys aptitude paper by getting tensed in it. Don't do such things. Pray to God.

All the best, and Hope to see you all in CTS.

 
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