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CTS Interview Experience
Hi friends,
I am sharing my CTS experience here.My interview was only about *Communication Skills*
Round 1
1. Online Apptitude:
There were around 800-1000 candidates to write online apptitude through amcat on 21st jan at SKIT college bangalore.We wrote online apptitude and waited for 15 days to get the call letter for the next round.
Round 2
Face to face rounds:
My interview was scheduled at Manyata tech park cognizant office. I was not even asked a single question on Technical, the only thing that they concenterated was on communication skills.
1. First Round:
There were about 450 candidates in the first batch(9 a.m) waiting for the interview,after verification of our documents(all documents mentioned in interview call letter are mandatory) they took us to a Hall where there were 15 interviewers taking interview to 15 different candidates,this round was just a formality they just wanted to check whether the candidate is aware of the job profile or not. Since the profile was IT-IS they explained about the job profile, they said there is no scope for programming in this job.You might never get a chance to switch your profile or you may get a chance.You may have to work in service desk for the next 1 and half or 2 years. Do you have any problems working on night shifts and relocation.After explaining all these they asked whether i was interested to work on this job and agree to their terms and conditions.They also asked questions like
Why cognizant?
Why dont you go into development?
Where do you see yourself in next 3 to 5 years?
2. Second Round:
Around 150 to 200 candidates got selected to second round. I was taken to a room where there were 2 interviewers interviewing 2 different candidates,the interviewer asked me to take my seat and introduced himself. He asked me whether i was aware of this job profile? he said me he was not going to ask any questions related to technical and he wanted only communication skills.He asked me to introduce myself, tell me about my academics, my family background, my positive strengths and my achievements.
Later he asked me to explain about my project.The next question almost took this job away from me, he asked me how much will you rate yourself for 1-5 in communications.I said 3.5 sir.Then he said 3.5 is neutral, are you neutral in communications? now I was confused whether to change my answer or stick to it.I decided to say yes sir I am neutral.Then immediately he started saying sorry I am not looking for a neutral communication candidate I am not going to select you.I lost myself and started saying "sir I am confident that I would improve myself in communications and I am working on it".
Interviewer : Ok then what are you doing to improve your communication skills?
Me : Sir I am taking mock interviews in my institute and reading blogs etc.
Interviewer : "Any questions for me?"
Me : "How was my interview sir?"
Interviewer : "It was good, but you are not confident about yourself.You think if you rate yourself as 4-
4.5 you will be asked more number of questions.You have to be confident about yourself, when you are confident about yourself then you can answer any number of questions we ask."
Me : Ok sir.
Interviewer : "Since I had a good conversation with you I am sending you for the next round"
Me : Thank you sir..
3. Third Round:
As soon as I finished my 2nd round. I was sent to one more interviewer in the same room.She asked me to take my seat and said "you might have been got bored by introducing yourself by now but sorry you need to introduce yourself again".She started asking typical HR round questions like why cognizant?, If you are given 10 lakh rupees and asked to spend it in on the same day, what would you do? , How would your expertise help our project? , Ppositive strengths?
Me: My strength is being friendly and easily adptable to all kinds of environments..
HR : Started giving me a scenario and asked me how would you deal with it?.The scenario was "there are different kinds of peoples. One like to talk less and someother like to talk more, how would you handle such persons?,if you get a guy who doesnt like to speak then how will you manage with him?"
me: i said first i would like to observe him, i would like to know about his intrests and based on that i will make my move with him..
HR: She asked me to wait outside and greeted me.
Ddocument Submission: After waiting for almost 2 hours finally HR called me (it was 6:30pm and i was tierd without having breakfast and lunch) and i was asked to submit my photocopies. He asked me whether I was aware of the job profile and had any problems on relocations and shifts?
Me: I said I was ok with all their terms and conditions.
HR : After looking into my documents he said "you can leave for the day, we will get back to you if you are shortlisted". Got an onboarding mail from them after 4 days and I was selected.There were only around 5-10 candidates who submitted their documents.
Friendly suggestions:
1. Pplease dont be nervous or dont have interview conciousness in your mind. You can never do well if you have these two in mind, please try to be as calm as you can.
2. Please be confident about yourself and your answers,at the same time please dont be over confident also.
3. Please dont be afraid of communication rounds even if you are not good at it. According to me communication is not just speaking with good accent or using hi-fi english phrases,they are just a part of communication.Communication is something like how well you manage to make a person understand or how well you present your views to person. so just dont worry if your accent is not so good, just try to make the interviewer understand whatever you are going to say.
4. 90% of the time all the questions will be based on your resume so be prepared for that.Similarly your answers to previous questions of the interviewer can always give rise to the next question.
For example: I said my positive strength is being friendly and easily adaptable to all kinds of environments, so my interviewer started asking me how? Can you explain me?. So be prepared to such type of questions also.
5. Never compare yourself with anybody, always and only compare yourself between yesterday and today. just try to keep improving yourself from yesterday to today. By watching your own improvement you also start feeling happy instead of feeling depressed by comparing yourself with someone who got a job.
I hope this post was useful. Thank you, All the best .....
