Interview Workshop

1 year
st

Summers Prep

Private & Confidential September 20

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 Workshop Format
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• We go question by question and you formulate the answers

• Only your own language – No copy paste job

• Understand you are not writing this, you are speaking this

– Be conversational in your answer

• Build a story

• Without deep thinking, you are only wasting time

• Be relevant and contextual

Private & Confidential September 20

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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF

Private & Confidential September 20

Tell me about yourself
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• Ice breaker, something when interviewer is reading resume

• No need of out of the box or different answers
• Direct the interviewer’s attention to things you want to discuss
– Best way to set the question paper
• It is ok to speak about things on your resume
– Unlikely that interviewer has read your CV
– Go off resume only when asked to do so

Private & Confidential September 20

Tell me about yourself
To Include To Avoid
• Talk where are you from • Strength & Personality Trait
• Educational Qualification - Start from your graduation (no • Family detail
need to cover schooling etc) • Mention ONLY if the recruiter asks
• Talk about extra-currics, competitions, events etc done at • Too long answer & Too much detail
this stage which maybe relevant for the role applied
• Don’t say myself <your name>/ this side
• Work Experience - Cover your work experience briefly.
Cover the business context (if applicable)
• Talk about MBA and your particular area of interest like
Finance, Marketing, Operations, Consulting, etc. NOTE
– You can talk about particular areas under this to attract recruiter’s • This is not a fill in the blanks
attention and follow up questions
• It is a broad framework telling you what all
• Talk about UG internships
needs to be covered
• Cover 1-2 academic project you did in MBA (if you have) • Craft it the way you are comfortable
• Relevant certifications
• Talk about POR/ extra curricular/Hobby that you are really
good at
Lets look at some
examples
Private & Confidential September 20
Introduce Yourself – Work Ex
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• If you are being interviewed for Finance Internship

I am from Surat in Gujarat.

I completed my engineering from NIT Warangal in Electronics and communication. During my 3rd year I was treasury team of college
annual fest. The overall budget was more over a crore for the 10 day event. I played key role in planning and budgeting the spend on
each activity and also kept continuous communication going on with sponsorship team to ensure we have enough funds raised for the
event.

I joined TCS where I was part of 60 member team responsible for development and maintenance of mobile and web app for 3 major
US BFSI clients. I worked for 3 years before moving on to do my MBA from Management College of India.

I am interested in Finance and particularly in Investment banking and corporate finance.

I am currently working on 2 projects in equity research - one being valuation for Bajaj Auto stock and the other to analyze potential
investment opportunities in telecom stocks. I just joined FLIP certification to improve my core finance knowledge.

At college I am also part of Finance Club which organises events every month to enhance the knowledge of batch in financial concepts

What additional questions will come

TCS, TCS business (BFSI especially), mobile and web apps in banking context, investment banking, corporate finance, Axis Bank, ALM,
equity research, Bajaj Auto, auto sector, telecom stocks and sector, core finance concepts
Private & Confidential September 20
Introduce Yourself – Fresher Example
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• If you are being interviewed for Marketing Internship

I am from Chandigarh where I also did my engineering from Panjab University. During my engineering I
was always very active in extra curricular activities. I was lead organizer of College Annual Fest for 2 years
in a row. I was recognized by my college for significant jump in total sponsorships and participations.

Currently I am pursuing my MBA from Management Institute of India with an inclination towards
Marketing

I am currently working on a Live project with a Bangalore based startup to design their distribution
channel in North India for yet to be launched low carb healthy snacks.

I have been an active participant with Parikrama Foundation, an NGO supporting children from
marginalized families, where I organized multiple roadshows in several parts of Bangalore to raise funds. I
also teach Maths and Social Studies weekly at the foundation. I also tied up with 5 large colleges who
send their students to teach various subjects at the foundation.

Cross Questions: Live project, snack market, distribution channels, sponsorships, why marketing, Parikrama, Its model

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Let’s redo our answers now: 2 minutes

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF

Private & Confidential September 20

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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ABOUT YOUR UG INTERNSHIP

Private & Confidential September 20

Talk about UG internship
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• Cover the business context : how you helped company at a high level
• Focus on specific things you did and how did that help the company
• Explain clearly the project outcome and recommendations you had
• Talk about achievements like you saved cost, you acquired clients, you found new opportunities
– As you get deeper into the discussion, it is ok to talk about key learnings from the project

• Interviewer wants detail now, this answer can be long to explain all parts of project

Expect a lot of cross questions in these areas, definitely beyond the scope of project
• How big is the industry/sector in which your company is operating, who are the top players and
how your company is ranked
• What are some key industry dynamics which are going to fuel the growth, what is the future
trend

Private & Confidential September 20

UG Internship - Example
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• If you interned at Mundra Thermal Power Station, Kutch

My first corporate exposure was during my internship at the Mundra Thermal Power Plant in Kutch. It is
nearly 5GW power generation capacity plant, the 2nd largest in India. It is operated by Adani power.

It was 3 month internship. I spent the first month in familiarizing the way the plant works and the different
sections. Then I got involved in some analytics projects. I was involved in checking the aggregate losses in
transmission from the plant to the various sub-stations which further distribute the power.

I used the data from the output of the plant and the input to the sub-stations (around 400 of them) to
assess this impact. Since generation, transmission and distribution are separate businesses, there are
financial implications of these losses. Based on my granular analyses, I was asked to work on what the
pricing per unit should be so that the losses can be accounted for.

What additional questions will come

Power sector in India, capacity, different types of power generation, power generation cost, what analysis you did, power value chain etc.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This is what you also use for answering/explaining one of your
internships, academic or live projects if asked. Scope of project may be much shorter
however answer has to be structured like this and one must be prepared to answer
following questions. In your final interview workbook, you must have a structured
answer like this for all the projects written in resume

Let’s redo our answers: 2 minutes

EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ABOUT YOUR INTERNSHIP

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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ABOUT YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE

Private & Confidential September 20

Talk about your work experience
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• Cover the business context : how you helped company at a high level

• Focus on specific things you did and what kind of business impact it had or expected to had

• Talk about some achievements like you got awarded or you saved cost or you acquired so many new clients or you
improved certain process

• Talk from a business point of view, avoid giving too technical details unless asked for. You need to showcase your
business/ commercial/ customer orientation and not be limited to your technical contribution

• Interviewer wants detail now, this answer can be long so do not hesitate to deep-dive in your work ex
• Use brief pauses once you move from one part/project/aspect to other in case interviewer wants to delve further
deep into one of these

Expect a lot of cross questions in these areas - definitely beyond the scope of work and focusing on
business/ commercial/ customer side
• How big is the industry/sector in which your company is operating, who are the top players and how your company
is ranked

• What are some key industry dynamics which are going to fuel the growth, what is the future trend

Private & Confidential September 20

Work Experience – Tech Example
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• If you worked in Accenture as a Software engineer

During my 30 months stint at Accenture, I was staffed as part of a Level 2 IT Support team for a leading US based Insurance
Company. We were supporting the claim initiation module for the company. Insurance is a big business in the US and our client
had a customer facing portal for initiating claims. On an average, 12,000 claims would be generated a day – an average of 8
claims a minute or 1 every 8 seconds. Since this was in the auto space, it was a very intensive and busy business.

As part of the support team, I worked on Mainframe based database to strategically locate pertinent customer data to resolve
client tickets/incidents. Over my tenure, I worked on more than 2000 tickets/incidents reported by clients and updated the
resolution in ServiceNow Platform for future reference and implementation. I understood the complex linkages between the
claim initiated and the various policy parameters in the back-end. I also realized how the changing policy in the insurance space
required constant upgradation of the business rules that need to be run in the background to reply to claims that are initiated.

As part of the knowledge management activity, I created, reviewed and updated articles related to new changes in the US
Insurance regulations in ServiceNow Platform for future reference and implementation. I was also tasked to educate and train
client business users, the ones providing support to claims calls, onshore on how to navigate Support Agent Gateway and
Services Application to manage the claims better. This gave a great insight into how insurance works and the workflow in the
background from claims initiation to settlement

What additional questions will come

US insurance, auto insurance, claims management, questions on volume of business, Service Now, Mainframe, customer data, policy
parameters, insurance policy changes, business rules, initiation to settlement, where does IT help in this

Private & Confidential September 20

Work Experience – Finance Example
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• If you worked in Wells Fargo India solutions as an associate financial analyst

I worked in Wells Fargo’s Hyderabad office as part of their KPO supporting the mortgage business in USA. Wells
Fargo’s mortgage business is about $100 bn in asset value. As part of the operations outsourcing to India, I was part
of the team that handled mortgage renewal applications by our commercial customers. I was required to do
attribution of financial documents, weighted average rent (WAR) analysis and market rent comparisons. I analyzed
financial statements to compute debt-service coverage ratio. Using this data, I was required to identify triggers in
commercial mortgage servicing, called CMS, loans with regards to loan agreements and deed of trust. I
recommended approval/rejection of a lease based on the financial impact of the lease on borrower’s cash flows
As a part of process efficiency, I proposed and developed best practices for efficient time management saving
approximately $50,000 p.a For this I was recognized as “Wells Champion”, the highest award in Wells Fargo, in May
2017 for Q2 2017. I have also received “Achieving Excellence” Award in March 2017 for Q1 2017 & have been
recognized as “The Riser” for efficiency and performance in January 2017.
Based on my subject knowledge I have published an article on Foreclosures and Forbearance in HIVE-XIV edition, an
insider magazine of Wells Fargo. I completed Campus MBA module in Commercial Mortgage Servicing (CMS) domain
in Wells Fargo.
What additional questions will come
Wells Fargo, outsourcing, KPO, mortgage business, commercial mortgage, FSA, DSCR, WAR, rent comparisons, process of mortgage, how
IT helps in this, how can you automate, impact of lease on customer, what is the process efficiency, can you automate, Foreclosures and
Forbearance, Commercial Mortgage Servicing
Private & Confidential September 20
Work Experience – HR Example
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• If you worked in Accenture as a Software engineer

During my 30 months stint at Accenture, I was staffed as part of a Level 2 IT Support team for a leading US based Insurance Company. We
were supporting the claim initiation module for the company. Insurance is a big business in the US and our client had a customer facing
portal for initiating claims. On an average, 12,000 claims would be generated a day – an average of 8 claims a minute or 1 every 8 seconds.
Since this was in the auto space, it was a very intensive and busy business.

As part of the support team, I worked on Mainframe based database to strategically locate pertinent customer data to resolve client
tickets/incidents. Over my tenure, I worked on more than 2000 tickets/incidents reported by clients and updated the resolution in
ServiceNow Platform for future reference and implementation. I understood the complex linkages between the claim initiated and the
various policy parameters in the back-end. I also realized how the changing policy in the insurance space required constant upgradation of
the business rules that need to be run in the background to reply to claims that are initiated.

As part of the knowledge management activity, I created, reviewed and updated articles related to new changes in the US Insurance
regulations in ServiceNow Platform for future reference and implementation

Additionally, I was deeply involved in employee engagement activities. Since I was young and friends with a lot of my DC members, I was
selected to work with the HR to organize team offsites. The HRs were very appreciative of my work since I was able to suggest popular
places and also come up with fun team building ideas. This led to me being involved in managing the client’s visit to our DC which went on
very well.

What additional questions will come

US insurance, auto insurance, claims management, questions on volume of business, Service Now, Mainframe, customer data, policy
parameters, insurance policy changes, business rules, initiation to settlement, where does IT help in this, knowledge management,
employee engagement
Private & Confidential September 20
Work Experience – Sales Example
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• If you worked as Sr Sales Executive with Birla Sun Life Insurance

I was part of a large direct sales team of 600 in Delhi NCR responsible to increase penetration of life insurance products in the
market. Individually I had three targets to meet on a month to month basis – number of meetings, volume wise sales and value
wise sales. Other than this, I was also supposed to handhold 4 newly joined sales executive in driving sales through them.

I followed a strict discipline to ensure I met all the targets assigned to me. I realized BSL’s premium were lowest among the
competition in 25-40 age group and thus I decided to target this segment as it would be easier to convince them. I used to meet
at least 4-5 new prospects everyday to create a large sales funnel at the end of the month. I made it a point to collect on an
average of at least 1 reference in the same segment from every prospect I met to develop a large list of future prospects. My
meeting was focused on a long term financial planning aiming at meeting goals like child’s education, marriage, retirement, etc.
I used to profile my every prospect clearly by understanding their financial milestones which helped me to offer highly
customized solution achieve better conversion than rest in my team.

I was consistently meeting 100+ new prospects every month which started giving outstanding sales conversions from 3rd month
onwards of my joining. In the 3 years tenure, I was consistently overachieving my sales targets, both volume and value, by at
least 50%. While I joined as sales executive, I was promoted to sr sales executive in just 18 months time and given additional
responsibility of 4 new sales executive. During this tenure in direct sales, I have developed a large network of influential people I
met as prospects. My Linkedin boasts of about 1000+ direct contacts whom I have personally met in the past. My clients from
past still reach out to me for professional and personal advice and vice versa.

What additional questions will come

About insurance sector, financial planning, sales funnel, sales process, team management, segmentation, customer profiling

Private & Confidential September 20

Work Experience – Operations Example
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• If you worked at L&T in maintenance and operations

I was posted at L&T’s boiler manufacturing plant in Vadodara. The plant manufactures boilers that used in power plants,
submarines and aircraft carriers all over the world. The plant has a capacity of 10,000 boilers a month. Given the scale, we also
have a captive power unit in the plant

Apart from routine operations and maintenance, I was involved in production planning & strategy. We used the order pipeline
to understand delivery schedule and create the production plan accounting for any delays in the process due to import
dependencies. It gave me great insight into overall supply chain and how any stage can affect the entire business.

For example, there is a fuel combustion additive that comes from China. This is a very important input into the coal based power
plant. The efficiency of the plant depends on this additive. It is produced using propriety technology by only 3 players and we
import from all 3 players to de-risk supply chain. Insufficient amount can cause complete shutdown or severe losses due to more
fuel requirement. I had to do scenario analysis using cost, lead time and quality parameters to see how we can further de risk
this part of the supply chain.

Additionally, Accenture was implementing JDA software for operations and supply chain management. I was appointed the
SPOC for working with Accenture and I understood the digital transformation frameworks they were using. I also saw the great
role that analytics plays in all operations transformation that is happening around the world.

I have been involved in CSR and mentoring the incoming team members.
What additional questions will come
Cross Questions – L&T business? boiler division numbers? How large in the power plant? Deep dive into how production planning
happens? JDA & its use and substitutes? Digital transformation by Accenture? Role as SPOC? CSR? Mentoring? Supply chain of L&T?
Imports? COVID implication on boiler division planning? Analytics? De-risking supply chain?
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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

WHAT IS YOUR AREA OF INTEREST

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Area of Interest
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• This question may or may not be directly asked

– However, if you bring it up in “Tell me about yourself”, you may earn some brownie points
by answering many questions here
• Idea is to drive interviewer’s attention to things you are good at
– Mention subjects/electives/roles relevant to the job applied – stuff that you are really
liking in Term 1&2
• Example areas that can be highlighted:
– Finance: Equity Research, Investment Banking, Financial Analysis, Risk Management, Corporate Finance
– Marketing: FMCG, B2B Sales, Digital marketing, Product Management, General Management, BFSI Sales,
Consumer Behavior
– Consulting: Technology Consulting, Analytics, Pre-Sales, Product Management, Project Management
– Operations: Operations Consulting, Supply Chain Management, General Management, Service Operations
– HR: L&D, HRG, TA, Comp and Ben, Employee Engagement, Performance Management

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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

WHY MBA OR WHY SPECIALIZATION

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Why MBA or why this specialization
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• Follow a Situation-Motivation-Action approach

• Situation – An extremely personal instance which Motivated you: An experience
from past
1. when you felt you know it but you have to excel to make a successful career
2. which led to new interest in one of the domains
3. where you felt lack of domain knowledge
– NOTE: Only specific personal instance should be shared, no generic statements
• Solution – Highlight aspect of MBA/domain which will help you overcome above
• Avoid dual specialisation, generic/vague answer, money, hot jobs, trends,
opportunities, family pressure, etc
Lets look at some
Private & Confidential September 20 examples
Why MBA - Finance
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• I used to spend time reading about various financial instruments available for investment. As a habit, I used to refer to
advice given by various top investors in financial edition of news dailies. I informally advised my friends and family on
what investments to make from my reading and knowledge gained. To my surprise, they came back to me asking for
more because earlier advice paid off. I was able to give them accurate advice as per their requirements and I realized I
am able to evaluate various investment options as well. I spoke to couple of my contacts who suggested me to pursue
MBA in Finance for a quick entry into the world of Finance Careers. [EXCEL]

• While doing statutory audits, I would often come across merger of balance sheets and financial statements due to
M&A activity taking place. In the case of audit of an e-commerce company acquiring a hyper local delivery company, I
had to talk to the M&A team at Deloitte to understand some of the nuances. I consulted with my contacts in the
finance industry and basis their journey realized the MBA in finance will be a great next step in my career[NEW
INTEREST]

• As part of my experience in IT, I was once asked to be part of a project proposal to build out a new custom application
for billing system of a telecom client. As one of the pre-sales managers was ill and could not be present, I was asked
to play a larger role. To my anguish, I realized that I simply could not understand the financial aspects of the proposal.
On greater reading, I realized what all the finance world has to offer and hence decided to do an MBA in finance.
[LACK OF KNOWLEDGE]

Private & Confidential September 20

Why MBA - HR
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• Though I was doing digital marketing, given my interpersonal skills and ability to mentor new joinees, I was given a
chance to work with L&D function. Though I was initially doing technical trainings, I shadowed my other L&D
colleagues and even filled in for them for other soft skills trainings. Gradually, I became the point of contact in
business for L&D. This got me interested in L&D and gave me the confidence that I should do MBA in HR. [EXCEL]

• I have always volunteered and worked with NGOs. In my work with Teach for India, I grew my responsibilities to
include volunteer management. I groomed over 200 volunteers in 2 years and always ensured they were motivated
and performed their obligations well. This sparked an interest in the area of human resource management and hence
I decided to pursue an MBA [NEW INTEREST]

• While working in Accenture, there was a time when the my project lead assigned me to the Resource Management
Group. I was to provide them with information which would help us get the resources required for the project. I was
struggling to convert the overall scope of the project into the resources required in terms on number, skill, seniority
etc. I was in awe of the work they were doing but found that I have no skills or understanding to do this work. Hence I
decided to do an MBA in HR to skills myself for a career in HR [LACK OF KNOWLEDGE]

Private & Confidential September 20

Why MBA - Marketing
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• I was given the task of marketing our Annual College Fest in 2017. Core job was to attract at least 5,000 students with an entry
fee of Rs 200 from other colleges in Bangalore. I was working with a team of 20 students from my department. We devised an
offline – online combination of communication accompanied by teaser campaigns. We signed up with a local radio channel to
spread the word. Additionally, I convinced everyone in the team to take responsibility of one college and do multiple
promotional events there to sell our fest tickets. We ended up with over 7,000 participants in the event. That is when I realised I
have a flair for Marketing and I joined this MBA program. [EXCEL]

• As an IT guy, I used to interact with presales and BD team once in a while. I started spending more time with 2-3 people from the
team because I was developing interest in their discussions. Presales guys used to gather lot of project related information from
us while writing proposal for new clients. For one such proposal, I was deeply involved from our team in providing requisite
information which happened to be the winning bid. This really got me interested in sales and marketing however switch was not
easy. I also realised the guys I used to interact had much better understanding of business than me. And hence, I decided to
pursue MBA [NEW INTEREST]

• As a sales guy, my job was very methodical with absolutely no room for any innovation. Moreover the company I used to work
had very clear mandate to not distract sales guys by giving any additional task beyond the rulebook given to us. I was posted in
North Karnataka with limited exposure to marketing aspect. With new Sales Head in the company, some of the rules changed
and we were asked to increase market share of company from current 20% to 30% in next 2 years. During my territory’s
discussion, I could not understand most of the things spoken by senior managers. In the following months, I started losing
interest in my job. When I spoke about this with my elder brother, he told me I needed a formal education in Marketing to
handle this better and so I joined this MBA program [LACK OF KNOWLEDGE]

Private & Confidential September 20

Why MBA - Operations
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• As part of my digital transformation SPOC responsibility at Accenture, I had the opportunity to work closely with
consultants. I was very impressed with their problem solving skills and approach to various situations. Their ability to
see our supply chain as a part of a large business workflow and determine inter-dependencies was very exciting since
I was not too exposed to so many facets of business. I surprised myself and my manager with the ease with which I
took to the consulting domain and was appreciated by the Accenture team for making their assignment efficient and
precise. This role seemed very attractive and hence the MBA was the next logical thing to do [EXCEL]

• I am good with numbers and analytical reasoning. As part of my academic project to suggest new routing algorithms
for UPS parcel services, I was exposed to the world of logistics and route planning. This got me very interested in this
area and I decided to pursue MBA in Operations for a similar career. [NEW INTEREST]

• I used to help my father in his auto ancillary business where he needed my help in effectively managing inventory for
both raw materials and finished goods. We had a lot of import and export transactions as well. Even with my best
effort, I was unable to streamline the production process from inventory point of view. That is when I decided to
pursue MBA in operations to learn it in-depth [LACK OF KNOWLEDGE]
Why MBA – Tech
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• As part of my work in Veritas, while QA was the primary focus, the onsite opportunity gave me exposure to areas like
client engagement, consulting and pre-sales. I helped the onsite team work on a new proposal to automate the
testing activities for the client and this RPA proposal bagged a contract worth 20% of current account value. My key
role was see how RPA would fit into the system and integrate with other application testing that was happening. This
gave me confidence that I can be good at consulting and hence post my break , decide to pursue my MBA so that I
can get into consulting and pre-sales. [EXCEL]

• During my work with FMCG client in US, I had a chance to interact with product managers from competitors products.
While we were offering bespoke consulting and IT services, the Adobe team had product customizations that they
were offering for cheaper and faster implementations, This got me interested in product management but I realized I
need to study more and hence I decided to do my MBA, post my break so that I can look for opportunities in product
management. [NEW INTEREST]

• At one point in my work experience, I was asked to step up to the play the role of senior business analyst where I had
to deal with client requests independently. I felt that I was not upto the job and could not satisfactorily complete the
tasks needed to convert the insurance enrolment application automatic KYC module into technical requirements.
Hence I felt I should upskill and decided to do an MBA [LACK OF KNOWLEDGE]

Private & Confidential September 20

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Let’s redo our answers: 1 minute

WHY MBA OR WHY SPECIALIZATION

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Let’s have a few examples from the batch

WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS

Private & Confidential September 20

What are your strengths
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• Avoid hygiene like communication, honesty, punctuality, team work, etc

• DO NOT limit to behavioral – strength is a loose word for expertise, skills, talents etc.
• Be relevant to the Job applied/Role being interviewed for
• Display your strengths with an example. Just saying team-work is too bland an answer
– Past examples should be meaningful and substantial. Avoid too personal examples

– Follow rule: "Situation – Action – Result"

• Talk about personality strengths like diligence, planning, problem solving (innovative), analytical
thinking, training, managing people, interpersonal skills, negotiation
• Talk about technical skills like a SPSS, SAS, big data, project management tools, social media tools,
photoshop, statistical analysis, analytics algorithms, excel modelling, number crunching
• Talk about business skills like market research, financial analysis, selling skills, supply chain planning,
valuation, go to market, financial modelling, report writing
Lets look at some
Private & Confidential September 20 examples
Strengths - Example
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• If you are being interviewed for ratings analyst in CARE ratings

I have very good attention to detail and ability to read between the lines. In my tenure in
Deloitte, we were auditing the revenue recognition process of a large IT services company. As
part of this audit, I realized that revenue was being recognized on the basis of PO – which does
not make sense for multi year contracts. Also, in about 30% of cases, revenue was changed due
to changes to PO and scope renegotiation. I recommended an invoice based revenue recognition
system which was more realistic and accounted to multi-year, changing contract value scenarios

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20

Strengths - Example
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• If you are being interviewed for operations at Nilkamal

I have very good analytical ability and optimization techniques. In my tenure in L&T, we were
doing a process to reduce the risk posed by a key additive into our power plant. This specialized
additive had 3 suppliers – China, US and Australia. Each of these had their own strengths as far
as quality, cost and lead times were concerned. We had a standard bin order with them which
was resulting in excess stock or less than required buffer stock. I used a linear optimization
algorithm in Python, accounting for expected demand and parameters of lead time, quality and
price. The algorithm produced a new schedule of monthly orders taking into account variability
in our demand and optimized the stock we have in hand, reducing overall inventory cost by 15%

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20

Strengths - Example
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• If you are being interviewed for marketing at Lemon Tree

I have very good analytical skills and great consumer orientation. In my tenure in Leela Group,
we often faced a challenge to identify why customers did not return to Leela in spite of great
service and food at our properties. We were always analyzing why people left. I came up with
the idea that we should look at profiles of people who keep coming back. When we did data
visualization on this, some great trends emerged in terms of level of employment, nationality,
airline flown, class of room booked. Basis this, we are able to tailor our campaigns at look alike
profiles like this, increasing the return rate in our customer base, the following months

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20

Strengths - Example
35

• If you are being interviewed for HR Analyst in TCS

I have very good people management and motivation skills. During my college days, I was part
of the fund raising team for the college cultural fest. We needed a 20% higher budget that year
and few of previous year’s sponsors had pulled out. Nobody wanted to take on this job as it
seemed very daunting. I made it my mandate to convince my team members that this has to be
done. I told them the importance of this fest to our college and its prestige. I also showcased to
them the benefit of talking to corporates and the network it would build for them. Based on the
individuals discussions that I had with the team members, I identified a smaller subset of people
who could be more capable of getting us sponsorship. Using this, we were as a team be able to
raise 25% more money than last year.

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20
Strengths - Example
36

• If you are being interviewed for Business Analyst at HSBC

I have very good process excellence and business modeling skills. As part of my work experience
in Quess, I was involved in over 15 Kaizen projects. As a case in point, we had to streamline the
order processing stage to making manpower planning more accurate and real time. I did a deep
dive into past orders that had issues and conducted pareto analysis on the causes of issues. I
suggested using a drop down of skill inventory for the client placing the order, which reduced the
mistakes in mapping skill required by the client. This improved planning accuracy (immediate
and downstream hiring) and CSAT went up from 85% to 93%

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20

Why should I select you
37

• Focus on what is the exact job profile

• Understand the skills required to perform them
• Find out similar skills in you

Private & Confidential September 20

Example - Why should I hire you
38

• If you are interviewed for consulting role in KPMG

I have good analytical skills and have hands on experience in audit and process management.
Given that I have audited over 35 clients and have vast exposure to different business functions,
my expertise in this area will be very useful for solving problems for clients. Along with this, my
knowledge in blockchain and IoT will come in very handy for various fintech projects KPMG
undertakes. I have completed certifications & also have developed use cases for financial
services companies in both. With these skills, I am sure I would prove useful for the company

Private & Confidential September 20

Why this company
39

• Company wants to know if you have researched enough about them and understand
company’s value and culture
• Talk about what you like most about them. This may require some in-depth research about
company
• Refer Annual Reports, news articles, interviews of CXOs, Director’s report, etc to find out
some key aspect about the company
• Marry your ambitions with company’s goal/values/culture/new opportunity
• Beyond some good things about the company, link your fitment to the role being offered
• Avoid sounding dramatic in your answers. Must be very objective

Expect cross questions on industry knowledge in terms of size(value), top players, industry
dynamics, key information, etc

Private & Confidential September 20

Why this company – Example
40

• If you are being interviewed for Corporate Strategy and Planning role with Murugappa Group -

Murugappa group is a reputed Indian conglomerate. With 28 businesses, its corporate strategy
and planning function will offer exciting projects to work on. With over 1000Cr investment
planned in FY20, I am sure that there is a lot of work be done in the strategy and planning area.
Given my interest in this area and the skills I have developed, it will be great start to my career.

Cross Questions – Which is the largest revenue generator of the group? What are
their areas of focus? Apply BCG/ Ansoff matrix to the group? What are your skills
that are relevant?

Private & Confidential September 20

Strengths, Why you & Why this company are the same!!
Why Us?
(Company)

Why You? (Role)

• Mostly only one of the 3
questions will be asked

• Ultimately it is your fitment

to the role being offered

Strengths (You)

Private & Confidential September 20

Where do you see yourself in 10 years
42

• Avoid talking about 10/15/20 years

• Focus on 5 year goal at max
• Talk about a domain (marketing, sales, finance) and management
level (ex - mid level) which you can realistically achieve
• Avoid being too ambitious (CEO, Startup, CXO)

Private & Confidential September 20

Example - 10 years
43

• 10 or 15 years is a long time to visualize but what I am clear about is the next
5 years. I see myself working in <broad area of interest> function

Private & Confidential September 20

Talk about a Failure/Difficult Situation
44

• Best would be something from your internship/job experience/

College project/Activities

• Provide specific detail on what happened

• Stick to SAR : Situation-Action-Result. Add learnings to this

• Avoid personal stories

Private & Confidential September 20

Example – Failure
45

During my internship, I was assigned task to interview 30 CXOs in a month as a project requirement. I have good
communication skills and so I thought it would be a cake walk and did not take the work seriously in the first week.
Half way into the second week, I realised I did not have a single appointment and the entire project was going south
even with my best effort and communication, nothing happened till the end of second week.

That is when I consulted seniors in the company who had done this job earlier for ideas. They highlighted that the
best way to reach the CXO is not email or calling the board but to get hold of the CXO’s exec assistant’s number which
a lot of the partner’s exec assistants have in the firm. So based on the partner’s practice area, I shortlisted which
CXO’s to approach through which partner. Additionally, I created a very concise but meaningful email which can be
used to write to the CXOs. This was appreciated by my mentor.

These actions helped and by the end of 4th week I was able to do 18 interviews.

Based on this experience, I realized that my approach to a problem has to change basis the situation. While my
communication skills helped me draft a good message, I could not have achieved the 18 interviews if not the change
in approach to contact exec assistants. This is something I will apply in all situations going forward.

Situation Action Result

Private & Confidential September 20

Other Areas
46

• Puzzles
• Theory questions
• General knowledge
• Core subjects and key electives
– General
• Prepare the basics
– Political
• Stress Interview
– Economy and business
• Rare
– Something in your area of interest
• Figure out you are being stressed
• Case analysis
• Do not lose your cool
What to ask the recruiter
• Role – beyond what was said on campus • Don’t ask

• Performance evaluation – How you did

• Anything about specific company news – do not
– Will you get the job
make the interviewer uncomfortable
• Any preparation you can do in the next few – No cheeky remarks

months – No pickiness about salary & designation

• Interviewers association with the company/
what he likes – if the rapport is built
• OK to not ask

Private & Confidential September 20

How to prep for interviews
48

• Redo all the answers in the form basis the session

• For each company mentioned on the resume and the company that you are
interviewing for, read the company and corresponding industry report from your
library

• Pre-empt the top 50 questions basis the resume

– Craft answers for them

• Identify top 20 questions from JD

– Craft answers for them

• Basically you will have about 100 questions and their answers ready as workbook
which you can refer to the previous day of the interview

Private & Confidential September 20

 49

Q&A

Private & Confidential September 20