Infosys Placement 2008

In a way, the Infosys and TCS placements were in continuation with no gap in between. I had heard that Infosys’s quantitative test was of a really good standard and if you pass that, you are 90% selected. My experience confirms this fact. Out of 106 students at DA-IICT who were selected in written test, 91 were finally selected. The company was a bit disappointed with the performance of students in written exam as it said it had a capacity of 150. It is possible that people were tired after the TCS process. Whatever the reasons be, those who made it in written test had a really good chance to get selected.

Lets start from the presentation first. The presentation of Infosys was damn professional and the speaker just convinced everyone mentally that Infosys is the best option for them. A Mysore training video showed all the facilities Infosys has. By the end of the presentation, everyone had the feeling that isi mein jana hai ab toh. 🙂

After the presentation came the main part. I had a HR interview of TCS on my head which I tried to get over. The paper had English and Quant sections. Some questions were dummy ie. leaving them was a better option. The questions were of the same type as I had seen in old papers and online tests. One tip which everyone should focus is the last year papers of these companies. You get a very fair picture of how to get through the first hurdle.

The exam was coordinated not by Infosys personnel but they had outsourced the whole job of written exam and interviews to some consultancy I think. Only the ppt was conducted by Infosys people. As the results came, everyone who made it was really happy. People here prefer Infosys over TCS because of various reasons:

1. Infosys is more professional organization.

2. Its training is far better than TCS training.

3. Its posting is in Hyderabad or Bangalore rather than the same Gandhinagar where students have spent their 4 years.

The next day we had our interviews. Infosys has no technical interview 🙂 In a way it lays no emphasis whether you have learnt anything in B.Tech or not. They would rather prefer any graduates with the capoacity to learn and are come cheaper than engineers. These days engineers are also quite abundant and in need to companies like Infosys to give them a start – A kind of mutual win-win relationship.

My HR interview was conducted by an aged person in late 30s I guess. He was very proper and looked very smart. We had the following conversation:

So you are giving an Infosys interview for the first time?

Ans: Yes Sir 🙂 (obviously) Infosys has never come before this to recruit us.

What is this work experience?

Ans: Told about the Sun Campus Ambassador Program.

So Sun is giving you a job also after B.Tech?

Ans: No Sir. Its just an internship (though I do hope to get selected at Sun)

He ransacked my whole resume.

So what is this low carrier case study?

Ans: Yes sir. In our course of EBM we made a case study on Low Cost Carriers of India

Can you tell me something about GoAir?

Ans: Told

So your hobby is skits?

Ans: Yes Sir. In my school I did participate in them.

Which is your favorite role?

Ans: Told the role of a sadhu which I had played once.

Can you name some database security and networking companies?

Ans: I must I was the dumbest person on earth to think about this question. I said that I am not much into database security but Sun is a networking company.

No, leave Sun, any other you know of?

Ans: Everything had gone blank by then. No company that I could think of 😦 I said to him, “Sir, I think you will name the company and I will shout “Oh yes !!”

He laughed and said “Cisco”

Ans: Man !! How stupid can I get. Anyways whats done is done. Smiled foolishly. Wanted to kill myself for this.

So name me a few competitors of Cisco.

Ans: Again the same old blank screen in my head. He helped eventually.

Which company’s routers and switches does your college have?

Ans: I thought and I thought. I mess this and selection is gone. By some divine intervention came the answer in head and I exclaimed “D-Link” – huh and took a sigh of relief.

Yes. See you are there.

Ans: Grinned 🙂

Do you visit Infosys website. When was the last time you saw it?

Ans: Yes Sir. Yesterday only I had a look at it.

What unique thing did you find in its site?

Ans: I knew this answer very well. I talked about the flat world concept that they have mentioned at their site.

So what is flat world?

Ans: Told

His final words I still remember – Great Ankit. Very good. This almost confirmed that I will get selected. I walked out relieved and happy. To my surprise as I discussed the networking company question with any friend, each student was able to rattle out at least 5-6 names. Ironically, its me, the stupid who finally made it 🙂 As is said, all’s well that ends well.

Infosys rendered good news to nearly all written selected students. Only those who completely screwed their interviews were rejected. Its process was much better than TCS. The number of students it took was much more than TCS. So in a way Infy should have got the first day slot which TCS got. A pointer for next year.

TCS Placement 2008

After writing on an overview of DA-IICT placements, let me write about each and every company I sat for one by one. As I have got selected in some of them, I would be glad if some one takes tips and is helped by this post.

The first regular mass recruiting company which came for placements at DA-IICT on July 16th, 2008 was TCS. TCS has opened a big branch at Gandhinagar and that’s why was expected to take in big numbers. It presentation started at 5 PM. General opinion was that it didn’t have a lot of professionalism in ppt as the person started speaking about ethics and stuff. But I guess, that’s how TCS is. It has some core values which it abides by because of which it is so successful. A lot of my school friends are placed at TCS. So I was hoping that I also get selected.

After the presentation, TCS had an online exam. I had prepared for the tests from various sources like online papers at freshersworld, Quantitative Aptitude (famous author whose name I have forgotten), Barron antonyms and model test papers and some puzzles from Shakuntala Devi. Students were divided in two batches and I was in the second batch. So i got a gap of 2 hour after the ppt which I was eager kii kab khatam hoga. As first batch students came out, were told that the logical reasoning section was a complete replica from Barrons Model Test papers. There were about 12-15 logical reasoning questions in Barrons. Everyone started rattafying the orders and questions. There were funny ways to remember – if car wala question comes, then its D-A-C-B-E. Actually the questions were not that tough that they could not be solved but why take chances! Everyone wanted to save time and get through this round by hook or by crook.

I was not far behind and to be honest, I also did the same thing :P. The english section has antonyms coming from Barrons. So I memorized them again. As I sat for the test, I was given a login ID and password. Quant was easy and english was ok – not very tough but not very easy also. All the plans that students had prepared to help each other vanished as everyone was busy in his/her own paper. Though some people did help each other I guess.

The LR section as predicted had all three questions from Barrons. I remembered all the answers. So I was elated. Even then, the extra cautious me solved them to double check.

After the test, the screen prompted “You have been selected for the next round”. Wow, amazing feeling 🙂

Some good students surprisedly could not clear the test. Its not that they had not prepared but I guess preparing the right thing mattered.

The next day we had two interviews – one technical and one HR. My interview came late in the afternoon and I went to the room feeling a bit nervous. The person was in the middle ages (I guess late 20s or early 30s). He asked me:

Where are you from Ankit?

Ans: Lucknow Sir.

Tell us something about yourself?

Ans: Ratta hua tha

So which language do you like?

Ans: Java

Question on multithreading?

Ans: I didn’t know the answer. I said something something.

Are you sure?

Ans: No Sir. Not completely

So would you like to ask any questions?

Ans: I asked about the current projects TCS, Gandhinagar is pursuing. He explained about some system they are implementing for Gujarat Police.

That’s it. I left with a short interview of not even 5 minutes. technical interview was not very technical for me. Some students were asked basic OOP questions and C fundamentals.

After my technical interview, I got my result in half an hour. I was selected for next round 🙂

At 5 PM, we had infy ppt which I didn\t want to miss. So my HR interview was scheduled after the ppt and Infosys test at 9 PM.

Exhausted by the Infosys written test which was really of good standard, I came for the TCS HR round.

I was the first person to be interviewed after the Infy ppt and written. They were as it is irked that they had to wait for us !!

Two people were there in the HR round.

So Ankit, attended the Infy ppt. How was it? Compare it with our ppt?

Ans: This was one of those delicate questions for which I could neither praise nor critique Infy ppt which was awesome compared to TCS one. I took the middle path and said, “Sir, TCS ppt won the hearts of people while Infosys ppt won the minds of people. So they were quite different in their approach”.

The guy was impressed by my answer 🙂 Even I was.

What is this Sun Campus Ambassador thing?

Ans: I explained

So you are into open source thing..han..tell us something about Solaris features?

Ans: I was surprised that this is an HR question. Anyways I explained ZFS and Dtrace.

So what is the difference between a 128 bit filesystem and 32 bit filesystem?

Ans: Again, I was wondering is it HR interview?

What would you like to be 5 years from now – a system engineer, an application engineer or project manager.

Ans: I said system engineer as I was VLSI side.

So you like public speaking. Who is your favourite public speaker?

Ans: I just fumbled with this question. I had no names in mind. I said some blah blah about a Picasso autobiography which is no way related to public speaking. Anyways, buying some time, I took the name of Shahrukh Khan ! at last as my favourite public speaker. Astonishingly, the person agreed 🙂

That was it. With the vibes, I was confident that I had a fair chance of making it. After the interview I ran to see my Infy written results where also I had got selected 🙂 As you can see, the whole TCS process was not at all difficult and anyone can clear it. Its just a matter of good communication skills and clever preparation.