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Technical Interview HR Interview
Looks for Looks for
TALENT INTENT
What HR Interview looks like?
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Tell me about yourself
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not start from your past
Do not speak for more than 30 seconds
Do not be an audio form of your resume,
he/she can read all that
Do not have same answer for all companies
Match your qualifications/achievements
with the interviewer needs
It is a good practice to start from present
and circle back to past
If you can say something interesting which
is not on your resume, it helps to break the
ice with interviewer early on
Remember - Customize your answer per
the requirement of the company. If you
have project/internship/research close
to company’s requirement end your
answer with that.
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What are your greatest strengths?
DOs & DON’Ts
You should be prepared with 2 strengths
backed by examples
Which one to speak will depend on the
requirement of the company
Typically, student’s talk about the following:
PROVEN TRACK RECORD SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE
COMMUNICATION SKILLS LEADERSHIP QUALITY
BALANCED PERSONALITY CULTURE FIT
HARD WORKING PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
DEDICATION MOTIVATION
Do not say/write anything for which you
cannot hold fort
Do not be arrogant yet do not be over humble
Remember - This is an eliminator question,
so if you know the company’s requirement
beforehand, it will help you largely
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What are your greatest weaknesses?
DOs & DON’Ts
Beware. This is an eliminator question
designed to shorten the list
You will earn “A” for honesty but “F” for
interview
Be honest, with a little bit of common sense
STRATEGY 1 – Disguise a strength as a
weakness
PROBLEM – It is too widely used and is very
apparent
STRATEGY 2 – It is too widely used and is very
apparent
STRATEGY 3 – If you know enough about the
job role, describe what you like the most
and like least
Remember - This is an eliminator question,
so if you know the company’s requirement
beforehand, it will help you largely
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What has been your biggest failure in life?
DOs & DON’Ts
Saying you have “no failures” does not go
down well. It appears as you are stonewalling
Try not to say any of the following because
the question is BIGGEST failure
COULD NOT GET SPECIFIC BRANCH GIRLFRIEND/BOYFRIEND
NOT YET PLACED DRUGS/ALCOHOL
A YEAR DROP AFTER CLASS 12 BAD GRE/CAT SCORE
You can mention a failure, presenting it as
an experience that taught you
Something and the lesson that you learned.
You should always be prepared with 2
failures backed by specific examples
Try to match your learning from the failure
with the company needs
Remember - You can make the failure
(negative) of your life by also telling the
interviewer the learning that you got from
it and how have you changed.
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COMMONLY ASKED PUZZLE
On a cold night, there are three men and
three demons on one side of a damaged
bridge. The bridge can only hold two people
at a time. Also, there is only one lamp to
guide on the bridge. If at any point of time
the number of humans is lower than number
of demons on one side, then the demons
will kill the human.
How can you get all of them across without
anyone dying?
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Why should we hire you?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not speak about something which others
also have like degree from IIT Bombay.
Don’t just talk in future tense stating “I could,
or I would”
You can start from your qualifications tying
them well with the job needs
Mention how seamlessly you’ll fit in the culture.
This will also show them that you have
researched about the culture
Give relevant examples if you can. It makes
your answer more realistic.
Remember - This a spin-off of “What are
your strengths” question, so 75% of your
answer could be same for both the questions.
Your research about the company would help
you big time.
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The “Inherent Problem” with your resume
DOs & DON’Ts
Typically following are the problem with one’s
resume, if at all there is an
“INHERENT PROBLEM”
Don’t just talk in future tense stating “I could,
or I would”
LOW CPI NO P.O.R
NO INTERNSHIPS MULTIPLE YEAR DROPS
NO PROJECT CORE HEAVY RESUME
Do not be over-defensive
Do not say you are not interested, and if you
are saying that then have a very solid reason
and work to show what you are interested in
You can tell them what kept you engaged, it
could be sports, politics, fests, gaming, TV s
eries. This answer should be given depending
upon the mood and flow of the interview
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Tell them how well rounded you are now
because you dabbled with so many things
Remember - Every resume has shortcoming
or the other, some are over-qualified, some
are under.
You very well know which portion of you
resume would make you a punching bag.
Go ahead, sell a fridge to an ESKIMO!!
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Between you and your friend, Whom
should we hire?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not say your it is your decision. They know
it, that is why they are there!!
Do not just start advocating your case or
your friend’s case. Instead, you can ask
the interview what he/she liked in your
friends and build your answer from there
Please do not say take both.
Say better things about yourself rather
than say bad things about your friend.
Best answer that I got was “If you think both
of us are good, then hire me and once I
am in the company, I'll get my friend
through referral scheme.”
Remember - This question is to understand
how firm you are about your career
aspirations.
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Why should we hire you?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not list your drawbacks and make it
easy for them
Deal with this one as the “Your biggest
weakness” question
Talk about one or 2 point and leave it there.
Do yourself a favour, do not talk a lot
Tell me 5 things unique about our company
DOs & DON’Ts
Don’t say superficial statements like “It’s a
great company” etc.
PLAYING 11 – should come very handy here.
Use it well.
If you know anyone working in the company
then know the day-to-day working.
If you don’t know anyone then connect on
LinkedIn to get an insight
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COMMONLY ASKED PUZZLE
You have 25 horses, and each has a distinct
speed.
You have a five track racetrack but no
stopwatch or any other measurement
device.
You can only tell comparative ranks in the
race. You need to identify top 3 horses in
terms of speed. How many minimum races
do you require?
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If we do not hire you, What is your plan?
DOs & DON’Ts
This is not a “This or nothing” question
This is also not a “If not this then next” question
Do not just say that I will apply off-campus
and wait. It does not cut across very well.
Everybody knows the reality.
You can say that you will analyse the
interview to see what went wrong and
improve that
You can say that you will analyse the
interview to see what went wrong and
improve that. At the same time, keep
trying for off-campus in this company.
Remember - - You have to do the tight
rope walk of being sensibly honest and
also practical This company could be your
dream, but if you do not make it then you
have to take up a campus placement and
keep trying externally.
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Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
DOs & DON’Ts
Not sure, if you can be too specific in this
question because both the interviewer
and you know that you more often than
not do not know.
Don’t be too vague & clueless. Have some
path ahead, however dark it may be but
have some direction of the road ahead.
If you can bring an angle of how you want
to grow in the role, that would be great, but
you should be ready with all the info to do that.
Probably the interviewer herself/himself
doesn’t know her/his 5yrs plan so no one
expects you to be perfect, but they expect
you to have some idea
Remember - - Your long-term commitment
is being checked. You can earn brownie
point by also exhibiting how well researched
are you for the company and the role.
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COMMONLY ASKED
PUZZLE
You have two ropes and a lighter.
Each rope has the following property:
If you light one end of the rope, it will take
one hour to burn to the other end.
They do not necessarily burn at a
uniform rate.
How can you measure a period of
45 minutes?
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Describe your ideal company, location & job
DOs & DON’Ts
This is an eliminator question, do not get too
excited and tell about another company
/career/location
Do not get too emotional and go gaga about
the interviewing company
Try to be diplomatic and if possible, connect
with the existing companies values and
work culture
Why do you want to work at our company?
DOs & DON’Ts
PLAYING-11 should have the answer of
this one.
This also looks like a sub-set of QUESTION-12.
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What are your hobbies and interests?
What are your career options right now?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not make it a trick question, by talking
about a lot of options. Be focussed on the
company in hand.
Who has inspired you in your life & Why?
DOs & DON’Ts
Warren Buffet, Raghuram Rajan, Elon Musk,
Mark Zuckerberg are the top choices. If you
are about to say something on the same
lines, do read about them.
https://www.codingninjas.com/
What are your hobbies and interests?
What are your career options right now?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not make it a trick question, by talking
about a lot of options. Be focussed on the
company in hand.
Who has inspired you in your life & Why?
DOs & DON’Ts
Warren Buffet, Raghuram Rajan, Elon Musk,
Mark Zuckerberg are the top choices. If you
are about to say something on the same
lines, do read about them.
https://www.codingninjas.com/
What was the toughest decision in your life?
DOs & DON’Ts
A year drop after class 12 might not be a wise
answer because look where are you
because of the year drop.
Give an example of your creativity
DOs & DON’Ts
Remember, creativity does not need to be
art, music or painting. Creativity can be
how you prepare for this interview and
placements in general.
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COMMONLY ASKED
PUZZLE
Suppose you have three boxes with fruits:
one box with apples, another box with
bananas, and a third one with both apples
and bananas.
The boxes have labels (apples, bananas,
apples & bananas) which describe the
contents, but none of these labels is on
the right box.
How can you determine what each of
the boxes contains by touching only 1
piece of fruit from one box?
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COMMONLY ASKED
PUZZLE
You have 10 bags filled with Gold coins
each coin weighs 10 gm, except one
bag which contains defective coins,
each which weighs 9 gm.
Given a scale to weigh, how do you find
a bag which contains defective coins in
just one measurement Here scale is modern
day electronic scale to measure weight.
(each bag has 27 gold coins).
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Sell me this pen
(The interviewer has also seen “The Wolf of
the Wall Street” so try some other trick).
On a scale of 10, rate me as an interviewer
Looking back, What would you do differently
in life?
DOs & DON’Ts
Do not get carried away and contradict
something that you earlier said.
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COMMONLY ASKED
PUZZLE
A mountain goat attempts to scale a cliff
100 feet high. Every minute, the goat bounds
upward three feet but slips back two.
How long does it take for the goat to touch
the top of the mountain?
Suppose You are standing next to a well,
and you have two jugs. One jug has a
content of 3 liters and the other one has
a content of 5 liters.
How can you get just 4 liters of water using
only these two jugs?
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MOST RACES ARE WON
IN THE LAST 50M
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