My first Interview experience

       Career of an engineer begins with an interview. Interview is a process where the abilities of a candidate are tested to check if the candidate suits for the job/position. In this post, I would like to share my first interview experience.

Introduction:

         My first interview was conducted by Accenture, India in my college (Sona College of Technology, Salem) campus on 1^st September, 2013 (Sunday).

Preparation:

      A week before the interview, started my preparation for the interview process. Students with percentage more than 75, right from their 10^th standard, were eligible for direct HR with Technical interview (without necessity to take up the Aptitude & Vocabulary written tests). I am one of the privileged students, to take up the direct HR & Technical. I read the ‘Cracking the IT interview’ book and prepared accordingly.

Registration:

          The registration was held on 31^st August, 2013 at the Main Computer Laboratory of my college, where we were asked to provide our details like address, passport number, degree and school marks, etc. We were also asked to attach our resume, mark sheet and ID proof copies. While the registration process, the work preference locations were also asked. My preferences were Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad in that order.

Interview day:

         Before the interview, a pre-placement talk was held at the Sona Auditorium. There, we were given an overview of the company (Accenture) and its achievements. After that, we were asked to move to PG Auditorium. There, we were split into batches and sent to the ECE block, where the placement cell and the HR department are located. Since the batch allocation was based on the aggregate marks starting from 10^th standard, I was in the first batch.

The Interview:

         Before I enter the Interview panel, I was given the registration sheet, which was filled by me the previous day. I entered the interview panel by around 10:30 am. Upon entering the panel, with a smile in my face, I made a handshake with both the interviewers, although I was a bit nervous. Then, I gave them the registration sheet (which also contained the resume attached). When I was asked to sit by one of the interviewers, I thanked him and sat. The conversation went as follows.

(Throughout the following conversation, I meant the person who asked technical questions as ‘Tech’ and the one who asked HR questions as ‘HR’)

Tech : Tell me about yourself.

Me : I’m Suresh, doing final year IT. I am happy to say that a Programming Club has been started in my college because of my initiative. I’ve cleared the Software Developer Level 1 exam conducted by Accenture and Carnegie Mellon University as a part of Accenture Open Education (AOE). I’m one of the Microsoft Student Partners of India. I had also been the Joint Secretary of Tamil (Local Language) development club in my college. I’ve also participated and won in several project presentation contests and debugging contests. (I was shivering at the beginning. They noticed it; but somehow, I managed and later I felt better)

Tech : Inside your college or in other colleges?

Me : Both in my college as well as in other colleges, sir.

Tech : What are the languages you are good at?

Me : I’m good at C, sir.

Tech : Only C?

Me : I also know C++, sir.

Tech : Don’t you know Java?

Me : I would rate myself as 6 or 7 on a scale of 10, sir.

Tech : What’s the primary difference between C and C++?

Me : C is a structured language, where all the functions are global. C++ is an object-oriented language, wherein both the data as well as the functions are put together in a single entity called a class.

Tech : What are the key features of Object-Orientation?

Me : Encapsulation, Polymorphism, Abstraction and Inheritance.

Tech : How will you perform inheritance?

Me : The colon (:) operator is used for inheritance in C++ whereas in Java, the ‘extends’ keyword is used.

Tech : What is an abstract class?

Me : An abstract class is one which can contain abstract methods. An abstract class cannot have an object

Tech : Then, why do we go for interface concept?

Me : Since, multiple inheritance is not supported in Java, the interface concept was introduced, sir. The difference between an abstract class and an interface is that, an abstract class can have abstract methods as well as normal methods, whereas an interface should only have abstract methods. Another advantage of having an interface is that, it could be used as a substitute for macro of C/C++, where we can have final (constant) variables (attributes).
(Then Tech asked a few questions regarding my projects)

HR : What do you feel is the difference between your school and your college life?

Me : In school, I will not interact with people so easily. Also, I never used to do presentations on stages. Only after coming to college, I got rid of my stage fear. My college has helped me a lot by providing enough opportunities to get rid of my stage fear.

HR : What will you do at your free time?

Me : I used to browse the internet, sir.

HR : What kind of information do you browse?

Me : I used to check and respond to mails and at some times, I also used to visit some social networking sites.

HR : Most of the people spend a lot of time in social networking sites. What do you feel about it?

Me : In my point of view, it depends upon the individual who’s using it, sir. Because, there are so many groups available.

HR : How do these groups help?

Me : Sometimes, even Google will not provide answers to our questions, sir. At those times, social networking helps out as there are several groups. Also, in emergency situations like blood requirement, social networking can be used, so that we get more number of responses in short period of time.

HR : What do you want to be by 10 years from now? Do you have any idea or you want life to just go like that?

Me : No, sir. I have some plans.

HR : What are those plans?

Me : I would like to be in a good position like Team Lead. …

(There was an interrupt asking whether the interviewers need coffee or tender coconut. By the time they reply, I was thinking about how to continue my answer).

Me : Because, by 10 years, I might have got some experience and so, I would like to be a team lead.

HR : So, you have done lot of co-curricular activities. You’ve been a bright student. What made you to do so?

Me : It’s just because of the interest, sir. Every time I participate in a contest, from the feedback, I try to improve myself. Hence, I could gain new exposure and experience from each event.

(Now, he wanted to complete filling the registration form and so, asked questions about filling that.)

HR : So, you’ve not worked with Accenture before, right?

Me : Yes, sir. I have not.

HR : No gaps between studies?

Me : No gaps, sir.

HR : Tell your work preference.

Me : Sir, I would work at any place.

(He kept me asking and I had been repeating the same for 3 times)

HR : Chennai, Bangalore or Hyderabad. Which is your first preference?

Me : Bangalore, sir.

HR : Next preference?

Me : Chennai, sir.

HR : Third is Hyderabad, right?

Me : Yes, sir. But, it’s not that I’ll be working only in these places.

HR : (After writing down my preferences in the registration sheet, which also acted as evaluation sheet). Do you have any more questions to ask? (looking at Tech)

Tech : No.

(I got up. They made a handshake with me. I thanked them and came out.)

After the interview:

           The total interview was not more than 10 minutes. I came out with a relaxation, spoke to my HOD (Dr. J. Akilandeswari) and former HOD (Dr. B. Saravanan). Right from 10:45 am, I was staying in the college waiting for the results. By 1:30 pm, the written round results were announced where only 67 out of 200+ were selected for the interview.

Result declaration:

            We all were waiting in the PG auditorium since 6:15 pm for the declaration of the results. I had dinner by 7:30 pm in a nearby hotel. Then, again we were waiting from 8:30pm. The results were announced by 10pm. HODs of various departments, placement cell team, Accenture recruiters, college chairman, secretary, principal and several staff were also present at the auditorium while the results were announced. The total count was 383, out of which, I was one among them. Felt happy. But, as soon as the entire list of selected candidates has been read by 11 pm, there were some weeping faces in the auditorium. As I came out, I could see some parents giving sweet to their children, who were Accenture employees from then.

One’s birth and education becomes meaningful, only when his/her career begins