Feb 13th, 1:30 pm slot
Gaurav Swaroop
Electronics and Instrumentation from BITS Pilani (9.0 CG, 94 – X, 93 – XII)
Working @ GS Tech.
WAT Topic: Galileo and Pythagoras should be respected more than Shakespeare and Mozart because they impact civilization as it is today. We had to give logical points against this argument. Kind of a tricky topic where it was difficult to squeeze more than 2-3 points out of the context.
There were 2 people. 1 of them was focused on the acad based and job based stuff. The other one was about general stuff, GK, hobbies and general stuff.
Q: What do you do at GS
A: Gave a brief description of my team, overall work. My team generates and delivers reports. I work on delivery part. They didn’t seem satisfied. They try to go into details about the reports and I gave a few details and clarified that I worked on the delivery part and have a basic idea of the reports. Asked a couple of counter questions. I clarified that my role was totally tech(developing web apps, UI etc).
Q: Give an example. Paint a picture of how the user sees it.
A: Told him. He then said “So, it’s a tech role“. And I said yes! Seemed satisfied
Q: Why MBA?
A: I like finance and wanted to switch into it. Hence MBA.
Q: But you didn’t open and read the reports. (Had me there. Had to get out of this)
A: Gave some explanation and said that I want to get into sell side/ buy side/ IB analyst kind of role. Said I was inspired by ‘Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst’ and also did 3 courses (Economics, Security Anslysis & Portfolio Management, Econometrics)
Q: What did you learn in Econometric?
A: Mentioned something about curve fittings etc
Q: What were the 2 things you learned from Econometric, The crux i.e.
A: Probability distributions etc
Q: Can you draw a normal distribution?
A: Drew a normal distribution on x-y axis and drew a line on mu.
Q: What is that line?
A: Mean.
Q: Are you sure?
A: Yes
Q: What are those 2 lines
A: x-y axis
Q: What is the value of origin?
A: Would need details like s.d. etc
Q: Okay estimate all that
A: Went the +-1 sd = 68% +-2 sd = 95% route
Q: When does it touch the x axis?
A: Never. (Seemed satisfied. Moved on to Bachelors)
Q: So what was your bachelors
A: E&I (lets call it A8)
Q: What is instrumentation(lets call it A8)?
A: Gave them process control, instrumentation kind of definition. Also gave them heat exchanger example of how instrumentation is used to control processes.
Q: In this building where is A8 used.
A: It’s not used in electrical supply. Used in AC though. (hoping for a question on AC)
Q: Okay tell me where it’s used in building wiring.
A: Said something about current control. and how system is tripped when it goes above a certain amperage.
Q: What is ampere
A: Charge flowing per second. Continued on current control.
Q: To fuse banate ho Instrumentation mein?
A: No sir, that would be a very trivial thing. But you told me explain where A8 is used in electrical supply to the building.
Q: Okay explain some example where it’s used.
A: Had mentioned that my dad was a civil engg. so went ahead with an example of using strain gauge to measure strain in beams. Explained properly. With diagrams. Seemed satisfied.
(One thing to keep in mind is to explain everything in very basic terms. Extremely basic. I guess they want to understand how well you can explain)
Q: Koi Extra Curriculars nahie hai?
A: Told him that I’m a brown belt in karate and learned it for 8 years and that I was passionate about it. But then high school happened. Seemed satisfied.
Q: Okay so I see you’re from Jharkhand.
A: Said I’m from Bihar. Gave them some background about my grandfather and Ranchi etc. Pretty much small talk. More details.
Q: Asked about CMs and Deputy CMs Also about Hyderabad and Telangana etc.
A: Knew some questions. Didn’t know others. I hope I didn’t appear unaware of issues.
Q: Went to hobbies. Talked about the last book I’d read?
A: Told them about Tipping Point which was the last one I read and it was damn interesting. It got them interested too.
Discussed this for some time and when I was done, I was asked to take a ‘candy’ and leave.
I don’t know what to feel about the interview. But there are a few pointers:
1) Explain everything in a very basic manner
2) It’ll be a rapid fire. Start your engines beforehand and get your foot on the accelerator.
3) be prepared with what’s up in your field. A friend working in Qualcomm was asked about 3G/4G and Finfets.