ZS Associates -Decision Analytics Associate Interview
Name:HEMANT PATTISAPU
1.Which company have you been placed in and what’s the job description?
>>I have been placed in management consultancy organization called ZS Associates and my designation in that organization is that of Decision Analytics Associate, which means my job profile is all about visualizing data and coming to a certain conclusion regarding that data.
2.Tell us something about your college life and experiences. Were you the part of any club or society throughout your college life and how did they help you?
>>I was a member of various clubs and societies during my college life .There I formed strong bond with my seniors and juniors as well.Basically these clubs help you to interact and have connections with your seniors. It was all full of fun. I was in Dramatic Society, Team Aveon Racing, IETE, Music Club, these clubs were essentially the building block and integral part of my college life.These clubs made me learn, how to work as a team and to efficiently manage time. If you really give importance to the club and have a feeling and mindset that you want to learn things, then I think you’ll automatically start managing your time aptly.
3.What message would you give to the first and second year undergraduates on effectively using their time and maintaining their academic as well as social life?
>>Yeah, lots of things, first of all about CGPA and academics, everyone has a filmy feel that CGPA doesn’t matter, well its not like that at all. If you choose to go IIM they will see your CGPA and even later on in your life, it will play an important role, besides that its importance lie in campus placement as well. One should always try to have atleast 7.5 CGPA or above. Then, regarding time management I understood it after getting into clubs and societies in college, unless and until you are not involved in certain activity in college you will not know how to efficiently manage your time. Academics are not that tough if you are confident and a bit self-conscious about your studies.
4.How did you discover that “this particular sector” is suitable for me or I have interest in this? How did you carry forward in this?
>>I have explored each and every avenue of college life and tried to explore out different fields as much as possible .First two and half year I was more interested towards core, even though during that period I used to practice coding on hacker rank and code chef but not that consistently, it was just I was dabbling with it. I also prepared for CAT in 3rd year, so I got my backup ready. That’s why there was no fear about the campus Placement, in that semester only I realized that I am not interested in core. So, I took part in ZS Campus beats after that only I got interested in management consultancy.
5.How early one should start preparing for internships and how important an internship is? Where did you pursue your internship?
>>I did my summer internship at Futures First, I got interested in finance after participating in ZS Campus Beats, summer internship what I feel is not that important, if u get it, its well and good but if not try develop new skills and hone your them, it’s not like that if you don’t get an internship you would not be able to do anything good. If you are interning make sure you remain focused in that time because you are giving precious time of two month ,after that only Campus Selection starts, then you will not get enough time to develop new skill, it’s quite tough.If you are opting to have internship make sure it’s truly related to your field, not just for sake of being paid for that. I have seen my seniors and friends who had not done internships but eventually got placed in very reputed companies. And for the preparation part, one who is focused to be part of the IT Sector , then must develop programming skills and practice them on online platforms like hacker rank, code chef.
6.What was the selection procedure of your company? Can you repeat some of the important questions from each round of your interview?
Almost all IT companies allow EEE students to appear for the first round, in addition to consultancy companies like PwC, Axis Bank and core companies like Tata steel.So now coming to my interview experience, first of all there was an initial shortlisting of candidates, who are eligible based on CGPA. For my company the minimum CGPA criteria was about 7.0. So it’s good to have CGPA above 7.5, very few companies make it to 8 First Round was the Aptitude Round, basic questions were asked in that round, make sure your aptitude is good and good and you are fast enough, thorough with your formulae stuff. Then comes the Personality Interview Round , in this round they give you a situation and ask how would you deal with it. For example they will ask you if your project deliverables are late, then how you will manage the client, so basically check your confidence level. Many students get rejected in this round. Second round of my interview was Case Study Round, where I was given a particular scenario like a company launching a new product and we were asked to help in matters like what will be the revenue growth, market share, effective publicity strategies with the help of data collected through market surveys.After that there was a Fit Interview Round, it was basically HR + Resume probe round. For resume part, you just need to put those things which are relevant to them, for example I did not put my projects in IOT, or my core electrical projects in that. Then came the introduce yourself part, for this make sure you highlight your team work aspect of your personality, how you work with the team and they are influenced by that part. Apart from that they asked about guesstimates and puzzles as well , its like you have to tell your approach and approximation to question the interviewer approves then you proceed further its like that only. They asked me, what will be the number of electric suspensions that will be used in electric vehicles in the next two months, in India?, so you need to have the ability to logically think on that spot. Then you wait for the results, it took around 1 week for the result of ZS. But other companies used to release it earlier as well.
7.How to choose and apply for internships, so that we can make our way in the right company that we want to join?
>>When I was in 3rd year, companies like Tata steel , PWC, Axis Bank and Consultancy company came for internships, one should not depend only on college if you are interested in core electrical. TATA Steel is a dream job for the one interested in core electrical, so they must try for it. And for the students interested in IT Sector, many companies will come, but it all depends on the individual upto which extent he or she has done competitive coding, actually till 3rd year many of us have confusion regarding which sector they want to be part of, that is the reason why many of us have not done competitive coding to that level. If you have decided your avenue late, then make sure you keep trying off-campus. Then LinkedIn is a magic tool, make sure you make connections through it and have a good LinkedIn profile and apply at various companies, if you apply for various companies then you will surely get replies from some of them.So just be active on it.
8.What are the technical skills that are important for EEE graduates?
>>As I am not from the core Electrical and Electronics field, and more oriented toward consultancy I can only say one must have knowledge of Matlab as it is of prime importance, if you have really good knowledge of it, you will definitely impress your interviewer, then comes many simulation softwares, make sure you are well versed with it, if you are interested in electronics then VLSI is the most important part that should be taken care of, apart from that you should have deep understanding of the field which he or she aspires to be part of ,that’s what matters the most.
9.What was the toughest part while preparing for the interviews?
>>Well for me the toughest part was to improve and work upon my communication skills.It seems like a very minute thing to be a matter of importance but no, let me tell you one thing, you must have fluent communication and must not stumble as it’s the least enticing part of the interview and gives your negative impression. Some companies ask you to speak on a topic for a minute and if at that time you keep on stumbling and repeating your words, they get an impression that the candidate is not confident enough.Apart from this I started on my projects of Data Analysis very late, so I had to go on with my aptitude as well as my projects. For ZS I devoted much time to Data Cleaning and Machine Learning, like one should know how to apply regression models to data, I had done this in both R Programming as well as in Python, so it felt somewhat tough as I started very late, but I was able to go through it. But if you start early then it will not be very hectic for you.
10.Please tell us something about the Training and Placement Portal of our college.
>>Through Training and Placement Portal we get to know about which companies are coming for recruitment, for which profile role it is coming, which branch it will allow to apply for and what’s the CGPA cutoff for that particular company. So make sure you remain active on that portal.
11.What are your future plans? Would you like to go for higher studies?
>>Probably masters in finance from a reputed business school abroad. But first I want to make sure I learn what my work is. I don’t want a job just for experience but to learn things from that.For now at least I am going to work for 3 years, after that maybe I will look forward to it.
12.What is your advice to the juniors who want to get placed in the field you’ve chosen?
>>I would advice them to first try and explore out as much as possible and if at any point you lose interest in that field, it’s never too late to leave it and have a new start in the field in which you are interested in. And once you are determined to be a part of a particular field, you just need to focus on that part and for the one interested in the IT sector, Competitive Programming is a must, it’s like a hallmark to the recruiters. In ZS it was not asked but in Adrosonic, where I went upto the interview round , they asked Competitive Programming as well. You need to have sound knowledge of graph, trees, linked list and other stuff,make sure you are well versed with it.