A lot of students fear interviews specially when it’s the first one. A lot of them have endless questions on how to prepare for interviews. But yes, this situation is very normal. Everyone face it. The real question is, how to overcome those fear and anxieties and crack your interviews like a pro.

Last year I appeared for my very first job interview and it was for tcs digital. I will share all the bits and pieces of my interview experience and will be covering some key takeaways that will really get you on the right track to crack literally any interview.

You might be aware of how recruitment at TCS works. Tcs first conducts an online test and the selected students get a chance to appear for the interview process.

All the selected students were called at the TCS premise for the interview. Mine was Indore.

The Interview

The panel constituted all the three : technical, managerial and HR
And my interview went for around 45 minutes

1. Technical — (I1)
2. Managerial — (I2)
3. HR — (I3)

So here’s the conversation!!

I1 & I2 — Good morning, Shreya!!
Me : Good morning sir and mam
I2 — Introduce yourself.
Cross questioning — You mentioned you are a passionate about security. Please explain that.
Any instance where you have automated any process.

I2 –– You have done a lot of projects in various fields (android and IoT). Explain the one that is your favorite.
Since a explained about a project that was based on IoT (hardware hacking), she asked
me about the security implications of the project.

I1 — Tell me the difference between c++ and java
Is multiple inheritance supported in java?
How multiple inheritance can be implemented in java?
What is the difference between overloading and overriding.
OOPs concepts.
What is string pool?
What is the difference between MySQL and MariaDb (as i mentioned both in my resume)
Which is better performance wise : MySQL or MariaDb
Questions on DML, DDL
Have you implemented normalization in real life?
What antivirus do we use in linux ? ( As i had mentioned experience in linux)
How will you add a user in xyz group using linux command line?
Why do we use Tab-Tab in linux?
What is git and how you have used it in the process of deployment?
What is a repository in github?
Explain your android project.

I2 —Can you tell me how digital wallet works? For example, Paytm.
I2 —Tell me a story of your 6th semester in 5 sentences.
I2 —Which technology do you think can bring about a massive impact and why?

I1 — Do you have any questions?
Me : On what kind of projects I will be working if I get selected?
I3 —
Recite your resume.
Tell me your 3 strengths and 3 weakness.
Are you aware of the bond that you will have to fill with TCS?
Are you willing to relocate according to where your demand is?
Are you comfortable to put in extra hours of work, when it is demanded?
Do you have any questions for me?
Me — I heard that we are allowed to fill the city preference form. So is that taken into consideration?

I2 — It was nice talking to you. All the best for the results.
Me : It was nice talking to you too. Thank you so much.

Verdict?? Lol! Dont guess. You already read in the blog post title!!

Well, that was my experience and I had a very smooth interview. The duration of your interview can range from half an hour to 1.5 hr.

What I understood after giving a lot of interviews is :

They try to test your concepts ( It will rarely happen that your interviewer asks you something in very deep).

They test how well you are able to convey your thoughts.

Interview is more of a discussion rather than a viva where teachers ask tricky/difficult questions to students just to bring their morale down.

Key Takeaways

I want to share some key points that helped me a lot. I would be adding solutions to a few more points that are commonly faced by students. I hope you too could benefit out of it.

1. Your projects are your arsenal. The more the projects the more content you have, to communicate to your interviewer.
2. By projects I mean the ones that involve the trending technologies like cloud, cyber security, android, IoT, web-dev, AI/ML.
3. Be thorough with any one of the programming languages and its data structures
4. Internships matter as they are the proof that you possess some industrial level knowlege. And you know how the industry works. Onsite internships are preferable.
5. Don’t ever work for certificates. Always work for passion or knowledge.
6. If you so wish to earn a certificate, opt for some industry level certications that will test your concepts by conducting proctored examinations. Certifications are offered by companies like Google, Amazon, Redhat, Oracle, etc.
7. Build up a public profile. Write blogs. Be an active contributor on github. Join communities where you can find like minded people. If possible, lead those communities. That gives whole lot of exposure.
8. If you are not confident with your communication skills, tell your friends to take your mock interview.
9. Learn English communication skill. Believe it or not it is the top most requirement of the industry.

A very simple thing that most of us forget during interviews is our body language. Panic or a bad body language can create a negative impact. This can literally lower the interest of your interviewer in hiring you. The best thing that always works out for me is : Answering everything with a smile!! 🙂

Yes I understand, first job interviews can be nerve-wracking, but I can assure you if you are confident enough in those 9 points mentioned above, you can literally crack any interview like a pro.

Whoever is reading the post, All the best for your upcoming interviews. Hope you crack it!!