How to face an interview - for Freshers (New graduates)

Here we will discuss the interview process of Software companies (big MNCs to Small startups) i.e. how many rounds of interviews will be there, what they expect from the candidate, how they shortlist the candidates, which skills they look for in every round and how freshers should act as per the round etc.

First let us take big MNCs like TCS, Cognizant, Accenture..etc.
There will be mainly five rounds.
They are

• Written Test
• Group Discussion
• Technical Round
• Managerial Round
• HR Round

Round	What they look for
Aptitude Test	Analytical, problem solving abilities
Group Discussion	Presentation Skills
Technical(written/oral/both)	Programming knowledge/skills
Managerial	Thinking Ability
HR	Confidence, Communication

Let us discuss about every round in brief
Written Test:
Almost every company will conduct the written test for freshers while recruiting them.
In this round there will be written test (objective on paper)/online test(objective on Computer) which contains aptitude/logical reasoning/analytical/verbal/non-verbal questions. Every graduate should be very good at this. Just because companies will eliminate so many candidates in this round it means if you clear this round, you are on the half way to get job. So prepare hard by practicing regularly General Aptitude: Quantitative Aptitude . And prepare according the company as every company will follow a different pattern like Cognizant paper will contain more verbal/non-verbal/logical reasoning questions than quantitative and Infosys paper contains more Mathematical quantitative questions and puzzles than others. You can check the pattern by searching the internet for previous papers of the particular company.

In this round companies will check the problem solving, analytical abilities.
Group Discussion:
This round is optional round. Very few companies will conduct group discussion. Mostly for the Tech Support/IT HelpDesk roles only they will conduct GD. But few companies like HCL, Birlasoft..etc conduct GD for development roles.

So it will be good if you prepare for the GD also. Prepare for some hot/trending/general topics like Anti-corruption movement, Olympics, Cricket World cup, IPL, Television impact on people/children etc.
 And when you are in the discussion its always good to start the discussion by yourself, but if don't get a chance to start then wait for your chance to speak, till then note down some points to speak. Speak for 1-2 minutes by covering few good points, don't speak for so much time.

• Never argue with anyone
• Never try to prove others wrong, just try to prove yourself correct by giving better points and examples if possible.
• Listen to others carefully.
• Speak at-least 1 time and at-most 3 times.
• Conclude the discussion with your points and others points so that you ensure that you are not only speaker but also good listener.

read the second part 

Please post your suggestions/requests/queries in the comments section.

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