( Placement Experience By Ms.Radhika )

Interview was by 11am. So I reached the office by 10am. I was made to sit in a conference hall. Everything was quite normal and casual. Around 10:45am they told us to get ready. They called us in the order we submitted resume. As I reached very early I was first to give and so I was called first in the second batch.

On entering there were two people: One sir from Ashok Leyland and the other madam from some other company. She was the HR.

I told good morning and sat.

And that HR introduced her and the Sir to me and asked if I could brief them about me.

I started with my name, college, Cgpa, Schooling marks etc. Then briefed about my family and concluded with my extra curricular interests.

HR: Thank you. Were you told about the change of time yesterday itself?
(As time was first told to be 2pm then changed to 11am)
Me: Yes mam.

Sir: What are your areas of interests?
Me: Heat treatment and TQM.

Sir: Why heat treatment is necessary?
Me: To either increase hardness or make it suitable for further machining operations.

Sir: What is hardness?
Me: It is the measure with which it opposes or resists the force acted on it.

Sir: Difference between hardness and toughness?
Me: I told it as harness will increase strength while toughness is achieved by tempering which means reduction in hardness by increasing ductility.

Sir: How to measure hardness?
Me: Using Rockwell hardness, Vickers hardness test.

Sir: What are the scales available in it?
Me: I hope there are 8 scales sir but sorry am not sure. WE use only B or C in our laboratory.

Sir: So tell me how you do the test?
Me: (I explained write from casting, specimen preparation- emery sheet, grinding to set the specimen to rotate the knob n tighten it and how load is applied)

Sir: I would narrow down the question. After load applied harness can be measure is it?
Me: No sir. Since we apply load, the ball or the diamond pointer used will create an impression to be specific an indentation.

Sir: Yes. I expected you to mention the load causes indentation.

Sir: What is the difference between coining and stamping?
Me: I told sir give me a mint.

Sir: Ya take your time.

But immediately he asked the next question.

Sir: What are the labs you had?
Me: (Little tensed as dint answer one question) Metallurgy, Metal forming, Metrology and fluid power.

Sir: Ok. In metal forming what experiment you had?
Me: (Little more nervous as I felt I could not recollect) Erichson cupping test, super plastic forming (study) and extrusion (study)

Sir: Relax yourself.

Sir: You have a file which gets bent when you open? You have to make it strong without adding any material and make sure it is not bent. What will you use?
Me: (Thought for 5 seconds) sorry sir not able to recollect.

Sir: Think for a while.

But immediately next question was asked.

Sir: What all subjects you ad in this semester?
Me: Told all the names.

Sir: So what does PAC cover?
Me: Told the basic of the production of the components used in automobiles.

Sir: Explain any one of them?
Me: I told about crank shaft and told I have seen in Ashley IPT also.

Sir to HR: Mam you can ask questions

HR So you have any place constraints for posting? We can place you anywhere.
Me: I told no specific options mam.

She wrote in an interview valuation slip as Open for choice of positing
Then asked about the choice of dept. I gave as R&D and Manufacturing

HR: What is annealing?
Me: heat and cooling it inside the furnace so that it cools down slowly.

HR: Why it is necessary?
Me: To make the material soft in order to ease machinability.

He: So tell me one hard substance which can be annealed?
Me: Titanium- as it is tough to machine since it is very hard n brittle.

Immediately sir asked:

Sir: Where is Titanium used? You know any application?
Me: Yes sir. In aircraft parts.

Sir: do you know the reason?
Me: It has good strength and resistance to withstand high temperature and pressure. Also it has good super plastic nature.

Sir: Yes this is what I expected.

HR: Thank you. You can go.

(I am not sure how many are wrong. If anything is wrong please tell others that also as they must not be misguided. I have typed everything what ever happened)


What I felt was they were checking the way you told the answers whether you are fluent, whether you are bold rather than checking the answers. They closely observed you the way you talk or express while the other is questioning. On the whole they were cool and please don’t get tensed if you dint answer one question as it might lead to total collapse.

I was worried for one question but later I gained strength to come back else it would have been very difficult.

Interview experience by Mr.Sandeep Tiwari

Hi friends,
I am Sandeep Tiwari (20063532). With all your best wishes and blessings from God I got placed in ASHOK LEYLAND after attending two companies. Ashley was my third one. I am not very confident that what I did in placements was right or not but I thought of sharing my experience (on demand from placement representative Mr. S. Venkatesh (PR 2006-2010 batch) so that my classmates and juniors can learn something from my mistakes and do not repeat them. I wish all of you all the best for your future.

COMPANY NO 1: BEROE INTERNATIONAL- ON CAMPUS
Procedure:
• Written exam with very basic questions of aptitude, verbal, general knowledge and logical interpretation. It was a mini CAT but very diluted level of toughness. Easy to clear.
• Group Discussion: if u r attending GD in main campus and majority of the candidates in gd are from main campus than beware. Chances are they will keep gd among themselves or in other words CEGians are good at soft skills than MITians so its difficult to match. But try ur best. In a fresher gd remember
1. always try to initiate( I did not initiate)
2. once initiated don’t loose the grip on the group
3. in gd , points( topic) are not as important as your role in group. Try to be what u is. Put genuine points not biased points. ( not selected for interview)
• Interview: the inputs from those who were selected for interview shows that it was a cake walk. 27 out of 28 shortlisted for interview were finally selected.

COMPANY NO. 2 – JINDAL STEEL AND POWER LIMITED (OFF CAMPUS)
It’s a private sector company that holds third position in India regarding power production.
Procedure:
• Notification: job notification in leading news papers and job sites will be available. Keep an eye.
• Written test: an all India level written test was conducted on 4 oct 2009. The test had 2 sections
1. General aptitude: purely based on aptitude and comprehension. Nothing new to tell
2. Domain test: this test was in mechanical engineering branch. So some questions were expected from power plant engineering and thermal as company produces power. But most of the questions were from production side. So it was easy to clear. If one has done his/her degree nicely it’s an easy test to pass.
• Group discussion and interview: those who cleared written test were called for gd and interview. Out 0f 41000 who faced written exam 2600 were called for gd and interview for a total of 507 seats. These numbers show the magnitude of competition when it comes to all India level recruitment.
Gd was again a pure fresher gd. This time I initiated but was not able to hold the group as there was a big group there from VIT and they made the gd a fish market scene. So I was quite most of the time but was intervening so that my presence in the gd can be felt. Again as I told topic does not matter at all. What matters is how u carry urself in the gd. Like, when the gd was going worst everybody was shouting on others and trying to put their points I was sitting calmly as I never wanted to jump in this fish marker scenario. I don’t know whether its right or wrong but at least I had the advantage that I was not increasing the chaos in the gd and was listening properly to what people are saying. A GOOD LISTENER IS A VERY INPORTANT THING IN A GD.
All those who attended gd were sent for interview. Here gd was not a rejection round.
• Interview: as my turn came I went to interview room.
Tip: always carry ur file or folder in left hand as if somebody from interview panel wants to shake hand with u your right hand will be free ( by Mr. M. Thirumal Azhagan)
The interview started with simple questions like where u live and all. Suddenly it went in technical. I am listing some questions asked to me but no one can think of the range of questions that can be asked. So be prepared for anything from your degree or even from outside your course. Presence of mind must.
1. What is heat treatment
2. What r the types of heat treatment( asked to write on a paper)
3. Explain all the types you have written
4. Draw iron carbide phase diagram
5. Difference between fan, blower and compressor- this was disappointing for me as I never knew this as its core mechanical. So I told him I am from production. A BAD IMPRESSION SURELY.
6. What is viscosity
7. What are Newtonian fluids
8. Write Bernoulli’s equation- I never remember the equation but I told him that it’s the sum of all the heads present in the fluid. This was satisfying as it shows that my basics are right and I am just like that not mugging the equations. + point
Than came the HR who was very well behaving and asked very simple questions. What I did was being original. Whatever asked was given answer in the most truthful way. If you try to lie there is 100% chance that u will be caught. So be true. Be what u are. But when u feel that your answer may give some negative impact modify the words so that if feels like u have a positive attitude.

COMPANY NO. 3: ASHOK LEYLAND (ON CAMPUS)
A very basic requirement for appearing in Ashley is high CGPA. This time the criteria was 8 and above. Some 28 people from our dept took the test.
Procedure:
• Written test: first thing first. It was a tough test. It had three sections. This was the perfectly crafted written test that one can face.
Section 1: general- this consists of questions from 11 and 12 and also some general questions on daily equipments. Normal problems that one may see in daily life and how you reason it. Presence of mind and superb logical reasoning needed.
Section 2: domain test- for mechanical series one domain test was there which had questions from degree course as well as some general engineering questions. Here also one may answer most of the questions if he has put some concentration in studies. Not so easy to clear.
Section 3: aptitude- one can challenge the cat topper to come and do this section and chances are he will find it tough to complete in time. 60 very tough aptitude questions in 30 min. anyone correcting 30 questions confidently must be in a position to clear.
There were rumors that Ashley has sectional cut off but there was no official info on that. I cleared the written and next was direct interview. NO GD
• Interview: it was a one panel interview. One technical and one hr were sitting opposite to me. It started off with a question GIVE ME YOUR PROFILE. This was a shock. I was expecting tell me something about urself. But its all same. I started from my family profile. Than from school days to college whatever done by me. Be confident in telling about urself. Feel proud that somebody at such a high post is interested in knowing about you. So tell with full confidence. Tell the truth. Again, one lie and there stands a 100% chance that you will be caught. Have respect for interview panel and ultimately you will give true answers which will be surely the best answer you can give. That’s what I did.
The sir who was asking technical started asking questions related to IPT. Most of the questions from ipt were asked. The type of questions was like it will relate what you have seen in IPT and that will lead to what you have studied in your books. Like,
Q: what you saw in unity forge private limited.
A: they are doing customer based production in forging.
Q: what is difference between hot forging and cold forging?
A: above recrystallization temperature is hot forging and below that is called as cold forging
Q: what are advantages of hot forging?
A: less residual stress, no need of heat treatment, more deformation per forging stroke etc
Q: than how will you reduce residual stress in cold forging.
A: by annealing.
Q: I want some other method.
A: shot peening.
Q: What is shot peening.
So it goes on like this. One word u spoke -a question will be framed based on that word and posed again on you. So be careful of saying some process or product you are not much confident in.
This was in technical and than HR was there. HR madam was observing me when I was answering the technical question. So no big HR interview. Just if I am ready to work anywhere and things like that.
Tip: whoever asks you question in interview make a eye contact with all interview panel members whether they are interested or not or even if they are writing or seeing watch or whatever. ONE MUST HAVE EYE CONTACT WITH ALL