Students’ Speak: Know what it takes to land a job in top companies

Campus placements can be the stepping-stone for anybody’s career. Athira Anand shares tips on how to put the best foot forward during interview rounds with top companies.

I'm a second-year student at Adani College pursuing PGDM in infrastructure management and our batch consists of 42 students. There are companies who visit the college every year for recruitment.

The domains they deal with include real estate, HR, finance, IT governance, energy, transportation, etc. Students also attend pool placement drives from companies such as Byju's, Ekart, etc. The interviews for top companies usually lasts an hour, the questions asked include situational questions, analytical and technical aspects, etc. Other companies such as L&T stress upon the experience factor (if any) or the project work done, work done during an internship, etc.

Some of the questions asked to the previous batch's students included:

1. Where do you want to see yourself in a year? 
2. Sell me yourself. 
3. Explain your internship.
4. Explain your final year project work.

Apart from the above-mentioned generic questions, technical questions related to undergraduate courses and infrastructure are also asked. Answers to these questions should be simple and not the ones that Google provides. It should sound like a sincere answer and not made up for the sake of replying. For example, one of the students was asked, “what if I don't hire you despite the fact that you're good in your knowledge and studies?” He answered, “I'll work on my weakness and come back next time.” Another student who is a native of Assam was asked, “why do houses in Assam have sloped roofs?”. He replied, “Because of the rainwater to seep out”.

Not all the questions require rocket-science knowledge and many students were placed at the end of the day. I’m gearing up for the placements and companies have started coming to the college. I'm also done with a few mock interviews, aptitude tests and group discussions. The simple funda of getting placed is the base knowledge of the subject, presence of mind while answering certain questions, being a bit smart and staying attentive to details.

Placements for every batch, since the beginning of PGDM programme in our college, have been 100 percent and I believe it's a commendable achievement. Not every MBA college in India has achieved this consistent trend of placing all the students in consecutive years though all strive to do the same. Among 50 students in my senior batch, AECOM offered a pre-placement offer to a student who had interned with them and she was the highest package holder of the batch with 10 LPA. The lowest offered salary for 2018 batch was four lakh, but the companies that usually reach out to the college are more or less corporate big firms. The average salary for a fresher is 5 LPA.

Companies such as KPMG, E&Y, Deloitte and PWC have recruited students from senior batches while students from my class have also done an internship with the Big-4s. The above-mentioned companies offer a package of 4 LPA. Apart from this, Adani Group Companies, L&T, Simplex, JLL and CBRE have also recruited a number of students since the inception of the course.

About the Author:

Athira Anand is a student of Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management and is currently pursuing PGDM in Infrastructure Management. She is a civil engineer forged by learnings in infrastructure and is keen to build a career in the consulting domain. She is very passionate about exploring more in Techno-Commercial sector.