Engineering

First, a bit of a background. I did my mechanical engineering from a decent state level university college and I got placed into IBM in the final year. Having no other options, I joined IBM after college. But I wanted to work in a field of my engineering background, and so I also took up GATE coaching at ACE Academy. I got a rank of ~4000 in GATE 2016. Since I didnt get into any PSU or IIT with this rank, I had to continue looking for other options, which is when I applied to ISRO. Now, coming to the experience, let me give you an overview of the selection process. There's 2 stages for ISRO recruitment. First is a written exam, 80 questions, 90 minutes. 3 marks for correct answer and a negative mark for each wrong answer. You can look up the syllabus on their website. The board uses the exam as a way to shortlist candidates for the interview. Your selection depends only on your performance in the interview. The candidates are called for the interview in the ratio of around 89 candidates per post. For preparing for the exam I only revised the notes I had prepared for GATE and then went through all previous year question papers. I bought this book which had previous question papers for ISRO and DRDO. (MADE EASY Publications). I felt the ISRO exam requires time management as we had to answer more questions in lesser time for this exam (unlike GATE where time constraint is not felt). To get used to this, I set a timer and wrote the previous exam papers as though I am writing the actual exam. Then I made a list of questions I made mistakes in, and a list of theoretical questions for which I didnt know the answer. Revised these questions again before the exam once. I managed to get 140/240. The cutoff was around 130 I think. I was requested to come to NRSA Hyderabad for the interview. I contacted one of my tutor from ACE academy and requested for help in preparing for the interview. He arranged a mock interview with the senior faculty at ACE. The director of the institute also spoke to me and gave me tips to prepare for the interview. A big thanks to all of them :). The reporting time for the interview was 8 AM. But I was the second last person to be interviewed and my interview happened at 9 PM. Despite the long and boring wait, I went into the interview hall with a lot of energy and a big smile on my face. There were 6 panel members and a chairman. The chairman asked me to explain what I work at IBM (I work on an ERP tool). Then he asked me to explain.