GATE

Most of the PSUs now recruit graduate trainees through GATE examination. The one's that don't either conduct their own test or recruit from colleges directly. The one's that recruit through GATE shortlist the candidates based on their respective GATE scores and dispatch the call letters in the month of June. For mechanical stream, interviews usually begin in the last week of June and continue till the end of September. Interview process generally consists of GD (group discussion), get ( group task) and PI ( personal interview). Different companies opt for different process. BPCL- GD, PI- Tech and PI- HR
RITES- GD and PI
BHEL- PI
NTPC- GD and PI
IOCL- GD, get and PI
HPCL- GD and PI
ONGC- PI
NLC- PI
MDL- PI
Group discussion is on topics concerning our everyday lives like education system, government policies etc. Or you could be presented with some case study. Personal Interviews are a bit tricky because the scope of questions is quite wide. They literally ask you anything. You can even expect questions on current affairs. One question that you would face in every interview will be the hypothetical situation that Let's suppose you get selected in 34 PSU's apart from ours. Which one would you opt for and why? Obviously you'll have to speak in favor of the one you're currently attending and it becomes really difficult if the company in question is inferior in all prospects. Results are generally declared in the month of August but can get delayed sometimes if company decides to change the vacancies. Post declaration of results, selected candidates are called for medical examination. Few PSU's namely BHEL, HPCL, ONGC, RITES also declare a list of candidates in waiting which is a good step.

There are very good books available for preparing GATE examination. But in order to have very good exposure and good understanding of all the concepts, you need to refer more than one kind of series. So based on that experience, below are my recommendations to crack the GATE examination. For CSE students:
1. GATE tutor 2018 Arihant publication
2. Trishnas: Computer Science and Information Technology
3. GATE 2018: Computer Science and Information Technology
For ECE students:
1. A Handbook on Electronics Engineering (highly recommended)
2. Arihants: GATE tutor 2018 Electronics and Communication Engineering
3. Made Easy GATE 2018 Electronics Engineering
For EEE students:
1. Made Easy: GATE 2018 Electrical Engineering
2. Made Easy: A Handbook on Electrical Engineering (very useful)
3. Trishnas: GATE 2018 Electrical Engineering
For mechanical engineering:
1. Made Easy: GATE 2018 Mechanical Engineering
2. Made Easy: A Handbook on Mechanical Engineering (useful one)
3. Arihants: GATE tutor 2018 Mechanical Engineering