Hello everyone, this is my interview experience at the on-campus placement drive of Aricent Technologies. Aricent visited our campus on 30th September 2015. Being from the Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE) branch, I was very much excited about its visit, as it is a core company which deals with “Communications Infrastructure” and “Embedded Systems“. The first round of the selection procedure was the short-listing based on the CGPA (till 6th Semester) of B.Tech curriculum. So, first of all, to be eligible for the whole process & get short-listed for further rounds, you need to have a good CGPA in your three years of B.Tech (the cut-off was 7.5 but a CGPA of 8.0 & above will put you on a safer side). The shortlisted students were then called for their Technical Interview & HR Interview rounds (each being an elimination round). Though I don’t exactly remember all the questions that I was asked during these rounds, but still I will try to recall most of them for you…
Technical Interview Round
As there was CGPA based short-listing of the candidates in the first round, mostly all the candidates were with a good CGPA. So, I knew that the competition would be really tough & I would be grilled especially on my core subjects. On the day of interview, I came to know that there are two panels for taking the technical interviews – ECE & CSE. Although my main objective for the interview was to get an experience of technical interview round of a core company, but I was still praying to get an ECE panel in the interview.
I entered the room and greeted the interviewer. He asked me to take the seat. Then, he asked me to introduce myself. I gave a brief of myself including my strengths, extra-curricular activities etc. Then he started with some basic questions like what is an oscillator, how it works, what are its real life applications etc. Although it was little difficult for me to recall what all things I studied about oscillator in my first and second year, I started with the definition of oscillator, small description of how it works and quoted two examples of its applications.
By now, I started believing that he is from ECE panel so he would be asking me mainly from my core subjects. But, to my surprise, he started asking me to write code! Though, I was familiar with C, C++, Java & Python but during the preparation time I had not found much time to revise all the topics of the programming languages. So, I was a little nervous when I started. He first asked me to write a simple code for adding two numbers to warm me up (may be he noticed my nervousness!). In the meantime, he started going through my resume, gradesheets, certificates and took his time on it. I wrote the code. Then he asked me to write code for swapping two numbers without using a third variable. Though there was a minor error in one of the statements, he was satisfied with my answer. He then asked me to write a program on pointers which I don’t remember as I was nervous (God knows how I got through it also!). Next, he asked me to explain the concept of inheritance through a coding example. This made me nervous again as the codes I wrote for the previous questions, were in C but now I had to write a code in C++ or Java (because C doesn’t have classes). I wrote the code in Java and explained him the concept of inheritance. He was satisfied. Then he asked me to write a code for a linked list. I started thinking about it and in the meanwhile, he asked me to write the code for deleting a node from it also! Being from ECE branch, I said that though I am familiar with all the concepts but I am not comfortable in writing codes for them as of now. So, I told him what is a linked list, how it works and what is the method for deleting a node from it. He was pretty much satisfied with my answers.
Then, he switched back to my ECE core subjects and started asking me about what is AM, FM, GSM, CDMA, what is the difference between them, in which case is noise lowest and why. I had studied about AM and FM in my first 2 years, but I had not studied much about GSM & CDMA because I would be studying them in my current semester. I started giving answers one-by-one explaining him about AM, FM and their working, then GSM, CDMA, their working, the differences between them & also about soft and hard hand-off. I also told him that according to me noise in CDMA will be lower as it uses orthogonal codes for each user which do not interfere with each other. Then, he asked me what is a transducer, full duplex and half duplex channels & their examples. He was pretty much satisfied with my answers. Next, he questioned me about the United Nations short-term course studies & exams which I gave. He also asked me about the online courses I did (I had mentioned them in my resume) in detail. I explained about them.
Lastly, he asked me about my academic projects – what were they all about, their details etc. I explained each of them. In the end, he said it was nice talking to me, I thanked him and came out of the room. While coming out of the room, I came to know that he was from CSE panel as it was written in the panel details! After sometime, lunch was announced and so my result came post-lunch.
My name wasn’t there on the first list of the selected candidates of the Technical Interview Round that came out post-lunch. I was not very much upset with it as I mentioned earlier, I went there to have an experience of a technical interview of a core company. Moreover, as my interview was with a CSE panel & not an ECE one, I thought I would be evaluated mainly for my coding ability. So, I packed my bag & was ready to leave. But, then to my surprise, my name was called as one of the tech-selects which had to go for the HR interview now.
HR Interview Round
An application form was given to all the tech-selects to be filled asking some basic details about the candidate. Again to my surprise, I was among the first ones to be called for the HR interview. I didn’t expect it as I had submitted my form at the end because I was a little confused in what to write in some of the sections. My interview was scheduled with another candidate.
We both entered the room and greeted the interviewer. She asked “how are you?”. I said I am good. Then she asked me to introduce myself, asked me about my family members and location preference. I answered appropriately. Then, she talked about the best things she had experienced about working at Aricent, like the work culture (no dress code!), learning opportunities, the various domains in which Aricent is presently working – mainly networking, communications, semiconductors, software etc. She also said that another good thing about Aricent is the flexible working hours. At many times, she kept on relaxing us (maybe she noticed that we have been there for the whole day, answering all their questions and so we would be tired by then as it was evening then!). After that, she said it was nice talking to both of us and asked to wait for the results.
All in all, it was 35-40 minutes of Technical Round Interview & 15-20 minutes of the HR Interview Round. By late evening, we got the results out & I was among the 81 fortunate ones, from all our four campuses, who got an offer from Aricent.
At the end, my advice to an aspirant (especially for a core ECE company) would be to maintain a good CGPA in the first three years of your B.Tech because CGPA is the first thing that appears on your resume (and first impression is last impression!). Moreover, you may not be able to even sit for the process if your CGPA is low. Next, focus on your core subjects, find which subjects best suits you and develop interest in the subjects in which you think you are not good but will be important in your future. On the day of your interview, try to be as calm & relaxed as possible. Think carefully before answering every question you encounter. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know the answer” for the questions you don’t know. Be honest and mention only those things on your resume which you know thoroughly. If you are not sure of something, don’t mention it. If there is nothing significant to mention on your resume, try to do something important so that you can mention it. Be thorough with all the projects you have done. Remember, resume is like the syllabus of your interview which you have to design for yourself. Lastly, believe in God, believe in yourself and give your best. Good luck!
Gautam Vashisht, JIIT Noida