TCS HR Interview Questions

HR Interview Questions

1.                  Tell me something about yourself?

This is the most frequently asked question. Be prepared with 60 second commercial about yourself. Talk briefly about your family, education, industrial training, co curricular activities, and work experience all with an objective of highlighting your skills, strengths and values that match with the skills mentioned in the job description. You HAVE to show that there is a match between your qualities and the job that you have applied for. Please keep in mind the following:

-                      Prepare your script

-                      Memorize what you have prepared

-                      Practice, Practice, Practice

-                      Record your introduction on your Laptop or on Youtube and keep improvising

-                      Ensure that you display good Non Verbal communication when you are introducing yourself. For eg. Pause, Tone, Pitch, Rate of Speech, Inflection, Pronunciation, Articulation, Body Language, Gestures, Face Expressions and Eye contact

-                      Do not use negative words in your introduction

-                      Do not talk about your areas of improvement proactively

Following can be components of your introduction not necessarily in the same order:

ü    Name (Do not start with “Myself Vikas”, say “My name is Vikas”)

ü    Place you belong to with one good thing the place is famous for

ü    Family – Parents, siblings

ü    Any learning that you got from your family in terms of Values or skills

ü    Industrial Training – Project Title, Objective of Project, Scope of Project, Methodology followed or Modus operandi, your accountabilities and achievements in the project

ü    Your participation in co curricular activities and your learning from them. For example if you are in any type of sports then you can talk about teamwork, strategy, winning, focus, competitiveness etc.

ü    Your Assets (Skills, Values and Strengths)

ü    Your Hobbies (only talk about hobbies you are passionate about). Please talk about learning from your hobbies. For example if your hobby is cooking then you can talk about creativity, correctness, excellence, accuracy etc.

2.                  What are your key strengths? Why?

Your strengths are areas where you are better than others. You can have strengths at two levels – Personal and Professional. It is better to talk about professional strengths that are relevant to the job that you have applied for. For Example in TCS, if you feel your knowledge about C, C++, C sharp, Java and Databases is sound, then it is a great strength to talk about (Be prepared to face incisive questions if you talk about this as your strength). Please refer to the attached titled “List of Strengths”. Please talk about your Achievements to support your strengths. For Eg. If you say that you are a team player then you can support it by saying “In every team assignment in the college everyone wanted me to be in their team because i was not only liked for my task orientation but also for my ability to go that extra mile and help others to complete the task”

3.                  What are your Areas of Improvement/ Weaknesses?

You need to look at this question very logically. Even your strengths are in a way your areas of improvement because you can be better at them. First you should try and talk about areas of improvement that are not related to the core work that you have applied for. What is important here is that do not talk about the area of improvement only. Talk about what you have done to improve them and what is your progress. Please find attached a document by the name “List of Areas of improvement”. Following are few more areas where you might like to improve yourself:

ü    Time Management

ü    Vocabulary

ü    Communication

ü    Email Skills

ü    Telephone Skills

ü    Stress Management

ü    Fitness

ü    Etiquettes – Business, Social etc.

ü    Lifestyle

4.                  Why should we hire you?

This question is asked to find out if you have the qualities that the company is looking at. Following are a few most commonly sought after by the corporate world:

ü    Leaning Agility

ü    Coach ability

ü    Desire to Contribute

ü    Analytical Skills

ü    Problem Solving

ü    Respect for protocol

ü    Interpersonal Skills

ü    Effective communication

ü    Integrity

ü    Ability to Innovate

ü    Good Computer Skills – Spreadsheets, Power point etc.

ü    Teamwork

ü    Task Orientation

ü    Process Orientation

Please use Google if you want to know more about these skills/ values/ strengths

5.                  Why do you want to join TCS/ any other company?

Following are a few reasons people join a company for:

ü    A good work opportunity

ü    Scope for Self Development (Training Opportunities)

ü    Work Culture (Meritocracy Driven, Coaching, Rewarding)

ü    Good Compensation

ü    Great brand name to associate with

ü    Global organization so international exposure

ü    Growing company so loads of growth opportunities

ü    Recognitions and awards the company has got

ü    Company products and services being world-class

ü    Innovative Company

ü    CSR Initiatives of the Company

ü    Work Life Balance Practices like Work from home, child crèche in the office etc.

ü    The job being in your hometown and for some reason you cannot relocate

6.                  What do you know about TCS/ our organisation?

Following things should be known about a company you are getting interviewed with:

This link is a MUST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Services

ü    Values

http://www.tcs.com/about/heritage_values/Pages/default.aspx

ü    Mission

http://www.tcs.com/about/heritage_values/Pages/default.aspx

ü    Products/ Softwares

http://www.tcs.com/offerings/Pages/default.aspx

ü    Competition

 http://www.moneycontrol.com/competition/tataconsultancyservices/comparison/TCS

ü    Turnover/ Net Profit for last 3 years

http://www.moneycontrol.com/financials/tataconsultancyservices/results/yearly/TCS

ü    CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Initiatives

http://www.tata.com/company/Media/inside.aspx?artid=xqM0dUeQ2SM=

ü    Executive Leadership (Founder, CEO, Chairman etc.)

http://www.moneycontrol.com/company-facts/tataconsultancyservices/management/TCS#TCS

http://www.tcs.com/about/corp_facts/board_directors/Pages/default.aspx

ü    Recent News or Articles about the company

http://www.tcs.com/news_events/tcs_news/Pages/default.aspx

7.                  What values are dear to you and why?

Your values are principles that you do not compromise with. All of us have values – Professional or Personal. Similarly all the companies follow some values. These values are zero tolerance areas in the companies. It helps in the interview if some of your values match with the company values. Some relevant values that you can talk about are:

ü    Integrity

ü    Hard work

ü    Innovation

ü    Respect

ü    Openness

ü    Customer Focus

ü    Winning

ü    Accountability

ü    Continuous Improvement

ü    Learning

ü    Contribution

ü    Correctness

ü    Efficacy

ü    Excellence

ü    Merit

ü    Teamwork

Please be prepared to support any value that you claim is dear to you, with facts and figures from your life

8.                  Who is your “Hero/ Role model” and why?

This is very similar to the question number 7. Interviewer wants you to list down the qualities of your role model. It is a common practice to have fascination for people you want to be like. Therefore it is very much possible that if you admire somebody for some values, skills or strengths, you would like to be like them and you would like to imbibe theirs skills, values and strengths. There are two ways you can answer this question:

ü    You can say that you are a keen learner and that you have been mentored by different people at different times. You can say that many people have been your role models and they all have of inspired you, helped you learn new things and mentored you at different times

ü    You can talk about some Freedom Fighter, sportsperson or Business Leader where you can talk about some skills, values and strengths that match with the companies values and the skills that match the skills mentioned in the job description

9.                  What are your top achievements and what helped you achieve them?

This question is asked with an objective of knowing your qualities that lead to the achievements in your life. You can talk about achievements under the following categories:

ü    Sports

ü    Co-curricular Activities

ü    Position of Responsibility Held

ü    Academic

ü    Social

ü    Creative

ü    Any situation where you chased a target and achieved it

ü    Teamwork related achievements

ü    Problem solving related achievement

ü    Health related achievements

ü    Social Cause

10.              How will your parents, teachers and friends describe you?

This question is asked with an objective of finding your skills, habits and strengths. Your answer should be on the following lines:

Parents

ü    Obedient

ü    Trustworthy

ü    Respectful

ü    Caring

ü    Loving

ü    Etc.

Teachers

ü    Punctual

ü    Disciplined

ü    Attentive

ü    Etc.

Friends

ü    Reliable

ü    Trustworthy

ü    Helpful

ü    Caring

ü    Fun loving

ü    Resourceful

ü    Etc.

11.              What according to your parents, teachers and friends would be your areas of improvement?

This is a tough question and be careful in answering this. You have to show that you have been sensitive to the opinions of your parents, friends and teachers and that you work on the feedback provided to you. Your answer should be on the following lines:

Parents

ü    Lazy

ü    Casual

ü    Unorganized

ü    Etc.

Teachers

ü    Communication

ü    Health

ü    Public Speaking

ü    Etc.

Friends

ü    Talkative

ü    Health

ü    Emotional

ü    Carefree

ü    Etc.

12.              Please talk about your Industrial Project or Training

This is a very important question and is bound to be a part of your interview. Please ensure that you know the following IN DEPTH about your training:

ü    Objective

ü    Scope

ü    Methodology

ü    Data Collection and Analysis, if any

ü    Your Learning

ü    Your Results

ü    Your recommendations

ü    Industry best practices in the area where you did your training

ü    Details about your Mentor/ Guide

ü    Details about the company where you did your training. This should cover all the parameters mentioned in question number 6

Please ensure that you deep dive into everything related to your project. Please know about each and every term that you use to describe or talk about your project

13.              Where do you see yourself 3, 5 or 7 years down the line?

Following are a few ways you can answer this question:

ü    Some companies like Maruti give the career path with timelines of new recruits in their Pre Placement presentation. It is a good idea to study this information if this is available to you. If not you can ask this during the interview. You can frame your answer as per the information available to you

ü    As a fresher you join in an individual contributor role. It takes around two to three years for you to be at supervisory level where you are expected to drive people for results. In three, five and seven years, a person moves from Junior Management Cadre to Middle Management cadre and finally to Senior Management cadre in around 7 to 10 years. You can frame your answer as per the management level where your see yourself in 3, 5 to 7 years

ü    In about 3 years you become a supervisor managing a team of individual contributors. In about 5 years you become manager’s manager. In 7-10 years you are manager’s manager with managers not from one business area but from many business areas like marketing, finance, sales and HR. You are also responsible for profitability of the whole business or a unit of the business (if you are working in a big company). You are called a PROFIT CENTRE HEAD when you manage a complete business or an independent business unit

14.              What is your salary expectation?

Since you are a fresher, you can say that Self Development and Learning are your focus areas and that whatever company pays to freshers is acceptable to you

15.              Are you open to relocation?

It is a good thing if you are mobile and are open to relocation. If for some reason you know that you cannot relocate then you can politely inform that due to family reasons you cannot relocate for a couple of years

16.              Do you believe in teamwork? How are you as a team player?

Yes is obviously the answer to this question. Please read some quotes about team work. For eg. “All of us can think better then any one of us”. Following are characteristics of a good team and a good team player:

A Good Team

ü    Competence – everyone brings something that the team needs

ü     A clear and Compelling Goal

ü     Commitment to the common goal

ü     Every member contributes and benefits

ü     A supportive Environment for the team to work. Empowerment

ü     Alignment to the goals

A Good Team Player

ü    Is an Initiator

ü    Works for consensus on decisions

ü     Open and Authentic communication

ü     Involves others in decision making process

ü     Trusts, supports and has genuine concern for other team members

ü     Owns problems rather than blaming them on others

ü     Actively listens and empathizes

ü     Encourages development of other team members

ü     Respects and is tolerant of individual differences

ü     Acknowledges and works through conflicts openly

ü     Considers and uses new ideas and suggestions from others

ü     Encourages feedback on own behavior

ü     Understands and is committed to team objectives

ü     Does not engage in ego trips with other team members

ü     Understands what is going on in the group

17.              The environment in our company is stressful. How do you propose to deal with stress?

You must know the following things about Stress Management

Maintain a Stress Journal

ü     What caused your stress (make a guess if you’re unsure)

ü     How you felt, both physically and emotionally

ü     How you acted in response

ü     What you did to make yourself feel better

Negative ways of Managing Stress

ü     Smoking

ü     Drinking too much

ü     Overeating or under eating

ü     Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer

ü     Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities

ü     Using pills or drugs to relax

ü     Sleeping too much

ü     Procrastinating

ü     Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems

ü     Taking out your stress on others (lashing out, angry outbursts, physical violence)

Positive Ways of Managing Stress

ü    Learn how to say “No”

ü    Avoid people who give your stress

ü    Take control of your environment

ü    Avoid topics that give you stress

ü    Relax on your To Do List

ü    Express your feelings instead of bottling them up

ü    Be willing to compromise

ü    Be organised

ü    Manage your time better

ü    Do a root cause analysis and resolve problems where they are

ü    Look at the bigger picture rather then the problem in hand

ü    Reframe problems

ü    Avoid chasing perfectionism if that is causing stress

ü    Focus on the positive

ü    Do not try to control the uncontrollable

ü    Look for the upside

ü    Learn to forgive

ü    Dedicate to for relaxation

ü    Connect with others

ü    Develop a hobby

ü    Keep your sense of humour

ü    Exercise Regularly

ü    Eat a healthy diet

ü    Reduce Caffeine and Sugar

ü    Avoid Alcohol, Cigarettes and drugs

ü    Get Enough Sleep

ü    Go for a walk

ü    Spend time in nature

ü    Call a good friend

ü    Sweat out tension with a good workout

ü    Take a long bath

ü    Light scented candles

ü    Savour a warm cup of coffee or tea

ü    Play with a pet

ü    Work in your garden

ü    Get a massage

ü    Curl up with a good book.

ü    Listen to music

ü    Watch a comedy

18.              Are you able to make 100% utilisation of time? If not why?

This question is asked to understand how you manage your time. You should know about the following

Time Management Techniques

ü    Daily Activity Log – To identify how you are spending your time

ü    Scheduling – To do list, calendar, mobile phone reminders etc.

ü    Setting Effective Goals – Breaking goals into milestone goals with timelines

ü    Effective Delegation – Delegate tasks as per skills and keep load as a consideration

Time Wasters

ü    Overreaching. This also means overloaded

ü    Failure to delegate

ü    Coworkers who take their coffee breaks in your office

ü     Visitors who have no particular purpose

ü     Unwanted Telephone Calls

ü     Unnecessary paperwork

ü     Procrastination. This also means habit of postponing things

ü     Poorly organized or unnecessary meetings

ü    Avoidable Travel

ü    Irrelevant Emails

ü    Internet

ü    Over sleeping

19.              Do you rate decision making as your strength? If yes, describe a real life situation

Yes is the obvious answer to this question. While talking about a real life situation you can support your answer by talking about the following ingredients of good decision making:

ü    Outline your goal and outcome

ü    Gather data

ü    Develop alternatives (i.e., brainstorming)

ü    List pros and cons of each alternative

ü    Make the decision

ü    Immediately take action to implement it

ü    Learn from and reflect on the decision

20.              Do you consider yourself as an effective problem solver? If yes, describe a real life situation

Yes is the obvious answer to this question. While talking about a real life situation you can talk about the following techniques of problem solving:

ü    Brainstorming - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming

ü    Root Cause Analysis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis

ü    The 5 Why Technique - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

21.              Is effective communication important? If yes, why?

Yes effective communication is an absolute must for the following reasons:

ü    Effective communication helps you understand others

ü    Effective communication helps others understand you

ü    Effective communication helps you generate the desired response

ü    Effective communication helps you build strong credibility in every environment you operate

ü    Effective communication fosters teamwork and helps in making strong teams

ü    Effective communication improves efficiency of coaching

ü    Effective communication reduces conflict

ü    Effective communication ensures consensus fast

ü    Effective communication helps you save time

ü    Effective communication helps you refine your communication each time

ü    Effective communication helps in removing ambiguity

ü    Effective communication enhances the speed with which the receiver grasps the information

22.              How will you differentiate between a manager and a leader?

In my experience in working with leaders and managers, I have found that most people are predisposed from their early childhood, maybe even from birth, to be either a leader or a manager. That's not to say that a person can't acquire the skills to be one or the other, only that to most people one is more natural than the other. This is why a person would be naturally attracted to either being a manager or a leader. Following are some traits and qualities that make leaders and managers predisposed to be one or the other.

Leadership vs. Management Personality Traits

Leadership Personality Traits	Management Personality Traits
Big Picture	Detail Oriented
Strategic	Tactical
"Are We in the Right Jungle?"	Cutting Trees Efficiently
Vision, Strategy, Execution	Goals, Projects, Tasks
Effectiveness	Efficiency
Forge Vision	Follow Vision
Right Brain/Lateral Thinking	Left Brain/Linear Thinking
Progress	Process, Results
People are the Reason	People are the Means
People More Important than Task	Task More Important than People
Internal Frame of Reference	External Frame of Reference
Intuitive: Seek Internal Guidance	Sensing: Seek External Data
Visionary, Dreamer, Romantic	Level-headed, Realistic, Practical
Goose: Production Capacity	Golden Eggs: Productivity, Production
Panoramic Vision	Tunnel Vision

23.              Differentiate between customer delight and customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction is meeting the promised standards and Customer Delight is exceeding them

24.              What are your future education plans?

This is a tricky question and be very careful while answering this. Make it a point to talk about part time education plans or education plans that are 5-7 years away. Please do NOT talk about CAT, GATE, GRE, MAT etc. You also need to watch out for direct questions like “How is your CAT preparation going on?” When you talk about your immediate education plans you indirectly indicate that you will not join the company if you get admission in  a good management college or engineering college for M Tech

25.              How do you spend your free time? What are your Hobbies?

This is a question about activities that are your passionate pursuits. You are expected to know about the hobbies that you write or talk about. For example if you say that music is your hobby, you can be specific and talk about what type of music do you like (Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop, Ghazals etc.). It would be a great idea if you can talk about your favourite artist also. If a sport is your hobby then you should know about the sport you claim is your hobby. You MUST talk about the skills, values or strengths that you have acquired because of your association with a particular hobby. You have to remember that is MOST CERTAINLY not an easy question

26.              Describe a typical day of your life

This question is asked to access your planning and organizing skills. Interviewers also want to see how well do you compartmentalize your mind. You need to ensure that you cover the following while describing a day of your life:

ü    Pre day Planning – Prepare To do List, Plan outbound calls, Plan Classes, Plan Meetings, Plan Co curricular activities

ü    Finish Homework the previous day

ü    Get up not later than 6 am

ü    Spend some time exercising

ü    Take the pet for a walk or do kitchen gardening – Hobbies and Stress Bursters

ü    Leave for college in such a way that you reach 15 minutes before time – Time Management

ü    Some sports after coming back

ü    Study for at least 1.5 – 2 hours

ü    Spend some time with family – Work Life Balance

ü    Some time on internet before you go to sleep – Networking (Facebook, Linkedin etc.), Email and Informative search via Google

27.              What have you prepared for this interview?

Please talk about the following:

ü    Company Information – Question Number 6

ü    Job Description

ü    Subject Knowledge

ü    HR questions

ü    Self Assessment to pen down you Skills, Strengths, Values and Areas of Improvement

28.              What are you favourite subjects?

Please talk about subjects that are relevant to the job. Do not talk about more than 2 subjects. If expertise are at four levels – Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert then you are expected to be nothing less than advanced in your second favourite subject and expert in your favourite subject. If you say that your favourite subject is C then you should be able to write a program, improvise a program, spot errors etc.

29.              Please sell me a Mobile, Laptop, Camera etc.

It is a very technical question. Sales, irrespective of the product, follow a certain methodology. If you are given a sales exercise then you should know the following four things:

ü    Customer profile: Age, Occupation, Designation, Organization, Existing product that the customer is using, competitive products that the customer is looking at

ü    BANT: Budget, Authority (Is he or she the decision maker), Need (how urgently and badly is the product required) and Timeline (when is the purchase planned)

ü    FAB: Features, Advantages and Benefits – While selling anything you sell the Benefits and not the features

ü    Sales Cycle: Pre call Preparation (Create customer profile), Opening (open the call by pitching an interesting benefit of the product), Probing (ask intelligent questions to uncover customer needs), Product Positioning(suggest product as per customer’s requirement), Objection Handling (be Prepared with the objections that customer might have), Closing (Close the call, take payment, finish documentation)

BANT Criteria

It is a good idea to evaluate, right at the beginning of the call, whether the prospect is a hot prospect or not. Using BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Time) criteria, you can better decide what leads you would like to go after. Using BANT criteria at the beginning of the call is like switching on the lights before entering a dark room. This concept was developed by IBM but is used widely by many organisations worldwide. Microsoft is one such example. A BANT criterion helps you determine if there’s a budget, who holds the authority regarding the purchase decision, their business needs, and the timeframe for the implementation. A sales person needs to fill in three of those four criteria in order for a lead to qualify as a sales opportunity and be part of the pipeline. If sales person can do this, they won’t be potentially wasting time with a lead that might have a need but no budget, or one that has a budget but the timing isn’t right

FAB or Benefit Selling

“People buy for their reasons and not ours” is true for all sales situations. Customers will not buy an offer for what an offer is, but they will buy what they believe the offer will do for them. Therefore, it is important to sell benefits rather than selling features. It is important to understand the difference between Features, Advantages and Benefits

Feature

A Product fact or Characteristic

“Because of ….”

Advantage

Tells what the feature means or what the feature will do

“You will be able to….”

Benefit

Spells out the worth that the buyer will derive from the product or the service

“Which means that…?”

Let us take the example of Salesperson who is trying to sell a laptop with a better processor. FAB in this case would look like this:

Feature

 “Because this Laptop has core i7 processor”

Advantage

 “You will be able to work faster”

Benefit

 “Which means that core i7 processor will help you SAVE TIME and INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY?”

30.              Question to check your ethical framework or Situation reaction test

Example 1

You own a company which has 30 employees, to take a new contract for the company you would have to bribe a government officer. If you bribe him your company will get the contract. Otherwise your company will close and 30 people working in it will lose their job. Would you bribe the officer?

This is a question on situational ethics. Please tell the interviewer that in your personal life you will never bribe but if in this case the contract can only be taken by giving bribe then you might like to follow the tradition in the trade with your company’s permission in a transparent manner. For example there is a bribing procedure in Excise department if you have to get a new product approved or if you want to get a permit where you have to bribe multiple people in the chain. In fact while recruiting HR looks at this as a competency and only hires you if you can do this

Example 2

If you see somebody doing financial misappropriation, fudge data, misuse office property, mis-sell, misuse of email etc. what will you do?

This is a situation on ethics violation. This is a zero tolerance area. You must blow the whistle which means you must report it to HR immediately. If somebody in your team is doing this then you should report this to HR and ensure that that person is out of the company/ fired/ sacked. Please remember that no company tolerates ethics violations or integrity breach. These are no tolerance areas and are terminable offenses

31.              Why being a Mechanical (Electrical or Aeronautical) Engineer an IT company?

Please provide the following reasons to support your point:

ü    You are interested in IT

ü    IT field has more opportunities than Mechanical (EEE or AE)

ü    You had two compulsory papers on IT which you liked and which got you interested in IT

ü    Mechanical designs are also IT oriented (CAD, CAM)

ü    You will be more useful in Mechanical domain based projects as your dual skills (IT and Mechanical) will prove to be more useful then just IT skills

32.              How would you face the competition from IT/CS students in the company, being a non IT student? What effort do you plan to put for overcoming these challenges?

I had two IT subjects compulsory in my engineering curriculum. Being interested in IT i have been keeping myself updated on IT fundamentals. I am a quick learner and am very coachable therefore i am confident that i will make full use of classroom and on the job training. Even after all this if i find some competency gap then i will take training from outside and taper of this gap between me and the IT/ CS candidates soon

33.              Tell me your reference number

Memorize your reference number (CT2345....)

34.              Questions have been asked in the past about economic slowdown in America, Japan Disaster etc.

Please be prepared with current topics like Coalgate, 2G scam, Olympics, Oil Prices, Digitalization of Indian Television, Union Budget 2012, Railway Budget 2012, Ongoing T 20’s, FDI in Retail  etc.