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Here goes: There are X number of people standing in a circle. The first one kills three, the second one kills four and so on. Who would be the last one standing?
That’s the question a financial firm asked students at a campus placement at one of the oldest Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India.
And it does not matter if you do not follow cricket. Your interviewer can ask why there are 11 players in each team in one of the most popular games in the country.
This season, interviews at IITs are going beyond mere aptitude tests and technical rounds. Recruiting companies are changing tack and are grilling students over multiple rounds of out-of-the-box questions to find out if they have the right fit for the high compensation on offer.
“To truly gauge a candidate’s potential, we place a high value on their presence of mind and critical thinking abilities. In this pursuit, we often ask unconventional questions such as why a cricket team has only 11 members or how the candidate would design an airport within the city in Bangalore,” said Chetan Yadav, head and senior vice president of HR at Cashfree Payments, one of the recruiters at the IITs this year.
The payment startup toldMint that debate-based questions or “guestimates” help them analyse the candidates and their ability to think “creatively, challenge conventional wisdom, and embrace change.”
High-frequency trading firms, consulting companies, startups, public sector enterprises, and banks are on the prowl on the IIT campuses, offering annual salaries that range from ₹15 lakh to few crore rupees. Of the 23 IITs in the country, the first-generation institutes started their placement season on December 1, while the second- and third-generation IITs, along with the National Institutes of Technology, begin theirs in August-September.
Ethos, work culture
The recruiters have their rationale for asking questions that may stump these students, popularly called IITians.
“Some companies are asking offbeat questions like if not this company, which other company would you apply to? If the candidate names a large MNC, a startup is less likely to pick them since the ethos and work culture are vastly different,” said Varun Satia, founder of Kraftshala, a New Delhi-based skilling platform that helps students including IITians connect with recruiters for placement opportunities.
A student from one of the IITs toldMint on condition of anonymity that financial sector firms asked data interpretation questions in the form of interesting puzzles that required them to think out of the box and answer logically. Some questions were based on probability – how many people would have a certain type of hair in a city given certain conditions, and what is the market size of a shoe brand?
“These are the kind of things an IITian is expected to know because some of these companies only hire from IITs,” the student said. “Day one of placement was decent and better than last year. We saw a lot of companies doing mass hirings.”
Meesho, a Bengaluru-based online marketplace, will conduct a two-round interview process, each lasting 30 to 45 minutes. The company wants students for their “spikes.”
“We believe in hiring people for their spikes—the unique strengths that set them apart in specific areas. Instead of seeking well-rounded individuals who excel at everything, we value candidates who are exceptional at one thing, even if they may not be as strong in other areas,” said Ashish Kumar, chief human resources officer at Meesho.
Some of the initial rounds focus on academic achievements, projects and internships.
“We ask questions like, ‘What skill are you currently working to improve?’ or ‘Can you share a time you faced a challenge and how you tackled it?’ This allows us to identify individuals with the curiosity, resilience, and adaptability to succeed in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, even as they start their professional journey,” Kumar toldMint.
According to the student cited earlier, such questions were along expected lines, and they had prepared for it.
“That is what placement preparations are for,” the student said.
Last year, students and placement cells struggled to get everyone placed, the student added, so this year, they took every possible measure to be prepared for any sort of question that comes their way.
AI-led changes
Artificial intelligence consulting company Auxo AI plans to recruit 35 students from the IITs. The company’s hiring process includes two rounds that evaluate technical expertise and problem-solving abilities. While skillsets in languages such as Python will be tested, the company’s problem-solving exercises incorporate real-world business challenges with an AI-centric twist.
“For example, candidates are presented with case studies on improving business models and asked how AI can be leveraged to drive growth and efficiency,” said Deepesh Hiran, managing director for India at Auxo AI.
Hiring for AI-related technologies is altering the kind of job offers companies are making—and the educational qualifications required of students—at India’s top technology colleges. The salaries on offer are not only for BTech and computer science graduates, but equally for holders of master’s and PhD degrees in chemistry, physics and mathematics who can work on complex modelling programmes.
These problem-solvers will be responsible for working on AI programmes and algorithms. Modelling is a method in which companies use different permutation combinations to figure out the result of a particular scenario. Some companies are also interested in the behavioural traits of a candidate to know if they will adapt well to a fast-paced work culture.
“In startups, temperament matters a lot. Questions to assess behaviour like ability to cope with high-stakes situations, adapting to fast-changing organisational structures and operations, as well as meeting cultural demands have become integral to the selection process,” Kraftshala’s Satia added. “Recruiters have also become more fluid in terms of reshaping the role instead of being rigid about the job description, sometimes even creating new roles better suited to the candidates. You can expect this more among younger companies.”
According to Satia, some startups are phasing out aptitude tests and replacing them with assignments, with some recruiters even willing to sit down and work on the projects to assess problem-solving and decision-making abilities in real time.
“Many startups are also conducting culture fit rounds to assess how the candidate will adjust to the firm’s dynamic work culture,” he noted.
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