On Campus Interview Experience 1

June 23, 2019

  • Student – Arpit Sharma
  • College – VIT, Vellore.

I would suggest the following strategy to prepare for each stage of the Mu Sigma recruitment process:

Stage 1: muApt – The aptitude test:

The muAPT or the Mu Sigma Aptitude and Personality Test evaluates you on your aptitude, quant and logic, language and communication, personality and creativity. It is a kind of psychometric test designed to evaluate your aptitude, what kind of a person you are and how you would react in different situations.

I would recommend the following strategy to prepare for the Mu Sigma test:

  1. Quantitative Aptitude and Logic: Study the basics of quantitative aptitude and logic like reasoning, conditional statements, etc. You can refer to the book Quantitative Aptitude by RS Agrawal.
  2. Language and Communication: Improve your vocabulary and focus on Grammar while preparing for this section. I think the most important part will be Grammar and spoken communication.
  3. Personality and Creativity: There is no way to prepare for this section as there are no right answers to any of the questions. Every person is different in his/her own way and that’s good. My only advice would be to not fake your personality or try to portray a different self as they will easily call your bluff in subsequent rounds. They are not looking for any specific kind of people so it’s good to be you.

Stage 2: Video Synthesis

The next round after clearing muAPT will be a video synthesis round. In this round, you will be shown a video clip and you will have to write your own synthesis of it in 4-5 sentences. The purpose of this round is to see your ability to make sense of the data you are presented with beyond just summarizing what is shown.

A few tips for this round from my experience as an applicant and a recruiter for Mu Sigma are:

  1. Don’t, just don’t write a summary of what you saw. This is a strict no and will be rejected outright
  2. The video clip will be in English and mostly without subtitles. They will play it only once whether you got it or not. So be prepared and pay full attention
  3. Try to add your perspective on the scene. You don’t necessarily have to agree or support what is shown in the video. But if you are opposing the idea, do so with strong points and you’ll surely be noticed
  4. Write crisp and short points and be as precise as possible, long sentences generally show that your thoughts are not clear and are prone to rejection
  5. Try to add an original perspective to the events of the video as to why it could be happening or what could be the impact, etc.
  6. Lastly, this link might help in establishing the difference between summarizing and synthesizing.

There is not much preparation you can do for this section other than trying to write a short synthesis for different things you read/watch everyday.

Stage 3: Group Discussion:

In this stage, the applicants will be made to discuss some topic related to data analytics and its present state. You are not expected to know a lot about the topics. The evaluation criteria is based upon your communication skills and clarity of thought.

You should prepare by practicing regularly to speak in English on random subjects and also by learning tricks of making an impact in a GD and different GD etiquette like when to interrupt, how to speak and what to do and what not to do.

Stage 4: The interview:

The Mu Sigma Trainee Decision Scientist interview mostly focuses on understanding your personality, your specific skills and how truthful were you in your muAPT and resume.The key differentiator in this interview will be the focus on your answers in muAPT. The interviewer will ask you to justify your answers in the test to various questions and also ask you to explain why you answered in a particular way. The key here is to not fake or cheat on the test because they will easily find that out in the interview.

The other part will be focused on your video synthesis answers. The interviewer might ask you to elaborate on the points you wrote about the video in your answers and also ask you to explain your stand why you feel so. They will test your deduction skills here to see if you could really make sense of the video or data that was presented to you.

They might also ask you questions about the skills and projects that you mention on your resume to see how good you are at them and also to make sure you know what you are talking about. They might ask you for details of your projects or achievement to understand you better.

Lastly they might try to see how much you know about the company and ask you if you have any questions for them. This is majorly to see your interest in joining the company and your knowledge about the company you want to join.

While the first two sections will definitely be there, the last two are optional and the interviewer might ask you these questions based on how you fare in the first two sections.

Be prepared to answer questions about your projects, academics and other activities and certifications. You should also stay up to date with the latest developments with the company. Asking a few questions about the company that you couldn’t find answers to on the internet also casts an impression that you are interested in the company.