On Campus Set 1
To begin with, ZS Associates offered 3 positions for their campus recruitment at Jadavpur University ( posting at Pune/ Gurugram ):
- Decision Analytics Associate
- Business Operations Associate
- Technology Analyst
For DAA and BOA, all engineering students were eligible to apply. But the TA position was only open for students of the so-called Circuit Departments which basically meant students pursuing CSE, ETCE, EE and IT. In all, 516 students had applied for the 3 positions, the majority opting for DAA or BOA as expected.
In all, the recruitment process was a 3 day process consisting of multiple rounds ( each round being an elimination round– after all ).
Day 1: So the first round was an Online Aptitude Test conducted by HirePro. The test had 60 Questions and the time allotted was 75 minutes. There were 5 sections in the test, namely Logical Reasoning, Visual, Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation. The cutoff was probably pretty high since I had attempted all questions with around 85% accuracy ( I guess ) but was only ranked 30th when the shortlist for Round 2 was announced that very evening (2nd September, 2017). 65 candidates were shortlisted for DAA, 77 for BOA and 19 for TA.
Day 2: The shortlisted candidates had to appear for an interview on the TalViewportal from their own PCs/Mobile Phones at home ( dressed in formals ). It was an Online interview almost akin to the TOEFL Speaking and Writing Sections ( for all those who are aware) with a few variations. It consisted of 2 parts. In the first part, there were 7 or 8 questions (around 5-6 HR questions and 1-2 guesstimates). The questions were displayed on the screen and the answers had to be spoken out on the headset/microphone (recommend that you wear it throughout the TalView interview). The thinking task for each question was 50 seconds, after which we had to speak out a 3 minute long reply. The 2nd part consisted of 3 writing tasks (again HR questions) in 15 minutes. From this round, 63 candidates (DAA=25, BOA=30, TA=8) were shortlisted for the Day 3 interviews to be held on campus (Jadavpur University).
Day 3 ( The D-Day ): . There were 171 students present for the final round. How? For getting a job, we would have to compete with students of not just JU, but also of nearby engineering colleges such as IIEST Shibpur, NIT Durgapur and BIT Mesra as their final rounds would be held simultaneously ( Pool Campusing, duh ). The students were required to be present with 2 printed copies of their CV. So the process began sharp at 9 am (Zero Delay, so the ones who came late had a tough time) and we were immediately handed over Case Study Booklets. I had never practised case study before so it was more or less unconquered territory (although data interpretation practice for various aptitude tests had helped me clear that round to a great extent). Now the case study booklet consisted of 15–16 pages of information related to some shop/industry and related graphs, charts and tables. We had to read and answer all the questions (around 8–9) in 40 minutes. This was undoubtedly the make or break Round. Immediately after this round was over, each student was summoned to discuss the case study and explain how he/she had solved the questions and his/her approach (most important) and calculation techniques (2nd most important). I was also asked a few basic HR questions like “Tell Me something about yourself”, “What do you know about ZS Associates?”, “What are the other companies you will be applying for?”, “Anything you’d like to know about ZS Associates?”. I believe smartness, eye contact and fluency (all 3 being functions of confidence) were being tested in that round. I was selected for the next round which was the final HR round where questions were asked based on my CV (mainly related to the kind of college activities I had participated in and what I’d done in my Data Analytics internship). I successfully tackled all the questions and was feeling good about myself when the HR went like, “Nice meeting you, but try to maintain more eye contact in your next interview.” , saying which he shook my hand.
So I started having mixed feelings about how the interview went and seeing people around me getting eliminated like ninepins made me all the more nervous.
So I was done with my Interviews at 12 noon and the final results were announced at 8 pm, where I was relieved more than anything else to have secured a job in my first attempt. 😀
In all 22 people were selected (4 colleges and 3 profiles combined), 10 of them being from Jadavpur University ( 3 from DAA including me, YAY , 3 from BOA and 4 from TA ).
ZS Associates were pretty cool to give us this little goodie at the end of the hectic day:
