HR Interview Questions

TATA CONSULTANCY
SERVICES (TCS)

PREPARED BY : SANDEEP SHARMA

HERO MOTOCORP LTD.
GURGAON (HARYANA)

Date: October 3, 2012

HR Interview Questions
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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:

skills

Name (Do not start with Myself Vikas, say My name is Vikas)
Place you belong to with one good thing the place is famous for
Family Parents, siblings
Any learning that you got from your family in terms of Values or
Industrial Training Project Title, Objective of Project, Scope of
Project, Methodology followed or Modus operandi, your
accountabilities and achievements in the project
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.
Your Assets (Skills, Values and Strengths)
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.

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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:

Time Management
Vocabulary
Communication
Email Skills
Telephone Skills
Stress Management
Fitness
Etiquettes Business, Social etc.
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:

Leaning Agility
Coach ability
Desire to Contribute

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Analytical Skills
Problem Solving
Respect for protocol
Interpersonal Skills
Effective communication
Integrity
Ability to Innovate
Good Computer Skills Spreadsheets, Power point etc.
Teamwork
Task Orientation
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:

A good work opportunity

Scope for Self Development (Training Opportunities)

Work Culture (Meritocracy Driven, Coaching, Rewarding)

Good Compensation

Great brand name to associate with

Global organization so international exposure

Growing company so loads of growth opportunities

Recognitions and awards the company has got

Company products and services being world-class

Innovative Company

CSR Initiatives of the Company

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

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

Values

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

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

Products/ Softwares

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

Competition

http://www.moneycontrol.com/competition/tataconsultancyservices/compa
rison/TCS

Turnover/ Net Profit for last 3 years

http://www.moneycontrol.com/financials/tataconsultancyservices/results/y
early/TCS

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Initiatives

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

Executive Leadership (Founder, CEO, Chairman etc.)

http://www.moneycontrol.com/companyfacts/tataconsultancyservices/management/TCS#TCS
http://www.tcs.com/about/corp_facts/board_directors/Pages/default.aspx

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:

Integrity
Hard work
Innovation
Respect

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Openness
Customer Focus
Winning
Accountability
Continuous Improvement
Learning
Contribution
Correctness
Efficacy
Excellence
Merit
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:

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
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:

Sports
Co-curricular Activities
Position of Responsibility Held

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Academic
Social
Creative
Any situation where you chased a target and achieved it
Teamwork related achievements
Problem solving related achievement
Health related achievements
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

Obedient
Trustworthy
Respectful
Caring
Loving
Etc.

Teachers

Punctual
Disciplined
Attentive
Etc.

Friends

Reliable
Trustworthy
Helpful
Caring
Fun loving
Resourceful
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:
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Parents

Lazy
Casual
Unorganized
Etc.

Teachers

Communication
Health
Public Speaking
Etc.

Friends

Talkative
Health
Emotional
Carefree
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:

Objective
Scope
Methodology
Data Collection and Analysis, if any
Your Learning
Your Results
Your recommendations
Industry best practices in the area where you did your training
Details about your Mentor/ Guide
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?

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Following are a few ways you can answer this question:

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

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

In about 3 years you become a supervisor managing a team of

individual contributors. In about 5 years you become managers manager.
In 7-10 years you are managers 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
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Competence everyone brings something that the team needs

A clear and Compelling Goal
Commitment to the common goal
Every member contributes and benefits
A supportive Environment for the team to work. Empowerment
Alignment to the goals

A Good Team Player

Is an Initiator
Works for consensus on decisions
Open and Authentic communication
Involves others in decision making process
Trusts, supports and has genuine concern for other team members
Owns problems rather than blaming them on others
Actively listens and empathizes
Encourages development of other team members
Respects and is tolerant of individual differences
Acknowledges and works through conflicts openly
Considers and uses new ideas and suggestions from others
Encourages feedback on own behavior
Understands and is committed to team objectives
Does not engage in ego trips with other team members
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

What caused your stress (make a guess if youre unsure)

How you felt, both physically and emotionally

How you acted in response

What you did to make yourself feel better

Negative ways of Managing Stress

Smoking
Drinking too much
Overeating or under eating
Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer

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Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities

Using pills or drugs to relax
Sleeping too much
Procrastinating
Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems
Taking out your stress on others (lashing out, angry outbursts,
physical violence)

Positive Ways of Managing Stress

Learn how to say No

Avoid people who give your stress
Take control of your environment
Avoid topics that give you stress
Relax on your To Do List
Express your feelings instead of bottling them up
Be willing to compromise
Be organised
Manage your time better
Do a root cause analysis and resolve problems where they are
Look at the bigger picture rather then the problem in hand
Reframe problems
Avoid chasing perfectionism if that is causing stress
Focus on the positive
Do not try to control the uncontrollable
Look for the upside
Learn to forgive
Dedicate to for relaxation
Connect with others
Develop a hobby
Keep your sense of humour
Exercise Regularly
Eat a healthy diet
Reduce Caffeine and Sugar
Avoid Alcohol, Cigarettes and drugs
Get Enough Sleep
Go for a walk
Spend time in nature
Call a good friend
Sweat out tension with a good workout
Take a long bath
Light scented candles
Savour a warm cup of coffee or tea
Play with a pet
Work in your garden
Get a massage

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Curl up with a good book.

Listen to music
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

Daily Activity Log To identify how you are spending your time

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

Setting Effective Goals Breaking goals into milestone goals with

timelines

Effective Delegation Delegate tasks as per skills and keep load as

a consideration
Time Wasters

Overreaching. This also means overloaded

Failure to delegate
Coworkers who take their coffee breaks in your office
Visitors who have no particular purpose
Unwanted Telephone Calls
Unnecessary paperwork
Procrastination. This also means habit of postponing things
Poorly organized or unnecessary meetings
Avoidable Travel
Irrelevant Emails
Internet
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:

Outline your goal and outcome

Gather data

Develop alternatives (i.e., brainstorming)

List pros and cons of each alternative

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Make the decision

Immediately take action to implement it

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:

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

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

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:

Effective communication helps you understand others
Effective communication helps others understand you
Effective communication helps you generate the desired response
Effective communication helps you build strong credibility in every
environment you operate

Effective communication fosters teamwork and helps in making

strong teams

Effective communication improves efficiency of coaching

Effective communication reduces conflict

Effective communication ensures consensus fast

Effective communication helps you save time

Effective communication helps you refine your communication each

time

Effective communication helps in removing ambiguity

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
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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
satisfaction

between

customer

delight

and

customer

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

Finish Homework the previous day

Get up not later than 6 am

Spend some time exercising

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

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

Some sports after coming back

Study for at least 1.5 2 hours

Spend some time with family Work Life Balance

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:

Company Information Question Number 6

Job Description
Subject Knowledge

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HR questions

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:

Customer profile: Age, Occupation, Designation, Organization,

Existing product that the customer is using, competitive products
that the customer is looking at
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)
FAB: Features, Advantages and Benefits While selling anything you
sell the Benefits and not the features
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 customers 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 theres a budget,
who holds the authority regarding the purchase decision, their business
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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
wont be potentially wasting time with a lead that might have a need but
no budget, or one that has a budget but the timing isnt 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

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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 companys 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:

You are interested in IT

IT field has more opportunities than Mechanical (EEE or AE)
You had two compulsory papers on IT which you liked and which got
you interested in IT
Mechanical designs are also IT oriented (CAD, CAM)

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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 20s, FDI in Retail etc.

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