Company: The Elitists
Profile: Analyst
Salary: 5 to 6 lakhs
Place: KIET Group of Institutions, Ghaziabad
Number of Rounds: 5
Result: Not selected
I applied for this opening via Firstnaukri.com, which is a jobsite for freshers from the Naukri.com family. Most of my other friends also did the same.
About company
The Elitists is one of the largest Executive Research Firm. This company is a decade old IIM Alumni venture that was founded by Mr. S. Venkatesh, who has over 15 years of experience in executive hiring. The company is positioned amongst the top 1% of the best in class retained executive search firms. They are into strategic talent acquisition in the consulting value chain. This firm has been providing world class organizations with innovative approaches in executive talent acquisition services and unique benefits.
Recently, Elitists launched a new platform ‘Awesome Firms’ for which they conducted a recruitment drive. The company interviewed candidates such as me for an Analyst’s position. Their clienteles include reputed MNC’s like Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, etc. The firm also organizes seminars and workshops for CEO, CIO and CXO level business strategy discussions. As a result, they were looking for confident candidates who could research LinkedIn, Bloomberg, etc. for data. Besides, they wanted the candidate to portray good interpersonal skills and a great command over English language.
Application and Recruitment Process
The company has a decent percentage cutoff bar to eliminate undesirable applicants. Candidates fulfilling the cut-off were called for a written round. The questionnaire in this round included several questions revolving around personal details like ‘likes and dislikes’, ‘strengths and weaknesses’, ‘areas of interest’, ‘worst nightmares’, ‘favorite movies and sports’, ‘greatest regret’, ‘why should you get hired’, ‘values to help a company’, ‘short-term goals’, etc. This questionnaire might take a good amount of time to answer, but remember to be patient as this is your first elimination round.
Criteria for Getting Shortlisted
Those of us who got shortlisted in the first written round, were given some links. We had to go through these links in detail before appearing for the next round. These links included a Fortune Global list of top 500 companies and some website links of competitors as well. They simply wanted to check the sincerity with which the task was getting executed.
Interview Rounds
The interview rounds comprised of – HR round, Group Interview and Written test based on our Research.
Round 1 – HR Round Questionnaire:
In this written round, as discussed before, ensure that you patiently fill the HR Question questionnaire. Try to be honest and persistent while writing your answers. Be concise and don’t just write to fill up space. Also, do not rush through the questionnaire. Have clarity in your thoughts and only then pen them down. Most importantly, skip questions that are taking too much time and later move on to the next. Once you are done with the entire list of questions, you can come back to the left-out ones.
Round 2:
The second round was conducted after we were done studying the links thoroughly. This was completely based on our homework and collective research work. Group interviews were conducted to check out knowledge pertaining to these Fortune 500 companies and our knowledge about the competitors of The Elitists. I had researched about these companies, especially about the competitors of Elitists properly and had noted down the key takeaways like headquarters, revenue, products etc. You can do the same to revise later.
I was asked the following questions:
Q1. You have a technical background. Still why do you want to join this company?
A technical graduate can do any non-technical or technical job. But a non-technical person can never take up a technical job. I chose B. Tech to check out more opportunities in both domains. This profile is apt for my skills and I believe it will render a lot of opportunities for me to grow. Besides, yours being a reputed organization, will further add a feather to the cap of any individual who will join your journey of growing further. That is why I would like to seek this opportunity.
Q2. Do you follow business? Who is your idol?
I follow several businessmen and I try to stay aware about their profits and losses. For instance, I idolize Mukesh Ambani. He is the face of new emerging India, while holding the position of Chairman and MD (CMD) of Reliance Industries. Reliance is a Fortune 500 company. Mukesh’s personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.
Try to focus on your passion while answering the above questions, be precise and demonstrate confidence.
The entire face-to-face interview went on for 20 minutes. Most of the other questions revolved around our research. This was followed by a written round in which we had to write as we spoke. This was also an elimination round.
Round 3: The next round was a Group Discussion or Group Interview. It was also an elimination round. Once an applicant got filtered in the group interview round, CV’s and questionnaires were set to filter him/her further. They wanted to check our knowledge about their business and how serious we were for the profile.
After two rounds of Group Interviews, eight candidates were shortlisted. Eight of us had to go through another round in front of the company’s CEO Mr. S. Venkatesh.
Round 4: We then attended another Group Interview. This was conducted right in front of the CEO and it was basically a brainstorming round. Initially, he inquired about their new venture ‘Awesome Firms’. We were supposed to answer basing our research. Thereafter, he asked more in-depth and tough questions.
“Interview questions I faced in the HR round and how I answered them”
Question1
‘If I have to organize some seminar or guest lecture on business and technology and I have to invite Tesla, Jeff Bezos, etc. then how will I persuade them and how will I convince them to be a Guest lecturer of that seminar.’
I tried to sound as convincing as possible. Out of the entire group, only two candidates were chosen on that day. Two of us had to attend a final HR Interview round once again.
Round 5: In the final round, the HR personnel checked if we were ready for relocation. The city of joining would be Chennai. I answered affirmatively.
“My learnings from this placement interview experience”
Overall, this was one of the most interesting drives I have attended. Though I did not get selected, the complete campus drive that lasted for a whole day, was a huge learning experience for me. I picked up a lot of things about career, life, and business. It also bucked me up for future campus drives.
Before attending the interview, introspect like never before! Be clear about your goals, passion, likes/dislikes, etc. Do not fumble or your interviewer will think you are not a confident person. Besides, being a renowned firm that is into research, they would expect you to be enthusiastic about research. Read up about the company and its businesses. In case you have some idea about their competitors (like World Economic Forum) and latest conferences, you will have an advantage during the interview. Also, provide logical answers to all situation-based questions in your final round.
All the best!