Cybage placement - Aptitude Test, Technical Interview and HR Interview

• On  Cybage visited our campus. At 9.30am, we assembled at A1 placement Hall. The criterion for sitting for the recruitment procedure was 60% aggregate with no ATKTs allowed.
  
  Almost 150 students from 3 colleges- MIT, MAE and MITCOE were sitting for the placements. The HR persons from Cybage came at around 9.30am and they gave only 2 line description of the company and directly started with aptitude test.
  The recruitment procedure was as follows:
  1. Aptitude test
  2. Technical Interview
  3. HR Interview
  
  
  

  Aptitude Test

  
  The aptitude test consisted of 25 questions. The duration of the test was 30 minutes. Every question had negative marking. For each wrong answer 0.50 marks were negated. I had solved only 15 questions. The aptitude test was followed by an essay of 10 minutes. After this they collected our answer sheets and HR people from Cybage gave the presentation. In between this time they checked our answer sheets and declared the result at 1pm. Total 50 students were shortlisted from aptitude test. My name was in that list.
  
  Aptitude test was followed by 2 interviews technical interview and HR interview.
  
  
  

  Technical Interview

  
  
  Me: May I come in sir?
  Cybage Interviewer: Yes. (He asked me for my resume)
  Cybage Interviewer: Please describe yourself.
  Me: My name is Jyoti Nagargoje. I am currently studying in MITCOE. I am in my final year of the course Electronics and telecommunication. I like reading.
  Cybage Interviewer: What is your project?
  Me: Advanced air bag system.
  Cybage Interviewer: can you explain that?
  Me: During accident there is sudden change in pressure and acceleration. Our device detects this change and triggers an airbag. So that everyone is protected during impact.
  Cybage Interviewer: Which is your favourite subject?
  Me: Computer network
  Cybage Interviewer: Can you tell me the full form of IP in IP address?
  Me: Internet Protocol
  Cybage Interviewer: Which version are we currently using in IP address?
  Me: Sir, we are using the IPv4 version.
  Cybage Interviewer: What is your strength and weakness?
  Me: My strength is logical thinking, hardworking, teamplayer.
  Cybage Interviewer: and weakness?
  Me: Sir, basically I am from marathi medium so little bit week in communicating in English.
  Cybage Interviewer: You should not be like that. You should be proud that you are from marathi medium.
  Me: (I just smiled at him. I think he liked my honesty)
  Cybage Interviewer: can you solve one puzzle?
  Me: yes sir.
  Cybage Interviewer: if I give you 8 balls in which 1 ball is having less weight. How can you detect this less weight ball in two passes. You have weighing machine.
  Me: (After some time)I will divide this balls into 2 parts……….
  (that was not right answer)
  Cybage Interviewer: Can you give any presentation?
  Me: Yes sir, surely.
  Cybage Interviewer: (pointing towards one table fan)Can you give me the presentation of this fan?
  Me: (stood up at place)Good afternoon everybody. My name is Jyoti Nagargoje. Today i am going to present you the fan. It is very useful as it has fine adjustment with its length. We can also control its speed by pressing this knob. And all these features we are getting at reasonable price.
  Cybage Interviewer: Good. Do you want to ask anything?
  Me: When can we expect joining?
  Cybage Interviewer: We have requirement immediately. So, once placed, you will have to join from 12th July, 2010. Any other questions?
  Me: No sir. Thank you.
  Cybage Interviewer: Ok. Thank you. It was nice talking to you.
  
  
  

  HR Interview

  
  
  Students who had cleared the technical round had been invited for HR interview.
  
  Cybage Interviewer: One cake has to be cut into 8 equal pieces by only 3 cuts. How can you do this?
  Me: First of all, cut the cake into 4 pieces by normal horizontal and vertical cuts. Then cut the cake through its layer exactly in between. This will give exactly 8 identical pieces of the cake.
  Cybage Interviewer: You have written in resume that you had participated in GCE. What is your contribution in that?
  Me: Sir, I had worked as volunteer in that event. My job was to work as a volunteer in the registration committee. We had to receive the guests and complete their registration. I sat at the desk and wrote the details of the guests. One of my colleagues collected the money.
  
  After this initial round of HR interview, they called 4 students among us for further HR interview. It was like group discussion only. We were given the topic-"women are better manager than men".
  
  Everyone answered positively. I mean no one said that men are better managers.
  Me: Yes. I agree. Women have better management skills than men.
  Fortunately our HR was woman.
  
  Then next point came out of our discussion is "Are married women better managers than unmarried women?"
  My friends said "Yes. Married women are better managers than unmarried women. They have an overall sense of management"
  Me: I disagree with my friends. It is not necessary that you have be married to be a better manager. Unmarried women can also be very good managers. It depends on the skill and training provided to the woman.
  
  Then she asked everyone to tell about the manager's skills.
  
  Me: Time management is very important for a manager.
  She said this is one of the most crucial skill of a manager. A manager must manage his time allocation very wisely. Very good point Jyoti.
  
  In this way we had ended our group discussion and waited for result. After some time they called some 22 names in which I was there. That was the happiest day in my whole engineering life.

Schlumberger Interview

• HR Personal Questions in Schlumberger Interview

  
  First Stage Interview in Schlumberger Company
  
  • What is the most important moment in your stay at IIT?
  
  • What is the most challenging thing you have done in IIT?
  
  • Why Schlumberger, what do you know about us, what did you think of the pre-placement talk?
  
  • If you are on a plane with one parachute and Hitler (Answer to who is your political role model), what would you do to survive?
  
  Few things to convince them that you will stick with the company
  
  • You want to do a hands-on technology job
  
  • You like adventure and hard work
  
  • You like the idea of a mobile, glitzy well paid life
  
  Second Stage Interview in Schlumberger Company
  The second interview was shorter. For a few others, it was one pointed question. One fellow was asked what he would choose "A pen or a pencil?" - he picked the pencil, because if he made a mistake he could correct it. For me it was a series of questions, where they were trying to test consistency. They asked me if, after five years with the company, I would like to do a part time MBA or be a project leader in Angola – I said that I'd prefer to learn by dirtying my hands. They asked me where I would love to work – I told them that I love what I know of Europe and would like to work there – they questioned me on my knowledge of the languages on my resume and I told them that I wasn't in touch and couldn't possibly make conversation.
  
  

  Tips for People Targeting in Oilfield Service Companies

  
  For people targeting positions in Oilfield Service Companies:
  
  _ Research the difference between Schlumberger, Transocean, Shell, BP, BG.
  _ Try to understand the differences in upstream, downstream, services and integrated companies.
  _ Try to understand the basic terms – a rig, onshore well, barrel rates of oil, crude.
  _ Try and read up a bit on the oil industry and its (atleast recent) history.
  _ Try to find out about life on the rig and career paths.
  _ Typically, oil industries do not hire people with more than a year or two of experience – they expect fresh graduates to grow within the company.
  _ In about 40-50 months you can expect to have a stable management job, with a more stable place of assignment.
  _ You are expected to train in-house both technically as well as in your soft skills and management.
  _ Remuneration and support are very lucrative – and you can save most of it. Pay scales are moderately higher when you work internationally.
  
  Transocean is Oil & Gas (O&G further) Industry's premier driller, which statistically means that out of every three wells drilled offshore two are by Transocean. Now before we talk about Transocean further, I think this is the best time to clarify the various E&P sector functions. O&G industry can be divided largely into two parts; the Upstream Business and the Downstream Business
  
  
  
  These are managed by 3 types of companies.
  
  Schlumberger Oil Companies: They own the Oil Fields, produce O&G out of them, process it and finally market it. Eg. ONGC, Shell, BP, Reliance Energy etc.
  
  Schlumberger Drilling Contractors: These companies plan and drill the wells for the Oil companies. Eg. Transocean, Global Santa Fe, Noble etc.
  
  Schlumberger Service Companies: These provide specialized services in the drilling process. Eg. Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Halliburton etc.
  
  Schlumberger is an oilfield service provider, and as such, we help other companies in the oilfield sector in the various stages involved in E & P (Exploration and Production) starting from seismic exploration, to the actual drilling and well services. Given the wide range of activities, Schlumberger OFS (OilField Services) has a number of business segments dealing with the various aspects. Recruitment for all these segments happens simultaneously during campus placements. And you do NOT have the option of choosing which segment you go to once hired (at least we didn't). Once hired for Slb, you could end up in any of these.
  
  

  Actual Work Schlumberger Company

  Rather than concentrating on the actual work (that will simply take too long, most of you will have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, and you will be given extremely detailed training if/when you get in) let me stress on a few other things that I consider more important for choosing to take up a job like this or not. Firstly, life on a ship is nothing like anything most of you have ever experienced. More so the fact that while on the ship there are no weekends or holidays. Everyday is a work day and you work a 12 hour shift. The schedule tends to get very repetitive as the work you do everyday is basically the same, i.e. troubleshooting, maintenance, overseeing a sequence of operations. But given that troubles come in many shapes and sizes, you never know what to expect.
  
  The job itself involves a huge variety of tasks. Understanding and ability to
  troubleshoot software, ditto for hardware, computer and otherwise, and also a lot of miscellaneous other things which primarily require a lot of hard work, patience and perseverance. Expect to travel a lot, but you won't get to see too much during the one day stays for crew-change. Still, if you want to, you can sample what each place has to offer. And be ready to face rather extreme weather! Get to meet and work closely with a lot of people from a lot of different nationalities. You get to have a family like you never could have imagined. All you've got to have is a love for adventure and the ability to appreciate an exceptional life that offers you truly amazing experiences