Placement Story: Deloitte
Siddharth Chadha’s Campus Placement Experience at Manipal
We spoke to Siddharth Chadha, an Electronics and Communication Engineering student from the Batch of 2021 of MIT Manipal. He entered college determined to focus on his academics but later got into various activities with multiple clubs and served as the National Secretary at IAESTE India. He also served as an organiser for TEDx at Manipal University. He took up projects such as LUMOS (helping dentists perform routine screening on patients) AND REV-X (an initiative to convert the old, dilapidated IC scooters and convert them into pure EVs.). In his summer vacations, he interned at KPMG Australia and a few more renowned firms providing him the academic edge. This balanced routine that he followed helped him secure his desired role at Deloitte.
Interviewer: Working in Deloitte, which is a very reputed firm, how do you feel? Do you feel accomplished?
Siddharth: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited is the biggest of the Big 4 consulting and auditing firms. Having said that, it gives me immense pride to be working for such a big organisation very early on in my professional career. There is obviously a sense of satisfaction knowing that the hard work I had put in during my college year has reaped great results for me in the end. Answering the second part of the question, yes I do feel accomplished to have been selected among hundreds of students, but I am looking forward to doing some impactful work for the organisation which should justify me being recruited in the first place.
Interviewer: How did your experience at Manipal impact your personality, and did it help you in the placement process?
Siddharth: I had always been in touch with my seniors who helped me understand college life from a more “experienced” perspective. Taking their advice, I took not only my academics somewhat seriously and also enrolled in various extracurricular clubs and societies since the first year, which truly shapes your personality beyond your classroom. In the beginning, I was part of 3 exciting clubs naming IAESTE, The Think Tank, and the MIT Football League. I am quite grateful to all my peers who not only made the parties exciting but also helped me grow as an individual. The biggest impact any organisation made on me was definitely IAESTE which provided me international exposure to students, professors, and working professionals across the globe.
These clubs helped me enhance my soft skills which aren’t taught in any of the college lectures but are a deal maker when one is sitting for interviews. During the placement interviews, I realised that the recruiters are looking for individuals who have done something extra beyond just academics and especially what learnings and impact they have made there. Finally, working for student clubs/projects teaches you multitasking and sees how well one can work in a team, and along with it, it tests your time management skills.
Interviewer: When did Deloitte come on campus and what profiles did it offer? What were the locations given as options for P/I?
Siddharth: During my fourth year, DTTL had come in the last week of August for 3 job profiles that were Analyst-Risk and Financial Advisory, Analyst-Consulting (Deloitte USI), and Analyst-Technology Consulting (Deloitte India). I had opted for the Analyst-Consulting (Deloitte USI) role which primarily deals with technology consulting for US-based firms. The locations given were Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Interviewer: Can you describe the placement process at Deloitte? Were there any changes in the format or criterion of evaluation to deal with the limitation of the COVID Pandemic?
Siddharth: DTTL Placement process consisted of 3 rounds which were all taken in a virtual manner due to the pandemic. The first round consisted of an aptitude test that tested Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Analysis, Verbal and Pattern Recognition. This test was for the Deloitte USI role. And for the RFA and Deloitte India roles, along with the above parameters, there were a few CS-related questions on SQL, HTML, etc. Out of roughly 900 + students, about 250 students were shortlisted for all 3 profiles combined.
Then for the second round, we had a JAM (Just A Minute) round, where the students were given a topic and had 2 minutes in total. One minute to garner their thoughts and one minute to speak on the topic. The final round consisted of a personal interview where the recruiter goes over your CV and asks basic technical questions followed by a few HR questions. Finally, out of the 250 students, about 60 were selected for the job offer.
Interviewer: Thank you for giving us this opportunity Siddharth. Is there anything you wish you knew before you started preparing for placements that you only learned later through your own experience?
Siddharth: There were many things that I realised much later during the process that I wish I knew. I was pursuing my major in ECE and my minor in Data Science. The majority of the companies which come for the placement process, offer Software Engineering roles. Most of the companies let ECE students sit for their tests but very few students are selected for such roles. But for my juniors who are interested in such positions should have a very strong grasp on Data Structures and Algorithms and along with it should have some knowledge of CS subjects such as DBMS, Operating Systems, System Design, and OOPs concepts.
But generally speaking, for technical and non-technical roles one should have at least 2–3 serious projects (irrespective of their branch) and 1–2 internships (physical/virtual) before sitting for placements which can help a lot during the final interviews. One should also focus on communication skills and in general be up-to-date with what is going on in the tech world to answer out-of-the-box questions.
You can connect with Siddharth on LinkedIn
Editors: Vidhi Mehta, Sumantra Sen and Anshika Lodha
