CISCO hires me…!!

I attended Cisco On-campus placement procedure on 11 th  September 2012, at Amrita School of Engineering, Bangalore Campus. As per the read information of Cisco recruitment, the rounds were familiar. Cisco is a one of the best product based company one can ever get into. Thanks to almighty for providing a wonderful opportunity for me to get into Cisco.

 The day began with pre-placement talk by the company. It was followed by a written test. As expected the exam consisted of aptitude questions, technical questions, and electronics questions. It was 50 questions, 60 minute long exam. One good at aptitudes and technical can easily crack the test. The electronics part is not to be much bothered, because if you are good at other parts, this will naturally follow. Out of some 200 people attended, they shortlisted 33 students.

The next round was interview. The panel consisted of two members. The interview was surprisingly HR oriented rather than technical. They asked me to introduce myself, about Cisco and all. When I explained about Cisco, panel responded to me back my saying ‘You too have done the home work. right?’. I mixed my elegant smile along with courage to answer a bold “Yes”. They read the resume fast and I was waiting for their Data Structure questions. But he asked me to explain what is data structure. Then he asked me to explain my projects. He went into its database part. I took papers and explained each and every table clearly. Then other interviewer asked me the trickiest question ‘What post would you choose if given a turn ? ’ (there was actually two posts for which they were recruiting  IT analyst and IT engineer). I answered IT analyst and argued that my experiences with project gives me enough confidence for the post. Then they looked at my projects and enquired whether I have clear idea of post to which I am speaking for. This confused me and explained the post details according to me as an IT analyst. He corrected me by saying that it is purely a non-technical post. He then asked me ‘How confident will you be at such a non-technical post, being so good at technical aspects ? ’. I smiled and told, In that case , I can try for the post of IT Engineer. They smiled. I was a little bit worried on this answer of mine, because you don’t know how your interviewer’s take this view point. Then they asked about my present semester topics and their significance in Industry, especially Data Mining. At last interviewers asked me, ‘how you rate yourself in this interview?’. I frankly told them that ‘I feel I could perform well and could even more if I didn’t have done a switching in domain’. They smiled and conveyed that they have done with interview.

We were asked to wait for the results till 2:00 pm. The  HR manager took some 7 of us to a room. He then asked a girl to attend next round interview. Then  he took a seat and conveyed that we’re going to have a discussion on topic ‘Corruption – can it be removed ’. We had a good discussion with everyone performing well. Me didn’t expected my entry into this round and could perform at the best of I can. After discussion, HR manager had confirmed details of job post, location of placement etc. He also wanted to confirm from us that we don’t prefer higher studies. Surprisingly, HR manager conveyed that they have done with their rounds and results will be announced later.

They shortlisted some 10 students from Amrita, where my name was not there. But after one week, I received a mail confirming my full time offer. It has been like a dream come true when I received this mail and I thank almighty for providing me this chance to share my successful story of Cisco recruitment.