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.
