Placement Experience | Tata Advanced Systems (TAS) | Posted by Jeevani (All copyrights reserved with Vocabulary Tablet)
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”, believed Santiago, the hero of the book Alchemist. . One would think these kind of statements are simply too filmy to be real. But they are the absolute truth.
TAS is our core company and it is very selective in recruitment too. The name TAS brought out a strong determination in each and every one of my classmates. All of us wanted to be placed in TAS. So much we loved the organization.
Our college announced a TAS drive. Firstly, I couldn’t believe it. Secondly, it was just in two days. There was no time for preparation. To add to it, nobody knows the pattern of the written question paper. And we had to revise all the core subjects. The two days passed in no time and I really couldn’t prepare anything.
On the day of the drive, I reached the college just hoping that I would clear the written test. The written paper consisted of 60 questions to be answered in 50 minutes. All the questions were multiple choices. There were around 35 technical questions and 25 aptitude questions. The technical questions involved a lot of metallurgy and material sciences, fluid mechanics, thermal and a few other subject questions. Of course, there were the 8 aeronautical questions I had no idea about. The aptitude questions included trains, clocks, and time and distance questions majorly. There is very less time given for solving the paper. We need to spend less time on the technical questions if we hope to answer the complete paper. The questions were all pretty basic.
The recruiters selected the top 70 percentile of the 100 students who attended. 28 of us were selected for the group discussion (GD). In the group discussion round, we were given the topic of of “Whatsapp is killing minds- Agree or Disagree”. This round was amazing for me. Although all the other students also did well, I stood out clearly. And the secret behind this is to think creatively.
Everybody was giving vague statements and they were all similar. So, I brought in analogies from our mythologies and a few other examples. The HR’s were pretty impressed with me as they asked me to conclude the GD.
It was time for the personal interviews and only 11 of us were left. This was the first interview I attended, which had a 3 person panel. That felt a little intimidating. Surprisingly, I was just a little tensed. I entered the interview room. The inevitable ‘tell me about yourself’ was asked. I gave my introduction. Then, I was asked to tell about the recent book that I read. I explained it to them. They asked me why I joined the branch of mechanical engineering. I answered that even though it might sound silly, it is very simple- I was very good at mechanics during my intermediate. Then I was asked about my hybrid gokart project and my contribution to the team.
Then the technical questions started. My first technical question was- “What is GDVT?” and the answer the answer running through my mind was- “What is GDVT??!!!”. I was searching through my memory for it but I didn’t know it. I had no idea!! I was trying to understand the word but it wasn’t even a word, it was an abbreviation!!! I just told them, “ I don’t know, Sir”. The HR who asked me this question gave me THE dreaded expression of ‘You don’t know even this???’. I don’t know why or how, but I chose to ignore it. Now when I think of it, I am happy I ignored it because otherwise it might have lowered my confidence. Then he asked me to explain at least the first and third angle projections if “I knew that”. I immediately started drawing and explained everything clearly. Then he gave me a simple but tricky question of isometric projection. When I solved it, he was amazed and beaming as was I. He went to ask a few more questions about drawing. It was more of a discussion that I had with on various concepts. I think I actually shouted saying that I love drawing.
Then the other HR asked me what my favorite subject is. I told him I liked Production Technology and Machine Tools. From now on, it was more like a rapid fire round. He asked me a lot of questions on welding, drilling, boring etc. all the questions were very fundamental and simple too. The previous HR person again asked a question regarding manufacturing drawing and I answered it. He then told me that that is only GDVT. I was happy he asked this last question because it means that he understood that my basics are very strong. They told that I can leave and I came out of the room dancing. I didn’t know if I would be selected but I knew I had a wonderful time. Before the drive, I was worried I couldn’t prepare at all. I realized after the interview that I have been preparing for it since the day one of my B.Tech. Everything that I learnt in my life, my reading habit, my dramatics, my projects, my friends and family, every single thing lead me to perform well. I wanted the job at TAS so badly that a company which was not to come, came for placements and with no preparation whatsoever, I heard the sentence, “The first person selected is Jeevani”.