In India, we often believe in myths rather than facts. One popular misconception among students and working professionals is that if you’re not from a Tier-1 Elite college then you can’t get into Fortune 500 companies. But in reality, it’s an absolute lie. Yes, you’ll get more preference if you’re from IITs and IIMs and the hiring process will be like a cakewalk for you to some extent. But If you’re a skilled, hard-working person with proven work experience then you can definitely get into your dream company even though the path has some obstacles.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Hello, my name is Rao. I have been recently placed in Deloitte USI Hyderabad as Marketing Analyst. In this article, I have shared my journey from a Tier-2 college to a Big 4 consulting firm. I believe this article will help students and working professionals in their journey towards applying to big companies.
I personally believe that below are the main factors behind selection of my candidature in Deloitte:
Proven work experience:
I have started working as a freelance Graphic designer and Social media consultant from my 2nd year of college. As soon as I started working I failed miserably for the initial few months. But this experience helped me to understand the fundamentals of new age marketing through online. Slowly I improved my skills and got the opportunity to work for local education institutions, Digital marketing agencies and even for my college as an Event branding executive.
But the real game has just begun. During the Final year of graduation, With my little experience and skills I have joined an advertising agency startup named Digital Hashtag. And since it’s a startup I had the opportunity and freedom to explore all kinds of roles and ideate new strategies to promote business. That experience really helped me to improve my creative, decision making, leadership and time management skills.
And then right after my graduation completed, I joined Stoodnt Inc and started working with highly experienced professionals. For a fresher like me, it’s a dream come true to work with Ex-Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, IIM, ISB guys in the initial working days of my career. With Stoodnt I have experienced an effective diverse working culture while speaking with students, universities, and B2B brands from different countries. Here I have improved my Blogging, SEO, Designing, communication, presentation, and organic marketing skills, etc.
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Relevant skill set:
The main reason behind applying to Deloitte is that my skills and expertise were totally aligning with what they have asked for in the job description. I have probably read more than 10 times and compared them with my 2+ years of work experience. And finally made a decision and went ahead for applying.
I was able to get a good grasp on Social media marketing, SEO, Blogging and Graphic designing while working as a freelancer and full time with Digital hashtag and Stoodnt.
And my extracular activities like participating in a college presentation competition and in a Brand competition of IIT Kharagpur helped me to improve my creative and presentation skills.
Few online courses on Digital marketing and UI/UX Designing has also helped in weighing my CV more!
Nowadays the competition for the jobs is very high, people may have to reskill and acquire more skills.
Digital Skills are the most sought-after new age employable skills. With 30% of the workforce expected to work from home even in the future, employers will require their candidates to be digital savvy and socially fit. Companies will prefer candidates who are skilled in web technologies, cyber security and social media.
In the 2020 year-end report on India, LinkedIn said that 40% of Indian professionals expect an increase in the number of new jobs.
Recently In an Interview with ET NOW, LinkedIn India country manager Ashutosh Gupta told:
In terms of the skills in demand, tech skills such as digital marketing fundamentals, Python are dominant, while the soft skills that recruiters look for include communication, collaboration and time management. “There will be more and more skill-based hiring, where candidates are asked to demonstrate the new skills or required skills rather than just educational qualifications or prior experience”.
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Research and Preparation
My selection rounds continued for two and a half weeks. Before every round I was obviously very nervous but at the same time I was pretty confident like never before for a hiring process. I believe this is only because of the kind of preparation I did. It was a simple but effective process.
Firstly I read the job description and understood what kind of roles and responsibilities they were looking for. And accordingly I asked myself all the possible questions from an employer perspective. I read pretty good articles on does and don’ts in an interview, Tips, Expected questions from an MNC company. I have even watched some cool YouTube channel videos and I have prepared small notes. This helped me to mold my answers very well.
Secondly I tried to understand more about Deloitte like it’s different sectors, values, recent big achievement and future plans. I applied to be an Analyst – GPS Marketing – USI Clients and Markets Growth, So I explored more about GPS (Global Public Service). In this process I have referred to many good articles. Some them are:
Recruiter blog: Five questions our recruiters wished you would answer differently
Deloitte Interview Questions: Here’s What to Expect and How to Handle your Interview at Deloitte
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Any employee expects respect and freedom from its employer. Because it showcases the organization’s true nature toward its employees. So to find answers to my questions I have researched about Life at Deloitte, It’s employees benefits. I have also connected with a few people on LinkedIn, read a lot of reviews on Glassdoor.
Since my job role includes social media marketing too. So I have conducted an in-depth review of every company’s social media channels and write down suggestions on how to improve and what’s the best way to do so. This really helped me in my client interview round which I have mentioned in further detail.
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Performance
It was my first ever interview with an MNC and third overall. I got very very anxious when i forest received the call from the hiring team. I had a lot of questions and fers. But self prep and confidence always helps to get over with your fears. Since everybody is working from home, the hiring process was very different compared to normal. For everything you need to rely on online. Whether it’s taking an online test or interview or even submitting documents etc. Because of this the whole journey was pretty stressful yet worth enjoying.
As mentioned earlier my selection round was continued for two and a half weeks. There were total three rounds:
First round consisted of two sub rounds. One is a communication test in which I was asked to download an app called Versant and give a test. Separate credentials are provided by the HR team. It was a simple test. Use the app’s free test feature a few times to understand the functionality. The other round is a face to face interview with Lead – Marketing & Communications. The interview went very well and it was very productive. I get to know more about the role which I was applying for. There was a basic mutual introduction and then the interviewer directly jumped to my CV and asked the below questions:
- What’s your role in the current company?
- How do you measure the success of an online campaign?
- What do you include in the annual/monthly report of marketing performance of all/specific online channels?
- In your opinion which social media platforms should we (deloitte) focus more?
And then I have asked my questions about the company, Job role and team.
Second round also consisted of two sub rounds. One is a case study round in which I was asked to prepare a monthly social media performance report of one of their clients. They have share an Excel file and below instructions:
- Attached is a Social media report which is pulled out from <Client Name>.
- Candidate has to prepare a PPT with one slide which outlines the summary of the excel report
- The PPT has to draw inference based on the excel information given in tabular format
- From the tabular data given, useful information needs to extracted which is easily understandable
- The one-slide PPT shall provide insights and recommendations on social media activities based on the metrics given in the excel sheet
The other round was again a zoom interview round with two experienced professionals from their Belgium office. In this interview they have introduced themselves and asked about my self and experience. Later they gave me the opportunity to ask many questions which I can’t share here unfortunately. But here my preparation for this interview played a very big role. At this point I have done my research on their different online channels and upcoming initiatives. So I have asked around 6-7 questions (yeah sorry!) and they answered every single question very patiently. Even one interview said “Looks like you have done a complete investigation about our marketing channels”
My Third and final round was a zoom integration with a 10+ years of experienced manager. More than an interview it was like a chat session between a senior and a junior working professional. This interview was very basic where I was asked few standard questions like:
- Tell me about yourself
- Why do you want to work with us
- Why are you interested in this role
- Why you want to switch your current employer
- Give 3 reasons why should we hire you
- Few stargetic question outside my career, job role scope to test my honesty
It was an unique experience with the last interviewer because I had never been asked these standard interview questions earlier.
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PRO TIPS:
- Ask how many rounds there are going to be in total so that you can prepare your further days’ schedule.
- Have an excellent internet connection unlike me.
- Get a blazer for the interview round. It really leaves a good impression.
- At Least ask for 2 days to get prepared for the interview round.
- Try to push your answer till the last round for the “Expected salary” question.
- Stalk every interviewer’s LinkedIn profile thoroughly before the interview. Try to understand their personality if you can.
- Build a strong LinkedIn profile. If possible your personal website too!
- Don’t ask too many questions. Stick to 3-5 simple and interesting questions.
- Read reviews and interview experience tales in Glassdoor, Quora, etc.
- Make notes of important questions and points while preparing. And get self interviewed at least 3 times. Trust me you’ll feel better and confident.
- Have relevant work experience (Freelancing/Internships/Full time)
- Keep upskilling & reskilling and do some online courses on your targeted career fields.
- Finally, always spend time on networking and online presence & personal branding.
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That’s it guys from my side. I hope you liked my article and it’ll help in your hiring process. All the best 🙂
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Few relevant articles you may like:
Top 5 Soft Skills for Students, Millennials and Young Professionals to Achieve Career Success
How to Utilize Time Effectively as a College Student for Career Success
Building New Age Career | Opportunities | Time to Plan | Skills to Learn | Top Tips