Student Name: Somshuvra Bandyopadhyay

Current Course: MSQE

Degree Before Masters: BSc Mathematics

Company Name: PwC
Job Role: Technology Consultant
Duration of the Job Role: 2-3 Month Internship

Hiring Process Overview:
Direct Interview from Shortlist

Questions Asked in Online Aptitude Test (if applicable):

Number of Interview Rounds:
More than 2

Questions Asked in Round 1:
In the beginning he asked me what do I know about PwC, what does the company do and why do I want to work here.

Then he asked me some questions on programming and how do we use it to clean data. We talked a bit about my programming journey a what kind of tools I am aware of.

Then I was given two machine learning case studies to analyze and provide desired results: 1) Time Series Forecasting: Given data of sales of Amazon in South India for the past 5 years, how would you analyze whether a reputed brand that sells jackets should continue their business in their region or not

2) Regression and Hypothesis Testing: Given you are an underwriter for an insurance co. and you are given relevant data, how will you analyze the premium that must be charged from a customer

P.S This was the hardest round of the interview and the interviewer only wanted technical answers, so MBA case studies won’t help, try to do some projects in relevant topics and understand them well enough to be able to explain your intuitive approach, both from a programmer’s and statistician’s perspective. No hints were given and I made tons of mistakes, the toughest round I’ve ever been in

In the end, he asked me some personal and off the topic related questions. For example what do I do to improve my skills in my free time, what is my desired career path, etc. He asked if I had any questions, I asked, since he is from a finance position, and I want to venture into the same domain, what kind of steps can I take and projects should I do at this stage.

Questions Asked in Round 2:
This was mainly a personality interview. He asked me about my knowledge in Current Affairs and I said I’m mainly interested in Politics and Economics. He asked about my views on US elections where Trump recently won and kept checking my depth on this topic by asking questions (mainly economics/trade related questions). Then he asked about socialism and capitalism with respect to how things are run in India compared to US, and why India cannot take off like other countries in terms of manufacturing. This section was 20 minutes and was much more smooth sailing than Round 1 and the interviewer was friendly.

Next he asked some personal questions like what is my main drive in life and how do I deal with failure and depression. Then some career related questions like what do you do to improve your skills as a data scientist, which one do you enjoy: data or analysis, etc.

Questions Asked in Further Rounds:
HR Round: Personal questions about my daily life, hobbies. Few I can remember are: Verbally define the favorite photograph you’ve taken in your life (as photography was mentioned in my hobbies) If a friend visits Kolkata, where would you take him/her? Difference between South and North Kolkata and which one do you prefer?

Job Role Experience:
Internship not commenced yet

Suggestions for Candidates (including resources, books, websites):
Do machine learning projects. No need to do advance projects, just understand every step in the project carefully with an intuitive approach

Additional Resources:

Previous Job Role (if applicable):