How to prepare for The Smart Cube???

The Smart Cube (TSC) is primarily a Knowledge ProcessOutsourcing (KPO), and it specializes in detailed market research. It is one of the most sought after companies at DTU and is also one of the few companies who pay you moderately more than its competitors and at the same time does not overburden you with work.

What is a KPO?

A KPO is like back office of a consulting company. Consulting firms provide them with data or ask the KPO to collect data for them and then the final job of the KPO is to organize and sort the data and provide insights and interpretations from that data. The work is not limited to the described domain but it is what majorly a KPO does.

The entire process of recruitment consists of three steps:

1.       Written test

2.       Group Discussion

3.       Interview

Written test:

Written test of TSC consists of general awareness questions and aptitude questions. There was one essay. The topic was similar to “What is your ultimate destination?”

Aptitude questions were easy. Those preparing for CAT are going to find them pretty simple. Some of the general awareness questions asked were:

1.       Who is the chief of SEBI?

2.       Tide is a product of which company?

3.       Which company took over Motorola in the recent past?
4.   A question was based on the relation of demand-supply curve.
5.   There was a question in which students have to match the names of the personalities to the companies with which they were associated as CEO.

We recommend you to prepare following few questions as they can be asked at any stage of the procedure:

1.       Which company filed for bankruptcy on 18 January 2012?
a)    Kodak           
b) Canon              
c) Sony                 
d) Nikon

2.       Which of the following group countries include the ‘PIIGS’ group in Europe?
a)      Portugal, Italy, Iceland, Germany, Spain
b)      Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain
c)       Portugal, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Spain
d)      Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain

3.       Who is the first Non-American to join board of Bank of America?
a)       Sunil Mittal  
b)    Indra Nooyi                            
c)    LN Mittal                       
d)    Mukesh Ambani 

4.       Vicks Vaporab is the product of which company?
a)   Procotor & Gamble 
b) Hindustan Unilever    
c) Ranbaxy                
d) GlaxoSmith Kline

5.       The Manesar plant of which automobile company witnessed a prolonged strike in September 2011?
a)   Maruti Suzuki           
b) Tata Motors             
c) Hero Motors          
d) Hindustan Motors

6.       Which of the following is the latest country to join WTO?
a)   Vietnam                   
b) Cape Verde             
c) Nauru                     
d) China

7.       Questions on Euro Zone crisis can be asked.

These are just sample questions. Do not consider that only these questions will be asked in the exam.

Group discussion:

Topics of GD in 2011 were:

• BRIC Countries
• Honor Killing 
• Should our Ministers use Social Networking Sites?
• Is Pink the New Blue?

Just work on normal GD preparation. Topics asked were very general. Sit with your friends and practice GD. Learn the basic fundamentals of GD and work on them.

For GD tips visit: http://thenextbigstep.in/group-discussion-2/

Interview:

1.       For interview, you need to work a lot on Guesstimates and case studies. These are asked inevitably in every interview.  To learn more about case studies and guesstimates, visit following sites.

http://thenextbigstep.in/case-studies/

http://thenextbigstep.in/guesstimates/

One of the guesstimate asked in interview was to determine how many 500ml water bottles will be sold in Rohini, the next day.

2.       Apart from these, you should go through some case study guide like VAULT’s Guide or any other. This is must to understand Guesstimates and Case studies in a better way.

3.       Prepare standard HR questions before hand. Click on the following link to get the list of HR questions.

http://thenextbigstep.in/interview-questions-placements/

4.       Be thorough with your internship and projects if you have any because interviewer might ask you basic questions about your branch and internship.

Advice from the students who got selected last year:

Be thorough with the prevailing economic situations and with your internships. No need to worry about tech questions because the interviewer himself or herself does not know the correct answers to them.

To read complete interview experience of students who got through TSC, visit http://thenextbigstep.in/the-smart-cube/