Employability A business perspective Are you equipped to handle the current recruitment process

Sample Interview questions in colleges in Delhii University in the year 2015
“Guesstimate the number of French fries sold by McDonalds”
“Guesstimate the number of flights over Delhi airport at any given point in time”
“Your client is a telecom company and wants to enter into the retail industry. You are to advise the client”

These are exciting times for the education sector. The economy is growing at a robust 8% and India is poised to become a hub of global education (source: Kaushik Basu – The Hindu, Sep 7, 2015). Education and employability are like the wheel & axle for the economy – in tandem they boost the efficacy and morale of the work-force.
However, there exists a gap between the skills and knowledge acquired by way of formal education in schools and colleges, and the skill-set needed by the industry and the corporate world. There are multiple reports that document various aspects of employability that graduates lack. When students step into the corporate world they face a lot of challenges in acclimatizing to the work-environment as well as the competitive nature of the workplace. Most companies today have training programs, aiming to assist them in this transition and to gain a firmer foothold in understanding of business and the nature of their role.
The recruitment season at the top colleges in Delhi University (DU) gives us a glimpse into the needs of the companies. A bevy of big names from across the industry hire from DU, and invest a lot of time and resources on making sure that they attract the smartest graduates. Multiple rounds test the candidate’s ability to apply his/her cognitive, reasoning and analytical skills. Written aptitude tests are almost routine; recruiters are finding newer ways to filter candidates. We at Eptitude spoke to some top recruiters who frequent such campuses, as well as the students, and found some innovative methods employed for the selection of candidates.
Guess-timation, or the ability to estimate, on the basis of a series of rational assumptions, the value of anything at all (such as the number of cars in a city) can reveal a lot about the candidate - knowledge of the economy and key metrices, the thought process used to stitch together a logical hypothesis and the ability to structure this thought in a challenging situation. Similarly, case situations can simulate real business situations, and the candidate needs to comprehend the scenario and identify the problem, before picking out a possible way of solving it.
These qualities and skills are sought by recruiters across the board – consulting firms, banking & financial institutions, marketing & retail firms, e-Commerce firms and many more. While the sector/industry paradigm might differ, the business analyst role is a generic one in which a candidate needs to apply his/her skills in myriad ways to boost productivity and growth – both at a personal level and for the employer.
Given the relevance and importance of these skills set, a college student must allocate time to acquire these skills. Few ways that will definitely help a student in this regard are:-

• Do an internship during the summer break – THIS IS A MUST DO.
• Try to organize and/or participate in various events at the college level.
• Participate at extracurricular activities like paper presentation, debating, quiz competitions, business plan competitions and others.
• Seek professional help to acquire these skills.