TCS Campus Recruiters Asked Candidates To Dance In The Interview Room

It happened in my college too. One of my seniors went for the interview and he was head of our college dance club. He was also asked to dance. In fact all of the interviews were like this only. They were asking about their families, their hobbies, their childhood etc and the students were getting selected without a single technical question.

I'd appeal to all the candidates to simply get up and abort the Interview if you're asked to 'dance' or 'sing' in a technical interview. There are several companies who will offer a job to you purely based on your technical skills and abilities. But if you get selected in a company that judged you on the basis of your dancing or singing skills - you'll ruin your career for sure.

I'm asking for experience in other companies as well. I know campus recruitment is hectic for the interviewers. I've been on several campus recruitment drives as well and have selected several candidates in single go - purely based on their technical abilities.

I feel seriously sad about the whole system of recruiting candidates.

They will do such things only when they are not in a mood to recruit anyone.

born_star16They will do such things only when they are not in a mood to recruit anyone.

From what I've been hearing - the candidates who danced were actually selected 👍

It is in fact ridiculous. I wonder why recruiters from such a big firm are in such a casual mood while recruiting.

(I guess it speaks something about the kind of work they would give to the freshers 😐 )

Yeah.. right.. first question asked by Tcs recruiter to my friend : Do you have any girlfriend?? 😀 and he was shocked

Interviews are serious to Interviewees But it looks like they are very casual for Interviewers 😡

Yes in my college also they recruit so many candidates by listing their voices in fact they recruit girls not even asked a single question in any technology.
Most of the recruiters ask to tell about recently seen movie, and by looking girls face they are giving call letters.
I don't know what will they do in training period my class mate who don't know how to compile a java program and where we will write the java program she don't know atlest she don;t know how to copy the content in word document and how to paste the content she got the job.This is the way they should recruit ?
what do u say ??😡

One of the reasons for casual interviews could be

1. The companies trust their training programs and think they can turn anyone into a 'resource' who can execute their allotted tasks.
2. The companies don't really need 'engineers'. Otherwise, the selection process would be harder.

*planning to enrol in salsa/blah blah dance academies*

few interviews what i have been attending are different than the scenario here. may be campus interviews are different (i never had a chance to get recruited through campus though)

I've not heard of such 'interviews' for lateral placements. Happens mostly in campus placements where the candidates are eager to do 'anything' to get that job!

Lolz... But I had a half an hour of hard time. Yeah, the questions were like dating and stuff, but not for me, but for my friends... 😀

The TCS people asked my friend to sing Massakali . He denied. He is looking for another job.

Looks like TCS recruits 'all-rounders' 😉 . They expect engineers to be good in dancing, singing and oh yeah, coding. I wonder whether they really ask technical questions to candidates?

The_Big_KLooks like TCS recruits 'all-rounders' 😉 . They expect engineers to be good in dancing, singing and oh yeah, coding. I wonder whether they really ask technical questions to candidates?

Oyee Biggie!!! Mine was pakka technical dude, even in HR!!! 😁

The_Big_KTCS is recruiting in campuses and I've overheard a group of candidates discussing that the TCS campus recruiters actually asked few of the candidates to 'dance' in the interview room - during a technical interview! From what I heard, the candidates looked at the 'hobbies' section of candidates resume and those who had written 'dancing' and 'singing' were actually asked to dance! Some of the candidates were asked to stop as soon as they began dancing but some actually had to dance for a few seconds!

Now if that is true (those who've experienced this may comment below) I'm speechless! Is this the way a technology company decides who gets selected and who does not? From my experience in Software Industry (I'm no longer a part of it), there are stress interviews - but asking candidates to 'dance' is a strict 'NO'. I fail to understand what makes these recruiters ask candidates to dance? Is it for their own entertainment?

Do we have candidates who've experienced similar situation? What's your opinion about this?

I feel that people usually lie in interviews, especially in the hobbies section to show that they are multi talented, and are good at multi tasking. So, just to trap the candidates, to corner them, they were asked to prove that they really follow their hobbies. Some people were asked to dance a bit longer and some were immediately told to stop. A possible reason for that may be that you can know who is lying from the first step he/she takes when he/she is asked to dance. If there is any doubt, they will let them continue.
Its just my view, so don't take it seriously!

...two thoughts -

1. Even if one lies about 'dancing' just to appear 'talented', how does it matter to TCS?
2. Can one really judge whether the candidate knows how to dance by checking them for a minute?

I brought up the issue for highlight the way candidates are recruited in 'technology' companies. Several students are saying that they were not asked even a single technical question! W00t!

The_Big_K...two thoughts -

1. Even if one lies about 'dancing' just to appear 'talented', how does it matter to TCS?
2. Can one really judge whether the candidate knows how to dance by checking them for a minute?

I brought up the issue for highlight the way candidates are recruited in 'technology' companies. Several students are saying that they were not asked even a single technical question! W00t!

Answer to point 1
If a person dances, sings, draws or does some kind of an activity, he/she is creative. In technology companies, creativity is required at every level. He/she can make more ideas, can innovate a lot compared to those who do not have creativity. I think creativity is what differentiates anyone from anyone else! The creative person just needs input, which I believe, large companies can give them. They can also be trained in the conventional methods used, and in the course of training itself, people can bring out their own, considerably simpler methods to do the same job other than the traditional method.

Answer to thought 2
YES! The confidence in which he/she dances, albeit 2-3 steps which may take a few seconds, can tell you how good a dancer he/she is. Isn't there a huge difference between dance performed by Hrithik Roshan and Anu Malik?

Yes, I agree that technology companies must also test the candidates' knowledge in technology. At least one technology based question for name's sake must be there.
But hey, when you go to a tech interview but don't get any tech questions, you will be baffled, and you will be caught off guard. An ideal person must never go off guard, no matter what the situation is!

I was wondering if this thread reaches to hundreds of thousands of people, isn't TCS's reputation ruined? 😨
TCS HR teams need a lot of training and overhauling.

One of my collegue left TCS because he got frustated attitude of "chalta hai"(Everything is adjustable) .
Well, I think most of service based companies hire candiate on basis of
CGPA+Attitude+B.Tech. Degree+fluency in English. if it is not why TCS and Infosys are hiring non CS guys like EC and mechanical.
They hire them train them on their campus and assign on project.

ianoopOne of my collegue left TCS because he got frustated attitude of "chalta hai"(Everything is adjustable) .
Well, I think most of service based companies hire candiate on basis of
CGPA+Attitude+B.Tech. Degree+fluency in English. if it is not why TCS and Infosys are hiring non CS guys like EC and mechanical.
They hire them train them on their campus and assign on project.

This is what happens in most of the companies now-a-days... 😔

I really hate this kind of attitude of interviewers. These HR people make fun of engineers and we still can't do anything about it. It is a shame.

mechkyI really hate this kind of attitude of interviewers. These HR people make fun of engineers and we still can't do anything about it. It is a shame.

Let's say even the interviewers were asked to dance at some point in their career? 😁

The_Big_KLet's say even the interviewers were asked to dance at some point in their career? 😁

This situation seems to be similar to ragging.

seniors rag juniors, and then some consoling is done by saying that the same seniors were once upon ragged by their own seniors.

mechkyI really hate this kind of attitude of interviewers. These HR people make fun of engineers and we still can't do anything about it. It is a shame.

I agree with you. engineers are desperate for a job, and they have to do anything that they are made to do to obtain one. Those HRs are aware of this, and now they seem to be abusing their power.

*pushkar*Yeah.. right.. first question asked by Tcs recruiter to my friend : Do you have any girlfriend?? 😀 and he was shocked

I like that question . If i am asked such a question in interview, i will reply outright that i am a playboy. !

That's a poor team on HR.

I think its okay ... because many students write hobbies in resume which are not even their hobbies ... It was just cross-check by HRs 😀

BetterThanBeforeI think its okay ... because many students write hobbies in resume which are not even their hobbies ... It was just cross-check by HRs 😀

yeah you have got a point too.

during my placement-training sessions, our trainer related a case. he said that a guy had written in his resume that his hobbies was to read novels. when the HR asked him to name some of his favourite novel authors , he replied "shakespeare"

I also got selected for TCS on 1st september.
Both of my Technical and HR interview were upto the mark.
TR took my interview for 10 minutes and i satisfied him. Mine was purely technical related to programming(c/c++/java) , Database and Operating system etc.
Also HR was quite good. He questioned me what should have been asked in an HR interview.
All interviews in my college were like this.
😁

BetterThanBeforeI think its okay ... because many students write hobbies in resume which are not even their hobbies ... It was just cross-check by HRs 😀

But the real point is that why do recruiters give unnecessarily so much stress on 'hobbies'. Many times interviewers won't ask about any other thing and will jump straight forward to hobbies and end the interview just by talking on hobbies. This shows that their real agenda is to have unnecessary talks and not to test work ability of engineers.
First of all what I feel is that hobbies should not be written in resume. The second thing is that while recruiting engineers, stress should be given to technical knowledge & ability and not singing, dancing, reading or cricket.

I was asked in Syntel's interview whether I have opened my cabinet anytime? I am a cse graduate. He expects that I never opened a cabinet? he asked me where to insert Ram and where is battery slot and how to insert a battery. I was shocked and felt like walking off the interview but in a jiffy the interview was done. Campus hiring has a very low standard specially for those companies that recruit in heaps

Well, I remember asking a candidate (a Computer Science engineer) to explain the role of RAM in a computer and what the GPU does. He had no clue. Was utterly disappointed.

The_Big_KWell, I remember asking a candidate (a Computer Science engineer) to explain the role of RAM in a computer and what the GPU does. He had no clue. Was utterly disappointed.

That's disappointing 😔

@karthik & Pushkar: Totally agree with your experiences. It's horrible that they do this. Even the HR Rounds are not seriously taken.
In technical round, they ask to write some simple C program and ask questions like, 'Are you OK with working in any part of India?' that's it.
Most people came back within 10 minutes from the interview room! :-o