An Interview at Nestle India

HI Everybody,

so here it goes, finally after waiting for so many months the D day came. we were 11 students from our institute shortlisted for the initial rounds of Nestle. The dream company of almost all students who want to startup their career in FMCG.

Finally day came, i was feeling nervous, happy, fearful etc.......... in short all feelings were mixed, was almost out of my mind on the day before the interview. finally i woke up in the morning & to my surprise i woke complete 1 hour before the alarm could go off.

We were scheduled to be at Nestle's office at 9:00 am, we reached there on time...... ( well there are few places where i reach on time). we were made to wait in the cafeteria, all of us were under extreme pressure & dilemma. finally at around 10 we were called in the conference room, after a short introduction we came down to real business.

The GD round

finally round 1 the GD, well to start with things were in control for first few minutes then there was chaos which mellowed down a bit after interpretation from the HR, finally GD concluded with some hiccups. Now mercury rose as we were told wait again, finally Hr announced 4 names to stay back for next round. I was happy as i was one of the lucky few.

Round 2

Now left only 4 of us were waiting in the conference hall, waiting for HR to return for next round, meanwhile trying to guess whats gonna happen next. Then all of a sudden we were told now it Interview time. one of us went to HR's Cabin n we waited for him to return so that he could enlighten us with things to expect and we waited for next half an hour finally Sukhmeet appeared but before i could ask anything i was called in the cabin and the grill started. "tell this n that, how do u see this, what do u expect, whats your opinion............... blah blah blah"

finally after half an hour i was told to go n send other guy in. after him one more and again that long and cold waiting (AC was chilling :D ). thank god HR appeared before we froze to Death. Again he announced shortlisted names ; this time 2. So now we were only 2 left for next round, which was told to us that it'll start after lunch so go out n have something n come back at 2:30 pm. Happy for being selected for next round me and my friend went for a little lunch and roamed around streets waiting for clock to tick 2:30.

Finally we came back at, waited for few minutes then again sent to the chiller aka conference room. we were given an aptitude test ( my personal favorite but my buddy doesn't like it) which we had to complete in 1 hour. Finally there was something throughout that day that i found a bit easy to do.

So after giving the aptitude test and depositing answer sheets, we were told to leave for the day and also told that there'll be further notification regarding this process in coming few days.

So finally done with Interviews at Nestle India am waiting for my phone to ring to receive a call from Nestle for further notification..

Interview at Nestle was an experience of a lifetime to me. I hope my dream come true...................................................................

Brand in the new World

There are numerous published definitions of what constitutes ‘a brand’, and the reader will undoubtedly have their own personal view too. Therein lies the fundamental and universal truism of brands as a concept – they are uniquely personal and individual entities.  As Jeremy Bullmore points out: “… a brand is a subjective thing. No two people, however similar, hold precisely the same view of the same brand”.  

 

Brands originally developed to fulfil a rather prosaic function: to provide identification, and a guarantee of authenticity and consistency. Brands are, Paul Feldwick argues, “fundamentally a promise”.  In the mire of pre-trademark consumerism, there was little to guarantee what was actually in the product being purchased, or how the experience would differ from one purchase to the next. The advent of branding revolutionised this: suddenly you could be assured that if you bought a branded product on more than one occasion, the quality would be consistent. This, of course, was highly valued by consumers, and manufacturers soon realised that a promise equalled a premium. The first age of branding formed many of the core virtues that we still associate with branded products; including consistency, quality and trust, which endure as prerequisites for any successful brand.

 

We find ourselves today in a society saturated by products, brands and commercial messages, and as such there is increasing resistance to commercial messages (“people are tiring of ads in every form”), compounded by the unprecedented power consumers now have to edit paid-for communications out of their lives. As Naomi Klein states in her polemic No Logo: “logos, by the force of ubiquity, have become the closest thing that we have to an international language”.  It is no longer enough for brands to simply guarantee quality; consumers are acutely aware that own-label products are manufactured by the same factories that supply branded goods, and it is unusual to find a genuinely substandard consumer product. To continue to justify their existence (and their price premium), brands have to work harder than ever to engage and excite the public.

 

But just how can brands work harder? Obviously they have to deliver against all of the promises that they made during the ‘trademark’ age of branding, but in isolation increasingly this isn’t enough. In the face of anti-consumerism, mass consumer choice, and cheaper, unbranded rivals brands have to offer more than functional and one-dimensional emotional benefits. So what is the key?

 

I believe that it’s about transcending the physical product, and adding genuine, life-affirming value to people. It’s about helping address the issues that modern life throws at you, and about navigating the world in which we live. It’s about making a statement, and showing others who you are. It’s about being part of the community, conversing with others who share your outlook. It’s about being indispensable to a consumer. But just how is this achievable?