In Conversation With Sneh Shikha, PUMA India | India's Top Campus Recruiters

Q. How has being a campus recruiter enhanced your skills and experience?

Campus Recruitment has made me very biased to action, increased my ability to deal with and coordinate with multiple stakeholders, and has kept me energetic by being close to the young crowd.

Q. Tell us an innovation you have introduced in the campus recruitment space that you are very proud of.

Assessing which campuses to go to, not going by the general perception, but by doing a deep dive of campuses that have worked for us. This also includes identifying and exploring new campuses.

Q. What do you look for in a student when you hire from campus?

A few things I look for in a student: the depth in whatever has been written in CV, the ability of students to relate to real business problems, and their adaptability. This helps me gauge the student’s potential and brand fitment.

Q. What is your favourite question to ask a candidate during an interview?

My favourite question is ‘Tell me about a time when you were confident of your approach, but things didn't turn out the way you thought’. Since most of the candidates we interview are outstanding students through the academic career, this helps us gauge their ability to adapt.

Q. Tell us a memorable/funny/inspiring anecdote from your campus recruiting experience.

Candidate: “Ma'am, I think I am a great fit for “Company A” because …….”

Me: This is not the panel for that Company.

P.S.: I believe this is an outcome of multiple companies running interviews parallelly, and the placement committee making them run around.

Q. Who makes an ideal campus recruiter?

An ideal campus recruiter is one who understands the pulse of students, not only hires the best but knows how to retain the best, keeps the interest of multiple stakeholders in mind, and continuously thinks of improvement.

Q. What do you see as some of the emerging trends in the campus recruiting space?

Companies moving away from “fighting for the premium slots”, moving from giving spot offers to a more prolonged and engaged approach, Campus Case Studies etc.