TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) is one of the largest global IT services, consulting and business solutions companies. As a leading IT company, TCS conducts campus placements every year and receives hundreds of applications from fresh engineering graduates looking for job opportunities. Content writing is a key role in many companies today due to the importance of content marketing. Therefore, candidates aspiring to join TCS as content writers can expect to face content writing related questions during interviews. Here are some of the common types of content writing questions that may be asked by TCS recruiters:
Describe your content writing experience and process: Recruiters will want to know about your past content writing projects to assess your skills and experience. You need to concisely describe 2-3 content writing projects you have worked on with details like the topic, length, target audience, objectives etc. Explain your typical content creation process from research to publishing. Recruiters are looking for your research abilities, writing style, ability to structure content logically and workflow management skills.
Analyze a topic and outline potential content: You may be given a topic on-the-spot during the interview and asked to analyze and structure potential content around it there and then. The goal is to test your topic research, analytical abilities and outlining skills under pressure. You need to quickly brainstorm subtopics, segment the content into various pieces like blogs, articles, manuals etc with appropriate lengths and outline the key points to be covered in each piece. Recruiters are evaluating your topic knowledge, innovation and structuring capabilities.
Write sample content on a topic: TCS interviewers may provide a topic and ask you to write a small sample of content addressing a specific type like a blog, article excerpt, manual section etc on the spot. The objective is to assess your actual writing skills, grip over language, ability to succinctly and engagingly cover the given points within the specified word limit or format. Your writing style, flow, research quotes inclusion, editing etc come under the lens of the recruiters.
Rewrite given content to another format/style: To check your adaptation abilities, you may be given a short excerpt of existing content and asked to rewrite it keeping the same information but changing the format, word count, style, target audience etc. For example, rewriting a 200-word article excerpt as a 50-word tweet or rewriting a technical manual section in an informal blog style. Recruiters focus on your ability to synthesize information and restructure content suitably for different needs.
Discuss SEO writing best practices: As SEO is critical for content success, recruiters may quiz your knowledge of basic SEO practices like keyword research, competitive analysis, on-page optimization of headings, word count, links etc to improve ranking and visibility. You need to talk about how you would incorporate these techniques while writing for a particular topic or website. They are checking your grasp of SEO fundamentals and ability to optimize content for search.
Suggest content ideas for a website/blog: To understand your creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, recruiters can provide a scenario and scenario and ask you to quickly brainstorm 5-7 unique, non-obvious but relevant content topic ideas that could work for that website/blog. You should back each idea with a line or two on what the content would be about and who the target readers could be. This tests your ability to strategize engaging content aligned to the business objectives.
Describe your approach to a content writing project: Discussing a hypothetical content project, recruiters may want to know your project management approach right from the initial briefing stage. You need to methodically talk through steps like research planning, outlining the larger content structure, developing a publishing schedule, tracking progress, getting feedback, iterative improvements etc. Your organized, systematic methodology oriented towards quality output and deadline adherence will be the focus of evaluators.
Discuss challenges in content writing: Recruiters may pose questions around challenges you have faced with past projects, clients or teams to understand how you tackle hurdles. This could range from tight deadlines, unclear client expectations, changing priorities, technical issues to team coordination problems. You need to demonstrate lessons learned from such experiences along with how you resolved issues creatively or prevented recurrence with better planning. The goal is to assess your problem-solving attitude.
Critique sample content: As part of assessing your editing skills, recruiters may provide you with a short excerpt of content for critique covering format, structure, language, research etc. You would need to point out strengths and weaknesses backed by rationale and also respectfully provide specific suggestions for improvement without being negative. They are judging your constructive feedback abilities honed during your content writing journey.
This covers many of the common types of content writing related questions that TCS candidates can anticipate during interviews for content writer roles. The key is to have relevant project examples on hand, stay calm under pressure, think on your feet yet stay organized to demonstrate the research, writing, analytical and problem-solving skills required for successful content marketing roles at TCS. Preparing well by practicing sample answers for typical questions will help ace content-focused interviews.
Andrew Stroud