Posted by golimar thriller on May 31, 2010
My IIM C interview
Result – rejected
3 people in panel , lady professor, old professor, old alumnus.
after having a good GD the same panel who judged the GD started the interview
(the old prof went out for some reason he joined the interview after 2 mins)
me :- good morning sir, good morning ma’am
lady : good morning take a seat
me- thank U ma’am
lady:- have u brought any identity proof with U
Me- yes ma’am
(i handed my driving license to them)
lady:- oh ur license has a smart card.
(alumnus joins in)
alumnus :- what is the need of a memory chip in ur license
me- sir to save information in it.. information about the license holder
alumnus: what kind of info
me :- data like address , name ,expiry date etc
alumnus :- that data can be printed on the card .. why do we need a separate embedded memory chip.. See the information u said is already printed in ur card.
( old prof arrives and takes a seat )
me :- well I guess the police who catches U swipes the card in the smart card reader to check the authenticity of the printed data,or maybe it saves his time by swiping the card rather than reading the printed data…
old prof :- well I will repeat the question .why do we need a memory chip on ur driving license when all the data is printed on ur license…take ur time.. think on it .. it won,t save his time to read the printed data.. the reason is something different.. take ur time .. think and answer
me :- ( after thinking) since there r lots of information about lakhs of license holder .. we need to store the data in digital format
alumnus :- U r talking about lots of data at the server.. we r talking why is there a memory chip on a smart card
Lady:- which branch u have done ur engineering
me :- electronics
Lady to old prof:- (with a smile ) he must answer the question then
me :- (thinking)
old prof :- have u ever been caught by a police while driving..
me :- no sir 
old prof 
kay whenever U get caught the police checks the data in the smart card to see if there is any previous default done by U.. if u r a serial offender it can be seen from the smart card. say for instance u were caught drunken by police .. that would be updated in the memory chip and next time if ur caught U won,t be spared .. understood.
me :- ( nodding my head) yes sir
old prof :- don,t u think u shud have thought of this answer
me :- yes sir , as a manager we need to think of all possibilities
old prof:- (nodding his head with a smile)
alumnus :- do u think smart cards can u used to store money
me :- yes sir
old prof :- give me an example
me :- (thinking) sir In Mumbai there is Go smart card which can be used to travel anywhere
old prof:- does it store money ..
me :- i guess its like prepaid card .U buy the card .. it doesn’t store money
alumnus :- what bout ATM cards
(dumb me didn’t recall ATM stores money)
old prof :- what u mean by data warehousing and data mining
me :- sir i can make a guess, am not sure of the answer.
lady:- ( with a smile ,encourages me) go ahead , go ahead
me :- Since a warehouse means a place where goods are kept , data warehousing must be a place to store lots of data.. which can be used for analysis later
and from mining ,i can guess data mining means , searching for a particular piece of data
old prof :- nice 
alumnus:- I see ur a 2006 pass-out and u have only 26 months of experience
(what did u do for 2 years)
me:- sir i worked for a BPO for some time
alumnus:- then u shud have mentioned that here
me:- sir but i don’t have an experience certificate for the same and last year in the month of April I was asked to resign from my job in Patni due to lack of projects…
old prof :- so u were given a pink slip
me :- yes sir, But in stead of searching for other jobs i took it as an opportunity to crack CAT and get into IIMs .
Lady :- ( encourages me again) that’s good and u managed to get IIM calls
me :- I found is unethical to do a job for few months and leave it since i wanted to do an MBA eventually
old prof :- so how do u manage ur finances.
me:- sir I stay with my family and i got enough support from them
old prof:- oh so u r from mumbai
old prof :- that’s great then U seem well determined ..( looking at the lady ) he has decided he is gonna make it
lady:- which other IIM calls
me :- IIM indore
lady :- then u got good chance to make it from a good college ( smiles)
( i don,t recollect exactly but those profs were praising me too much that I am determined ,no one can stop him and blah blah)
its then that i made a biggest mistake by saying
me :- sir I have already converted Symbiosis
old prof:- see no one can stop him
alumnus:- ( who was silent ) which college u said
me :- SIIB
alumnus :- okay ..
( smiles everywhere)
U may leave
me :thank u sir, thank u ma’am
Posted by golimar thriller on
My IIM I interview
result – SELECTED AND JOINING
2 panelist .. 1 lady prof and 1 old and healthy male prof( i will call the male prof as prof )
This was one of my final interviews ( i had been giving interviews since 2.5 months.so was actually bored .. I was unprepared for this interview.. I didn’t read news papers for last 10 days.. didn’t study much .. had done lots of traveling for IITs .. anyways
process started with an essay
“is indian movie industry getting globalised ”
the panelist were reading my essay when i entered the room
me :- good afternoon sir, good afternoon ma’am.
lady :- good afternoon , have a seat
me :- thank U
prof :- so u r an electronics engineer having work ex as a software engineer in Patni. okay in your essay U have written “NRI abroad “.. Do u think its right
me :- no sir it has a grammatical error
prof :- what kind of error say to me in the language of data structure
me :- sir it would be redundancy
prof:- explain the error
me:- ( it should be only NRI or abroad ,I explained properly)
prof :- ( reading my essay) hmm kollywood and tollywood movie industry in south .. what r these
me:- kannada movie industry is kollywood and telugu movie industry is tollywood
lady:- tell me the 4 states and their languages in south India
me :- (said )
lady:- what is this u have written e-globally
me:- Ma’am I have written globally..
lady :- okay
lady :- complete this sentence if u agree with it
” democracy is not good for India ……………… )
me :- democracy is not good for India because in India majority of voters are illiterate who can be manipulated easily by politicians . The vote bank politics played in our country divides the country and its people..
lady :- anything else u dislike about democratic system in India and what kind of government u want
me :- ma’am in coalition government, it is not possible to make good decision quickly which is in the interest of the country since most parties r looking for their own interest … like we saw what happened while passing the nuclear bill
I feel a benevolent dictatorship would be good for India.
lady :- what do you mean by benevolent dictator.
me:- a dictator who takes quick decisions in the interest of the country, who is not corrupt ,peace loving, and thinks of the growth of the country and welfare of the people .
lady :- can u think of any past ruler in India who was a benevolent dictator
me :-(thinks) I think Akbar was.. he respected all religions and always thought of welfare of his people.
lady :- Name any other form of government , apart from democracy and dictatorship
me :- communism
lady:- which countries in the world follow communism
me :- China , and i have read somewhere about chile being communist
lady :- okay what u mean by autoXXXX (i can,t recollect)
me:- i can guess its a form of goverment similar to dictatorship
lady :- what is autocarcysyncracy ( i can,t recollect 
)
me :- i don,t know
( male prof takes over)
prof:- what is this subject u had in your final year.. mechattronics
me :- sir its a subject which has principles of both mechanical and electronics engineering
prof :- so can u answer questions from this subject
me:- sir I can try but am not sure I will be able to recollect .
prof :- what was there in it
me:- about PLCs, transducers
prof :-so what was your favorite subject in engineering apart from data structures (hahahaha he assumed I am good at data structures since i worked on it )
me :-sir I guess microprocessor
prof :- what is the difference between micro processor and micro controller
me :- explained correctly
prof : where are micro controllers being used
me :- in any appliance which does a fixed job .. like a TV , a microwave oven etc where the
processor can be programmed to do a fixed job we use micro controller
prof :- what is used in a laptop
me :- sir micro processors because laptops has to to multitasking and we need lots of
external memory for that
lady:- what is used to implement Fuzzy logic
me:- ma’am I don,t know fuzzy logic
lady:- the one that is used in washing machines
me:- if its used in washing machine.. then it must be micro controller( i was very good in
explaining why)
lady :- hmm so u have mentioned that u are creative ( we had a small psychometric test
before the essay in which we had to mention all this)
(she kept few plastic pins in front of me,paper clips)
okay tell me 10 uses of this apart from its normal use.
me :
1) it can be used to clean your ears 2) scratch your head 3) to remove something it gets struck
in a narrow hole 4) to play by kids since they were colorful 5) as paperweight
6)since its flexible u can use it as friendship bands if u tie it on your fingers
( i was thinking when she stopped me)
lady :- so u have mentioned the reason for leaving Patni as your ambition to study for CAT.. whereas U have written in the column below that u have a gap becoz u were asked to resign from Patni and took it as opportunity blah blah
prof :- u should have mentioned the same reason that u were asked to resign
me:- sir I cud have easily got another job given my experience. but i found it unethical to work for few months in a firm and leave it for MBA.. so i decided to take a gap.. so the main reason was my ambition
prof :- but the reason for leaving should n,t be that…
me :- yes sir but since ,there was a separate column ,i wrote it that way..
lady :- so u were honest in your answer here
Lady:- so what r your extra curricular activities.. what else u do apart from studying for CAT and working for Patni
lemme see oh so u have done cartooning .. draw my cartoon
prof :- (interrupts the lady ) he has organized the competition .. i guess he himself isn’t
a cartoonist
me :- yes sir.
lady:- so u like football, cricket and and and ( she searching for something in
extracurricular to ask me)
prof :- so u like rock music.. whats the difference between heavy metal and hard rock
me :- Sir i guess hard rock is a vast genre of music and heavy metal is a subset of hard
rock
prof :- u sure
me :- ( not so confidently) yes
prof :- U just destroyed my artistic talent( he said something like that and laughed)
a lil bit of smiles followed and they asked me to leave….
i said thank u and left
Posted by adarsh sharma on
“Why do you want to do an MBA?”
“Tell us something about yourself”
“What are your views about the current Indian cricket team”
“How did Punjab get its name?”
These were some of the opening questions I was asked during my interviews for admission into various top b-schools of the country. As you can see, some are clichéd questions whereas some are a bit off the course and there is no way you can be sure of what you are going to be asked. The best you can do is to be well prepared.
You may come across a lot of experts who tell you different things about how to crack an interview. A lot of the things might be true, but always take them with a pinch of salt. A lot of times their judgement is based on the past experiences of themselves or of others. The experience of others can surely give you a good idea of what can happen but it won’t be what will happen. Once I met a so called expert who told me, “ I will give you the answers to the questions like Why MBA and you just have to put them in your own words and present them.” Frankly this seemed totally absurd to me. In the end it is you who is going to be interviewed and it is you who knows about yourself, about Why you want to do an MBA! Being yourself is of utmost importance in any interview. If you don’t believe in what you are saying, how can you convince someone else about the same?
Confidence is the key when it comes to cracking an interview. Remember that most of the questions that you will be asked in the interview are going to be very basic and generic in nature. So, what the panel looks for is whether you can answer those questions with confidence and conviction. If an interviewee says that he wants to be entrepreneur, the panel invariably asks whether he has any business idea in mind. This counter question is just to check whether you are bluffing or are you actually serious about it. They also know that you won’t be having a fool proof business plan because otherwise what would you be doing there!
The question that gave me sleepless nights was whether or not I will be asked questions regarding my academics. I didn’t have a very good academic background which means less marks in graduation which made me doubt my own capabilities in answering those questions. This has been a query pointed at me by a number of aspirants as well. Again, like I said right at the start, you can never tell what you will be asked. For a fresher, you can generally expect at least a couple of academic questions as lack of work experience takes away one dimension of questions that can be directed at you so the odds increase. But this is not something that should worry you much as the panel more often than not will try to bring the best out of you and if you don’t seem to comfortable with your academics they will shift to other questions and you should try to answer them well.
Generally there is a lot of buzz about stress interviews. This is the case when the interviewer is trying to judge how bad your worst is. In such interviews, always remember, a smile never harmed anyone.
Sometimes the panel can also ask you current affairs or general knowledge questions. These questions are never the make or break questions. Whereas knowing the answers can give you some brownie points for sure, not knowing them will not end it for you. The bulk of your interview will be on the basis of the form that you will be asked to fill. Do take that form seriously as the form in itself won’t matter in your selection but the form is what can drive your interview in a certain direction. Try not to express extreme views as that shows you as being stubborn and less room is there for you to change your answer in the interview if you feel necessary.
A lot of times you can end up being your own interviewer. The questions you will be asked can be the loose ends in your previous answers. This can be to your advantage and also to your disadvantage. So, try not to leave loose ends and if you want it to play to your advantage, be extra careful as it can backfire as well.
All said and done, don’t forget that it is just an interview- One among many you will appear in this “MBA-season” or for that matter in your life. It will be good if you make it but won’t be the end of the world if you don’t. It may just be a blessing in disguise as who knows, You may get much better opportunities in the future.
Posted by Baragur Krishnamurthy on May 18, 2010
You are likely to face GDs at least on two occasions – first when you are seeking admission to a PG program, and again when you are seeking that dream job. It pains me to say this. Over all these years, I haven’t found a qualitative difference between the two (With some exceptions of course.)
The purpose of a GD is primarily two-fold: to test your communication skills and to test how well you will gel in a team environment. When you are part of an organization, it goes without saying that you have to interact with others – the members could be from your domain or other domains.
Organizations today do not want brilliant loners – they would rather settle for someone who is above average but who can contribute to a team. Of all the soft skills that you need as managers, effective communication would be somewhere at the top of the list.
The problem in the real world is that a GD is seen as a battle, one in which lung power is the weapon. This apart, many myths surround the concept of a GD. The first to speak is seen as a leader. The last to speak is likely to be rejected. You need to get these myths out of your mind.
It is not often understood much less appreciated that the art of communication requires listening as well as speaking skills. As one scholar has eloquently expressed it, we have been given two ears and one mouth. Our listening and speaking must be in like proportion.
GDs come in a variety of forms. They can be on a topic of contemporary relevance – for example, India’s Performance in the World T20 Cup. They can be historical – the formation of states on linguistic basis and the price we are paying for it. They can be controversial – We are a soft state when it comes to terror. Or it can be abstract – red and blue.
Irrespective of the nature of the topic, you would do well to remember the following:
1. Stay calm and composed; it doesn’t pay to shout at anyone or vehemently disagree.
2. If you have to disagree, do so with grace.
3. Instead of bringing in too many viewpoints, focus on one or two and try to arrive at a conclusion.
4. Demonstrate your listening skills as well as your tolerance of a different perspective.
5. Even if you are the last one to speak, treat it as an opportunity to summarize with precision what has been discussed. End the GD on a positive, optimistic, and cheerful note.
Youngsters come to me after a GD and have the usual complaints – I spoke the best, contributed the maximum number of points and yet I was not selected. Then there is the eternal dilemma between being aggressive and being quietly assertive. I can very well understand the frustration that creeps in particularly when you seem to have done well and still do not make it through. I have just two observations to make:
1. The person judging you is not God. That person is as fallible as anyone else. Moreover, whether you did well or not is in the eyes of the recruiter – not our own.
2. Assuming you don’t make it, it is not the end of the world. Where possible, and in a polite manner, try to get feedback. What are the areas you need to improve? Then start working on those areas.
Like many other aspects (Quality, Excellence, Perfection), life too is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the journey even as you crave to reach the destination.
Posted by Baragur Krishnamurthy on May 14, 2010
It is that time of the year when those about to graduate and are looking for jobs have to face the ultimate hurdle of succeeding at an interview. I have used the term hurdle from the students’ perspective. Those who can get through aptitude tests and presentations like a breeze find the interview to be agonizingly difficult. Many years ago, when I had the privilege of interviewing prospective candidates for an executive position, my colleague from HR had this question to everyone: Why should I hire you? What is so great about you? It was almost intimidating. Later, when I asked her the reason for this approach, she had a perfectly legitimate answer: “I don’t want to waste my time and the candidate’s time asking frivolous questions. If someone is focused and has done some homework about the company, she should be able to answer this question.” Scott Mcnealy, the founder of Sun Microsystems was once asked what he looked for in potential hires. His spontaneous response was a great attitude, people skills and conceptual knowledge, in that order. Yet, unfortunately, many students falter because of a poor attitude. They apply to any and every company, do not research the company or its values or its ethos, and worse, try to outsmart the interviewer.
Therefore my young friends, if you want to walk into an interview and walk out with a job offer, follow these tips, culled from having seen literally thousands of candidates:
1. Have a respect for time. Numerous have been the occasions when we did not allow candidates who turned up late to attend the PPT.
2. Dress well. Later, you may find the organization does not have a dress code. An interview is a formal process and it pays well to put your best foot forward in sartorial sense.
3. Answer the questions that you can with precision and composure. Don’t be afraid of saying “I don’t know.” No one on this planet can answer all questions. But let this not become a habit!
4. Show your passion for the organization and the job. Talk to your seniors who may already be working there. Find out the organization’s culture. Remember, you need to fit into the organization, not the other way around.
5. Finally, don’t be disheartened if you are not selected. It is not the end of the world. Of course, ideally you must trump your first interview. If not, learn from your mistakes and do something about them. And don’t be too fastidious about job profile, location, timings, and compensation.
After all. life is (at 20+) a 50-year marathon, not a 100 meter dash. Keep this in mind and you are sure to succeed.
May your next interview be your most wonderful experience.
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