IIM Calcutta Interview

----Scene Six of Six ----

Date: 14th Mar- Time: 2:00 pm

Venue: Monarch Hotel (Panel 2)

Case

Some company had a contract to supply some goods within a certain period of time. But Just before a week, they realised that neither the quality nor the quantity is anywhere near the expectation. So, in order to avoid huge penalties they created a disaster / accident (Act of God) they serve bad food in the cafeteria and some workers fell ill and also they blasted some bombs . Now we have to discuss the pros and cons of this strategy

FISH market ... Average performance

PI (Around 20 min)

I was the last one to be interviewed. Long Wait.There were 4 Profs P1, P2 , P3 and P4 and ME ofcourse

P1 - What do you do?

Me - Told about my company and work

P2 - Some questions about company

Me - Answered them

P2 - How many people report to you?

Me - Answered

P2 - Learnings from workex

Me - Told him (Feeling good)

P1 - Why do you want to do MBA?

Me - Told him

P2 - How will MBA help you?

Me - blah blah

P1 - So you want to become a teacher in future (Was going through my form . Mentioned research and teaching as my long term goal)

Me - Yes sir, I want to learn from the industry and give it to the students. But that is my long term plan and not an immediate one.

P2 - So in future you will not be a manager but just teacher.

Me - Told something

P1 and P2 were looking at each other P2 says OK .I thought it was the end of it

P3 - I know you wrote just like that .. You are not serious about teaching

Me - Told her that I teach on weekends even now and would like to contribute to teaching. Also mentioned that intreacting with students would give me fresh ideas and thoughts

P2 - So you want to gain ideas and implement them

P1 - Most of them would have been outdated

P4 - We saw that all through your GD?

P3 - You have been good at borrowing ideas and discuss them with the group

P1 - By the time you told somethings they have been discussed

P4 - It went on like that through out your GD

Yes all at once !!!!!!! Didnt expect some thing like this

Me - For a moment.... Was thinking if my GD was so bad ... and kept smiling like moron

Before I uttered something

P4 - Do you remember anything about Normal distribution curve?

Me - Yes sir

P4 - Solve this mean of heights of students in a class is 5.5 and sigma is 0.2 what is probability that I pick a student and his height is 5.5

Me - Was writing the details on a paper and tried drawing something and thought if there was any way to solve it

P3 and P4 - What happened

Me - I am not sure if this can be solved. It could also happen that none of their heights is 5.5

P4 - Tell me that question is wrong naaa

P1 - (Jumped in) - Is there a possiblity that all hts are 5.5

Me - Told him not possible as there is sigma

P4 - OK tell me now what is prob that the ht of a student picked is less than 5.5

Me- 50%

P1 - Go for FPM and not PGP

Me - Told that I am currently interested in PGP and wanted to work in industry and later accg to my interest pursue research and contribute as a teacher

P3 - Have u taken any coaching

Me - No coaching for exam but have attended a 2 day workshop at TIME Hyderabad for GD PI


P1 - Take up FPM and get into teaching as soon as possible if you are serious

Me - Told him that with current knowledge I cannot do a good job where as after gaining some experience it would make more effective ..... blah blah

P1 - You have good experience and we have good infrastructure . You have forgotten normal distribution and later you will be learning them along with your kids

P4 - Normal curve is continuous and not discrete

P2 - No he wants to learn from the industry first and share the same later

OK you may leave now

Me -Thanks and Have a nice day

Walked out .....with no clue.... Last one to leave .... definitely could have been better.

----End of Scene 6 of Six ----

IIM Ahmedabad Interview

----Scene Five of Six ----

Biggest day of my life ... Walking in to attend India's best B-school interview ... That itself was a great feeling

Date: 7th Mar (BIG DAY) - Time: 9:00 am

Venue: Monarch Hotel (Panel 3)

Case

A garment shop in Hyderabad. The layout was such that the sarees were arranged in diff floors accg to the Value of the sarees. 1% comission is given for salesmen. Now salesmen were concentrating mainly on customers who could afford expensive sarees and also the areas that had cheaper sarees were neglected... and empty and so on.........

FISH market. Man .... the stakes were high.......!!!! Had a bad cold. Started off the GD. Gave my points at many points . Made couple of points at some point which were discussed at a later stage by the group. Overall - Satisfied.

PI(Around 25 min)

I was fifth one to be interviewed. Bad Cold and thoroughly tensed waiting.

There were 3 Profs P1, P2 and P3 and ME ofcourse

P2- Please handover your certificates

Me - Gives them

P3 - Tell us something about your job?

Me - Tells them.... about the services it offered and about the project

P2 - What is your role in the project?

Me - Told him

P2 - How many people report to you?

Me - Told him that it is variable Currently - 2 and one point it was 5 .

P2 - What are these certifiates from your company?

Me - Told about the accomplishments and certificates (Best Team member for 2005 -06)

P2 - What are your learnings from the project and especially what did you learn being as a team lead?

Me - Told him.. They looked pleased .
(Pretty relaxed by now)

P2 - How was experience working with Japanese ? Any linguistic problems?

Me- Told them and gave an example where we had a mishap because of translation error in the specification

P3 - What is meant by mounting Fuji? (I have Mentioned Accomplishment as Mounted Mt Fuji) Me - Told him that we had a chance to visit Fuji when we were in Tokyo

P1 - Are u interested in mountaineering? Did you go to the top of the mountain?Describe your experience?

Me - (I wanted to get them into cricket - my hobby - so used this as an opportunity) Described the experience as the most physically challenging one that I had faced till date and told them so far even in the most difficult projects or tasks I had found a stage where things get a bit easier after a while but this was one exp where we had no respite. I told them it was like seeing off opening spell of Mc Grath and Pollock just to come acoss Muralitharan and Shane warne .. No easy runs at all

P3 - Why McGrath, Pollock, Murali and Warne Why not Harbhajan and Sreeshanth

Me - I wish I can take their names after 5-10 years

P1 - Why not Kumble?

Me - (Turning Disastrous???) Told him that the above mentined bowlers have bowled tight overs even when things are not going their way (most of the times captains can safely depend on them) and we have rarely seen such a performance from India .... Told them if opposition gets 50 off first 6 overs we rarely came back into the game. It happened some one like Sachin Tendulkar turns the match with his golden arm

P2 - So u think Sachin is a good bowler?

P1 - He can neither bowl offspin nor legspin consistently

Me - That makes it even togher for the batsmen as it keeps him guessing. I think he is an intelligent player.

P2 - What do you think his contribution will be in this worldcup?

Me - Told him that he had always scored well in WCs and I am looking forward to similar performance from him this time too.Also told him he looked fluent on the prev day match against Holland

P3 - Some more qs on interests and hobbies

Me - Answered them

P3 - What is your fav subject of Mechanical Engineering

Me - Gathered all my strength to say it is Thermodynamics

P3-What is Otto Cycle?

Me - Told him Explained in detail .

P1 - Why dont you draw the PV and TS Curves

P3 - What are TS curves?

Me - Temp - Entropy diagram sir.Tried drawing ... got confused ...

P3 - Long time right

P1 - Which one can you draw comfortably

Me - (Gladly) Carnot Cycle

P2 - OK draw it

Me - I have explained and gave PV and TS diagrams

P2 - Where do we have this cycle?

Me- Theoretically it is the cycle with most efficiency and I think in practical it is not possible to achieve this

P2 - Why?

Me - I think it is difficult to achieve isentropic process as the entropy of a system always changes

P3 - Changes?

Me - Yes sir, entropy of a system always increases

P3 - What is second law of Thermodynamics

Me - Told him . (Entropy of an isolated system always tends to increase)

P1 - What is first law?

Me - Told him ( Change in Internal energy of a system is equal to heat supplied to the system and work done on the system)

P1 - Do you think there is a third law?

Me - Yes sir.... Entropy at absolute zero is zero

P1 -There is also something called Zeroeth law rite

Me - Yes sir ... Thermometer one .. (When two bodies are in thermal eqbm with third body they are said to be in eqbm with each other)

P3 - Transitivity right

P2 - So were you born and brought up in Hyderabad?

Me -Told him I was born in Ranchi , Jharkand and schooling at Hyderabad.

P3 - Jharkand? Whats the capital city

Me - Sir it was in Bihar then. now in Jharkand ,Ranchi is the capital

P1 - How come Jharkand?

Me - Told him my father worked for MECON

P3 - OK MECON , Doranda .... I think for some reason Jharkand seems to be in NEWS are u aware of it?

Me - Sir , JMM MP has been killed by some extreme group and hence there was a bandh in the state

P3 - Who is the extreme group?

Me - (Could not recollect) I am not sure sir.

P3 - How can one travel from Ranchi to Hyderabad
Me- Gave him the Rail route - Ranchi to Vijayawada and then change to Secunderabad

P3 - What are the railway zones that you cover on your journey
Me- Told ... Eastern Railway , Cental and South central railway

P3 - How many railway zones are there in India
Me- Thinking

P3 - Is it 5 10 15 .. Any idea?
Me- more than 15

P1,P2 and P3 - Take your files and take a toffee . Thank you

Me -Thank you sir and Have a nice day

Walked out.... Feeling relaxed .... Never thought it could be so good and sweet ... Hmmm nothing can be taken for granted .... after all its IIMA

---- End of Scene 5 of 6 -----------

IIM Indore Interview

----Scene Four of Six ----

Date: 6th Mar-Time: 9:00 am

Venue: PESIT (Finally reached it !!!! )

Case

Two friends,graduates, average at studies but good at extra circulars were from a poor family. They did not find any job in India . Went to Dubai and joined in as salesmen at a shop . After 6 months they realised that it was not the right place for them and they also started to feel that the job was very menial and pay was not good. What should they do now?Very Nice discussion. Came in a few times with some points Overall - Satisfied. (Average)

PI(Around 15 min)

Hmmmm ..... After a long wait.... Last one to be interviewed (It was 1 PM)

There were two profs P1 and P2. and ME (M)

P2 - Can I have your certificates

Me - Gives them .

P1- You have a very interesting email id? Whats ur official mail id?

Me - Told

P1 - So you are from Hyderabad right?

Me- Yes sir

P1 - Tell me how do you rate AndhraPradesh among the states in India?

Me - Sir , Top5 sir

P1 - How many states are present in India?

Me- 28 Sir

P1- Smiles ... What are the factors that are considered for ranking any state?

Me- Started of with Domestic Product of the state

P1 - What is GDP?

Me - Told him.

P1 - What is the state with maximum GDP?

Me- Sir I am not sure can I make a guess.

P1 - No. If you dont know just say I dont know?

Me - Sir , I dont know.

P1 - What is GDP of India?

Me - Around 900 b USD

P1 - If GDP value is known why is Income tax dept is breaking its head to find the tax estimate?
Me - Blinking ... Sir

P1 - Rephrases the question.

Me - Told him that some people might be earning less than 1.1 lakh... So they are contributing to the GDP but not Tax ... something like that I told.

P1 - OK What other factors in ranking the state?

Me - Sir Education / Literacy

P1 - What percentage of AP is literate?

Me - Aroung 60-65% (Wow Found that it was 60.5%)

P1 - I will not ask you the most literate state but tell me which part of AP is having the least literacy?

Me- It has to be some part of Telangana . I think it is Adilabad district.

P1- What is Telangana?

Me - It is the conglomeration of 10 districts in northern part of AP

P1 - What are other regions of AP?

Me - Rayalseema , Coastal Andhra

P1 - So it has 3 regions !!! What are the problems faced by Rayalseema

Me - It has 4 districts . Water scarcity and Factionism are two main problems

P1 - What about Coastal Andhra?

Me - (Not Sure of any problem) Told him that it has many fertile lands and it does better than other two regions (Could have said Cyclones ... )

P1- Where is Indore?

Me - Sir it is in MP

P1 - What is the capital of MP?

Me - Bhopal Sir

P1- Are you sure it is not Indore?
Me- Yes sir I am sure it is Bhopal

P2 - Whats ur job profile ?

Me - Blah Blah...

P2 - What is investment bank?

Me- Told him (Thanks to ARKS - TIME)

P2 - Name a few I banks?

Me - Listed around 10

P2 - What is difference between Ibank and Commercial bank?

Me - Told him

P2 - What abt Merchantile bank and I bank

Me - Said I am taking a guess

P2 - Have u not heard of Merchantile bank?

Me - No sir andf took a guess saying merchantile bank just books trades and maintains accounts as per our instructions where as I banks will suggest us where to invest

P2 - How can one raise money?

Me - Company can go on a public issue or issue bonds

P2 - Why are securities called so?

Me - Told him that is one way of keeping the money safe (Blaabered something on same lines)

P2 - What are rolling stocks
Me - I dont know sir.

P2 - You are a mech engg .. I know it is more than 3 years... Very simple question

P2 - What is mechanical advantage?

Me - Blinking.... then told him that it is obtained by comparing the amount of work done to do a task using a device and without using the device

P2 - Any examples?

Me - Thinking for long

P2 - Have u heard off lever

Me - Sir Gears can be example ... We give lesser power and obtain higher power at output


P2 - What are units of Power?

Me - Watt. KW or KJ/Sec

P2 - Any other unit?

Me - Horse power

P2 - Whats is the conversion
Me - 1HP = 735W (remembered it is closer to 735-745)

P2 - Why is it called HP?

Me - Thought and told that may be it is called so because in olden days Horses were used for transportation and ...

P1 - Why not elephant or bullock

P2 - Even other animals were used for transportation

Me - I am not aware of exact story but I guess they were trying to compare it with the most efficient mode which I believe were horses

P1 , P2 and Me - All laughs

P1 and P2 look at each other

P1 - OK Thank you

P2 - Take ur file and ALL THE BEST

Me - Thank you sir ....

Walked out Damn tiring experience to travel to PESIT... Have to go back now huh!!!

----End of Scene 4 of 6 ----

IIM Bangalore Interview

----Scene Three of Six ----

Date: 1st Mar - Time: 9:00 am

Venue: IIM Bangalore (Panel 3)

Case

Dr.Gupta , president of IDA, approves a medical device inspite of it not being tested properly and a stiff resistance from Scientists.He did so because, there was huge pressure from patients and the advisory committee also recommends it.. Now it is found that the device had side effects and hence should we suspend Dr.Gupta

Very Cordial discussion. Came in many times and gave many points.

Overall - More than Satisfied. It happens to be the best GD of my life so far

PI(Around 25 min)

I was third one to be interviewed.There were two profs P1 and P2. and ME (M)

P2 - Can I have your certificates

Me - Gives them .

P1- Please tell us about your job profile?

Me - Told them...

P1- Did you give GMAT?

Me - No Sir

P1- You have close to 4 years of experience? Why not GMAT?

Me - Some Gyan on Indian B schools and etc etc .... Seemed convinced.

P1- How many CATs did you write?

Me - Told him written in 2002 and 04 . Both times scored around 99% overall and missed due to low verbal percentile!!!

P2 - Whats ur V % this time?

Me - Told ....Then we discussed about the Verbal paper ..

P2 said there were lot of criticism against V paper and then I told him may be it was because the paper was not on expected lines

P1 P2 Me ----- All Laughs

P1 - Whats your future plan?

Me - Some gyan

P2 - What if not MBA?

Me- Some more We had a long discussion on this one..... They were not buying my thoughts. I was telling them the same in different ways. It went on so for next 8 - 9 mins

P2 - What are highlights of Budget

Me - Told few ....

P2 - Interrupts -- I am sure you must have just read this one for the sake of interview

P2 - Immediately --- Whats happening to Sensex?

Me - Its been falling for a week sir?

P2 - Why?

Me - I read somewhere that this trend will continue till budget.

P2 - What happened yesterday?

Me- it lost around 500 points ... Reached the lowest mark since Dec12th (Heard some one discussing)

P2 - Why?

Me- May be industry expected something from budget and did not get the same(Blunder.....Actual reason was Chinese market fell drastically on 28th Feb ... Was not aware of it as I had to leave for interview very early ... Canot be a nice excuse ofcourse)

P2 - I will tell you something ... Market lost 700 points before budget was presented and recovered some 200 points while the budget was being presented!!!Can you tell me why?

Me - Thinking ...

P2 - I know you must have been reading the finance related articles for the sake of interviews for the last few days . Do you read them regularly?

Me - Told him ... I read articles here and there but not to an extent of analysing it thoroughly.. Like what happened during intraday ... why sensex rose at some point and fell at other

P1 and P2 - Look at each other ..

Both- OK Thank You

Me - Thank you Sir

Came out ... Thought about it for 30 mins or so and realized that might have been a STRESS interview.... they were not buying any of my thoughts!!!

---- End of Scene 3 of 6 -----------

IIM Kozhikode Interview

----Scene Two of Six ----

Date: 17th Feb - Time: 9:00 am

Venue: Monarch Hotel (Panel 3)

GD Article

About Govt should not involve in the business rather facilitate it ...PSU disinvestment....etc etc

Peaceful GD...Came in around 6-7 times arnd 3 times new points and rest adding up stuff. Every one chipped in ... Overall - More than satisfied

PI (Around 15 mins)

I was the fifth one to be interviewed.There were 2 profs P1 and P2. and ME (M)

P1 escorts me in...

P2 is already looking at my form.

P1 - Can I have your certificates

Me - Gives them .

P2- Please tell us something about yourselves?

Me - Told him for one min.

P1-You work at XXX and your designation is Sr Member Tech ? Is it a management position?
Me - Told him it is equivalent to Sr Software engg. and told him some things about my work and company.

P2-Asks me some more details abt my company

Me-Told him

P1-(Browsing through my marks card) .... So you had a subject called ..

Me - (Which one is he going to pick now !!!!!)

P1 - Industrial management in your engg course. What did you study in it?

Me - (Did I have it??? Collecting thoughts) - Told him we read about Sales , Break even point (lucky me) , some principles of balance sheet, management principles MBO and MBE(Was just Hoping that he does not get deeper into MBO and MBE)

P1 - What is break even point?

Me -- (Great sigh of relief) ... Told him... happily

P1 - Whats the formula or how is it calculated?

Me - Explained him and wrote a equation

P1 - I have 3 projects on hand. How will you choose which one do you want go ahead with
Me - Listed what all factors I would be considering ... etc

P1 looks at P2 - P1 continues to have a look at my certificates

P2 - So Naveen you have written func specs , involved in development, testing etc etc....All the phases?

Me - Yes sir ... explained him that we are a small team and hence have the opportunity to get involved at all phases

P2 - What happens during a project from start to end?

Me - Explained from Business proposal ... to Business requirements .... Tech specing... Development ... P2 interrupts me and

P2 - What is a business rule and business requirement doc?

Me - Business rule is something that has to done in the market where as business requirement document is that we offer to clients

P2 - What is the difference between two

Me - Explained him in detail

P2 - How is business requirement translated to a tech module

Me - explained him

P2 - Can you explain with example

Me - Took an example of how I go about supporting a new IPO
(A good discussion on this one many qs and ans)

P2 - You are into development ? What do you do there?

Me - Explained him told him that we write some SPs and C files

P2 - What all factors do you take care of while writing SPs

Me - Told him performance ... LOC etc etc

P2 - What is Physical data and logical data

Me- Told him that physical or static data is the supplied data and logical data is calculated or dependant on the physical data .... Some discussion on this one

P2 - What is difference between physical and logical model?

Me - Telling some thing .. was really not sure ... (Suddenly heard a sound .....)

P2 - Thank you. Please call the next candidate

P1 hands over the file

Me - Thank you sir

Came Out hoping I have similar outing on one of those three days (A/B/C)

---- End of Scene 2 of 6 -----------

IIM Lucknow Interview

First IIM interview of my life


----Scene One of Six ----

Date: 16th Feb - Time: 10:00 am

Venue: Monarch Hotel (Panel 1)


GD

Topic - A Room without books is like a body without soul.

Essay Write up -10 min and then the GD started.


From the word GO I started attempting to get on with the GD, in few min I realized that its becoming more and more difficult with every one speaking simultaneously. I was found talking with 4 others at some points and finally I came in with a couple of points (Around 3-4 times) . A couple of new points . My presence was mostly felt in the latter part of the discussion.

Overall - Satisfactory


PI (Around 10 mins)

I was the second one to be interviewed.

There were 2 profs P1 and P2. and ME (M)


P2 - Can I have look at your certificates.

Me - Sure sir... Handed over the certificates

P2 - So Naveen you are working at XXXXX ? Where is it?

Me - It is at Hyderabad sir and I told them some thing about the company.

P2 - How come u r in software company after doing a course in Mechanical Engineering

Me - Some gyaan

P2 - Hmmm.. What do you do in your free time

Me - Told about my extra curriculars - and hobbies


Then on we spoke a lot abt it (for abt 3-4 minutes) and it went on well Suddenly P2 came across a certificate from MICO (Had done my final year project there)


P2 - What did you do at MICO

Me - Explained that we have worked on a SIX SIGMA project at MICO as part of our final year engineering

P2 - SIX Sigma ... Do you remember anything about it?

Me - Told him what Six Sigma is and gave a brief presentation of my project in a couple of mins

P2 - Can you draw a normal curve and explain six sigma

Me - Explained.

P2 - What all do you know about the curve ?

Me - Told him I can tell him abt mean , Cp, Cpk , or equation of the curve(generic one)

P2 - I am not interested in them do you know anything else?

Me - (Thinking...)

P2 - Have u heard of 12 sigma or 10 sigma?

Me - Initially, Told him I fairly remember reading about 7 sigma. But later took back my words saying that I am not sure of it.Couple of more qs followed on the curve (Nothing great)


P1 comes into picture now ---

P1 - What do you want to do in your life.

Me - Some gyaan....

P1 - If you want to be there how will managemnt education help you

Me - Some more gyaan..... Told him what all I can learn and how it is useful(On the hindsight May be could have handled it even better)

P1 - We don't teach anything of that sort at L

Me- ghuma firaake wohi baath bolaa ...

P1 - Are you pursing management out of interest or compulsion

Me - Told good reasons and justified why it is not a compulsion (May be could have done better here also)

P2 and P1 -- Look at each other .... OK , Thank you and do you want to tell any thing about us or ask anything ?

Me- Some small talk and Thanked them....


So feel good factor..... but it is the same for everyone(most of us)

I think they are looking at something beyond what we are looking at !!

Overall , I feel that call from Lucknow will mostly depend on my "LUCK" NOW.


------------End of Scene 1 of 6---------------------

Blues, Butterflies and finally so simple

Feb15th,2007-

Time - 2PM : Done with my tasks for the day... Knew that it would be hard to concentrate as the day progresses

Time - 5PM : Time to start on a journey... Locked the system ... Collected a printout which had the details of political trivia ....One of my colleague helped me ease out ..... Started off to catch the Bangalore Express

Time - 7PM : Train started .... and few minutes later .... opened the CAT2006 Brochure and went through the Institute pages ... then went through the pre-prepared notes on various topics.... then there were few rehearsals on the regular stuff ... Intro, Why MBA , etc ... Started to feel good and slipped into the much wanted sound sleep

Next day morning - My friend came to Bangalore East to help me out with the proceedings in the city ... He dint utter a word as it all showed on my face ....

Reached Hotel Monarch at 8:30 AM .... walked into waiting hall and with in an hour I realised that the faces in the room are all familiar ... It was like waiting for GD at TIME Ameerpet branch ... Needless to say that I was pretty relaxed and then on the things started looking simple