Interview Experience - IIM A

Name :- Aviral Bhatnagar

Source :- PG

My IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience.

It was a dream, still feels like one.

CAT 2013:

Aggregate 99.99
Verbal: 100.00
Quant: 99.44

Profile:

Acads
X ICSE 2008 (95.00)
XII Maharashtra Board HSC (Science) 2010 (84.7)

Undergrad Stream:

BTech Engineering Physics IIT Bombay 2014 (85.4)

Work-Ex:0

Extra-curricular: National Business Plan Competition winner, Startup core team Member, Institute Literary Arts Secretary with Organisational Color, National Level Quiz winner, International Quiz participant, Case Competition national runner up.

Interview & Essay 

Venue: The Orchid, Mumbai
Date : 10.02.2014

WAT

There was a case-comprehension and a WAT, given 30 minutes for both together.

Case: A long essay on how the environment and economy are at loggerheads, and the bodies responsible for it.

Questions of the case: Who is the unholy struggle between? Who do you think the author blames for this unholy struggle? Do you agree with the author’s opinion and why?

Brief Snapshot: Did okay I believe, answered all quite satisfactorily.

Topic: Write about a teacher who has had an indelible impact on your life, how that teacher is different from the others who have taught you and really stands out.
Brief Snapshot of the attempt: Wrote decently well, talked about how one of my teachers helped me improve as a person, better myself academically, topped because of her and so on and so forth.

Rate your preparation(0-5): 2
Rate your performance(0-5): 4

PI:

Panel Members: One young gentleman (P1) and another older gentleman (P2) . The young gentleman was on the left and I think he was an alumni of IIT Bombay (he knew about where the lake was etc.)

Walk in, P2 is at the door and takes me inside. I take my seat, I was quite peaceful, had chit chatted with them a little bit before the PI. I was the first person of my panel (and I think the first person to be interviewed by IIM Ahmedabad)

P1 : So you seem to have run out of space for the essay on your teacher, do you want to add something else? It looks like you ran out of space

Me : No sir, I just overshot a bit, I don’t have anything to add.

P1 : Are you sure?

Me : Yes sir.

P1 rummaging through my file. I see he needs help.

Me : Sir, can I take out my certificates.

P1 : Please do so

I take out my certificate along with the magazine made by our startup, and give to them

P2 : How do you think you did on them? Do you want to discuss something more, or should we move on?

Me : No sir, I think I wrote decently well enough

P2 : Okay, so do you know anything about such problems (with reference to the case) in present day India?

Me : No sir, I can’t think of any. But I am aware of this one. (Pause, so I continue). Sir there was this issue concerning Vedanta (wasn’t there in the case) trying to get a captive bauxite mine.

P2 : So where was this?

Me : Sir it was in Odisha, and the tribals opposed the move. It was given as a verbal confirmation by the government, and Vedanta invested a lot of money in it. But this issue cropped up and the tribals the MoEF opposed it, so it was disallowed

P1 : Okay, so you’re from IIT Bombay, what is your favorite place?

Me : Sir Lakeside (Powai Lake) and Hillside (Sameer Hill)

P1 : Which lake Powai or Vihar?

Me : Sir Powai Lake Sir

P1 : Why not Vihar? You’re in which hostel?

Me: Sir Hostel 4

P1 : So isn’t there a road near Hostel 4 to Vihar Lake (Here is where I guessed he is an alum)

Me: Yes Sir, but it’s restricted now

P1 : Hmm, so where do you get potable water from in IIT?

Me: Sir, there is pipeline that passes by my hostel, I am not sure if it carries potable water from Vihar

P1 : Hmm, so how does Mumbai get potable water? What are the other lakes?

Me : Sir I know of these two and Vasai Lake (which is tiny, couldn’t think of anything else)

P1 : Okay, so you’re from Pune, where does Pune get its water from?

Me : (Damn!) Sir, there is water carried by tankers from the Mulshi Dam area

P1 : So what about Khadakvasla?

Me : (Using sense to come up with something which couldn’t be verified) Sir my area gets it from Mulshi, the other area of the city gets it from Khadakvasla. (Which is sort of true)

P1 : Okay, so you stay in Viman Nagar, what are the landmarks there?

Me : Sir, there are a lot of hotels that have come up recently, it’s become like a hotel road. Malls, and the air force base

P1 : Okay, so you join IIM A and want to get in to hospitality, what are the parameters that you will use to judge a restaurant? (Placements case prep FTW!)

Me : Sir (using paper) footfall (Was going to add more stuff)

P1 : Okay, tell me about hotels

Me : Sir, occupancy in peak season and off season, sir the number of professional engagements like this one organized by IIM A (chuckle in the head)

P2 : (Interrupts) Okay. So you talk about your chemistry teacher who had an impression on you. Why the change from Physics to Chemistry?

Me : Sir, I did both Chemistry and Physics for JEE

P2 : Right, right. But you chose Physics right, what was the reason?

Me : Sir, nowadays Physics has become the node of major understanding of a sciences. Even Chemistry has become more of Physics and more of Chemistry. Sir, I was seeing this interview with the Bharat Ratna CNR Rao on Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta. Shekhar Gupta enters this lab and says “where are the Bunsen burners?” and CNR Rao says that we now do more of Physics, Quantum Physics and Schrodinger’s equation. So Sir, Chemistry has become more about manipulation of molecules understanding their effects on a quantum level and so on and so forth

P1: Hmm. So I am layman who thinks Physics and Chemistry are different. Can you give me an example of where they are being used together?

Me: Sir, Semiconductors. Sir we understand the behavior of the matter using the Physics, Quantum Physics etc. and choose between various elements depending on the properties of the two.

P1 : You seem to be forcing physical and chemical properties against each other, aren’t you?

Me : No Sir. Sir Physics is the understanding of the behavior of the matter while chemistry is the macroscopic manifestation of this behavior (I have no idea how I came up with this!)

P1 and P2 look at each other

P1 : Hmm, okay. So can you give me an example of materials used in Semiconductors?
Me : Sir, Silicon, Germaninum Arsenic.

P1 : So any new elements or materials?

Me : (Thinking) Sir, some variant using Carbon, I can’t exactly recall. Sir, Graphene. (Phew!)

P1 : Hmm, so can you tell me a semiconductor manufacturing company in India?

Me : (Dafuq!) Sir Texas Instruments?

P1 : But don’t they have only an R&D lab in Bangalore?

Me : (No idea if the manufacturing facility is there) Sir, I think it is there

P1 : A pilot facility of some sort?

Me : Sir yes I think so (No clue!)

P1 : What are the other manufacturing facilities of Texas Instruments?

Me : Sir, the US

P1 : What about Taiwan?

Me : (Facepalm) Yes Sir, yes Taiwan also

P1: So what is this Brain World Cup that you participated in? Is it something like the Olympics? I haven’t heard of it, it should be quite popular shouldn’t it?

Me: Sir, yes it is. Very popular in Japan, but not telecast worldwide. It is a quiz competition that is held inter varsity with participants from Harvard Oxford Stanford etc. It was actually televised before the Olympic games in Japan.

P1 : Hmm, so where did you do your internship?

Me : Sir I was working on developing an equity portfolio allocator at Gravitas, as a risk analyst intern. Gravitas is a risk management and technological co sourcing firm.

P1 : What was the goal of your internship?

Me: My project leader asked me to develop a tool that was targeted at retail investors. So I had to make a tool that was cost effective. I used global data sources such as Yahoo instead of Bloomberg which is a paid data source. Using this I made a tool with a simple intuitive interface coded in VBA with Excel as a front end.

P1 : Okay, so if you had to choose between hedge fund management and this economic policy outlined in the essay, what would you choose?

Me : Sir, firstly I have an inclination towards strategy management consulting and I would like to work there and not a hedge fund

P2 : (I guess I wasn’t clear enough) What does strategy management consulting have to do with this?

Me: Sir, I was saying that I would choose strategy management consulting over the hedge fund and it would be a choice between this and the economic policy. I have got placed at Monitor Deloitte, which is a strategy management consulting firm.

P1: Okay, so elaborate

Me : Sir, I think the environment is very important to us, and so is this policy. I have a few friends working on Energy policy making, so I have had discussions with them. The environment is something that will influence our lives (realizing that I am going too much on the environment thing). Parallely, the economy is also important to drive growth for the country. If we need to progress we need to push our facilities and drive growth for more prosperity

P1 : Hmm, go on

Me: Sir, I think we need to strike a balance between the two through good legislature and policies that are inclusive. (Back to my environment crap) Sir, I think when they say they are saving the earth and saving the world, I think it is more about saving humanity. We as a race are the most affected by environmental changes, and not the earth, which has been through great variations. For example, if we see Shanghai, life has become miserable because of the smog. We must progress along with taking care of how the environment is affected. This will only be possible with a strong policy that takes care of various parameters, sustainably.

P2: Okay, so you talked about Strategy Management Consulting. What is it?

Me: Sir Strategy Management Consulting is the process of providing advice to clients to improve efficiency or performance, taking into account various parameters that are important and defined by them

P1 is looking through the startup’s magazine in the meanwhile. He looked quite interested!

P2: Okay, so what is strategy in simple terms?

Me: Sir, it is the path that you design and follow to reach a certain goal

P2: So what is the application of Engineering Physics to Strategy Management Consulting? You seem to be switching again here?

Me: Sir, actually I learnt a lot. I learnt how to communicate complex ideas in a simple manner. Sir can I show you an example on paper?

P2: Sure

Me: Sir, so in General Theory of Relativity we understood how masses behave at high velocities in the presence of an acceleration or gravitational force. Writing the equation of tensors is quite complex. But this idea can be explained in a simpler manner using the space time fabric and that masses create curvatures in this space time fabric, just like balls on a table cloth. We can understand how light bends, or objects behave quite easily using this. A black hole is like a hole through the cloth, more massive objects create more curvature

P2: Hmm, okay (He nodded his head quite a lot during this)

P2: So in your form you write that you worked where you learnt team spirit and drive and motivation. Can they co exist? Aren’t they contrarian?

Me: Sir, I think team spirit is the framework through which a group of individuals synergize and work to use the power of a multiplying force. Drive and motivation is on an individual level, where each individual is driven or motivated to succeed. A team which has team spirit running through it, along with very driven and motivated individuals in superb.

P1 and P2 look at each other (Bakre ko jaane de?)

P1: So, nice talking to you. Here, have a toffee.

I grasp it say my thank you

P1: How did you rate the interview?

Me: Sir I think it was good

P1 and P2 smile: Okay, you can leave

Me: Should I call the next person in?

P1 : No it’s fine.

Really nice interview. Left me with a great feeling. It was really nice talking to such learned and well aware people!

Rate your preparation(0-5):3

Rate your performance(0-5): 5

Verdict : Converted

Interview Experiences - IIM Kozhikode

INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE AT IIMK #1

NAME: SAYANTAN MANDAL                                                      B. E (Electrical)
WORK EX: 11 MONTHS                                                       ORGANISATION: DVC (THERMAL POWER)PLACE OF INTERVIEW: KOLKATA                                               DATE: 08.03.’13
DURATION: 35mins

The interview panel consisted of two members: one from Marketing area (P1), the other from Economics (P2).

Morning 9:15. I entered the room. The panel member from marketing area started even before I took my chair. I saw two bowls on the table, one was full of 5 stars, and the other full of chlor mints.

P1:  Well Sayantan, you are 1^st for today’s schedule. I hope you didn’t have your breakfast well because of tension and excitement. So before taking your seat, please tell if you are asked to choose between 5 star or chlor mint, which will you choose and why?

Me: (without thinking anything) 5 Star.

P1: Why?

Me: (suddenly something clicked my mind) Sir, Chocolate is something that makes people happy. Chocolates secrete a hormone, I can’t remember the name of the hormone or from which gland it secretes, that’s the same hormone which is secreted when we are happy. And who does not want to be happy!!!

P1: OK. Then take your seat, have one, be happy, then we are starting.

(I took my seat, thanked him and took a 5 star, meanwhile the 2^nd panellist started)

P2: Well Sayantan, what’s the name of your meaning?

Me: Mam, Sayantan means the person who was born in the evening.

P2: So, you must have been born in evening!!!

Me: Yes Sir. 8:30 evening. (I lied :P, I was actually born at 8:30 morning)

P2: OK. You are from Kolkata. Which part of Kolkata?

Me: Alipore, mam.

P2: Umm. Alipore. You must be rich.

(I smiled)

P2: OK Sayantan, tell me something about Kolkata which you think most of the Kolkatans don’t know.

(I answered the question very well, focusing on the fact that everybody knows that Job Chernock was the founder of Kolkata, which is actually not not true according a 2003 Kolkata High Court Verdict, and Kolkata doesn’t have any founder)

(The 1^st panellist was going through my CV, and suddenly started)

P1: Sayantan, you have written Geography and Indian Railway in the interest column. So, can you please draw the map of India?

(The 2^nd panellist also asked simultaneously)

P2: Sayantan, can you please tell how induction motor start?

(I was literally in a perplexed state that which answer should I give first, but the panel members came to my rescue by saying: OK, draw the map, and simultaneously tell how Induction Motor Starts)

Me: Drew and told.

P1: Then locate Kozhikode, Malabar Coast, Vindya Range in the map.

Me: pointed all of them correctly.

P1: A GK question on Geography. Where do the zero degree latitude and zero degree longitude meet?

Me: (Took a pause, visualizing the map of the world and told) it will be somewhere inside the Atlantic.

P1: what is the nearest land.

Me: (told) North Africa. (later checked I was wrong, it would be Central Africa)

P1: OK. I can’t understand why you are so much interested about Indian Railways! Why?

Me: Told something on why I am so much interested about Railways.

P2: OK. We need some information about Indian Railways. Is there any direct train from Kolkata to Kozhikode? If yes, then from where it departs, when, in which day of the week, how much time it takes)

Me: told everything correctly (except the time taken to reach Kozhikode, I told around 42 hours, actually it’s 38 hours)

P2: What is the largest railway station in South India?

(Told Chennai Central)

P1: Well, now please tell me why are leaving the 50k job?

(Told the readymade answer :P)

(They tried to convince me I would face monetary loss if I opt for MBA, but I was also trying to convince them about higher studies and value addition)

P2: OK. Final question, did Career Launcher or TIME told you to get dressed like that?

(Told that yes, they did, but also told that it was my decision too, bla, bla)

Both of them: OK. Thank you Sayantan. All the best!

Me: Thank you Sir!

Interview Experience - IIM Kozhikode #2

Background :- Electrical Engg.
Work-ex : CTS(IT), 5 months

GD topic:Will entry of foreign universities help the education system of India?
Duration of GD :15 min
GD experience:It was okay. A bit chaotic. I gave 2-3 facts and 3-4 points. I wanted to give another 1-2 points but time was up.

WAT topic:Same topic
WAT experience :Given one page. Took some time to jot down my points. But 15 min is too less to write down all the points. I started off nicely but at the end due to lack of time could not conclude.
No. of people in the interview panel:2

Questions in PI:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. You are almost a fresher and an electrical engineer. I am not an electrical engineer. I have heard that government wants every house to have a solar panel and it can be connected to the grid. How?
3. What is a substation?
4. Why do you require a transformer?
5. Explain the testing bay of motor.
6. What is the rpm of 4 pole machine?
7. How can rpm be measured?
8. rpm of a motor is 1550, explain.
9. What type of language is Java?
10. What is the difference between java and c?
11. what is object oriented language?
12. procedural language?
13. Why should we use java over c?
14. Your hobby is painting, so what type of painting have you done?
15. Layers in painting?
16. Have you heard about Arvind Kejriwal? I think he needs electrical engineer now to tell him what to do. Do you what has he done in Delhi?
17. What is BSES?
18. Do you have any queries? If not you can leave.

Duration of PI: 15 min

Cheers! 

Interview Experience - IIM Kozhikode #3

IIMK Experience- Converted, Currently studying at IIMBProfile :- B.com, CA,CS, X – 93%, XII-96.5%

WAT: On human chessboard every move is possible
PI-
p1 : what have you been doing after graduation?
me : sir i was doing CA, my articleship got over in march 2012,then was looking for placement and entire focus on CAT
P1 Have you completed CA?
ME yes sir,i am a qualified CA & CS
P1 Oh thats a great achievement (to p2 now) probably CAT form doesn’t permit to mention all these so it seemed that she had been doing nothing after grad(to me) its a pleasure to hv u here. Where have you done you aticleship from? me told p1 what do thy do?
me :answered
p1 what was your role? me :answered
p1 Do you think audit is an effective tool?
me depends sir,we need to rely on management representations at times
p1 can you do that every time?
Me: No sir,we need to exercise judgement and have the authority to go for external confirmation,gave an example
p1 can you think of a recent big fraud in indian history
me :The satyam scam p1 What happened? me sir,mr.ramalingam raju was inflating the profits
p2 interrupts Raju or the company?
me Sir,Mr. Raju because in his confession letter addressed to the board
p2 INTERRUPTS AGAIN ok get back to his answer p1 so it was the auditors fault?wasnt it their responsibility?
Me: I wont be able to comment on that ,PWC was involved
p1: you are an accountant but dont wana do accounts?
Me: in the long run,i want my own enterprise of corporate consultancy
p1 what kind of services will it offer?
Me: sir initially i wl hv to start up at the small scale ,the services will remain confined to M&A,underwriting
p1 interrupts do small firms go for m&a?give me an example
me I thought for a while and then said sir, i won’t be able to name them but yes they do go,for instance my father started as a sole proprietor ,expanded into a pvt co. and now going for merger with some other co. because that firm has more goodwill in the market
p1 who was st. thomas?(my school's name) me I don’t know
p2 What is yogah Karmasu kaushalam?(i wrote tht in my form)
me diligence leads to excellence
p2 whats the role of impression mgt in it?

me sorry sir
P2 whats the role of impression mgt in it?
me Impression mgt?
p2 yes
me sorry sir i m not aware
p2: let me put it in a different way,how does impression mgt help in it?
Me: sir may b it means impressing upon the minds,the focus in such a way that they dont get distracted and work to get excellence
p2 started laughing like anything..is it something technical you talked just now,(looking to p1) even he could not understand what you said..ok what is regression?(stats as a subj in CS Foundation)
me Its a statistical tool
p2 interrupted laughing still louder..is it a stat tool?i nevr knew it?(looking at p1) oh god,is it so?I am asking you the meaning of regression
me sorry sir i dont know
p2 OH they didnt teach you the meaning so u didnt bother to know..told a sentence
me: it means degradation
p2 now tell me why is regression analysis so called?
Me: sorry sir,i am not sound with regression
p2 what did you study in labour laws?
me told the names of few acts
p2 year of factories act?
me 1948
p2 r u sure?
me yes sir
p2 do you dance?(mentioned in my accomplishment)
me sir m not professionally trained
p2 do you dance or not?
me yes sir on social ocsns
p2 where did kuchipuri originate?
me i am not sure
p2 which is ur fav form of dance?
me nothing as such,m not pro at any
p2 its a straight questn
me sir,ballet
p2 tell me something about it
me its one of the most graceful dance p2 interrupts which dance isnt graceful
me for example hip-hop,its a street dance,requires lot of boldness and attitude while in ballet the posture needs to be very delicate
p1 ur hobbies? me sir papercraft,i like making cards and gift packing
p1 so you support felling of trees,you are not environmental friendly
me sir i use handmade papers which are recycled form of papers,even if I go to a paper store,the handmade papers look so attractive that I end up buying them
p1 Why dont you make e-cards?
me sir i do make ppt for my long distance friends n relatives
p1 ppt?( started laughing)..ok who was la martiniere?(my schools name)
me: La martiniere was no one.it was claud martin and i went on explaining
p1 you prepared the ans for la martiniere but not for st. thomas..
me: sir its not about the preparation
p1 interrupts who is your fav author
me I dont read a particular author
p1 the last book you read?
me Jonathan Livingston Seagull
p1 author?
me could not recall , sir currently i m reading tuesdays with morrrie by mitch albom
p1 interesting, thats all,any questions for us?
me no sir thanks
p1 thanks we are done
me thank you
TIPS: Stay calm and confident, Be aggressive if necessary, smile is the most important key.

Interview Experience - IIM Kozhikode #4

Pradipta Baisya - PGDM, IIMK, Class of 2013Mechanical Engineer, BESU Shibpur, Tata Steel - 44 Months (Plant Operations), E&Y - 4 Months (CDM COnsultancy)Currently, working as Consultant - Strategy & Operations, Deloitte Consulting LLPIIMK Interview Experience:

Processes Involved - Essay & PI
Essay - Abstract Topic (don't remember the topic though)
PI Experience :
Lasted for around less than 10 minutes. Interview was very structured and predictable starting with Introduce Yourself, Why MBA, Why did you leave Tata Steel for EY, Explain CDM Concept (Clean Development Mechanism), Is it sustainable in the long run? Explain a CDM project for steel industry.
The interview concluded with the question which I found very tricky , the Prof asked me - "Seeing your knowledge and passion about energy management, I think you are more suited for PhD, not MBA" - had to handle that diplomatically.

Key Points to be highlighted -

1. I think my work experience (core manufacturing coupled with niche consultancy) played to my favor.
2. As they say first impression matters, I was really very confident while explaining them the concepts of CDM, application of CDM in steel industry etc.
3. Lastly, I handled the question of PhD vs MBA in a polite and diplomatic manner focusing more on the importance of energy management in the business context

Word of Advice :

Be very thorough with your work experience related matters, also try to study more about the industry (IT, Steel, Power, Finance etc.) like national policies specific to those industries, growth drivers, recent trends, future outlook, competitive landscape etc. This will help you in handling questions beyond the obvious, earn brownie points and may help you earn an IIM seat.

For any queries, please feel free to reach out to me :
pradipta.mech@gmail.com

Interview Experience - IIM Shillong

Note :- Scroll Down to view all the interviews for IIM S.

Interview Experience - IIM Shillong #1

Name :- Nishant

I reached the place at 1:40. I was the only one without a tie, so that made me a bit nervous. But when they came to the waiting hall at 2:00, I felt relieved to see them. They were casually dressed. At around 3:10 my turn came. I entered the room.
Good Afternoon.
P1: Good afternoon. Sit.
P2: Introduce yourself.
I gave them a brief introduction. And Is there anything specific you would like to know about me?
P2: Tell us about your strengths.
I told them what I had written in the form-that I was ……….
P3: So you are still in the final year?
Yes Sir.
P3: St, Xavier’s College? Park Street?
Yes Sir.
P3: The same St. Xavier’s School too?
No Sir. The one I studied is independent of the St. Xavier’s school in Park Street.
P1: So you are born and brought up in Bengal? Do you keep track of what’s happening here these days?
Yes Sir.
And we had a 10 minute discussion about Bengal – its political condition, its geographical location and about Gorkhaland. Mostly P2 asked the questions about Bengal. Questions like “Which do you thing is a better decision making process the one Mamta Banerjee follows or the one that CPIM followed? Tell about the merits and demerits of both the types of decision making. I told that Left Front took decisions by consulting senior ministers whereas Mamata takes decision mostly all on her own. Mentioned merits and demerits of both. P3 interrupted saying even Mamta has her senior ministers like Amit Mitra. I told them ministers are there but she doesn’t respect thm. I gave the example of Dinesh Trivedi. Then what are the neighboring states of Bengal? I told all. Then What are the advantages and disadvantages of having Bangladesh as a neighbor? Trade opportunities and Infiltration. In your opinion Should people of North Bengal be given a separate state? I told them they must be given a chance to govern themselves. Made a few strong points in their favour and also mentioned the negative sides associated with it.
Then suddenly P3 became very active and started questions about my acads. All questions were basic statistics and probability. Luckily he didn’t ask anything which I was not so good at. Questions were What was I studying now? Design of experiments and Sample Survey. Explain design of experiments to us.I explained. There was paper and pencil so it was easier explaining.
P3: Who started Design of experiments?
I don’t have idea about who started it Sir.
P3: Have you read clustered sampling?
Yes. And I explained. He asked to apply it to any survey in Kolkata. I did it.
P3: Have you read probability?
Yes Sir.
P3: Ok then tell us…( he gave a simple problem on total probability and Baye’s Theorem)
I did it and told him the answer. He didn’t check it properly. He just asked me how I did it. I explained clearly.
Then there was a discussion about my scholarship and my extra curricular certificates.
P2: And what do you do in your spare time?
Sir, I play Sudoku and card games, listen to music and read books sometimes.
P3:You play Bridge?
No Sir. I play 29 and Hearts.
P3: Oh. I play bridge. And I don’t consider these two card games.
Sir, but they are played with cards.
P3 starts laughing.
P3: Do you know anyone who has studied Stats and taken PGP after that?
No Sir. Personally I don’t know anyone like that.
P3: Then what made you decide so?
I explained them. This answer I had prepared after a very bad mock PI experience.
P1: So when is your next interview?
I told them.
P3: Thank you Nishant. Please take some candy.
No questions were asked on economics .It was a good interview where only relevant questions were asked. Rather a lucky one since they didn’t ask anything except basic statistics.

Interview Experience - IIM Shillong #2

WORKING IN IBM INDIA-2.5 YEARS ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATION FROM JUINTERVIEW PANELIST:- THREE PERSONS. One person was very senior, others were middle aged.

P1: Are you working in IBM? In sector 5?
P1: What do you think, Is SLR necessary for photography?
P2: (As I told them about quality) what do you mean by quality?
P1: Who won Oscar for life time achievement?
P1: In which year?
P1: Who is his favourite photographer?
P2: What are the countries that share boundaries with India?
P2: What is the capital o Bhutan?
P2: Where are One-Horned Rhinos found?
P2: Do you know any other wild life sanctuary apart from Kajiranga in Assam?
P2: What are the states of NE India?
P2: What is the capital of Mizoram?
P3: Do you know Ratan Tata? What is his present job?
P1: Give me an extempore on "Greed snatches a man's wisdom"
P2: What is the planning commission of India? Who is its chairman?
P2: Do you know which organization of UN takes care about children?
P2: Where is the head-quarter of UNICEF?
P3: What is your present job role?
P3: More details please………………….
P3: Do you remember anything about Network and Communication?
P3: Why a mobile phone is called cell phone?
P3: What is the shape of a cell? Why not round?
P3: What is the difference between dipole antenna and loop antenna?

Interview Experience - IIM Shillong #3

IT Engineer, 2011 pass out
28 months of IT experience in Infosys.
Venue : Kolkata

There were a total of 3 panelists : P1: guy in early 30's, P2: guy in early 40's, P3: a senior one.

P1 welcomed me in after we sat, questions started.

P1 : So what is this toastmaster (Club a Infosys, I am part of)
Me : Answered what the activities we do.
P1 : Is this not the international Toastmasters club?
Me : No this is internal to Infosys
P1 : Tell me about your experience with Infosys..
Me : told about work culture, employee cares, infrastructure, nature of work.
P1 : Do you work with the same set of people as you started with, why not , where they moved, Infosys attrition rates.
P1 : Name some people from higher management who moved out of infosys? Why?
Me : Was not able to recall Balakrishnan's name 
P1: Why are they leaving? Do you think Narayan murthy is involved? How ?
P1: How do you see Infosys at a global level.
P1 : Who do you think will win the Lok Sabha Elections this year ?
Me : Told conditions state BJP, and then some statements to back what conditions.
P1 : Why not congress?
Me : Started speaking, was interrupted.
P1 : Any other alternative other than BJP and congress.
Me : Told about AAP.
P1 : Who are the key people in AAP?
Me : named some leaders
P1 : What are their backgrounds ?
Me : told about arvind kejriwal, kumar vishwas. Was only able to recall backgrounds of these too. 
P1 : So do you think poets are good enough to run an economy ?
Me : Thee is a seven member panel working as an advisory committee for economic related activities. Other experts from industry also joining in.
P1 : Do you feel AAP is going on a recruitment drive without a salary with out any kind of other checks?
Me : Told about the huge 12 page form required to be filled in before joining the party which includes various questions.

P2 : What do you do in your free time?
Me : Said cooking
Then got some questions on types of cuisines, traditional bengali food.
P2 : Who were the key persons involved in the amendment of Indian Constitution
Me : Could recall only B.R.Ambedkar
P2 : What the rights and duties? How do you differentiate?
Me: told about 2-3 rights and a duty about paying taxes, abiding by the law.
P2: If I as a citizen of India find you are not paying taxes can I sue you in the Indian Penal court?
Me : Not sure

P3: Looking at my marksheets.. Tell me about operations research?
Me : A subject I had in 5th semester but forgot everything. Was not able to speak a word.
P3 : OK..so What have you learnt in engineering that you are applying in Infosys?
Me : Told about Java and SDLC
P3 : Name some SDLC models
Me : Waterfall, iterative waterfall..stopped
P3 : Take up a scenario of a project and apply waterfall model to it.
Me: told about various phases.. Got questions with feasibility, design phase.
P3 : Difference between data mining and data warehousing.
Me : Told, although he dint seem satisfied.
P3 : What is SAP? ( I used it while answering the previous question)
Me : Told a little bit.
P3 : You also had Industrial management as a subject, what did you learn there?
Me : Hardly could make any here.
P3 : Thank you, Looked at the other..do you have any questions..they said no.
P1 : Thank you, have a candy.
Me : took 1, Thanked them, wished them a good day ahead.

Note :-More to come keep following.

Interview Experience - IIM Lucknow #1

Name :- Piyush Beriwala
Name of the institute: IIM Lucknow

Essay & GD:
Topic: Engine is the heart of a airplane and the pilot is its soul
Number of Ppl present : 9
Time: 2pm
Brief Snapshot of the attempt:
Time given : 15mins each for essay and GD.
Experience : Was lucky to get a good topic. Forgot to carry my wristwatch and couldnt find any wall clock in the room so was a little tensed cos I'm not good at completing essay within the time-limit (IIFT mein messed up). So started writing after 2mins thinking. A decent essay but only problem was I focussed only on the individual aspect of it. GD was good enough, brought in different perspectives with some good examples. came in 4-5 times.

PI:
Panel Members Intro: 2 profs middle aged. P1 a little strict P2 full on friendly 
Questions:
P2 : So Piyush Beriwala you worked for ebiz.com pvt ltd as a diplomat. what was it all about?
Me : Sir, it was a Multi-level Marketing company based out of Noida.
P2 : Can you explain me what was it?
Me : Sir, we used to promote computer education packages through the MLM business model and receive commissions based on that.
P2 : So you were a Diplomat there, What were your responsibilities?
Me : Explained him what is a Diplomat and went onto explain that as such we're not assigned any responsibility explicitly but I took on a lot of them, like training distributors, taking mass meetings, product promotional seminars in big auditoriums almost every weekend, solving any big issues, promoting my network in other cities and states, managing 17,000 people who were there in my network.
P2 : Why did you leave the company then?
Me : Explained that wasnt satisfied with the services of the company and there was no repurchase income, so couldn't see good prospects with the company.
P2 : What was the attrition rate in the company?
Me : around 90%, explained the reasons and added it with my reason of quitting.
P1 : So you were not employed so how can we consider that as a work-ex?
Me : Explained regarding self-employed stuff, reasons for joining, learning through the work, Cat form having no such option and form 16A
P2 : You're a IT engg from?
Me : Sir, CS engg from IEM, its nearby, stupid me even went on to show the direction with my hands
P2 : Tell me the diff between hardware and software and dont tell me something that you can touch and that you cant ( I wasnt going to do so either sir :P)
Me : Hardware is the physical structure of a computer and blah blah blah...
P2 : Examples of both
Me : C,c++ for software
P2 : but thats programming language, isnt it?
Me : Sir but we can use them to run softwares like oracle , MS office n all. (could have answered better)
P2 : What is an open source software?
Me : Told about joomla and that we dont need to buy the license for open source and can build upon it.
P2 : Can we change the code of an open source software?
Me : Sir, I did tweak the code myself so it is possible but not sure whether its allowed legally or not.
P2 : Explain me why is the IRCTC site down between 10am n 11.30am?
Me : Sir lot of traffic for tatkal reservations so high server load n blah blah blah (explained the diff I noticed after rail budget too)
P2 : What you just explained was something which is good for a layman like me who doesnt know about CS much. I want a more technical answer.
Me : Sir, I studied all this 4yrs back so cant recollect the technical terms it was spying or something (spoofing it was probably), but told the concept that people divert heavy traffic onto irctc website which exceeds its bandwidth so things dont respond. Increasing server capacity would be better.
P1 : (comes in for the second time) Do you know anything about the IT industry?
Me : Yes sir, I know a little. IT industry contributes 9-10% of our GDP currently. Its aprrox 200 bn $ industry, 100 bn $ worth of .. CUT IN BETWEEN
P1 : What is Dollar ??? (where did this come from)
Me : It is the currency of US.
P1 : And you're from? So why dollars?
Me : Sir, obviously I should use rupees but generally GDPs are calculated in dollars and moreover it is easier to remember the numbers in one currency else I will get confused and I can anytime convert it in Indian currency whenever I want.
P1 : So...
Me : Sir, can I complete about IT?
P1 : Sure
Me : Sir, projects worth 100 bn $ are up for renewal this year. Told about medium sized companies like Mindtree coming up and importance of cost-effectiveness.
P1 : Who is the Minister of IT?
Me : Sir, I know Kapil Sibbal is the minister of telecom, not sure about IT, but probably they're the same department.
P1 : So where did you use your engg in your work?
Me : Explained that I couldn't use it much other than teaching HTML to some students of my company to raise their interest in computers.
P1 : What happened with the pope recently?
Me : I said he took premature retirement, first pope to resign on his own (wasnt the first but first in last 800 yrs)
P1 : What was the reason? Whats his name?
Me : Dont know the reason and name I can guess but not sure if he was the one or the one before this one Pope John Paul II ( Benedict XVI it was )
P1 : Has the new pope been elected? (asked 3 times)
Me : I said yes confidently the first time and P2 was nodding the head in agreement subconciously so got more confidence and said yes to next 2 times too.
P1 : whats his nationality?
Me : cant recall sir.
P1 : So what else you like to do?
Me : Sir, I like to read self-help and motivational books to improve myself continously and I believe in self-learning so I keep doing stuff on wikipedia.
P1 : So which things interests you?
Me : Sir, Science (stupid me should have said stuff like economics, subprime crisis, had a hell lot of info on all this). Went onto say that I always had this curosity that who owns greenland and antarctica. So searched stuff just like that.
P1 : Have you heard of Fexxx Islands?
Me : Might be sir cant recall, have read a lot. I studied about an island in the pacific which is 20,000 kms (5000km it was) away from nearest airport.
P1 : So why suddenly MBA?
Me : Explained my interest in business since ebiz and that my learning being limited to marketing and inter-personal skills and MBA will help me learn general management and get a brand name.
P1 : What else interests you?
Me : Told that Im a very social person, have lots of friends. I like to motivate people for entrepreneurship and I like going to places, have seen all of India except N.East, I like to learn languages, Told a line in Telugu.
P1 : Tell me about your family.
Me : told, but wasnt fluent in answering, told about the adversities I faced in life.
P2 : So you took a loan to finance your studies?
Me : Yes sir and I cleared it myself and Im financing my studies since I was in Class VIII.
P1 : ok we're done.
Me : thank you sir.

Interview Experience - IIM Bangalore #1

IIM B experience(Currently a student of IIMB, batch 2013-15)Name :- Jyothi NathanyProfile:98.62 percentileChartered AccountantCompany Secretary6 months of work ex in family businessGeneral

WAT topic:” Cookery shows on TV are changing the eating habits of the Indian Middle class adversely and are also responsible for causing obesity”

Till now I really don’t know what they would have expected from such a topic but as we were given the liberty to interpret the same creatively, I wrote about how the news media and the reality shows on TV cook up stories, adding more spices to it so as to make them more palatable. Connecting it with the middle class, my whole point was the way these shows emphasize on being materialistic indirectly making the middle class to opt for loans and spend on non-essential goods making themselves obese (fat being the useless intakes)

PI( panel of 2 female faculty members)
As I entered the room, one of them said to the other that she was the only person to be smiling during the WAT. And they both looked at me and smiled.

NOTE: They took my smile in a very positive way as they got convinced that i can smile even during tensed moments. So, don’t lose your calm, don’t forget basic manners of wishing them good morning/afternoon also when you enter for WAT. It gets noticed for sure.

The first question was straight from my SOP wherein I mentioned that I am a Marwari. Ma’am was interested in knowing 2 good things about the community and 2 bad things.
So, i talked about violating tax laws as one of the bad things and elaborated using few commonly misused mechanics for tax evasion. Thereafter, 50% of my interview was about tax and advice to finance minister (Tax was nowhere mentioned in my SOP but it was actually my strength so I played around with it beginning from the very first answer thereby successfully steering the interview in the direction of my strength)
45% of the interview was about my dad’s business, what inputs have I given and how much I knew about the industry and the rest was about my extra-currics wherein i had mentioned about public speaking on which they asked me a few questions

NOTE: Overall the interview experience was very calm. They mainly check on your SOP and at times create situations to check your confidence. In my case, one of the panelists was continuously showing mistrust in my answers and she kept repeating the same question but i gave the same answer with equal composure each time.
All the best!