Interview Experiences
IIM Calcutta interview
3 panelists; very bizarre interview
I was the last person in the panel
Didn’t ask for an introduction.
Dived straight into questioning me
Asked me to take a toffee and leave
IIM L, Feb 27
PI:
Two panelists. One had a little smile on his face and the other one had a serious expression throughout PI.
The panel was not at all a friendly one.
Btech ECE, fresher
IIM B, Feb 26
Three panelists were there. One was going through my profile and the other two were asking questions.
In the first part of PI, I felt like they were there only to find the faults with whatever I say. It was an Okay panel.
IIM Lucknow WAT / PI experience (PGP)
B TECH CIVIL Engineering – 1.8 years Exp in KPMG
IIM Bangalore
Profile: B. Com, CA-Intermediate, Passed CFA Level 1, 1-year work exp with EY
The interview lasted for 40 to 45 mins. Very friendly panel.
IIM Calcutta interview experience today:
3 member panel, 2 gents and 1 lady
15-17 min interview. No stress
IIM Bangalore
Location: Bengaluru
26th February 2019
WAT: India needs more entrepreneurs than managers. Discuss.
10 minutes to think and organize our thought on one side of the page.
20 minutes to write the essay on the other side.
~250 words but you can write on only 1 side of the sheet.
Profile: 25 months in a Decision sciences/Data Analytics firm.
PI – 2 profs (1 elderly male and 1 female) + 1 alumnus
A: What does a Decision Scientist do?
PF: why can’t we take all the data and just see if something is wrong? Why go from the decision?
PF: So who comes first, the data analyst or decision scientist?
PF: When Newton saw the apple fall, the data that it fell downwards came first. So, is this how scientists work?
A: Your first project seems to have been a failure. You seem to be blaming someone else for it in your SOP. I have read it twice but this is the feeling I get. Explain.
A: What you’re saying does not match what you’ve written. Either you’re being defensive or you don’t know how to articulate. (Starts shouting) you being a data analyst can’t convey properly?
A: Okay. That’s what I was looking for. Given a chance, will you rewrite this SOP?
PM: you have learnt Carnatic music. What do you think of TM Krishna airing his political views so openly?
PM: how come Bharathanatyam is free from this?
PM: Do you think Bharathnatyam should also involve politics?
PF: Telangana after the bifurcation wants its own classical form of dance. Is this justified?
PF: what is common between Agatha Christie novels and Carnatic music?
PF: Doesn’t that hold good for any novel?
PF: So will you not encourage mystery lovers to attend classical music concerts?
A: what are your weaknesses.
A: (shouts again) Don’t be defensive. Just accept them.
A: Yes I can see you still have this weakness. Yes, this other weakness matches your profile.
A: what are your strengths?
A: what do you mean by a ‘minor strength’?
PF: Any questions for us?
I do not know whether the alumnus wanted to see how I react to being shouted at or genuinely felt that my SOP reflected a character flaw.
Was able to answer most questions except for the TM Krishna issue since I did not know the details (only knew that AAP had rescheduled a concert canceled by AAI).
100% based on my SOP.
IIMA PGP
AWT: Marks are not good criteria for student judgment.
2 Panelist and both had created a healthy environment with a smile all around
P1: Tell us about your patent
P2: Why MBA then?
P1: Which industry would you want to work for?
P2: Your job role
P1: Difference between Pune and Dhanbad (Pune is the current place and Dhanbad is birthplace)
P2: what is a social issue they(Pune people) are raising voice for?
P1: what are your views Bhima Koregaon incident
P2: I told whatever I knew
P1: what are views on LGBT rights
P2: what are likes ? (I answered cricket and told him some story)
P1: (ethical question) if you are the last wicket and you need 5 runs. You edge the ball and the wicketkeeper catch it. Will you walk if the umpire doesn’t give you out?
P2: what will the threshold of the match? ( As I said I fight till the end and it was the umpire job to give me out)
P1: What were your favorite subjects in mechanical?
P1: Can you tell us what you learned?
P2: Any recent international news?
P2: Brexit happened for long back? ( I told him about the recent news about May’s second proposal rejection and then moved to the US shut down) — not very interested
P2: Do you read books? (I read but I interested in writing )
P1: Blogging or pen-paper?
P2: tell us something that you are working on recently?
P2: Many questions on my writing why I wrote on that topic and what are things I want to capture.
P1 and P2: Thank you
No grueling interview and they were smiling all the while
My IIM A PGP interview is done there were two members in the panel (Lady Prof and an Alumni)
AWT Topic: “Shouting loud is the only marker of a true leader”
There was a story. Examples of teachers shouting loud in class to control students. Bus drivers shouting at rickshaw pullers. Bosses talking loud to employees. Monitors in the class shouting etc.
Questions are
1. Tell me three reasons why should IIM A reject you
2. Why from IIT to MBA
3. India needs to hire people for performing high-end technology computing. Why India is unable to produce although having many IITs
4. Do you know about ISRO
5. Founder of ISRO
6. Founder of IIM AHMEDABAD
7. Why India is not doing good in Olympics.
8. Do you have any questions?
IIM L:
Engineer: 1.5 yrs exp
1. The three laws of robotics.
2. What is singularity?
3. Tell me about your work.lots of follow up questions. Revenue model of company and product discussion.
4. Draw a logistics model for dabbawalas of Mumbai.
5. Difference between Morals and ethics
It was a stress interview.
IIM Lucknow (PGP-SM)
Interview panel (2 people, the 3rd person entered 5-10 min into the interview)
My IIML – PGP SM Interview Experience-
Interview- There were 2 people in the panel. 1st was checking my form and the 2nd started asking questions-
1. Introduce yourself.
2. Why Sustainability Management?
3. What is the budget according to you?
4. Difference btw capital and revenue expenditure.
5. How can govt reduce fiscal deficit?
6. What are the initiatives that govt has taken for sustainability?
After this the 1st one started checking his phone and 2nd one started asking questions-
1. What is the meaning of your name.
My name means intelligence. So the 2nd ques-
2. What is the difference between intelligence and wisdom?
3. If you are the campaign manager for BJP, how will you promote them for the coming elections?
4. Name some initiatives by Modi Govt.
5. He asked me what other calls i have and which one I will choose and why.
IIM Calcutta
IIM Ahmedabad
A panel of 2 male faculty. Both were friendly.
Interview was short, about 15 mins
IIM L interview
Two panelists both male – not very friendly, they seemed extremely bored
IIML interview:
Panel 7
3 months work ex Electrical Engineer
2 male Professors P1 and P2.
P1: How do I produce your name as it as 2 a’s in it?
P1: Tell me about yourself.
P1: What other IIM calls u have?
P1: Is this your first interview?
P1: Asked when is my Ahmedabad and Bangalore interview.
P1: How do u see yourself after doing MBA? What roles you would like to take up?
P2: Kaashyap, I can see that you have published a research paper, tell me about it.
P2: What are your hobbies other than Academics?
P2: Did u get placed somewhere or not?
P1: Asked about bigdata.
P2: Do you have any questions?
P1 asked me to log off.
10 mins interview.
IIM Lucknow ABM
Tell me about yourself
What stories do you write, and tell us the outline of one of your famous stories?
You have a pretty good creative side why MBA then?
Show us some of your sketches and what do they mean?
What material do you use for you sketches?
Your opinion about farm bills? Why are they protesting?
Why is agriculture lagging behind?
Why Elon Musk is in news?
Tell us about PLCs s?
Grilled on drop year, like why aren’t you earning, don’t you want to earn?
Name a few CEO?
What did you do in lockdown?
Did you attend placements?
You aren’t working, don’t you feel pressure from your peers like they all are earning and you are sitting idle:))
What news do you follow and from where?
IIM C – INTERVIEW
Overall its a friendly panel
(At the end they asked me to leave suddenly the professor asked me to take two chocolates🙂🙂)
IIM Calcutta
B.Com | One Year Experience
IIM A, Feb 28
AWT: The Gujarat government wants to make it mandatory that the students of class 1-12 respond to morning call with Jai Hind or Jai Bharath. It is said that it would develop patriotism in people right from their childhood. The Gujarat state educational minister said “What’s wrong with that? It would help for the development of the country.”
We were asked to evaluate the argument. Talk about the assumptions stated or unstated in the passage. State our opinions if any and what would strengthen or weaken the argument.
Had only one side of the paper to write.
PI:
There were two panelists and I was the last one in my panel.
The panel was a friendly one.
IIM A
Profile- B.com graduate, CFA Level 2 candidate, 1-year work ex with EY
Friendly panel but most of the questions turned into debates where they kept disagreeing with what I said and I had to defend my viewpoints. Lasted for 40 mins.
IIM Lucknow WAT / PI experience (ABM)
B TECH CIVIL Engineering – 1.8 years Exp in KPMG
Ok panel, neither friendly nor strict !!
IIM A interview experience
Overall the interview went like they wanted some unique things other than academics and work
IIM Lucknow
It lasted for around 20 mins.
Overall I tried to give the answers in the best possible ways.😅
IM Bangalore interview experience.
Date : 27th February 2019
Venue : IIM Bangalore campus
Panel : 1
Room : M 22
2 Profs, 1 Alumni.
P1: Prof Rahul De, Information System.
P2: Prof Sreelatha, Marketing
Time duration : 20-25 mins.
Work ex – 30 Months at Mu Sigma (Analytics)
WAT Topic : India’s middle class is growing rapidly with 29% in 2015 to 44% in 2025 according to a McKinsey report. Discuss its implications on the economy and society.
(250 words)
10 mins were given to jot down the points and 20 mins for writing the essay.
P2 : So, What did you do at IIM Ahmedabad?
A: Told them about my internship, and the project details.
P2 : When did you do this internship?
A: In my final graduation year.
P2 : You implemented the project in the IIM A campus?
A : Yes Ma’am.
P2 : Tell us about one of your projects at Mu Sigma?
A : Told them about the E-commerce project.
(A general discussion on how we went on to implement the project and what were its outcomes)
Alumni : As a consumer, what are the other factors you would look at apart from price when you buy a product in the E-commerce website?
A : Told them about consumer experience, brand and other factors. A general discussion for 1 min or so.
P1 : So, you are interested in cricket?
A : Yes Sir, i have played the sport professionally at Rajasthan club in Kolkata.
P2 : You would miss playing now?
A : Yes Ma’am, I play during weekends.
P2 : How would you use Analytics in Cricket?
A : Told them about the different use cases of analytics in cricket for improving the game performance and player/shot selection.
(2-3 min discussion on that)
P1 was listening carefully and nodding his head.
P2: Have you watched this movie, Moneyball?
A: No Ma’am.
P2 : You should definitely go and watch.
P2 : Imagine yourself to be a decision making person in Pakistan government. Looking at the current scenario of air strikes, what steps you would take. Use your analytics here!
A : Told them about the Current State, Future state and gap. A representation based on which different factors can be evaluated to make a decision.
(2-3 min discussion on that)
All of them looked at each other and didn’t have any question.
P2 : Do you have any questions for us?
A: Out of curiosity, what is the pattern behind the interview calls, because i figured out it’s not based on CAT score, Alphabet, or composite score.
Alumni : So you have done the analysis on this as well. How do you know its not based on CAT score?
A : Told them about friends who have same percentile but different interview dates and people who went before me. Took the names of those who went before me.
P1 : Maybe it’s based on registration number
P2 : No, it’s not based on that. It’s randomly allocated. We are done, it’s okay.
Shook hands with them and left.
IIM Bangalore
2 professors – P1 Male faculty of operations P2 Female don’t think she was a faculty
P1: hi Anay so tell us about yourself in a minute.
A: My name is Anay and I’m a Chartered Accountant. I’ve worked in the audit department of SRBC & CO LLP (a network firm of EY) for 15 months. I did my articleship of 3 years there as well. I am really passionate about movies. I blog about them, analyse them.
P2: who reads your blog?
A: to be really honest, not many people do. Mostly family and friends . Few other people but optimistic of increase in future.
P2: then why do you take pain to write?
A: It is a passion for me. When I watch a movie, there are so many things I’m thinking and I feel the need to articulate it. I’m also fascinated by the way directors use their craft to make us feel what we feel.
P1 saw profile and said I’d got very good marks throughout. Noticed that I’d gone to Ahmedabad University.
P1: Who’s the Vice Chancellor of AU?
A: Pankaj Chandra
P1: How’s the university seen in Gujarat?
A: One of the best if not the best university to do BCom in Gujarat.
P1: Prof Chandra has retired from IIMA?
A: he moved from A to Director in IIM B and now he’s here.
P1: okay. Who are the faculties?
A: (a bit taken aback) started taking a name.
P1: No, no. PhDs or not?
A: Most of them are PhDs and non-PhDs are given limited topics to teach. Professionals from industry also come and teach.
P1: how are students selected?
A: profile based interviews in Dec and then score based merit lists after 12th results.
P1: so if a student has scored 80% will he be selected?
A: if his profile is good, yes. If not, then maybe in the final merit list.
P1: what are the fees?
A: when I passed out, 13k per sem now it’s 1 lakh.
P1: oh that’s quite good
A: sir to be honest .. in Gujarat, 1 lakh for BCom is considered quite high.
P2: why do you think they have increased the fees?
A: they started offering many more electives and also have better presence now
P1: how large is the campus?
A: (not really knowing).. sir I’m not sure .. it’s actually divided into 3 parts so difficult to tell you for sure.
P1: still. Approximately.
A: 10 sq km
P1: that is a huge campus.. can’t be
A: yes sir..I’m sorry.. i don’t know
P1: okay.. chhodo.. you tell me.. Achcha khaasa kamate ho why do you want to do an MBA?
A: As an auditor, we used to give audit committee presentations every quarter wherein we used to highlight not only the issues in FS but also bottlenecks in processes. I enjoyed doing that. Also as auditors we were limited to identifying past errors and giving suggestions with no real decision making power. I wanted to make decisions. I wanted to make sure that I can optimise processes and reduces inefficiencies to the maximum that I can and I believe MBA would help me in that.
P1: Achcha.. so how many other calls have you got?
A: 8
P1: which are they?
A: Bangalore, Kozhikode, Indore..
P1: No A and C?
A: No sir
P2: aren’t you disappointed that you didn’t get an A and C call?
A: I would rather focus on the calls that I have and in converting that rather than what I don’t have. Of course I would have loved to have A and C calls but I don’t believe that I need to get depressed or disappointed now that I have not got it.
P1 to P2: can you take this interview further? I’ll be back in 5 mins
P2: so tell me what if after 2 years you are still stuck with an accounting profile?
A: ma’am I’m pretty sure I won’t be satisfied with an accounting profile.
P2: hypothetically
A: well I may think about moving abroad or doing a course like CFA wherein I would further attain specialisation.
P2: everyone does cfa.. what would be so different about you?
A: ma’am I believe my job has developed in me a strong analytical sense which will really differentiate me .
P2: the guy who came before you had 100 percentile. I think he would have such an ability as well. What else do you bring to the table?
A: ma’am I am also highly committed to the task at hand and am unfazed by any challenges that come my way.
P2: give me an example.
A: gave an example from my work experience
P2: but that is something that was given to you.. tell me something that you have done on your own.
A: like I said despite very few people reading my blog, I’ve kept at it.
P2: what kind of feedback have you got for your writing?
A: pretty good
P2: but that is from family and friends
A: yes but I got an article published in college magazine as well.
P2: (laughing) anyone can do that
A: I disagree … it shows my teachers and peers liked it as well.
P2: ok.. do you know about Fortune 500 companies? Which is the #1 company?
A: it’s between Amazon and Walmart. I think Amazon.
P2: when did both companies start?
A: Amazon in 1990s
P2: that is a big range be specific.
A: i guess 1993-94
P2: ok and Walmart?
A: I don’t know
P2: what do they have in common?
A: from an Indian perspective , now that Walmart has acquired Flipkart both are e-tailers.
P2: that is recent.. what else?
A: both sell almost all kinds of goods that their customer would demand.. from a washing machine to a packet of salt. So they fulfil the same kind of demand.
P2: But if my mom wants to buy a bottle of water she’ll not buy through Amazon. She’ll buy from Walmart. So how does it fulfill same kind of demand?
A: correct but the product offered by both are the same and meet the same demand
P2: I think you’re misunderstanding demand. What is demand?
A: desire to acquire / consume something backed with ability and willingness to pay.
P2: right.. so because my mother doesn’t have a smartphone she doesn’t have ability to buy it so how is it meeting her demand?
A: but ma’am you’re talking about the mode of buying.. I’m talking about ability to buy.
In between the conversation, P1 has come back.
P2: mode matters.. tell me another similarity between the two. (Looks at P1) leave it.
P1: thank you Anay.. you can go
My thoughts:
Really random. Can’t decide if they’d already rated me favourably and were just messing around or if they’d outright rejected and were messing around. The “10 sq km” was the biggest blunder. Other than that, i think it was fine. Didn’t need to be defensive about BCom marks but managed the right answer later. Should have been clearer in the demand/customer exchange rather than engaging in a roundabout debate
IIM C experience
A panel of 2 – one male and one female.
Interview lasted for 15 minutes
IIM Lucknow, Two male panelists. B.Com fresher
You may leave
IIML Interview:
final year B.tech in CS
p1: introduce yourself
what is an NP-hard problem( I mentioned that I like algorithms)
what is a traveling salesman problem why is it an np-hard problem?
why is exponential time complexity undesirable?
what is the knapsack problem?
what is a linear programming problem?
p2:
since you said about cricket how does a ball swing in the air?
which side of the ball should you shine to throw an outswinger?
what is the ideal quality of a teacher? (I mentioned teaching)
all the questions are based on my tell me about yourself
IIM A
Acads- 95/94.8/90 (Mech Engineer)
Tell me about yourself.
Why marks low in 4th sem.😐(I have a 7.8 in that sem. All other sems have 8.9/9+)
Some questions about EV
Districts of Kerala.
What current affairs have you read?
Questions on Vaccines?
Are you a Mumbaikar or Keralite?
Qualities of a Manager.
Examples
Why women are low in MBA schools?
How can you solve the issue?
What is your day-to-day work?
What software do you use?
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