IIMK interview experience

Venue: Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Nungambakkam, Chennai
Time: 3pm, Feb 24, 2005

GD: Given a sheet in which there were about 5-6 lines..Broadly, topic was "Privatisation of profitable PSUs".
Only 5 out of 8 in our group had turned up for the interview. Were made to sit in an oval shape. I was the 2nd to speak. 3 of us were speaking for about first 5min and then the other two pitched in with few points. Overall, a decent discussion but felt we should have come up with more examples. I was the one to bring out examples like ONGC, IOC and had a decent amount of airtime.

PI: I was the 2nd person to be called for the interview in our group. Average time of interview was about 8-10min.
P1 = Interviewer 1 (Bald and clean shaved);
P2 = Interviewer 2 (Bearded);
M = Myself

M: Good afternoon, Sir
P1: Whats your Name?
M: Rajesh Kumar Chakrapani
P1: I mean what are you called as?
M: Rajesh
P1: What does "Chakrapani" mean?
M: Sir, It means Vishnu. Chakra is the disc rotating on the hand of The God Vishnu and Pani means lotus (is it?!!). It essentially means Lord Vishnu Sir.
P2: Rajesh, why did not u get into the field of Pure Mathematics?
M: I was never interested in core Maths as such, Sir.
P1: Can I have a look at your certificates?
M: Sure Sir.
P2: But you qualified for Indian National Mathematical Olympiad!!
M: Sir, I cleared the State Mathematical Olympiad and participated in the INMO but did not clear it. Had I cleared it, probably I would have chosen Maths as a career but my not clearing it is an indicator that I am not that good at Maths.
P2: ok, but why do u think in general people do not get into Maths Research.
M: Sir, I guess its an individual's opinion.
P2: but in general, not many people get into Pure Maths or Pure Sciences.
M: Yes sir, Agreed that the cream of IIT, BITS or REC's do not get into Pure Maths.
P2: But why do u think it is like that? Afterall, maths is the foundation of everything. If tomorrow, everyone passes out from IIMK, what would happen to research and types?
M: Sir, there are many reasons why people do not get into research like say organisations like BARC, etc.
My uncle was a scientist in BARC. I had asked this question once. He told me that there is less money in this field and also there is very slow career growth.
P1: So u say money is the most important criteria.
M: Sir, not that its the most important but definitely its one of the important factors.
P1: No no, it is one of the major reason.
M: Ok Sir.
P1: What u have done the course Probablility & Statistics? What have u learnt in Statistics?
M: Sir, we have not done much in Statistics. Basics like Median, mode, variance, standard distribution (std dist in statistics???).....And in probability, we have done some distributions like Normal, Poisson, Binomial etc Sir.
P1: Ok, if I ask you to find out the probability of your getting into IIMK, what distribution will u choose?
M: I would use Normal Distribution, Sir.
P1: What parameters will u use?
M: Sir, I will take the 10th, 12th, CAT percentiles of all students and then plot a bell graph.
P1: No, say all the 20 students who have come today have performed same. Then?
M: Sir, I would also see their performance in GD and PI.
P1: No, no I am saying that they have done equally well in GD and PI. Then?
M: I would look at the previous batches which have passed out and then compare them with the current profile
P1: What parameters are you going to choose?
M: <..Again act as if thinking..> I dont know Sir
P1: Think, think...You have passed out from such a great institute like BITS Pilani and also in INMO.
M: Sir, I am not able to get any idea as of now.
P1: Ok, I shall give u a clue. What is the likelyhood estimate?
M: <..as if that helped me...but I seem to have heard this word somewhere!!....> Sir, I would use Poisson Distribution.
P1: What Rajesh...Then u said Normal and now Poisson distribution...
M: Sir, I said I dont know. Thats why I am just taking a guess.
P1: No, give it a thought... This means u dont know its practical application..
M: <..abey yaar, kyon paka raha hai...mujhe nahin patha....> I dont know Sir. Atleast as of now, I am not able to find out which distribution I am gonna use.
P1: Ok, have u heard of JIT.
M: Yes Sir, its Just-In-Time...In manufacturing industries, whenever we get an order, the product is manufactured. This effectively reduces the inventory.
I mean there is no inventory.
P1: When u get an order, u produce???
M: Yes sir.
P1: What about materials?
M: Sir, we outsource it. I mean we get the materials from the Suppliers. We do forecasting based on our previous sales. Like if we take a Soap company, then based on previous sales, we know how the demand is going to be in every month and so based on that we forecast the demand for the next month. So, we do have certain inventory of materials.
P1: Can u use it in software industry?
M: No Sir. In a way, we can say Yes. I recently read an article on a new concept called temporary workers (..reading BW helped a bit...) Whenever there is an urgent requirement, we contact such organisations who have skilled labour ready with them and they supply the resources in a day or two.
P1: So what is the need of permanent employees?
M: Sir, permanent labours are definitely required. A company requires a certain amount...certain number of people who know the processes.
P1: But many employees sit on bench. Isn't it a waste of resources?
M: Sir, they can be used for knowledge management. In our company itself, I have seen many people on bench but they are not idle. In a typical case, when we get a sales order and are required to get the purchase order details, we write a program. This is common across various projects. So this can be processed <...not at all a right term to use...> I mean we can have a common module and can reuse such functions. So we are utilising the free employees for knowledge management.
P1 to P2: You want to ask anything...
P2: No, its fine.
P1: Thank You Rajesh....
M: Thank You Sir.

Came out with a strange kind of feeling!! Did not understand if I had done well or not!