My journey!

As I journey through time, here I present a small peak into what I think and experience!

Sunday, March 20, 2005

IIMA Interview experience

Venue: Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Date: 12 March 2005
Time: 9am

Started from home at 7.45am. On the way saw famous companies like Bosch, Oracle, Verisign etc. I should agree that these MNC companies have really changed the landscape of the city and have brought in a transformation as to how important looks are in today's competitive world.
Reached the campus of IIMB on the Bannerghatta Road after about an hour what with the approach roads being under renovation and the heavy vehicular traffic, another sign of the metamorphosis of the Silicon Valley of India!

Was thrilled to read the plaque of "Indian Institute of Management Bangalore" at the entrance. I was entering the portals of a renowned institution which has been a career launching pad for so many individuals. A minute's drive brought me to the Administrative block. The campus is decently large but much smaller than BITS which is much larger but felt this is enough for a university imparting only management education. My cousin wish me best of luck and left.

Entering the admin block, I could see the reception counter much like what we see in hotels. There was a board displayed on which directions were given as to where would our interview be. Walking along the corridors sensed in me a feeling as how lucky I was to have this opportunity. The huge stone blocks and the high ceilings imitated the photos of the campus I had seen in the PGP brochure sent by IIMB. Irrespective of what the final outcome would be I was savouring the moment. I felt proud enough to be a part of the priviledged few to be chosen among the lakhs of aspirants. Well, if you think I was really having all this feeling while I was walking, I am sorry to disappoint you. I was having none of this feeling. It was just a simple blank-minded walk to the interview block!

Met many known faces waiting for the GD/PI process to start. My fellow friends were reading newspapers trying to catch up with the latest happenings and I too joined the party. At 9.15am or so, a few of the professors came out and started calling out names. Mine was the 3rd interview panel and we were taken to the classroom. I was the 2nd in the order. The panel explained us the GD process as 5min for reading the case, 20min for discussion and another 5min for writing the summary.

Case Study (in brief): Gopal passouts from IIT and joins a helmet manufacturing company. Its helmets are well-known and are of ISI certification. The company is about to make losses due to poor sales. As part of training, he is assigned the Inspection Dept. He tests 10 helmets out ofwhich 6 fail the test.
There has been a recent legislation in the state making helmets compulsory for 2-wheelers due to which there has been a spurt in demand. Many players have entered the market and cheaper quality helmets are available at lower costs.
Gopal goes to the Inspection Head Gautam and tells him about the test who says that he will take some action. But nothing happens even after few days. Gopal then goes to the MD and apprises him of the test results who says "I shall take action in 3 days". But again nothing happens.
Gopal then goes back to Gautam as to why no report has been filed of the test. Gautam says "Why do you worry so much? We need to improve our sales and profits. I hope you understand what I mean?"
What should Gopal do now?

Discussion went on for about 20min. A cool decent discussion and almost everyone had a chance to speak. We were then asked to write a summary of the discussion. It ended right at 9.30am, an indicator to how disciplined IIMA was. We were asked to wait outside and that candidates would be called in the same order as their seating in GD. So, I was the 2nd goat waiting to be skinned by the tigers inside!

After about 15min, the 1st guy came out and said that he had had a decent discussion about technical, work-ex and current affairs. I was the next person to be called in.

Time in: 10am
Interview panel consisted of 3 members, the left-most of whom looked young and dynamic! (I refer to him as L and the centre guy as C and the right guy as R).

L: Whats your work?
M: I am a technical consultant in....blah blah
L: Intelligroup?
M: blah blah....
L: What is the difference between Optimization and OR?
M: blah blah...Optimization is optimising equations of real-life problems while OR is the methods of solving such equations. We have methods like Simplex and Complex (???) method.
L: What is complex method?
M: I dont have much idea about it. I know simplex method.
L: Simplex method, why linear programming?
M: blah blah...the equations and constraints are linear in nature. When we draw a graph, it will be a linear one
L: for a linear programming, obb the graph will be linear....but why...?
M: blah blah...
L: If I give a equation y=3x2 + 4x + 1. Draw the graph?
M: I draw the graph on a paper.
L: What is it?
M: Its a parabola.
L: facing upwards?
M: yes sir (actually it was facing downwards :(...realised it later)
L: What are neural networks?
M: blah blah...
L: give me an example.
M: I shall take stock market as an example...the parameters are the number of shares, volume traded and some abstract parameters like market sentiment, political factors which I doubt if they can be represented mathematically.
L: what are the number of shares?
M: BSE-Sensex is of 30 shares but there are around 1000 shares traded in the exhange.
L: ok, go ahead...
M: blah blah...
L: Give the example of the project you did in the course.
M: Sir, I did not do the course.
L: Its here in the transcript.
M: No sir, I withdrew from the course. You can see "W" written to its side.
L: Oh, I thought its work done on that course! Then I wont ask you on neural networks.
C: Draw a process flow chart of your process of getting into IIMA
M: Should I start from the beginning, i mean from deciding if to do an mba or not.
C: go ahead.
M: Can I take sometime sir. (take a min or so to draw some flowchart)
C: so, have we reached half way?
M: yes sir...almost done...
C: Where's CAT?
M: sir, its here, but I am not sure what figure to use for #@$%#@ process.
C: you dont have flowcharts for converting functional to technical spec?
M: no sir, we just go step-wise...like from sales order, we go to this table and then that table..
C: hmm...
L: Whats this special project in the final sem?
M: I did a project on GDT...geometric dimensioning and tolerance...
L: whats it?
M: we developed a way of how to manufacture a product. If we have to drill a hole on a slanted surface, we first drill the hole and then slant the surface.
L looking at C: Will we have any problem if we do the other way?
M: Sir, the drill bit will face difficulty in drilling a hole on a slanted surface...
L: but thats common sense right
M: this is ok but in case of complex surfaces like...
L: so what did u do?
M: we use an algorithm to find out the optimised way of manufactuing.
L: What algorithm?
M: (shit...) I am not able to recollect it sir.
L: You only did the project right?
M: (smile on the face) yes sir, but i dont remember...
R: You said travelling is your interest. what all states have u travelled?
M: I have travelled many states in the country like Goa, JK, Kerala.....blah blah...yamunotri, gangotri....and also abroad like amsterdam, paris, london, interlaken in swiss.
L: Name 5 museums in Amsterdam.
M: (uhh..err...mmm) Madam Tussads...
L: Thats not a museum.
M: I dont remember any sir. We did not visit any museums there. Actually, we stayed some 60 miles from Amsterdam in a place called Barneveld.
L: What are the stations u come across when u go from ams to barneveld?
M: umm..err....Utrecht...I am able to recollect only one sir...
L: whats the difference between Amsterdam and Rotterdam?
M: Rotterdam is a port city while ams is not. Ams has underground rail while rotterdam does not.
R: Whats the problem in Goa?
M: blah blah....not very convincing.
R: During which months is the Kedarnath temple open?
M: We had gone in may. So i suppose its may june july...
R: July!! After the monsoons have started.
M: hmm...I think its april may june.
R: is that fine or u want to say mar apr may?
M: No sir, apr may june is fine.
R: whats the capital of Uttaranchal
M: (shit shit...why the hell do I suffer from short-term memory loss...Raipur..I know its not...its something else...whats it? not able to recollect....shit)...Its Raipur
L: What other calls do u have?
M: BCK.
L: ok then, thats it...thank you....please have a toffee.
M: thank you sir.

Time out: 10.26am

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