How should you go about a stress interview? How should you put forward your point during an interview without sounding arrogant? Should you talk about the calls you have during the interview? Do the panelists really care about why you wish to pursue an MBA? If you have these questions with respect to your interviews, then you must read these 20 interview experiences. The experiences range from people with poor academics to non-engineering backgrounds to drop years. Read the second part of the series on 20 must-read interview experiences for your MBA admissions.
Read the first part of the series, if you haven't already!
P3 was doing something very weird on camera, he came too close to the camera placing his hand and talking to someone like suppose there is hone-bee flying just above the camera.
P1: (He got soft from now) Tumhi Mahrastrache that ka? (Guessed because of the Marathi flavor in my English I think)
Me: Yes sir, I’m!
P1: Exactly from where?
Me: Aurangabad, Marathwada Region.
P1: Ohh, Sharad Pawar kadche ahat tumhi!
Me: No sir, he is from south Maharashtra. Baramati, Solapur. But I’m from dist. of Gopinath Munde.
From Swiggy To IIM Ahmedabad - Lovish's WAT-PI Experience
Lovish completed his BMS from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies in 2016. He has a combined work experience of 40 months in Business Development and Sales roles in Scraplabs (a startup in the education industry) and Swiggy. He scored 99.25 percentile in CAT to join his dream B-school, IIM Ahmedabad. From there, he got selected in Bain for the Summer Internship program. Read his WAT-PI experience at IIM Ahmedabad here!
IIFT GD-PI-WAT Interview Experience | Ft. Malika Asthana IIFT D'22
With a B Com (Hons) degree underway, as a fresher, I had several options present before me to choose which way I would go next. However, somehow, I felt that pursuing an MBA degree will help me un-tap my true potential and maximise the efficiency I work within my corporate career. With a 95.60 percentile in the IIFT Entrance Exam, I feel that a really good GD-PI-WAT performance, helped me land IIFT Delhi.
M1: What is the difference between strength and hardness?
Me: Started with the definition. But he didn’t seem to be happy with the answer. So, I switched over to the processes in which they are tested. I elaborated on how compressive tests, tensile tests, and indentation tests are done. We had a discussion on it.
M1: Difference between cast iron and pig iron.
Me: Explained the difference on the basis of composition and how cast iron is purer than pig iron. Briefly compared their hardness and brittleness.
M1: Difference between Tempering and Annealing.
Me: Stated the difference in the process and how they have an effect on the hardness and overall property of the material. I illustrated it with a sample and we had a brief discussion over martempering and austempering.
FMS Interview Experience - 2021, Kaustubh Chandel
P1: So let me explain the process to you. We have 3 components as you must be aware.... (went on to explain in detail)
So the topic for your extempore is - "I have a dream"
Me: (took a few seconds to think) started with quoting Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Talked about living in a global community, free from discrimination, poverty, terrorism. Achieving globalization in the truest sense etc.
P1: Great, that would be it.
P2: So in your SOP you have talked about "value-based education". How would you correlate values in management to the new normal?
Me: Told what I understand by "new normal". Talked about why ethics are more important than ever due to the lack of transparency now. Gave an example from my life.
P2: (nodded)What calls do you have?
M1- What is the difference between synchronous and induction Machine
Me - Answered.
M1 - Applications of such machines.
Me - Answered for synchronous, forgot about induction
M1 - Which individual has a great business model?
Me - Narayan Murthy a perfect blend of intellect and ethics and took Infosys where it is today and why Satyam fell
M1 - How Infosys grew and its story.
Me - Explained in detail. (Had prepared)
M2- You told me something wrong went in Satyam, I recall something unethical was done; what was it?
Why MBA when you are already a CA and have a good profile?
Do you know about GameStop?
Don’t you think markets are too fragile to let this happen?
Me: Talked about regulatory intervention needed to curtail such a frenzy, compared Indian and US markets and why it cannot happen in India.
Do you know who is Rakesh Jhunjhunwala?
Me: Talked about his stake in jubilant
No, tell me why did he buy Tata motors?
IIM Indore Interview Experience - 2021, Shivangi Prerna
M: This is not a core civil subject, it's more of a periphery subject. ( Mostly people want to hear Strength of Materials or Fluid Mechanics or Analysis in general but I knew I didn’t have to tread that path considering the vastness of the subjects and the fact that it overlaps with mechanical engineering curriculum as well)
Me: Sir I am not confident of SOM or mechanics since it wasn’t my strongest point in my second year given the fact that I was involved in a lot of other cultural activities and my professional electives were in the transportation field itself.
M: So do you know anything about Water Bound Macadam (WBM)?
Me: (Caught off guard) Sir I don’t remember exactly but it was used to stop water from being retained on the roads as water is the worst enemy of roads.
IIM Calcutta Interview Experience - 2021, Gaurav Karakoti
P1- So you are from biotechnology, you must have followed vaccination closely?
P1- Tell me the difference between the mechanism of our vaccines.
P1- mechanism of mRNA vaccine.
P1- Difference between antigen and antibody.
P1- Different types of vaccines.
Me- Don't know sir.
P1- Tell me about your role.
P1- What does your company do.
P1- I am done.
IIM Bangalore Interview Experience - 2021, Siddhant Jain
1. Rural areas have higher cancer patients than urban areas. Why could this happen?
2. Hypothesis if you want to prove it
3. Steps to collect relevant data
4. How will you arrive at this conclusion?
5. How can the problem be mitigated?
6. Digital divide
IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience - 2021, Vinayak Areguli
P1 - Vinayak, tell me about your work at Qualcomm.
Me - Explained what the company does and what's my role in it. As Qualcomm is a smartphone processor maker, I had given a lot of thought to how my work as Engineer has an impact on the end product which is a smartphone. I had prepared a few points and examples where I could connect my work with the users' experience with smartphone usage. Wasn't interrupted anywhere in the middle while explaining. They seemed to be satisfied with the answer.
P1 asked a few small things such as how many people are there in the team, how many people are in design and verification teams, whether Bangalore has an independent design center, where the headquarters are located etc. It was all smooth.
P1 - What are the skills needed in your job?
Me - Mentioned many hard skills and few soft skills.
M1: Pulkit, you are working in a very esteemed organization of our country. Why do you want to leave ISRO and join IIM for an MBA? Don’t you want to serve the nation anymore?
P: (I was pretty much expecting this question and was prepared. I gave my standard 40-second answer, where I mentioned my long-term career goal and how an MBA from IIM-A will help me. I also added how I can serve the nation even if I leave ISRO. The panelist seemed pretty convinced with my plan and vision.)
M1: What is your role at ISRO?
P: (I mentioned the division and the group in which I was working. I talked about the projects and activities carried out by me. Also, explained the processes involved in layman terms and kept it very concise.)
M1: What’s the budget of ISRO?
P: 13,000 crores for the year 2020–21.
1. So you have experience of interning in an EdTech company, how was it?
2. Tell me about your project there and what you learned.
3. So is that the only internship you did? Tell me about others (Also told that I got a PPO in WD)
4. So what is your role in Western Digital?
5. You have shown interest in the PGPBA program also, why do you want to get into analytics?
6. Do you have exposure to analytical tools? (Said that have completed a course in Data Mining in my UG to get exposure but don’t have an experience with the tools)
IIM Calcutta Interview Experience - 2021, Bharghvi Prajapati
IIM C 2 Panelists both Male (Cool profs)
M1: Tell me about yourself
Ans: Standard answer
M1: Where was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel born?
Ans: (Had studied but couldn't recall at that moment) Gujarat
M1: (Sarcastic Smile) Even I know that he is from Gujarat. What is the place?
Ans: Cannot recall Sir.
M1: What was special about yesterday?
Ans: Dr BR Ambedkar 130th birth anniversary
M1: What is he known for?
Ans: Chairperson of the drafting committee of Constitution of India
IIM Indore Interview Experience - 2021, Anushka Saha
P1: Okay then. What is the Basel III norm? (Why this out of all things on this planet?)
Me: Explained as much as I remembered.
P1: What are NPAs and how are they presented on the balance sheet?
P1: What is the CAPM model?
P1: What is a cash flow statement and why is it important?
P1: Why can't I just use the balance sheet and calculate the liquidity ratio?
Me: Explained the detailed format of the cash flow statement etc. and how they provide a more in-depth analysis of cash generators and cash users.
Q3. Is y = |x| continuous?
Q4. Is y = |x^2| continuous?
Q5. Are continuous functions differentiable?
Q6. What is the differentiation coefficient of log(x^2)?
This was a nostalgic section for me. I gave logic where ever I knew. But I know I had goofed up between the graph is continuous and differentiable. And I was desperately looking for a comeback. (There were a couple of more questions here, I can't recollect, they were based on my response)
Q.7 (Last question) It was a long question, there was a buildup to reach the actual problem. I will cut directly to it, making it sound very simple: There is a room, in it, there is a fly. Distance of the fly from two adjacent walls and one of the top vertex was given and I was asked to calculate the distance between the fly and the roof.
Panel: There were 2 members (1 Male, 1 Female).
P1(Male) - In the early 50s or late 40s.
P2(Female) - In the early 40s.
A student coordinator checked my ID.
Me: Good morning, sir. Good morning ma’am.
P1: Good morning Ankit. So, you graduated from Hindu college last year.
Me: No sir, I am currently in my final year.
P1: okay okay, you have around 9 CGPA in graduation. How would you like to comment on this? I think they are very good according to DU.
Me: They are decent sir. But not very good as marking in DU varies from course to course and in our course, we get more than 9.5 as well.
P1: Still they are very good! Don’t you think?
Me: Probably sir (They started laughing)
P1: You don’t have to be that modest. Anyways, what do your parents do?
P1: Good Morning Shubham, Tell me something about yourself.
Me: Told them about my past, college, work ex, and volunteer work.
P1: Tell me more about this volunteer work?
Me: I told him about my work as a technical editor, enhancing the audio stories for children.
P1: How will this be helpful to children?
Me: I told him how we learn moral values and ethics from stories and how it is ingrained within Indian culture, with grandparents teaching us values through these stories. Gave the example of Panchatantra.
P1: Why do the majority of Panchatantra stories have animal characters and not humans?
Me: As a child, it is easy to associate animals with specific characteristics. The lion needs to be proud as he is the king of the jungle, and the rat needs to be a coward. Assigning specific characters to animals will help children better understand and relate to them
IIM Shillong Interview Experience - 2021, Vithal Kaligotla
M1: What is happening in Telangana? Why are covid-19 cases rising?
V: Sir the initial testing was low in Telangana and as per yesterday's health ministry reports, Telangana stood first in wastage of vaccines. So, all these factors are promoting the spread.
M1: Have you heard about this school in the news where inflections were so high?
V: Sir I haven't heard about it.
M1: Tell me something about yourself that is not in the form.
V: Swimming, Gardening, and Cooking.
M1: What can we humans learn from plants?
L: So, Nishant, tell me about yourself. Focus more on what you did in Engineering.
Me: (I need to somehow include my hobbies here, or I wouldn’t get a chance afterwards) After a rehearsed introduction where I talk about my family background and accomplishments, I talked about the final year project, Technical internships and introduced my hobby of analysing cricket and reading literature.
L (More interested in Technical things): Explain your final year project in detail, Nishant.
Me: Ma’am, it is a system designed to replace the compressor in the refrigeration cycle. We are working on a Jet ejector system which currently has a low COP and we would try to optimise the design parameters so as to increase the COP to an acceptable level.
L: You are not coming clear. Use this sheet of paper and explain again.
(This is where I screwed up)
(I take a pen and the paper and start writing content in bullet points. Lady stops me in between)