A Unique MDI Gurgaon Interview Experience - 2019

Profile:

General Engineer Female

1.5 years of Work Ex at Infosys Limited

CAT Score: 98.43

Venue: Pai Viceroy Hotel, Bangalore

Date: 11/03/2019 1pm

WAT+GD:

My MDI panel consisted of 12 aspirants. The topic given for WAT and GD was 'Vote Bank Politics is hampering development'. The GD went pretty smooth and everyone got a chance to put their points. Also, we were able to summarise the GD in the given time frame.

Personal Interview:

I was 6th to be called for the interview in my panel. My panel consisted of 2 middle aged professors, let's call them P1 and P2. P1 was a Human Resources faculty and P2 taught Economics. I was asked to sit down and P1 started going through my application form.

P2: 'Ereka' is quite an interesting name. What does it mean?

Me: Sir it means 'The sole leader' in Nordish Language.

P2: So you mean you have a good soul?

Me: (A little confused at first) Sir, I meant 'sole'.

P2: Okay so where are you working?

Me: Infosys Mangalore sir.

P2: Everyone in Bangalore works at Infosys what's new?

Me: Sir I meant 'Mangalore'.

P2: So you are from South India. How will you be comfortable in Haryana? It's not a safe place.

Me: I have lived in Maharashtra for 20 years so I'm technically not from South India.

P2: (Suddenly interrupting me) Will you like North Indian food?

Me: I enjoy different cuisines.

P2: (Starts looking out of the window behind him and does not even look at me) Can you cook?

Me: Yes Sir I can. It's one of my hobbies.

P2: I believe that cooking is a necessary evil. In fact I feel eating is a necessary evil. Convince me that cooking is cool and tell me 5 things a person can learn from cooking.

Me: 1. Self-reliance 2. Creativity

P2: (Interrupting me) Let's play a little game. Pick a number between 1 to 9.

(Then starts a fun math play where P1 makes me end up with the number 4 in my head after a series of mental calculation. He asks me to think of a country that starts with the corresponding letter in the English alphabet. It's 'D' and the only one I can think of is Denmark.

P2: Isn't it Denmark?

Me: Yes Sir

P2: So have I hypnotised you?

Me: No Sir. It's just a play of numbers.

P2: No! I am a professor of hypnotism at MDI.

Me: Sir I believe you made me reach the number 4 with your number game and the only country most people know that starts with a 'D' is Denmark.

P2: No no no. There's another country- the Dominican Republic. See I hypnotised you. Now can you hypnotise me?

(P1 is now laughing and P2 is trying hard to maintain his serious facial expression. Also an attender walks in with coconut water for both the interviewers. Both offer me the coconut water and I politely decline.)

Me: (Laughing) No Sir. That would be very tough.

P2: Do you have anything to tell us?

Me: Sir I have only applied to the PGP-HR programme since I'm interested in Human Resources.

P2: Really? Human resources? Why? Also, you will definitely get selected with your percentile.

P1: We can't be sure if you will get selected since there are 3600 applicants who are being interviewed. Tell me why do you want to pursue HR?

Me: (About to answer)

P1: Oh I see you have done an internship in Human Resources. Good.

P2: Have you been called by XLRI?

Me: Yes Sir. I already gave my interview there.

P2: Okay. You may leave.

Me: Thank You, Sir. Good day.

After the interview, I was genuinely laughing at the insanity of it all. I wasn't sure if it was a stress interview or if the interviewers just wanted to have some fun with me. It was the weirdest interview experience amongst all the ones I had given.

P.S: I have converted my call at MDI but I won't be joining it as I have converted XLRI too.