CAP Interview Experience For New And Baby IIMs

Date - 16th February 2019
Slot - Morning
Location - IHMCTAN, Dadar West, Mumbai

WAT Topic -
Can Public Transport help in reducing Traffic woes of Major cities and do you think the government has done enough to improve public transport?

Personal Interview - Coming to the Personal Interview Round, there were 2 panelists, one a middle-aged male (P1) and another a middle-aged Female (P2). After they called out my name, I went inside and after all the greetings I was asked to sit on the chair.

P1: Show me all the documents You have. [As I had kept each of them in a separate envelope, I started removing them.] It seems you want everything neat and tidy as you have made individual envelopes for sets of documents.
Answer: [Smiingly] Yes sir it makes sure nothing is misplaced or lost.

P2: Ok fine now tell us about yourself.
Answer: Reiterated the already well-rehearsed answer including details about my academics, co-curricular and extra-curricular.

P2: So you mentioned you have a certification in Digital Marketing and you also stated that you have a channel on YouTube. So tell me how do you intend to use your skills of digital marketing to grow your channel.
Answer: Told them how digital marketing has helped me spread my channel on social media and how it has helped me gain considerable followers from nothing as well as views.

P1: So tell me why you want to do an MBA  from being a hardcore technical background.
Answer: Told him the already decided answer.

P2: So tell us how you decided you wish to do an MBA.
Answer: Answered how I took reviews and opinions and finally came to a conclusion.

P2: That means doing an MBA was not your decision. It means you don’t have any opinion by yourself.
Answer: Declined the same and told her how I was just taking opinion but the final decision was mine.

P1: ok so tell me about the syllabus of MBA.
Answer: Told him about the specialization and all [cuts in between]

P1: Tell me about the various subjects. You must have gone through the syllabus so tell me.
Answer: I forgot about the same at the end moment. I told him I had read the same on websites of Raipur and Ranchi but not able to recollect now.

P1: Ok, So tell me now, how do you keep yourself updated with the recent and current happenings.
Answer: I told him about reading newspapers daily and also reading the various weekly and fortnightly magazines and business journals.

P1: This is a major problem in India. People just wanna read newspapers and magazines and all such stuff and waste their time rather than doing something productive. I have not read any such stuff for the last 5 years and I have never felt any issue. Why do you wanna waste time? Do something productive.
Answer: Sir Its a personal opinion that it does not matter even if one does not read any news. I like to keep myself updated with the current happenings in our country and around the world be it business news or daily news.

P1: But why, isn’t it just a waste of your time which you could have used in doing something productive. They do not pay you anything to keep yourself updated so what is the reason.
Answer: Sir I agree that I am not paid anything for reading those news articles. But sir neither am I wasting time in doing so. I come to know about our countries current status, business stats, global news, and the best part is as you said you get to learn all of this virtually free of cost which adds on to the knowledge. Apart from that, there are other places as well where such information can be used such as monetary news for stocks and share or business news about the takeovers.

P1: Ok so if you say so tell me do you completely believe whatever is printed in the newspapers is 100 percent correct. Many of the printed media side with politicians of their choice and this can lead to a biased article.
Answer: Sir I definitely agree with you regarding the media can be biased but the point here is gaining details about the news and not the opinion which the author has. If there are certain facts and figures stated which have been proved then these cannot be changed even with a biased opinion.

P1: So tell me one article where you have read about an article and later found out some different version which came out to be the actual true one.
Answer: Told him about the Rafale Deal since I had read it just the night before.

P1: So explain to us what is the issue of this Rafale Deal…
Answer: Told him in complete details about the statement of different ministries including the costs and figures of the deal.

P2: Ok so do you know about what is a BlockChain [I replied affirmatively]. So assume you have to explain it to a primary kid. Explain how you would do it.
Answer: Explained using the concept of an attendance register. [P2 seemed satisfied with my answer.]

P1: So that’s it from our side. All the best. Said thank you and wished both of them a good day and came out of the interview room.

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A nice interview where I was grilled a lot. It lasted almost 20 minutes. However, since this was my first IIM interview it prepared me for other IIM interviews. VERDICT -

CONVERTED -
IIM UDAIPUR, IIM RAIPUR, IIM SAMBALPUR, IIM KASHIPUR, IIM BODH GAYA, IIM JAMMU, IIM RANCHI

WAITLISTED - IIM ROHTAK, IIM TRICHY [Did not pay fees to remain in waitlist]

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Read my IIM Shillong interview experience here!