Exhilarating PI Experience - The Path Towards MBA Analytics At IIM Kashipur

The aspiration to pursue a career in Analytics started during my final year project during my under graduation. Let me introduce myself and take you through the journey of preparation and the experience I encountered during the MBA Analytics personal interview process. I am a Biotechnology engineer who has 20 months of experience in the education domain. I developed an interest in analytics from the internship experience during my under graduation. So I just took up a job that I love but also ensured to have sufficient time for preparation for my MBA.

MBA(Analytics) at IIM Kashipur was introduced in the year 2020 and I was skeptical about whether I should apply for the course or not, thinking about the placements and the curriculum. Then I asked a few of my seniors and friends about the Analytics domain and got to know that Analytics at IIM Kashipur is doing pretty well. So after seeing their placement reports on the Analytics domain and the curriculum from the MBA Analytics website I was very clear about applying and proceeded with the same.

After filling the application form, I was looking for updates on the Pagalguy handles of the college with lots of anxiety. After which the day came when I received my slot for the personal interview which was on June 6th between 3-3.15pm. I started preparing myself on the normal HR questions like “Tell me about yourself”, “Weaknesses and strengths”, “Major accomplishments”, “Why MBA” etc. Then, I was paying attention to the Statistical topics which I learned during my undergraduate degree and brushed up all my thesis and projects I did. I ensured to recollect and remember in-depth about every single detail which I mentioned in my resume and also skimmed through the current happenings. I planned the schedule in a way that I had enough sleep the previous day of the interview. With this preparation, I was set for the D day.

It was an online interview process because of the COVID scenario, so I had kept the backup of my mobile hotspot, looked for a silent place in my home, and got myself prepared 2 hours ahead of the scheduled time. That was very helpful as my slot was preponed 45 minutes before the assigned slot. The interview went the way I wanted it to be. So it started with the question “Tell me about yourself” I had already prepared this answer numerous times by building up the correlation between every event I stated to be the reason for pursuing my MBA in analytics. Few questions were “What I learned from my internship at NUS Singapore and IIT Madras” and “How was the international experience different from my experience at IIT Madras”. Then it went on about how and why is the funding for projects different in both places. I answered all of these questions confidently as I was prepared with all of them. I was also asked a few questions on the analytical tools I used during these projects. Then came the application-based questions, “Any mathematical model to fit the COVID pandemic growth rate” and follow-up questions based on the answers I gave. I kept my answer along with justification for the same so not many questions were asked. Then they asked Why IIM Kashipur, I answered that too and the last question was if I have any questions for them so I asked them about the commencement of the program keeping in mind the implications caused by the pandemic. With this, my interview ended smoothly and happily.