Starting out as an MBA aspirant, few are aware of other colleges outside of the IIMs. You gradually come to know the other famed initials and the hype surrounding each one be it from peers or, as is increasingly common these days, from social media. It’s a process that can be best described as learning about the waterfall ahead from other fish swimming towards it with you. So here’s my part in helping inform future aspirants about my successful interview experience at one such b-school where I am an incoming student ( 2021-23 ), Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management -IIT Bombay. A few caveats before we dive in. You have to apply separately with your CAT score and you must have a 4-year degree. In my personal opinion the interview process at SJMSOM is the smoothest among all the online ones that I have attended. Everything is on time. The technology works. There is a well defined process for everything. The AdCom is on the top of their game. The contrast with the other B-schools is stark. It’s the difference between taking a train in Japan as opposed to one in India. If you feel I’m exaggerating then read ahead. The platfrom on which the entire process was centred around was Gather (
https://gather.town/).
So they were able to reproduce as much of an offline experience as possible with virtual auditoriums, group tables, document verification rooms, recreation rooms and of course interview rooms. There are AdCom helpdesks scattered everywhere so even if you managed to somehow mix up the well laid out procedure, there is help nearby. I won’t bore you with the minutiae of the entire process so let’s get to the meat of it. I don’t know what is scarier for the aspirant - to get peppered with questions about a domain which they don’t know much about or to get grilled about their workex/graduation subject by an interviewer who is an expert in it. You may think the latter is obviously preferable but remember the margin for error is minimal. Such was my plight when I was interviewed by Professor of Information Systems/Technology Rajendra M. Sonar. Given my work experience as a Data Engineer, I was grilled thoroughly for what seemed to be an eternity. Answering computer science questions from a professor at IIT Bombay is as harrowing as it sounds. I tried my best to answer the probing and difficult questions he asked but it honestly felt like I had brought a knife to a gunfight. He seemed thoroughly unimpressed with my answers but I persisted in explaining them the best I could. It was thus a big relief when he finished and the alumni took over. We then got into a long conversation about music and headphones where I could relax and go into detail as to why one should not blow away eye-watering sums on Western brands when Taiwanese daily drivers will give you enough of a bang for the buck ( a hill I’m prepared to die on ). The interview concluded thereafter leaving me with bleak hopes about my chances. As it turned out however, that I had actually done well and converted. It was a surprise. I decided to leave my MDI PGDM, IIFT Delhi, IIM Shillong and other new and baby IIM converts to join SJMSOM batch of 2021-23. If I had to summarise my experience into one sentence it would be this - never lose your cool.