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Academics - 98.72/97.83/85 ; CAT Score - 99.71%ile
37 months of work experience at Qualcomm.
26th Feb 2021,1:30 PM at Indiranagar, Bangalore
AWT - The pandemic has brought good outcomes for companies worldwide. A lot of companies have become more productive and many of them have announced permanent WFH for their employees (something on these lines). The task was to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the given argument.
Interview - I was the second person on my panel. The first person went in and didn't come back for more than 30 minutes during which 2 people from the other panel had already finished their interviews. I was gearing up for a long interview.
Interviews were taking place in a video conferencing room. I went into the interview room and sat at the opposite end of the screen. There were two male professors P1 and P2. P1 was elder and looked around 50 years of age. P2 was around 35.
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.
I was having some difficulty with hearing what P1 was saying so had to ask to repeat a few things.
P2 - You have published some papers. Was it research-based or some sort of survey?
Me - This was again something I was prepared for. Could explain the paper in detail. From basics to more involved kinds of stuff that were domain-specific. I was happy that they were understanding what I was explaining. P1 interrupted and pointed out an issue with the solution we proposed in the paper. Clarified by agreeing with him and told that there was a reasonable assumption and the issue could be overcome in a certain way even though we couldn't do that during our time on this paper. Some discussions on this and both P1 and P2 seemed fine.
P2 - You are pretty good at what you have been doing. Why do you want to come out of that and jump into MBA?
Me - Explained what my goals are and what limitations my current knowledge and job roles have. Explained how MBA would help me to bridge the gap and work towards my goals. Mentioned some of my experiences from the past which drove me towards an MBA. P2 was listening and clarifying a few things all along. Also as I mentioned I want to do something on my own P2 asked whether I have anything in my mind that I would like to share. I told them nothing particular but that's the dream I have(Later thought that this could have been answered in a better manner).
P1- What are your hobbies? What do you do during your free time?
Me- Mentioned that I like reading books and why I like them. Was asked about my learnings from some of the books I mentioned. The discussion on the book "Animal farm" went on to comparison between democratic and communist forms of governments. P1 cross-questioned a few things but I managed to do just fine with it.
P1 asked for more hobbies. I mentioned cricket and also told him why I like it.
In between these, the screen went off. I had to go outside the room and ask for someone's help to turn it on.
P2 - Are you aware of the recent news around University education?
V - I was trying hard to remember it. I had read it a few months back but couldn't remember it. Told that I'm unable to recollect. P1 asked whether I know what's UGC and AICTE. Mentioned that I have heard about them but don't know much about them. P1 said, "you should know all these".
P2 asked me to explain how a university works. I was able to give a basic answer for that. I wasn't able to understand the bigger picture of what they were talking about.
P1 said he's done, P2 told the same. I wished both of them and left the room.
The interview lasted for 20 minutes. Overall it was more of a conversation than an interview. Most of the discussion was around my job, the published paper, and why MBA. I had a good feeling about the interview except for the last question on current affairs and the why MBA question where I think I could have been more elaborative.
My major tip to every aspirant is to be thorough with their background. Look at your past and think what all questions you can expect based on that. If you have work experience, think about how you can explain your work to a common person who may not be familiar with your work domain.
Verdict: Converted and joining.