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Date - 01/04/2021 (Yes, when I read the date for the first time I hoped it wouldn’t play out as an April fools joke. Thank God it didn’t)
Profile (X/XII/Grad/CAT) - 95%/97.6%/80.2%/97.43
2020 Commerce grad from SRCC, no work experience.
My interview time was 4.30 pm. I was in shorts and a T-shirt at 3.40 pm when my phone rang.
A female voice ensued. “This is Jotpreet?” I replied “yes”. She continued “I’m calling from the IIM Kozhikode admissions team. You have an interview scheduled. Can you appear for it at 3.50 pm?” (Are you out of your mind. Here I am in shorts and making tea and you’re asking me if you could prepone the interview). “That would be a bit difficult ma’am.” She said “Try to come by 4. We will arrange the interview between 4 and 4.30 pm”
Sigh
I got ready for the interview and sat in front of my computer by 4 pm. After a few minutes, the zoom circle of death started to spin and I could see 2 panelists in 1 room and another participant (someone from the admissions team).
After a document check, the interview started. The female interviewer started first -
Q) You mentioned you were part of the Stock markets society in your college. Tell me what you guys did.
This felt like hitting the lottery. The ball landed right in my court and I wasn’t going to let it slip. You see, stocks and finance and the college society I was a part of are my core strengths. I can talk at length about them.
A) Ma’am, our primary purpose was to inculcate knowledge of the financial markets amongst the students. So we used to organize sessions to tell them about the basics of financial markets, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis. We also organized a session with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) office in Delhi where the students had an interactive session with their team. Besides this, we organized a fest in 2019 spanning 2 days and competitions regarding finance like mock stock and stock pitching competition.
Q) Oh okay, I see. So what were your learnings as a part of society?
A) Ma’am I would divide my learnings into 2 parts. One is the financial knowledge I gained and the second is the people skills I learned. Being surrounded by intelligent people in the team, I learned about technical analysis as one of my friends is a trader. I learned a lot about temperament and that not just buying the right stocks is important, it is also crucial to hold them for long periods of time. Coming to people skills, I learned a lot about leadership. Learned how to work in teams, how to resolve conflict and when to put your foot down, and when to accept what the other is saying.
Q) Do you plan to be a trader?
A) No ma’am. I prefer investing.
Q) So, you want to go into investing
Dammit. Taking something and applying it somewhere else
A) In the long run, yes. My immediate goal is to work in a bank or a PE firm and side by side build my portfolio for the long run. That is when the magic of compounding starts to take place.
Q) Okay, so I want to plan my retirement. Please guide me with respect to my portfolio.
Starting to feel like a financial advisor but nonetheless, I answered.
A) Ma’am before doing that, I would like to know a few things. First, you should know that according to me, retirement does not happen based on your age but rather your net worth. Second, I want to know what is your time horizon for investing and also your risk tolerance. Because both of those things are important to know.
Ma’am replied - 15 years, moderate risk.
With this info, I charged on.
Okay, so given your situation, here is my advice for you - Put 10% of your Portfolio (PF) in liquid form - Either FD or cash. The next 20% you put in gold to reduce the volatility of the pf. The next 40% goes into equity. Do you have knowledge of picking stocks, ma’am?
She said she doesn’t.
So with that, I said to put that money into index funds or ETFs because they would do well in the long run and have a way lower expense ratio than actively managed mutual funds. The remaining 30% of the pf you should put into debt funds that would provide regular income and not too much risk.
I was confident in my answer. And hey, if you’re reading this, you can use this info and plan your financial portfolio as well.
Q) Thank you for that advice for free, which you should not do (referring to not giving advice for free).
A) Ma’am the advice is free. It is the action that is valuable ;)
She said thank you and then the male interviewer started to ask questions.
Q) What were your favorite subjects in graduation?
A) Fundamentals of investment and Financial Management.
Q) What is pecking order?
A) I have not heard of it sir, sorry.
Q) If the company has to raise funds, what sources would it use?
A) Sir, retained earnings. Then debt and if need be, equity dilution.
Q) You just described pecking order. You’re saying you don’t know and yet you defined it.
A) Sir, I do not recall the term. But we did study these modes of raising financing.
Q) What is the difference between an industrialist, a trader, and a legend, say JRD?
A) Sir, an industrialist is one who sets up his own plant in a particular industry and manufactures the good for supply. A trader buys from someone and sells to someone for a markup. A legend as far as I understand is someone who is successful in setting up multiple ventures and provides good employment to people.
The internet became a bit unstable at this stage.
Q) What are your hobbies besides investing and stocks?
A) Sir, I like to keep updated with technology, especially gadgets like smartphones. And of late, besides reading about investing, I have also started reading more fiction. I recently read a few of Dan Brown’s books. (Heck, I finished the Da Vinci code 2 hours before the interview)
Then, I made a statement I’m proud of, don’t know if it was useful or not.
Sir because I had read somewhere, that reading non-fiction sets your mental floor and reading fiction sets your mental ceiling, I have started reading more fiction now.
At this point, the female interviewer sound impressed and nodded her head in acceptance. Don’t know if it was a decoy or not.
Thank you Jotpreet. That would be all.
And we all left with smiling faces ;)
Or did we?
My take - the interview started where I would have wanted it to and went in the direction of stocks, finance, and investing, which is my cup of tea. Last year also my interview went well but I was straight rejected. So, I genuinely do not expect anything at this stage. But I will say, that I was happy with my performance in the interview. No GK or hardcore academics seemed like a divine blessing.
Verdict - Converted.