Interview Experience
Like every other MBA aspirant, I too aspired to be selected into the premier BSchools of the country. And so I started my preparations for CAT 2020. 25 AIMCATS, 8 months of Quant, VA, LR-DI practice, 2 entrance tests later I received my Interview calls from some of the top BSchools in the country, SJMSOM being one of them. After flunking my very first PI, I started getting a hang of the interview process. Then came the interview for SJMSOM, which I was really ecstatic about because there was something unique about this one.
The adcom had arranged for us a virtual walk-in event in a video calling space called Gather which allows multiple people to hold conversations in parallel. It imitates real life gatherings in the form of video game characters.So it is safe to say that it was the closest to real life interview experience for me in these trying times. Not only did I have face to face interaction with the panel members,but I also got to interact with some of the other selected candidates, who later went on to become my batchmates.
Now coming to the actual Interview, the panelists consisted of a SJMSOM alumni, an IIT-Bombay alumni and a SJMSOM professor..sounds scary, I know right.So obviously I was a good amount of nervous for my interview. I went in to the interview room when it was my turn and greeted all the panelists first thing. It was a virtual interview so all the gestures and seating formalities that I was taught in my PI lessons were no good for me obviously.And so the interview started with the very basic questions of any MBA interview such as self-introduction, ‘Why MBA?’,’What makes you unique?’,’What are your biggest achievements?’ and so on. I went on to answer these questions to the best of my capabilities and as honestly as possible. They seemed happy with the answers, so that gave my confidence some boost there.Then came questions related to my field of work and my under graduation subjects, most of which I was able to answer without any hiccups. After all the technical and cliched MBA questions I was bombarded with questions in a rapid-fire round about my state, Odisha. And this test, I can proudly say that I passed with flying colours. In conclusion, I was asked about my preference in choosing a BSchool if I were to convert all those that I was interviewed for.
4 months and 6 waitlists later I converted SJMSOM and I couldn't be happier.