Interview Experience At Great Lakes Institute Of Management, Chennai/Gurgaon PGPM – 2018

I was shortlisted for the WAT-PI rounds for both campuses of Great Lakes Institute of Management for their flagship one-year Postgraduate programme in management (PGPM). Their selection process consists of three rounds Profile Selection, WAT (Written Ability Test) and Personal Interview.

Round 1 - Profile Selection: 
My profile consists of Scorecard of 90+ percentile in XAT MBA entrance exam. I am working as Consultant in IT firm Saksoft Limited for 3 years for our Client Transunion US. I have a good and consistent academic background in my undergraduate college curriculum B.tech. Lastly, a decent SOP along with my Application Form Filling resulted in my Profile selection at great Lakes PGPM programme.

Round 2 - WAT (Written Ability Test):
There were two topics given and we have to write on one of them in 250 words and 20 minutes time.
I topic I wrote was "Challenges and Improvement Areas in Health Care Industry of India".

Round 3 - Personal Interview: There were two gentlemen in my Interview Panel. One is the director of Chennai PGPM program PROF. SANJOY SIRCAR. The other gentleman was looking like a well experienced Corporate person. Let this gentlemen name as P1.

P1:  Hello Gaurav, How are you?
Me: Good Morning Sir, I am pretty good.

P1: You lives in East of Kailash, Do you know 'X' place?
ME: Yes Sir, I know, it's very nearby to my house and I added, I think you must have visited ISKCON temple near East of Kailash.
P1: Yes, I have visited ISKCON temple near East of Kailash and I stayed at 'X' place when I visited there.

PGPM Director: Okay, Gaurav. So, you have worked in Corporate world for 3 years, Just tell us about your roles and Responsibilities there?
Me: I explained all the roles and Responsibilities I played and cross questions were more focused for Business Domain  I worked for.

PGPM Director: Which newspaper you read and what is the last Business News Article You read in last 1-2 days?
Me: I read "The Hindu" newspaper and I started telling about the last Business article I read. The article was about Dyson Company headed by Jake Dyson and the Business plan of them of investing of 1000 Crores in India in next 5 years. Dyson is famous for the pollution controlled products with 82 countries as their market area including Russia, China and US.

P2: Ok, Just tell us about the Last Financial News You read?
Me: The last article I read was of PNB Scam of 11, 000 Crores of Nirav Modi on those days newspaper mid of February. The newspaper was flooded with similar articles. I explained the whole scenario and the Mumbai branch Deputy manager arrested for same. The cross Questions on the loop whole of Banking system and few more questions. I answered them all.

P2: He read my WAT essay and asked me One question from the Healthcare Industry as it was related to my WAT topic. The question was"Suppose, tomorrow morning our Honourable PM Mr. Narendra Modi makes you as Health Minister, what is the action for improvement of the Healthcare Industry? " Me: I stumbled a little bit and try to give some answers but was not able to give an effective strategic plan. They said okay. No worries. PGPM Director: What all other b-school calls you have? Me: I answered I have calls from IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI Manipal, FORE and many others as well.

PGPM Director: Suppose you convert your all b-school calls you have, then which will you choose and why?
Me: I answered Great Lakes PGPM for sure.

PGPM Director: Why Great Lakes PGPM? Me: Great Lakes PGPM is the only call for 1-year program. 1-year programme will help me back to join corporate world with less time for off-break from office. The peer group learning will be great here as all the peer members are well experienced of Diverse backgrounds and industries. Lastly, I answered that I really like the vision of Great Lakes Community when I visited their Offical Website. There is a Pillar in the campus which is made of steel with rounded curves around which actually symbolises different roles/personalities students have to play during the course of their life.That really impressed me a lot.

P2: Okay Gaurav, we are done with the interview.
Me: Thank you, Sir.

And I shook hands with P2.