My Interview Experience With SJMSOM, IIT Bombay - Dipali Gholap

Dipali Gholap, B. pharmacy graduate 2021

Interview of experiences of 2021, online interviews. These are always quiet boring; sitting in front of the blank screen for endless time, no interaction with seniors and your peers, preparing with all the hard work but not even one visit to your dream college. Almost all the interviews went like this except one, SJMSOM - IIT Bombay. They have set a benchmark in online interview process.

Zoom out, Gather in

They didn't use conventional zoom platform, at least not the waiting room. Instead of that we were told to use 'Gather'. It’s user interface was more like gaming platform, thus easy to understand. There every candidate had different avtar (unique character ID). We were told to wait in waiting rooms and were able to interact with peers and seniors. They were very kind and helping. They gave us a slight intro about the faculty and interview panel as well. Also, we were able to hear on the spot interview experiences of other candidates. All in all, the process was totally smooth. Even though it took more than 4hrs it was a worthy investment.

Actual Interview

There were 3 panel members. One college professor, one alumnus and one member with pharmacy background. I went in with "Good Afternoon professors, how are you doing? " All of them gave me greetings with smile. It started with the generic introductory question. As soon as I talked about pharmacy, the professor asked me Why India is 'World's Pharmacy'? I told about India's generic medicines market and vaccines market. Then the panel member with pharma background asked me some follow up questions related to generic medicines and Indian patent policies. At the end, the alumni asked me 'Why India is not into API manufacturing?'. My overall interview was based on my academic side with slight industrial touch.

Overall Experience

I am pleased that I got an opportunity to attend such benchmark interview process. My pre interview anxiety was overtaken with the creativity and curiosity. I finally converted SJMSOM!