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Hi Simrat, please give our readers a brief about your profile.
Graduated as a production and industrial engineer from DTU in 2018, I joined Deloitte as BTA in the Consulting vertical and SAP domain where I worked majorly in SAP S4 HANA technology. During the under-grad, I had formed a personality development society and went ahead to organize the first-ever literature festival. I had also been part of the cultural fest as the hospitality head as well as the technical fest as the president of the society of manufacturing engineers. At Deloitte, I continued to organize floor activities and took initiatives in addition to the technical responsibilities I had as part of the projects.
How did you prepare for your interviews?
I did not have a great score in CAT’20, but I knew that I had a comparatively good profile. The consistency in academics, extra-curricular and close to 3 years of work experience in Deloitte gave me confidence that I could crack into one of the finest B-Schools in India, i.e. SPJIMR. The initial form filling for SP required me to dig into myself to get insights that could be highlighted. My friends helped during this time and provided great insights about me which I had never pondered upon before. In January’21, I got the profile-based call. I knew this was my best chance for pursuing MBA. I joined CL’s PDP program where my personalized mentor guided me step by step. We discussed my profile, my strengths and weaknesses and how to shape my answers during the interview. I attended sessions relating to economics and current affairs, which made me more aware of the ongoing in the world. Additionally, I participated in a lot of mock group interviews and connected with seniors at SP to understand their interview experiences and what to expect on D-Day.
Tell us about your interview experience.
Initially, I was not much tensed about the online interview process, but, as soon as I logged in, my laptop camera stopped responding. I panicked for a moment, but the AdCom (Admissions Committee) people calmed me. I restarted my system and was able to switch on my video. Since the WAT process had already started for others, I was put in another breakout and was given full time to complete my WAT. On completion, I was moved to the interview room. The GI-1 consisted of 2 Professors and 4 students. It started with a quick introduction for 45 seconds each after which I was asked why I wanted to pursue MBA in Information Management. This followed some basic technical questions on Big Data, Cloud Computing, Data warehousing and BlockChain. I was also questioned on work experience and what is it that I liked to do in my free time. After this, they moved to the next candidate. I was aware that they usually come back to check if we are listening to what others are saying. It did happen and, they pulled me in again and asked about what the biggest challenge for a manager could be. Overall, this round was mostly technical in nature and revolved around work experience and the area of specialization selected. GI-2 was conducted a couple of hours later the same day, and it was more of a conversation. I was completely frank in this round and put forward my points whenever asked. We discussed topics like child labour, parents forcing their dreams on children, manager dealing with teammates who spread rumours and much more. I really enjoyed the overall interview experience and the AdCom had a done a great job in conducting such a smooth online process.
What'd be your interview tips for future aspirants?
Preparation is the key to success, but interviews involve an element of luck. One should never be disheartened. My suggestion is to always grab an opportunity with both hands, use your network to get to know maximum insights of what you can expect and prepare accordingly. Once the preparation is done, your job is completed. Now, selection or not is something which is not in your hands, so don’t really worry about it.