Summers Preparation At SJMSOM

There’s no denying the fact that the majority of the students in India pursue an MBA for one specific reason – a hefty package at the end of two years. You may give a variety of reasons during the interview, that includes passion, change of job profile, entrepreneurship, etc. But the underlying truth behind every MBA aspirant remains the same (with some exceptions, of course).

After going through the grind of interviews for every college, their cutoffs, selection criteria, etc., you finally make it to the one that best suits you. But before you make yourself at home, in no time realization hits you that more than the final placement, it is the summer placements that will shape your career. And how much time do we have before they arrive? Well, 60 - 65 days at the maximum. Add to it the exemplary profiles of your peers at an institute like SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and now you have a mountain to climb!

Well, it is a pressure situation but again it’s not impossible. Planned and sincere efforts coupled with proper guidance are enough to sail you through one of the most difficult phases of MBA life. The preparation for summer placements can be broadly divided into three major components – CV, Group Discussions and Interviews.

Arguably, the most important component of Summers is the CV - the main reason being that it is your first impression on your dream company without them having any kind of interaction with you. The contents that you insert in that one page define you, your past achievements, your interests, your capabilities, and your value. In addition, the majority of the companies use CV as the initial shortlisting criteria and it is also instrumental in your chances of selection if you reach the interview stages (will be discussed later). It is thus important to put your best foot forward when it comes to the preparation of the CV. Every single achievement post 10th grade can be included in the CV and it requires a considerable amount of brainstorming and revisiting your past to make sure you do not miss out on any work-related, academic or extra-curricular achievement. The framing of each line on the CV needs to be done carefully (very important), needs to get moderated by your seniors and peers and finally, you should have proof for each ‘word’ that you mention on your CV. This might seem very easy, but believe me, getting your CV right takes a lot of time and it is better if you start with it as soon as you can, even before you join the institute.

Group Discussions are the next step in our preparation. It is important to be good enough in GDs simply because they are elimination rounds! You screwing up in a GD implies you saying goodbye to the company. Every company that visits SJMSOM has its preferred type of GD – some go with abstract types, some with factual and some of them resort to case-based Group Discussions. Abstract GDs require you to think on your feet and more importantly knowledge from a variety of perspectives. The PESTEL framework (Google it!) is very useful in such GDs. Being above average in factual group discussions needs you to be well-read and aware of the current affairs. Reading Business newspapers, blogs and articles is a safe way to approach in this case. Case-based GDs are generally a part of the problem that a specific company is seeking solutions to. Hence, in addition to theoretical knowledge and its practical applications in various domains (operations, marketing, finance), having an idea of the current situation of the specific company helps a lot. Mock GDs with your peers is the best way to prepare as it helps you to understand them and also gain vital inputs about your performances. Three GDs for 8 – 10 mins each in a group of 10 people every day is sufficient if done sincerely. Make sure you give and take individual feedbacks after the completion and also, keep changing the group of people you do the GD with every day.

The final frontier of our preparation is the interviews. They can further be segregated into three types – CV based, VAQs and Technical. As mentioned earlier, CV is important in various capacities during your selection. The interviewers invariably start with questions on the content mentioned in the CV. They may pick anything from the CV – achievements, work experience or even hobbies (depending on their mood) and start digging deep into it by cross-questioning. It is, thus, of utmost importance to avoid faking anything in the CV or even during the interview. You should have answers ready for every line mentioned on the CV and the follow-up questions that may come thereafter. It is called going more and more levels deep into it. VAQs (Value Added Questions) are the non-technical questions that test your personality, experiences and to an extent your character. There is no limit to what could be asked as a VAQ – strengths, weaknesses, failures, conflicts, achievements, goals, situational questions – you name it and it’s there. Make sure you have incidents from your personal, college and professional lives ready to support each answer. The STAR approach (again, Google it!) is a must when answering these questions. Technical questions comprise a lesser proportion of the interviews during summer placements but are equally important. All the basic concepts from your preferred domains (at least the top two) need to be known going 2 - 3 levels deep. Preparation of the interviews can be started with first writing down all the answers to the basic questions, making a list of follow up questions that could be asked, their answers, extra questions based on your profile and also the incidents to support all the VAQs. Excel sheets help a lot in these. Thereafter, practicing your answers (most importantly, introduction) in front of the mirror helps in gaining the initial confidence. Once you are comfortable with that, give mock interviews to your peers as well as seniors. This gives you an outsider’s perspective and also opens up the possibilities of extra questions that you couldn’t think of. One thing that is very important is that all the answers should be ready with you but when you speak they should feel naturally coming.

Apart from the preparations, it is important to remain fit physically as well as mentally. The IIT campus helps a lot in this case to the students of SJMSOM. An 8-hour sleep is a luxury in MBA, but make sure you get at least 5 hours of rest every day during the summer preparations. Keep your mental state positive as a few rejections from companies tend to demotivate students. There are a lot of companies that you deserve and when your opportunity comes, you should be in a state of mind to seize it. And last but not the least, summer placements are not the end but if you give your best here, the following two years and the years after those would surely get a bit easier than others! Cheers!!