Interview Experiences4 minutes

IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience - 2021, Saksham

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Team InsideIIM
Team InsideIIM

Academics - 95/90.5/86

CAT Percentile - 99.99 %ile (IIT Kanpur, Mechanical Engineer, Fresher)

Duration: 25 minutes


AWT: Pursuing further studies abroad immediately after graduation or after working and financing yourself.


Interview Experience

2 Panelists - P1 & P2

P1: Where are you from?

Me: Answered and then had a bit of discussion about college re-opening.

P1: Asked me if I sat for placement and which companies?

Me: Answered that I sat for all roles associated with the business domain as a backup if I didn't get into a B-school so that the work experience would be useful.

P1: Asked me the company profile and what it does?

Me: Answered that I was recruited as an associate consultant at praxis which is a management consulting firm.

P1: Asked me the VP of the company, their clients, and the offices

Me: Couldn't answer but told him that they majorly dealt in financial services and about the 3 offices in India.

P1: You know nothing about business and finance, I don't get why the companies hire people like you. ( I smiled ) Then asked if and how I follow news and if I had any specific interests such as politics, economy, sports.

Me: Answered that I read news on online platforms and I am slightly inclined towards sports.

P1:  Which sports?

Me: Cricket and chess.

P1: Asked me names of various deliveries wrt to the length of the ball.

Me: Answered Full toss, Yorker, full length, good length, and short length.

P1 seemed happy and said well. Handed over to P2.

P2: Have you heard of the gender wage gap.

Me: Explained.

P2: Asked why it existed.

Me: Told it was going on for a long time and fewer job opportunities for women meant they agreed to work at lower wages.

P2: Asked is there even data to back that the gap exists.

Me: Answered that there must be statistical data on wages for similar positions otherwise it would not be discussed so extensively.

P2: Asked why reservation for girls was introduced in IITs

Me: Answered on the lines of a very low number of girls getting great ranks in JEE which reflected the lack of means and opportunities for them.

P2: Is it good?

Answered that since there are additional seats, it will bring a positive change in helping girls to get a good education.

P2: If the seats weren't additional then?

Me: Answered that then it would be taking away opportunities from deserving people and we need to give more opportunities but not at the sake of deserving candidates.

Had a bit of discussion where he said I was contradicting myself tried to explain wasn't convinced.

P2: Since you have an interest in consulting (never said anything remotely like this), let's do a few cases. Car company manufactures 4 cars and they have different sales volumes and mileage, what would be the average mileage of the company.

Me: Answered weighted average.

P2: wrong answer

Silence for 30 seconds 

P2: Said let's take White hat junior as a consultant, would you recommend banning the company.

Me: Answered that they targeted 4/5/6-year-olds who weren't in the position to make choices and so they have targetted parents and a ban wasn't needed but need to regulate the claims made by them.

P2: I am disappointed, I expected you to do a study.

Me: Tried defending that I felt that a study on such young children wasn't feasible. Wasn't convinced again.

P1: Asked me if I travel frequently.

Me: Answered that I don't travel frequently but had recently visited Rajasthan.

P1: How would you compare 2 cities like Jaipur and Udaipur

Me: (Clarified if he was asking as a tourist or resident he said the tourist.)Answered on the lines of connectivity to the cities, the number of places to visit, ease and cost of transportation, and other expenses.

P1: (not convinced at all) Asked if parameters would change if I was comparing Jaipur and Ajmer.

Me: Answered that no I would still use the same parameters.

P1: We are done, nice talking to you. Please take a toffee.

Exchanged pleasantries and ran for my life.

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IIM Ahmedabad Past Years Personal Interview (WAT-PI) Experiences