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.