IIM Bangalore Interview Experience - 2018

26th Feb’18

CAT Percentile: 98.44

Profile:

10th: 84.67 (RBSE)

12th: 74.77(RBSE)

Graduation: 7.78- Electronics and Communication Engineering-NIT Trichy

Work Exp: 30 Months-Automobile Sector

At 8:45 AM called for WAT as per panels and WAT Started at 9 AM

Time limit for WAT was 30 Mins. 10 Mins for jotting down the thoughts and 20 Mins for writing.

WAT Topic: What does the Cashless economy mean for poor in India.

(Started with what does Cashless Economy mean and wrote about the digital disruption, initiatives taken by Govt. and digital transaction target of GOI. Wrote about the infrastructure problem in rural areas and awareness about the digital transaction of the people. Mentioned about the DBT Scheme and how DBT is helping the rural area people to get the subsidy in their accounts and in corruption reduction. If not handled properly then the gap between Urban and Rural widen and finished with Quote of Mahatma Gandhi “ Poverty is the worst form of violence”.)

Interview Process:

I was in 1st panel and 2nd in this panel. 3 Panelists let's Call them P1(Alumni), P2(Senior Professor), P3(Young Professor).

P1 called my name and I entered the room.

P2: Sit down, please.

Me: Thank You, Sir.

P2: So, Ramraj you are from Kota.

Me: No Sir, I am from Bundi.

P2: Where is it?

Me. Sir its nearby to Kota.

P2: So you are a product of Kota.

Me: Yes Sir, I went there for my entrance exam preparation and my AIEEE rank was---.

P2: Why Kota is in news nowadays?

Me: (totally unexpected question). Sir, in Kota student suicides, are increasing.

P3: What else in Kota?

Me: Sir, Kota is also famous for Kota Doria (Lightweight sarees) and for Kota Stone.

P2: Do you know the recent statement of HRD Minister?

Me: Yes Sir, He proposed to reduce the syllabus of CBSE schools by half and recently he also announced to give the two opportunities to clear the board exams. One in March and other one in June. If students fail in both the exam, then Student will be detained in the class.

P2: Do you read any newspaper?

Me: No Sir, but I liked few newspaper pages on Facebook like The Hindu, Times of India, Live Mint and read news from there.(interrupted)

P2: But I do not get any news from Facebook.

Me: Sir, these newspapers post the links on their pages.

P2: Do they post all the news links?

Me: No Sir, they do post only the recent happenings, hot topics.

P3: Why do they post the links?

Me. Sir, to get the more views on their websites.

Now P3 came back to the Mr. Prakash Javadekar’s statement.

P3: How they are going to reduce the syllables? He said, “They will count the pages and tear the half pages apart”.

*All shared a light laugh.*

Me: No Sir, probably they will reduce the unnecessary subjects.

*Interrupted by P2.*

P2: What did you study in 12th Physics?

Me. Sir, I studied Modern Physics, Thermodynamics, gravitational motions and others.

P3: What did you study in Thermodynamics?

Me. Sir about the heat transfer and law of thermodynamics.

P3: What is the first law of thermodynamics?

Me: Sir, I do not know.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: So you do not know what you studied in thermodynamics. That means Thermodynamics is unnecessary subject and they should remove the thermodynamics.

Me: No Sir.

*Interrupted by P2*

P2: There is three Newton’s law of motion. Therefore, they should teach only one instead of all three. Hence, they will reduce the syllables by half. * All shared a light laugh one again*.

Me: No sir, basic subjects will be there.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: how will they reduce the syllables?

Me: Sir, Probably they will offer some options subjects to the students. Like in my case, we have studied the three language subjects Hindi, English Sanskrit.

*Interrupted by P2*

P2: Which language is not important among these?

Me: Sir, I think all the languages are equally important. But they will make one of them as an optional subject and will offer some other subjects. So Student can choose among these and other subjects. They may introduce the sports-related subjects for overall development.

P2: By reducing the syllables, they will make the student more dumb.

Me: No sir, I think education is not all about what you study. It is about the overall development of students like in my case----.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: Let’s not go there, What do you think is the reason behind the Student suicides?

Me. Sir, Due to the intense competition and peer and performance pressure, Students are not able to handle the pressure at the young age of 14-15.

P3: In every city of the country, coaching’s are there, but why suicides happen in Kota?

Me: Sir at Kota students are not able to connect with their families properly.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: They can contact via Skype, Mobile, and other mediums.

Me: Yes Sir, They Can. However, here the problem is the emotional support of the family. They study at Kota and their family live somewhere else. Therefore, the Emotional Support and Emotional Touch of the family is not there in Kota. This is not the situation in most other cities. I think this is the probably the biggest reason for students suicides in Kota.

P3: So you did this Supplier Improvement project. Tell us about it.

Me: Explained about the project in details.

P3: What was your contribution in this?

Me. Explained.

P3: Why do you want to improve these suppliers? When you can move to the new suppliers.

Me: Explained the about the risk and cost required for developing the new suppliers and our relations with the suppliers.

P3: Now I have one more question. Why did you tolerate these suppliers so long? When you can move to the new suppliers.

Me: Sir they were not supplying poor quality products since so lone. However, due to the changes in their process, workforce and tools wear out. They supplied us the poor quality products. Based on their performance we have chosen these suppliers for improvement.

P3: Which parts do they supply?

Me: They supply us various parts like Headlamps, Combi Switch, Antenna and others.

P2: Is headlamp an important part?

Me: Yes Sir, It is.

P2: Is it an aesthetic part?

Me: Yes Sir.

P2: Is it important or aesthetic part?

Me: Sir, It is an aesthetically important part.

P1: “Nowadays we are having many aesthetically important parts”.

*All shared a light laugh once again*.

Me: Smiling, Sir in Headlamp we have Lens and a Bezel and if any a minor scratch is there on these parts, then that will be visible to customers and they would say it’s a poor product and probably they won’t buy it. And Sir, whatever is not appropriate for the customers, that is not appropriate for us. We have to respect the customer’s choice and have to manufacture the products.

P2: Asked about the designations.

Me: Explained the restructuring exercise at the company.

P2: Tell us about your work, what do you do?

Me: Explained the well-rehearsed answer.

P2: Asked the question regarding the cost reduction project.

Me: Explained in details (and P1 asked the questions related to it).

P3: Ramraj, if your company MD comes to you and ask you to choose any department, which one you will choose.

Me. Thinking…

*Interrupted by P2*

P2: You know all the departments in your company.

Me. Yes Sir, I do. For progression purpose, I will choose the Program Management. Because in this we have to coordinate with various other departments like Marketing, Production, Development…

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: Ramraj, not for progression, which one you choose.

Me: Sir, including my current department?

P3: Yes.

Me. Sir, I will choose my existing department only.

P2: Are you sure?

Me: Yes Sir.

P2: Tell us about your marketing project.

Me: Explained the projects.

P2: Is it your regular job?

Me: No sir and then explained the background of the project.

*Then comes the universal question*

P3: Do you think Tata Nano is a poor product?

Me: No Sir. Tata Nano is the best product at the price we offered in the market and we create a new market segment “Micro Car” with the Tata Nano.

P2: Is it a successful product?

Me: Explained my views on it.

P3: What are the reasons behind its failure?

Me: Explained my views on it.

P3: No Ramraj, Nano offered to those persons who were moving from Two-Wheelers to Four Wheelers, not for the BMW Owners.

Me: Yes Sir, but in that customer segment Car is a status symbol and they usually relates the cheap products with the poor quality products.

P3: I do not agree with you, do you have any data to prove your point?

Me: No Sir, I do not have data, but after few months, Tata Motors changed the marketing campaign of Tata Nano, so we can say that the initial campaign was not appropriate.

P3: can you tell us about any other marketing campaign?

Me: Yes Sir, “Pulse Polio Abhiyan” by Amitabh Bachchan.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: You mean Pulse Polio is a poor product.

Me: No Sir, by changing the marketing strategy, they were able to turn around the entire campaign.

P3: How did they turn around?

Me: Sir they used the Angry Young Man image of Amitabh Bachchan during 1990’s and 2000’s.

*Interrupted by P3*

P3: But He was famous by that name in 1970’s. Now he is known as --------

*All shared a light laugh one again*

Me: Yes Sir, but this is the image associated with the Amitabh Bachchan and we still know him by this name.

P1: How can you use the IoT to improve the Quality of Parts?

Me: Thinking……….

P1: Do you know IoT?

Me: Yes Sir, I do. IoT is Internet of things.

*Interrupted by P1*

P1: Tell us, how can you use it to improve the Quality of Parts in the manufacturing process?

Take a minute and tell us.

Me: Sir, I do not know how to use it to improve the Quality of Parts, but it can be used in predictive maintenance and explained about it. And we can use IoT to digitalize the maintenance documents.

P1: I got your point regarding the predictive maintenance, but for quality.

Sir, I do not know about it.

All three looked towards each other and

P2: P1: Ok Ramraj, We are done. Thank You.

Me(Smiling): Thank You Sir and left the room.

And that was it. NO TOFFEES, NO COOKIES.