Interview Experience With SJMSOM, IIT Bombay - Udit Gaur

I was a GEM mechanical engineering fresher with a CAT percentile of 99.38 (VARC 98.53, DILR 98.75 and QUANT 97.35). I received calls from NITIE, IIM Shillong, CAP calls and SJMSOM IIT Bombay. So practically SJMSOM was the best call that I had and I put my all into preparing for it. Among all these calls, SJMSOM interview experience was the most unique and closest to the original offline experience that people had before the pandemic. The admissions committee arranged the interviews on a platform called ‘gather’ which simulated an interview center online. All the participants were supposed to choose an avatar and that avatar marked our position in the virtual interview center. There were helpdesks, auditorium, lobby and everything that you can think of in an interview center simulated online. In the auditorium we were seated in groups of nearly 10 people along with a mentor. All the participants in that group interacted with each other and that really helped in reducing the anxiety and fear before the interview. After the document verification (which in itself was a short and smooth process) we were headed to the interview rooms. My chance came and I entered the meeting. It was a panel of 3- 2 professors and an alumnus. They had their videos off so I don’t really remember if that part was right or not. The questions started with my introduction. I was asked about my experiences in graduation and my final year project. Being a fresher, I was also asked about basic mechanical engineering questions like regarding thermodynamics and strength of materials followed by questions about hardness testing. The point that I think was the turning point of the interview was when the professor probed me with the physics of football. He asked me about the swing that is generated in the ball due to magnus effect and kept on grilling me on the same until I couldn’t answer. I thought that I had ruined my interview but eventually got admission in the institute.