Name
Siddhant Mohanty
Total time spent on answering the questions
8 hours
How would you rate your answers on a scale of 1 to 5? (1 being worst and 5 being best)
4
Comments (the challenges you faced while doing this, and help you may need to improve your answers)
Time constraints,
One buddy session with seniors would have helped a lot.
Answering Guidelines
1. Answers to each question must be a minimum of 100 words ( approx. 1 min in speech) and a maximum of 200 words.
2. The quality of answers are paramount. Thus, the candidates are requested to reflect hard on their personal and professional experiences, and refer to sources mentioned below and elsewhere before writing here.
3. All answers must have a professional tone. Even to questions that sound personal, it is always safe to talk about professional and career aspects. Keep your personal to a maximum of 25%.
4. Proofread and use Grammarly to check for grammatical errors before submission.
5. The documents will be run through plagiarism check. Do not lift from online sources.
6. The table in the first page should be filled by all candidates.
Personal Interview Reference:
1. Art of Storytelling for Interviews (Video) ; must watch to know the difference between assertion and deduction in interviews
2. Interview Strategy from HBS (video)
3. How to win job interviews (Eric Kramer)
4. Video: 5Cs of being a Leader, Indra Nooyi
Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
Reference video: Interview Skills – Tell me about yourself (Video from Fisher College of Business)
My name is Margesh Patel. Before starting my mechanical engineering from SVNIT Surat, I was fortunate enough to secure 10th Rank in my SSC examination conducted by GSHSEB Gujarat and was awarded by Chief Minister during state function. Alongside maintaining academic consistency, in my final year I was fortunate enough to represent my 4000 fellow students as an elected cultural secretary. The leadership skills learned herein would give me a hand in resolving critical situations in the future. After graduation, I worked in a MSME company called Sona Pumps. Here, not only I got to learn during my first year of training but also, I got to implement some strategic changes during my second year as well. After being exposed to various management verticals whether at college level organizing or at my job, one thing that caught my eye was Data and analysis of the same.
Q2. Do a SWOT Analysis of yourself. Mention at least 3 points each for strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.
(Hint: Keep the strengths and weaknesses at least 75% related to professional/academic/career-related. Do not get into your personal side.)
Strengths: Team work, Persuasion, negotiations skills & diplomacy skills, perseverance
Weaknesses: Communication, Attempting to please everyone, Difficulty in saying no
Opportunities: IIM tag, learn from diverse diverse group of peers, more industry exposure being at Rohtak
Threat: Compete with my fellow peers, compete with other IIMs’ students, constantly evolving job market
Q3. State one instance associated with each of your strengths.
My strength is that I am a team player. For example, during my tenure as a Cultural Secretary in NIT Surat, I was fortunate enough to lead a team of my 100 fellow students to organize various events throughout the year.
As a class representative, I have to persuade and negotiate with my peers on a daily basis.
When I started, I found the subject named FRA very difficult. Although, I kept on going and right now I have a pretty good grip on that subject.
Q4. State how you plan to work on each of your weaknesses.
Reference video: What is your greatest weakness?
I speak in front of a mirror daily about the random topic for at least 5 minutes, which gives me an enormous confidence boost.
Attempting to please everyone is my weakness. I have to admit that sometimes this habit procrastinates my immediate goals to get instant gratification, but through yoga, I am trying to overcome this.
I try to prioritize my work and work on it chronologically.
Q5. Could you define your professional mission? What are your short term (3-5 years) and long term goals (10-15 years)?
My short-term goal is to increase my skills and experience handling various corporate situations. Moreover, I want to become junior consultant/associate consultant at a consulting firm. Through MBA I would like to learn how to analyze data to serve the customer better, to improve decision making, to enhance the corporate strategy making skills, which will give me a definitive edge in the corporate world post MBA.
Q6. Give an instance when you stepped in, took charge, mustered support & influenced the outcome of a project by taking on a leadership role. (Use the STAR technique)
Reference video: How to answer Behavior Based Interview Questions (Fisher College of Business; they explain the STAR framework)
The Student's council was selected by faculty rather than elected by students. During my 3rd year, I, along with my fellow students, managed to present our case and convince our college management and Board of Governors to conduct peaceful elections in our college.
As a cultural secretary, I was able to persuade our faculty to combine 2 separate festivals together into one Techno-Cultural festival to maximize our academic calendar.
During my job at Sona Pumps, I was able to implement some strategic changes which included foraying into government sector and diversification of our production line.
Q7. What decisions have you most regretted? Why?
When I was a child, I me with an accident. I was crossing the road by running from one side to another when I came across the lady who was passing through the road. The thing I regret most about that incident is, I ran after the accident as I was frightened and ran straight to home. I didn’t look back or told anyone regarding the same on that day. I regret about that event because, I don’t know what happened to the lady and how serious that injury was. After that incident, whether or not, I am involved in the accident, I make sure that the affected parties get the help that they need.
Q8. Tell us about a situation when you faced an ethical dilemma and how you overcame it?
During my job, I was working with a company who deals with government contracting. During handling of the government tender, I was faced with an ethical dilemma of bribery. Ultimately, I contacted my supervisor and asked him to took me off that assignment.
Q9. Why Finance/Marketing/Consulting/HR/Operations/IT? (Answer according to your first preference of specialization)
As a mechanical engineer, I wanted to apply my learning to the real world. Therefore, I decided to go in an industry called “Pumping Industry” (coz it was my favorite subject.) During the 25- month period at the company, not only, I learned something, but I also got to implement some strategic changes in the company. (this was one of the reasons why I went for a MSME company, where I can get exposure of an overall company rather than a confined department with a bureaucratic system.)
Although, during that time my interest grew beyond pumps to a bigger picture. We used to have 2 biannual audit in our company, when third party consultants used to come and talk to each person on the floor. They would gather the information at the ground level and present a viable business idea to the management, which the management would agree with smoothly. I was fascinated with the way they connected the dots and the way they convicted the management to go with those ideas. I have a quite firm grip on my technical knowledge but I felt like I need to improve my business skills. These are the reasons why I would like to pursue consulting as a major at IIM Rohtak.
Q10. Describe one latest news / development / emerging trend in your field (Finance / Marketing / Consulting / HR / Operations / IT) that you’re excited about?
(E.g. For finance students, it could be an unexpected IPO. For marketing students, it could be a new campaign that is doing well. )
Merger of Bayer and Monsanto
Q11. What was your favorite course at IIM Rohtak until now? Why?
FRA – Financial reporting and analysis
ME – Managerial economics
Because both subjects provide fundamental understanding of business world.
Q12. What was your favorite case study until date? Why? What did you learn from it?
Marion boats, FRA
Q13. What are your key interests? What have you done till now to pursue them? (Describe instances)
I am also interested in finance domain. For that, I have started preparing for CFA since march.
Q14. What do you know about Arcesium? Why do you want to join us? Tell us why you’re a good fit here.
Arcesium is a hedge-fund service provider company which provides new way to for managers to scale business while maintaining control of critical non-investment activities. After I started preparing for CFA, my interest in finance domain has man folded. Arcesium is famous for its work-culture, job freedom, and growth opportunities. Joining prestigious company like Arcesium will definitely a stepping stone in my career trajectory. I will be bringing an analytical perspective of an engineer which ensures that not only I can sustain a rigor of a company, but also I can even learn topics which are tiresome in nature but useful to get the job done.
Q15. What do you know about IVP? Why do you want to join us? Tell us why you’re a good fit here.
IVP was founded in 2000 and it has a client base consisting of the most successful
hedge funds and private equity firms in the world. world. It designs and builds technology that is reshaping the operating model of the global asset management industry. 33% of global AUMs (Asset under management) for hedge funds run across IVP’s product suite. After I started preparing for CFA, my interest in finance domain has man folded. IVP is famous for its work-culture, job freedom, and growth opportunities. Joining prestigious company like IVP will definitely a stepping stone in my career trajectory. I will be bringing an analytical perspective of an engineer which ensures that not only I can sustain a rigor of a company, but also I can even learn topics which are tiresome in nature but useful to get the job done.