Past-interviews.pdf

Interview Preparation

Past Interview Experiences innovation

eBook04

Table of Contents S No

College/Institute

1.

 Indian Inst. of Foreign Trade, Delhi

2.

 Indian Institute of Management, Shillong (2017-18)

3.

Indian Institute of Management, Indore (201718) Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (2017 - 18) Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (2017 - 18) Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (2017 - 18) Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (2017 - 18) Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (2017 - 18) New IIMs- Common Admission Process (CAP) (2017 - 18) International Management Institute, Delhi (2017 - 18)

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11. 12.

Institute of Management and Technology Ghaziabad (2017 -18) K.J. Somaiya Inst. of Mgmt. Studies & Research (2017 - 18)

13.

Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai (2017 - 18)

14.

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (2017 - 18) Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal (2017 - 18) Inst. for Financial Mgmt. & Research, Chennai (2017 – 18) Institute of Rural Management Anand (2017 18) National Institute of Industrial Engineering (2017 - 18) Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (2017-18) Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Pune (201718) SIBM, Bangalore(2017-18)

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

21. 22.

Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Pune (2017-18) 1

26.

Symbosis Institute of Operations Management(2017-18) Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (2017-18) S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai (2017-18) T. A. Pai Management Institute (2017-18)

27.

Tata Inst. of Social Sciences (2017-18)

28.

Xavier Inst. of Mgmt., Bhubaneswar (2017-18)

29.

Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur (2017-18) Birla Institute of Management Technology (2017 - 18) Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi (2017 18)

23. 24. 25.

30. 31. 32. 33.

Goa Institute of Management, Goa (2017 - 18) Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai (2017 - 18)

2

 Indian Inst. of Foreign Trade, Delhi (2017-18) Personal Interview: Average Duration: 5-25 minutes No. of Panelists: 3 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Working as a senior analyst in Capegemini What's your role in your workplace? What is the connection between data analytics and foreign trade? Tell me about descriptive, prescriptive and predictive analysis. Did you predict anything for Valentine's Day? Why don't you go into politics? From which other Bschools have you received calls? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech (Mechanical) So what do you think we are going to ask you? Why didn’t you opt for a job after your graduation in 2017? Why should a fresher go for an MBA without any work experience? Why should we choose you over someone with work experience who is obviously going to contribute more in class? What exactly FMCG means? Name five famous FMCG in India. Are Nestle and 3

Cadbury different? How does marketing help an FMCG? What is the difference between a conductor and semiconductor? What is this p and n region you are talking about? Can you draw their diagrams? Explain semiconductor in layman terms. How is data transmitted exactly? What is the difference between current and charge? Do you know about total internal reflection? You didn’t convert IIF call last year. What happened? Did you get any coaching for CAT? What other calls have you got? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (Electronics) with work experience Why do you want to pursue MBA? Do you have work experience? Why are you leaving a good firm? How will you link your start-up thoughts to your Electronics stream? Will you do the job after MBA or start your own start-up? Tell us about some global events that have the major impact on the business world and International trade?

4

 Indian Institute of Management, Shillong (201718) Personal Interview Average Duration: 20-25minutes No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.Com, working as a freelance content writer Have you completed your studies? What do you do? Do you read? Why only little bit? How would you survive MBA if you can’t read? What if we give you a 60 page case study? Are you into literature? Do you like History or Geography? Explain the Padmavat Issue? Who is the protagonist in the issue? Name the kings related to the story? Who is Prithvi Raj Chauhan? Is he related to Padmavat? Where does Godavari River flow? Explain Malidives issue. What is Supply Chain Management? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Com So you mentioned Crocheting as your hobby. I am curious where you learned it from? What is your opinion 5

about teaching this thing to young kids? Is India a peninsula? What is a peninsula? Which is the southernmost point of India? Where are you from? (The candidate mentioned Indore) Do you know the history of Indore? How did Holkars come to power? Are Rajasthanis the majority population in Indore? What is Indore famous for? You read too? What genre do you read? What sort? Noddy or Harry Potter? Which book is your favorite? So you know about Greek mythology. Who was Zeus? Who is Zeus's Roman counterpart? What is Mercury's relation with Zeus? Are they related at all? What is the difference between Cost Accounting and Management Accounting? Have you studied ratio analysis? What is Inventory turnover ratio? What is Interest coverage Ratio? Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Tech (CSE) Tell us something about yourself. Why do you want to pursue MBA? What are the learnings which you can get from Dramatics in real life? (The candidate had done a course in dramatics) Tell me something about any current affair related to Bhutan? How have you worked with Artificial Neural Networks? How do you tune the parameters related to it? Explain the areas where 6

Artificial Intelligence can be used. How do you know that an ANN has trained on the model? What is the meaning of training a model? What is Normalization? What are different Normal Forms? What purpose does it serve? Does normalization help in storage or query retrieval? Explain Rollback in terms of a Paytm Transaction.

7

 Indian Institute of Management, Indore (201718) Personal Interview Average Duration: 10-30 minutes No. of Panelists: 3

Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Tech (Aeronautical) Tell me something you have not mentioned in your CV. What are your extracurriculars? Tell in detail. What is current account deficit? What is the current economic scenario? What is dollar imbalance? How does change in America’s interest rates affect Indian economy? Where do you see yourself, five years from now? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B.Com, working as a freelance content writer Introduce yourself? Why content writing, why are you not using your commerce degree? (The panelist gave a water bottle) How would you determine its break-even point? What is black hat in digital marketing? What is betterGoogle AdWords or social media marketing? What is amortization? How is the period for amortization 8

determined? How many times Amrinder Singh has been the chief minister of Punjab? In which script is Punjabi written? Tell me the scripts of other Indian Languages. Extempore: You are given a time of 30 seconds, express your views on: Is social media a boon or bane? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Working in Fidelity investments in Bangalore What is special about Bangalore? Why is the Bellandur Lake frothing and foaming? Which is the key element because of which foam formation is happening? What is your role in the organization? What technology do you use at work? How does a microwave work? What are your hobbies? Excerpts from Interview 4 Candidate Profile: Economics graduate Tell us about yourself. (The candidate mentioned he was also pursuing actuarial science) You are doing actuarial science then why MBA?

9

Extempore- You are given a time of 30 seconds, speak about: how Indian economy could collapse in next 5 years? You said real interest rates, what are they? Private investment demand is a function of? Why private investment reacts to the interest rates? If private investment is increased by 1 billion $ then GDP will rise by greater than it, lower than or equal to it? And why? Multiplier is a function of? Do you know about civics or geography? Who are Parsees, where did they come from? Name any Parsee personality. Where do Jews live in India? What is the holy book of Sikhs and how many gurus were there and who was the last guru? Any question for us?

10

 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 20-35 minutes No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.Tech (Mechanical) with work Experience of 8 months in ITC Ltd So, you are a mechanical engineer and you are working in ITC? So you promote cigarette sticks which cause cancer? What value do you provide? So you are saying that doctors should recommend cigarettes to people who are suffering from constipation? You have made your point. You have defended your company. Now tell me do you think ITC is an ethical company? Are businesses ethical? So you are saying that the money which was paid to the Government of India for the furtherance of the arms deal was ethical? What is legality and ethics? Can you tell me something which is legal yet 11

unethical? (The candidate mentioned about case of a dam set up on river Narmada) Who made this dam? Where is this dam situated? Where is the river Narmada? Please draw it on the map. Is it in Himachal Pradesh? The candidate drew a large circle around Gujarat and to its right.) So it is in Rajasthan? Okay you have mentioned in your SOP that you have also mentioned that production always prefers a buffer of excess inventory. What does this statement mean? Why do they prefer long running jobs? Why do they want to reduce changeovers? What are the costs involved? What other costs are there? What about labour cost? Let us talk about other industries and not the manufacturing industry. Do you think there are changeover costs associated with other industries? What about software industry? What if we finish that program properly and now move onto another program? But don’t you think that there would be training costs involved? Tell me difference between operation of external and internal combustion engine. Tell me about 12

the laws of thermodynamics. What do you do during your free time? (The candidate mentioned about playing football.) Who is the captain of the Indian Football Team? India is a country where there is a lot of income inequality. What can be done to solve that problem? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech (Engineering Physics) You are from Jhansi, you studied in Guwahati but I’m seeing you here in Delhi. Why not Calcutta? So tell me about all that you’ve done in the past 4 years in IIT Guwahati? Have you taken any prior coaching or professional training for this interview? Whenever I talk to you IIT guys, you all are like, “Sir I didn’t study much”. Why? What’s the problem? Why, what happened after 2 years? What realization? Did you somehow sleep one night and woke up next morning metamorphosed to just score high grades? So what all did you study in Physics? What does Cosmology mean? I want to know something 13

from the subject that would seem intriguing to people if I tell them. What is it? What is Spacetime? Why are you considering time as a fourth coordinate? What is the significance of this coordinate? (Some more specific questions on the same topic) Do you have any hobbies? Any extra-curricular you participated in? (The candidate mentioned writing as his hobby) So do you maintain a diary? When did you start writing? So this is an outlet in a way? How has all this helped to transform you as a person? What’s the difference between empathy and compassion? (Some more questions on the same topic) Can you tell me something about river Brahmaputra? Is it called Brahmaputra in China as well? And what is it called

in Bangladesh? Sounds like Yamuna? Is it

Yamuna? Where does it originate from in China? Give me the exact name. So any issue on the river you might know about? What can we do to stop it? What can Assam government do? And what can the central government do? What else would you do? How will you divert the 14

water? Are you trying to pull off a Narmada canal here? (Some more specific questions on the same topic) Where do you see yourself in 10 years? (The candidate mentioned teaching) Why? So who is nobler, a Teacher or a Doctor? (The candidate’ mother works in education department and his father is a doctor) Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Com (Hons.) Introduce yourself. How has B Com (H) given you a holistic view? (Some specific questions on marketing) So, you mentioned that your maternal uncle is a retailer and faces competition, what kind of a market does he operate in, in context of economics? Would you like to change this answer? So, Kirori Mal College didn’t teach you about monopolistic competition? Then, how did you attract more customers? Didn’t you offer discounts? Do you read newspaper? Or are you just interested in the soft news about marketing and sales offers? Have you read that the method of calculating national income in 15

India has changed recently? Why are you ignorant about it? Does your marketing not account for the national income? Is Marketing an Industry? There are 3 sectors in India? So, where does your marketing fall? How is national income calculated in India? Explain the product method. What is GVA? How to go from GVA to National Income? How is FC calculated in the primary sector? Are you trying to tell me the budget?

16

 Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 20-30 minutes No. of Panelists: 3 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate profile: B. Tech (Mechanical) with work experience in ITC Ltd. You have studied in Mechanical engineering and you are working in ITC selling cancer sticks? So, ultimately you supply packaging to the cigarette market? Don’t you think this is wrong or unethical? What choice does a passive smoker have? So after choice it becomes an addiction. People become addicted to smoking and then where is the choice? Do you know about e-cigarettes? Are they less harmful? Say we stop the cigarette market altogether, what would happen to the revenue? How do you find your current job now? You have learnt so much. Then why do you want to do MBA now? You have worked 17

only for 7 months. Why not continue at ITC? Tell me the current share price of ITC. (The interviewer handed a paper to the candidate). Please draw here how the share price varied over the past 1 year. When was GST implemented? You have shown that the price increased after that. Why did it increase? How have the share prices been affected over the past 1 week? Tell us about VIT. How was life there? (The candidate mentioned about playing football) So you were a player as well as a manager?

So

you

mentioned

that

you

have

a

multicultural team. How did you manage? Did they know English? Why 4-1- 2-3? What is the role of the 1 here? So did you have Chinese people in VIT? How are they? I mean how are they at academics? But the Chinese claim that they have premier universities. Why would they come over to study in India? So there were no Chinese members in your football team? Oh, but they are proficient coders. Are they not? Okay, coming back to ITC. Tell me what you have you learnt there? Tell me one 18

instance when you dealt with something and you learnt and gained a lot from that experience. So it turned out okay in the end? But don’t you have a boss who supervises all this? Considering the volumes at stake? Okay, so the orders you place. Do you have any price agreements in place? How is the gross contribution? What goes into the variable cost? How do you deal with imports? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate profile: B. Tech (ECE) with work experience in automobile sector So, you are from Kota? Where is it? Why is Kota in news nowadays? What else in Kota? Do you know the recent statement of HRD Minister? Do you read any newspaper? Do they post all the news links? Why do they post the links? How they are going to reduce the syllables? What did you study in 12th Physics? What did you study in Thermodynamics?

What

is

the

first

law

of

thermodynamics? How will they reduce the syllabus? 19

Which language is not important among these? What do you think is the reason behind student suicides? In every city of the country, coaching centers are there, but why do suicides happen in Kota? So you did this Supplier Improvement project. Tell us about it. What was your contribution in this? Why do you want to improve these suppliers? Why did you tolerate these suppliers so long? When can you move to the new suppliers? Which parts do they supply? Is headlamp an important part? Is it an aesthetic part? Tell us about your work, what do you do? If your company MD comes to you and asks you to choose any department, which one you will choose? Are you sure? Tell us about your marketing project. Is it your regular job? Do you think Tata Nano is a poor product? Is it a successful product? What are the reasons behind its failure? Can you tell us about any other marketing campaign? How did they turn around? How can you use the IoT to improve the Quality of Parts? Do you know IoT?

20

Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate profile: Fresher, B. Tech (Mechanical) So you are currently in your final semester. Why didn’t you go anywhere outside to study? What was your rank in JEE Mains then? So what were the other options available? What is the difference between rankings of these institutions? Then why not go for civil in Nagpur or Surat? Don’t you think the difference in rankings is significant? Tell us about your internship at Ford. Have you got a placement in college? Then why not join the company? Don’t you feel work experience is required? So, after undergoing mechanical from NIT, doing internships at Ford, BHEL and SAIL, having a job offer in hand, why do you feel the need for pursuing management education? Which fields of management are you interested in? Why is that so? Why only finance? You said that you are interested in calculations. Without using pen and paper, calculate how many tennis balls can be filled up in an aero plane? You are free to take assumptions. 21

So, why would you fill up an aero plane with tennis balls? How will you make a kid understand how big an aircraft is? Don’t you think it would be better to make him or her imagine the size of aero plane by gestures rather than telling these calculations? So, you have interest in music and I can see that you have done diploma in Tabla with a merit position. Then why not make a career in Tabla?

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 Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (2017 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 30 minutes No. of Panelists: 3 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (Mechanical) with work experience at L&T Do you work with L&T currently? Why did you leave your job? What are your goals? (The candidate mentioned operations analyst/consultant?)What do you mean by operations analyst/consultant? Can’t you get the same in your company? What if you don’t get admission? (The candidate replied he will apply abroad for fall season) Study outside is costly. Can you afford it? Which courses are you looking for? So what is the plan here, 5 years down the line? What are types of gears? Why are they used? What did you do in seminar presentation? Explain what you did? What is 3D printing? What are its types 23

and ISO? Explain 3D printing and how it works? Does L&T use 3D printing? Okay, not your division, then the group as whole, any subsidiary? So, you like movies that teach something about life, tell me one. Did you follow quora and pagalguy for interviews? Any question for us? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Com (Hons.) What’s your rank in college? So, you have studied accountancy, right? I’ll give you a situation. Let us say, you’re a dairy farmer and you have 50 cows. One of your cows gives birth to a calf. How would you account for it in the books of accounts? How would it appreciate the value of your fixed assets? Can you give me the journal entry for the birth of the calf? So, who was Kirori Mal? (The candidate graduated from the college of the same name) What is an Indifference Curve? (The interviewer hands over a paper, which had two ICs drawn, intersecting each other with 3 points on them, labeled as A, B and C) Can you rank these points in the order of 24

preference for a rational consumer? What is a Giffen good? How is the shape of its demand curve? Any example? What is the substitution effect? You’ve done a module in financial markets, tell me what is SENSEX? How does it act as a representative? What are derivatives? What can be the underlying assets? If price of the commodity doesn’t change, will price of the derivative change? Why do you think so? What is LIBOR? What is risk free rate of return? Do you know the rate prevailing in India, in terms of percentage? So, what has brought you here, why MBA? Do you read newspaper? As an accountant, how’d you highlight the problem in the Nirav Modi case? In 2–3 words? Pin-point what was missing. What is that? Explain. But, if the work of one gets checked by another, wouldn’t this go infinitely? Is there any other body to check this? And what if they also join hands in committing the fraud? Have you read the Cadbury Report on Corporate Governance? Have you read the Birla Report on Corporate Governance? Do you 25

know what it is? Do you read? Which was the last book you read? Tell me one famous line from that book. Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (Mechanical) with work experience at BPCL Where do you work? Describe a typical day at BPCL. What do you do regularly? Can you give me an instance when you faced this kind of problem? What kind of strategies do you follow in maintaining the plant? So you mentioned a few words here- preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance and breakdown maintenance? What are they? If you were to troubleshoot an equipment, what would you exactly do? So what is this called? Have you heard of the fishbone diagram? So you've been working here for about 19 months. Have you faced any audits? What is the role of maintenance in an audit? But that is a safety audit- Do you know anything about ISO accreditations? What ISO accreditations does your company have? So how long have you worked with the 26

technicians whom you work with? What is the classification of these people- specifically? So how do you handle such senior people? How do you manage to make them work? Why would they listen to you? And all these are Malayalis? So tell me, what works better, formal leadership or informal leadership? Why do you want to do an MBA? Let's assume that you want to start a company. Your fixed cost is 2500000. Your variable cost per unit is Rs. 5. Tell me how you decide your pricing. Make any assumptions as necessary. What if it's a new product? So you've written here that you read a lot. Have you read any news in the last two to three days? What do you like to read? Who wrote it? Tell me something you've read recently. Or anything I can ask you questions about. What did J.K. Rowling do before she wrote Harry Potter? Where? Have you read any news in the last two to three days? (The candidate mentioned about Nirav Modi scam) So what did you learn about the scam? What should PNB do now? What corrective action 27

should it take? You mentioned shareholders. Who owns the shares of PNB? You wrote that you're interested in strategy. What do you understand by strategy? So what would your strategy be as the CEO of the company? You said there are people with a B. Tech working with you. Why would they work at a lesser position? Do you have any questions for us?

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 Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 20 minutes. No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.Tech (ECE) with work experience What other calls do you have? No calls from FMS? So why Kozhikode? What do you do in your leisure hours? (The candidate mentioned about reading books) Tell us about the last book that you have read. What is your favorite club? (The candidate had mentioned football among his interests) Why not Chelsea? How is Manchester United better than Chelsea? (The interviewer took a paper and a pen) Write on this paper that you hate Manchester United and you love Chelsea. Why? If you write it, I shall keep it with me and will guarantee you a seat in IIM K. I shall communicate with the relevant ministry if required and I promise to get you in. Are you 29

willing to give up on IIM K for the club you admire? Which company do you work in? What is your role there? What are the components found in the circuit board of a Cellphone? Name two companies that manufacture the chips of mobile phones. Give me two names for OS of mobile phones that are not very popular. When Microsoft bought Nokia, couple of employees from Nokia refused to join Microsoft and decided to start their own handsetmaking company. Name that company. (A couple of questions were asked on candidate’s family background) Any questions for us? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: CA with work experience in PwC Dubai Have you left your job already? You seem to be doing well in your job. Why MBA? So tell me, what’s NFRA? Why is ICAI Opposing it? So what would be ICAI’s representation in it ? Let’s talk about Forensics audit, as you have mentioned this in your form. Try to link it to recent PNB fraud. How is it different from normal audit. 30

Who does it? Are non-CAs involved? Can proprietorship firms get Forensics audit done? Who is the forensic auditor of Nirav Modi? Explain us about the fraud that happened with your client? (The candidate explained it on a paper) Do you know about IAS 115. In Dubai, what do they follow? Do you know about the 5 steps of revenue contract? Do you know about the goods return provision? Other than this, what else do you like doing? (The candidate mentioned about reading, writing on Quora, playing Lawn tennis and contributing to NGO) Tell me what other activities this NGO, Actionaid is into. Are they international? How did you come to know about it? You mentioned Lawn tennis. Do you play or watch? Who do you think is an emerging player worldwide? Why such marks in B. Com? Is it because of hectic internship? Was this you first CAT attempt? What other calls do you have? And what is your preference?

31

Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (CSE) with work experience in Samsung What is this Samsung watermark on your form? Does that cause any problems with security? What do you think of upcoming elections in Karnataka? Which newspaper do you read? Name the most popular English daily of Karnataka. Name some popular English papers of West Bengal. Tell us about your work experience. (The candidate works in Data Science department) What models do you use? Explain Neural Networks. What is enterprise 2.0? Explain web 2.0. So, web 2.0 and enterprise2.0 are same? What do you do in your pastime? (The candidate mentioned that his favorite author is Khaled Hosseini) What was Hosseini's last book? Do you know about current affairs? Tell me about the Hawaii incident. Who is North Korea's biggest ally? Anything else you want us to know about you?

32

 Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 15-20 minutes No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.Com (Hons.) with work experience at Bain Introduce yourself. What was your role at Bain? How can you rate a company? What is the coefficient of correlation? Is correlation an indicator of causation? Give an example of a cause when correlation is 0 but causation is 100%? What are the conditions for profit maximisation? If a train is moving 130 m long and crosses the bridge in 30 seconds at 45 km/hr find the length of the bridge? Tell us more about the work that you did? What is success according to you? Have you had breakfast?

33

Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Com What is your favorite subject? Why do you like marketing? What are the four pillars of marketing? What is the difference between traditional markets and emarket place? Why do you want to go into marketing when you have studied finance in your graduation? What all sports have you played till date? Explain your position of responsibility in college? Why has the economic survey been printed in pink this time? What are your views on the future of India? What will be the long term impact of GST and Demonetization? What has been the impact of technology on business? Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech (Electrical) What is induction motor? How does it work? What are its advantages? What is a transformer? How does it work? Name a famous scientist from Electrical Engineering? 34

How is power distributed in India? What are the woes of the distribution sector in India? What are your hobbies? Which adventure sport is your favorite? Which author do you follow? Which novel by this author have you last read? Excerpt from Interview 4 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech (Mechanical) You are from Raipur. Where exactly? Is it near Magneto mall? So is it near the Ramkrishna mission ashram? Tell us something about yourself. What is Bernoulli’s theorem? Why do people advice children to stay away from the edge of platform when a train comes? Is that an example of Bernoulli’s theorem? So you are a mechanical engineer. Which subject did you like the most? What is the difference between Indian cars and European cars, say German cars? How are security and design interlinked? I have an acquaintance in Volkswagen who told me that the central chassis is raised slightly due to security considerations. Is it so? What does your father 35

do? (The candidate mentioned that his father is a part of State power company) So is he an electrical engineer? Which school did you study in? The proprietor of the school is famous, isn’t he? Who is the captain of Chhattisgarh cricket team? Are you the only child? So your mother is a doctor. Is she M.S.? Excerpt from Interview 5 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (CSE) with work experience What does your father do in Surat? (The interviewer reads aloud my profile details from Personal data form) Why MBA when you are earning enough? How do banks determine loan size? Tell me about Computer Science point of view. Are u developer or in QA? What do you know about UI framework and Middleware used in application? What other calls do you have? Why IIM-A did not call you? Where will the other interviews be held? You want to go in ABM too. Do you have any exposure?

36

 New IIMs- Common Admission Process (CAP) (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 10-15 minutes No. of Panelists: 2-7 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience Where is IIM Kashipur? (The candidate belongs to Uttarakhand) What all technologies have you used for data analysis? What data analysis formally taught? What is CDMA? Where is Jim Corbett National Park and when was it founded? Tell me about your hobbies? Tell us five things about Sikhism? Which IIM would you want to join? (Some questions related to work experience were asked) Extempore (2 minutes) - Do you know about green marketing and climate change? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Fresher, Commerce graduate 37

What all subjects have you studied during under graduation? What are the functions of HR? Tell me about different types of interviews? How can we check the efficiency of our recruitment process? Tell me the 4 P's and 7 P's of marketing? Have you studied Taxation? (The panel gave a situation based on it and then crossquestioned) How is the president of India elected? Name the seven sisters with capital? Have you read about any major news in past six months? What is it? How will it impact firms and consumers? (Again gave a situation and cross-questioned on it). Extempore (2 minutes) - The panel asked the candidate to speak on any topic of his choice. Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Tech (Chemical) So, what have you been doing all this time? Are you placed? Why do you think Indian IT sector is facing a downturn? What do you know about Indian economic 38

slowdown? According to you, what is the main highlight of Indian budget? How do you think government is going to generate so much money for this scheme? What is a venture? What is Cp/Cv ratio? What are your hobbies? How many places have you been? So, which place do you want to visit again? Which is the government in Maharashtra? Name the Chief Minister of Maharashtra? So, which of the new IIMs is closest to your place? Which IIM would you prefer to go to? (The candidate talked about TedX) Which other new IIMs conduct Ted X? (No extempore) Excerpt from Interview 4 Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience Tell me something that makes you unique? (Questions were asked on candidate’s hobby- sketching) What is special about Mona Lisa? What are different types of paintings? What do you learn from sketching? Tell me something about your native place. Name two important 39

railway junctions of North India and South India? Tell me how CSE is relevant in robotics? What is humanoid? What creative feature will you add in your rover to Mars? Extempore (2 minutes) - Painting is nothing but a pause. Excerpt from Interview 5 Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience Tell me about yourself. Does your company support work or R&D? You have a work experience of 7 months. What have you learnt in your job? What are the advantages and disadvantages in a team? You have a work experience of less than a year. What will you do specially to fit in? Have you spoken to anyone who has done an MBA in IIM? What advice did they give you? How is it useful? Have you checked the website? What will IIMs teach? Does every IIM have same course? What other calls have you got? What is the order of your choice? and on what parameters? Doesn’t fee play a role in your choice? What is it that you mentioned under national in extracurricular 40

activities? Do you have reservation? What is fuzzy logic? What is the difference between optical fibres and copper cables? Why are they preferred? Who is the father of fuzzy logic? You are from a State University. What is the difference between State and deemed universities? What is the difference between State and Central universities? Name

some

Central

Universities.

What

are

the

advantages and disadvantages of State and Central Universities? What will u choose? and why? Write these two linear equations in matrix form.

41

 International Management Institute, Delhi (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Average Duration: 15-25 minutes No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech How are you? Is this your first interview? What other calls do you have? Tell me about yourself. What do you like and your family background? So, you are in final year of B. tech, have you got the placements? Which company? And what is your domain? How is the company? What is the number of employees in the company? So, which specialization are you planning for? (The candidate mentioned finance) What do you know about it? We want students to have work experience for MBA, so why do you want to do MBA now? You should have some experience, then it would be much beneficial. What is SEBI and what does it do? What is stock exchange? How 42

it is managed? What are IPO and FPO? What are listed and non-listed companies? Who is governor of RBI? Name the deputy governors of RBI? Who is the Vice president of India? Which newspaper do you read? (The panel asked about the capitals of some states) Your academics are good enough, what are you interested in apart from studies? (The candidate mentioned about playing cricket) Who is the captain of U-19 cricket world cup and who is the head coach of U-19? So, what do you think, what is the major factor behind this extraordinary performance of U-19 in the world cup? Who is your favorite player? (The candidate mentioned Rahul Dravid. The panel asked about some stats on Rahul Dravid career.) Extempore (2 minutes): Rahul Dravid Do you want to ask us something?

43

Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (CSE), working as freelance content writer Did you have lunch? Which soda? (The candidate mentioned Fanta) Who owns? Do you know the history of Thumps Up? What is the difference between CSE and IT? Explain bitcoin. Is it under CSE/IT/finance? What is crypto-currency? What is cryptography? What is Alexa? Name some other digital assistants. What is artificial intelligence? How is it used in home automation and other applications? Is it making people lazy? Extempore

(2

minutes):

Negative

Obsession

with

Artificial Intelligence Rate the Indian Economy on a scale of 5. Name three parameters to judge the growth of Indian Economy? What FDI Amount in India? So, why do you want to do MBA? Why did you appear for so many entrances? Why so many dynamic backups? Who is the owner of Byju's? 44

Is SRK the right person to advertise it? Is SRK a suitable actor for intellectual cinema audience? Do you know about Shyam Benegal? Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech with work experience You look very happy. Why? Introduce yourself. What did others

tell

you

about

us?

What

are

your

job

responsibilities? Why sudden decrease in marks in class 12? What are your hobbies? The candidate mentioned sketching and cycling) Do you know about world’s biggest cycle race? It was one by one cyclist but recently all awards have taken away. Do you know the reason? Which Indian player had same doping issue? Do you know about Thakrey? What is Shiv Sena’s agenda? Who is the CM of Maharashtra and Delhi? Any recent controversy related to Arvind Kejriwal? Are you from Maharashtra? So, to which State rasogulla belongs to? Have you visited Konark? Why it is famous? Who is the PM of India? 45

Extempore (2 minutes): What can Narendra Modi do to stop engineers going for MBA to support his ‘Make in India’? Which other calls do you have? Have you converted Great Lakes? Why not IMI Bhubaneswar?

46

 Institute of Management and Technology

Ghaziabad (2017 -18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Fresher, engineer So you're the last person in this panel. Tell us what are others saying outside? Why do you want to pursue MBA from IMT? What about your placements? Don't you think it's too early? At this time you should be with the company, have some work experience and then pursue MBA? (The candidate mentioned marketing). Can you tell me the 4 Ps of marketing? What is price? What is opportunity cost? What makes you go for marketing? According to you, what is marketing? Name any three personalities which you admire as businessmen? Are you aware of the space launch recently by your favorite Elon Musk? What is the exact name of the spaceship? What's it all about? 47

Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B. Tech - Electronics What is the work of NITI Aayog? Tell us something about GST impact. What is happening in South China sea? Why does Putin get selected every time in Russia? Tell us something about Maldives. (Questions based on current affairs, electronics, HR) Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher, mechanical engineer Why MBA? Why should we select you? (Questions on candidate’s achievements) What are your views on demonetization? What is your choice of specialization? Tell us the difference in construction and running characteristics of petrol and a diesel engine. Do you have any questions for us?

48

Excerpt from Interview 4 Candidate Profile: Fresher So how does it feel like to be the last candidate? Tell me one advantage and one disadvantage of being last. You seem to be coming from a really diverse field. Why MBA then? You passed out in 2015. Please tell us what you did since then. What are your short term goals? What will you do immediately after passing out from IMT? Are you aware of current affairs? What about budget and Indian politics? Okay, so tell me. Trump won the elections in USA even though Hilary Clinton was more popular. Had there been a male in place of her, he would've defeated Trump. What are your thoughts on this? And why are they so? Tell us about Trump's visa policy and how has it affected Indians? Are you sure that what you're saying is correct?

49

 K.J. Somaiya Inst. of Mgmt. Studies & Research (2017 - 18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 2 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Fresher, B. Tech (CSE) Tell us about yourself. Which books do you read? What are your hobbies? Why Marketing? What do you write as you have mentioned that you freelance as a content writer? How do you get paid? Is it fair pay? What growth do you see in the real estate sector? How secure is it as an investment? Why not invest in gold? Why would I live in a city like Kolkata and not Bengaluru or Mumbai? Why MBA? Tell us your views on Jack Reacher, the movie? Why did you use this quote in your SOP? What do you see in this person that impresses you? Why did this quote got stuck in your mind? Why computer science and then MBA?

50

Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Work ex Tell me about your role in your company. What kind of purchases did you make? Explain the process. What does your company manufacture? Tell me about your most difficult day at your workplace. Can you recite any poem written by you? What is your goal in life? Name any three popular personalities whose name carry Sinha. Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher Introduce yourself. What have you done after passing out in 2016? So you're interested in marketing? Sell me this bottle. Who was the guest of honour in the last republic day? What happened in the World Economic Forum? Who represented India there and what was PM Modi’s speech there? So you are interested in automobiles. Who is the CEO of Maruti Suzuki? Who is the Chief Election Commissioner of India? Who is the governor of RBI? 51

Excerpts from Interview 4 Candidate Profile: Fresher, engineer What are you doing now? So why do you want to do MBA now? Work for 2 years and then apply for MBA. You may face problems post MBA during placement due to lack of industry exposure. (The candidate mentioned about his interest in finance- stock markets, equity markets, etc.) Which stock performed best today? Which bank is going to issue IPO? Do you know about carbon footprints and global warming? What is the importance of ozone layer? What is agrarian distress? What do you think about loan waivers?

52

 Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai (2017 - 18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 3 Duration: 5-20 minutes Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. Tech, work ex Why did you study Biotech? And now you want to do MBA? What is the money market? Why do you want to do MBA from LIBA? Where else have you applied? What are your contingency plans? What did you do in your gap years? What is your job about? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Graduate in mass communication (Questions related to undergraduate subjects) So, why do you want to get into LIBA? Can you learn math? (The candidate was a communication major) Can you cope

53

up? How many hours do you study? What are your hobbies? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech in Computer Science What is your favorite subject in computers? Name the various

software

development

models

used

by

companies? Why do you want to do MBA and why not anything in the field of computers? Why do you want to get into LIBA? Where else have you applied?

54

 Management Development Institute, Gurgaon (2017 - 18) Personal Interview No. of panelists: 2 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Work ex, engineer You are already into corporate. Why are you here? So, you did your B.tech in which branch? So, you do stand up? Can you do a 5 min set for us? What are your hobbies? What do you write? Which genre in poems? You read books? – of what genre? What is philosophy? Tell me about any famous philosopher. Can we ask questions on current affairs? Have you prepared for it? (No questions asked on current affairs) Have you ever thought of going for UPSC? Have you heard of Maruti? Suppose Suzuki wants to make an entry in your sector and Suzuki management appoints you as an advisory. What advice will you give? How do our machines damage road? 55

Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B. tech CSE, work ex How are you feeling? Why are you excited? Tell me the names of subjects from first year of your btech? What is database? What is relational database, primary key and secondary key? What is the tester’s role in project? What is the first thing a person thinks on joining Infosys? Why did you leave Infosys? Who is CEO of Vinsol? (The candidate had worked in Infosys and Vinsol) What are the disadvantages of offshore? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Fresher Tell me the meaning of your name? You have won a prize in

spell

bee.

Write

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

down So

which field is this term related to and what does it mean? Have you heard about encryption, digital signature and Electronic fund transfer? (One of the interviewer 56

writes www.yahoo.com) Tell me why do we use dot as separator and not slash or comma or other characters? What steps would you follow to bring about change in your organization? List them. Ok, so I am from a state where girls are not allowed to go to school. They think girls are a liability. How would you solve this problem? Give me a self sustainable solution to this problem. What's your percentile? What other calls you have? Why would you join MDI? Do you have any questions about us or the institute?

57

 Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal (2017 - 18) Personal Interview No. of panelists: 3 Duration: 20-25 mins Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B.E. in chemical Introduce yourself. Why do you want to join IIFM after doing engineering in chemical? Which are the commonly found trees in your home town? How many sanctuaries are there in your home town? Name them. What are your hobbies? Why do you like reading fiction? What makes you different from others? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B.E. in computer science Tell something about yourself. Which is your favorite subject? What is the advantage of DBMS over file system? Why do you want to MBA? And that too in forest 58

management? Which are the popular rivers in your state? What do you think the state can do to manage the pollution in water bodies? What are your goals after completing your MBA?

59

 Inst. for Financial Mgmt. & Research, Chennai (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. tech Fresher Introduce yourself? What was your final year project? Why don’t you do any post graduation in your concerned field? Why do you want to do MBA? But you don’t have any work experience, how will you compete with the rest? What specialization will you take up? And why is it so? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Software Developer in UST global What work do you do in Data Analytics? How can it help you at the individual level? Other than data science what other fields have you explored at work? How do stocks work or fluctuate? Which are the stock markets in India? What hobbies do you have? Why do you want to pursue MBA? Which specialization will you opt for? Why this choice? 60

 Institute of Rural Management Anand (2017 18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 3-4 Duration: 20 mins Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Worked in Aditya Birla Group Introduce yourself? What are your hobbies? How do you relate chess and the business world? What is common between the two? What was your profile and role in the company? Why did you leave the company? What is your strength? (Responded saying that I am a fighter) So will you fight with teachers here? Who is your role model in life? Why do you want to join IRMA? Why do you want to go for rural management? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B.com, Fresher

61

Introduce yourself? What do you know about finance accounting? Explain the demand and supply cycle? What do you understand by money supply? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know the specialty of Anand? Why do you want to do MBA? Which specialization will you opt for?

62

 National Institute of Industrial Engineering (2017 - 18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 4 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. Tech(ECE), work ex- automobile Sector Introduce yourself. Are you alone in these initiatives or you have a team? And how do you manage? (The candidate mentioned about his marketing project) How did you come across this? What were the survey questions? Who were the people? Where did you do the survey? And what was your final year project? What did you do in this project? Tell me about your work profile. So you work in Quality Department. What are your responsibilities? What approaches do you follow for the Defect resolution? Did you resolve any defect? Who else is involved in this? Don’t you think operators must be involved in the process? What is the Inspection Process 63

at your company? How do you decide which parts to check? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: B. Tech Planning (Urban and Regional), work ex in Real Estate sector Introduce yourself. You have done Urban Planning from CoEP (College of Engineering, Pune). Tell us more about it, the placement and its relation with the Smart City Mission. Are there any placement issues your branch is facing? Where are you currently working? What is your job role? What are the various domains in a business- like HR, Finance, etc.? Give an example of how SCM (Supply Chain Management) in Real Estate? What was your final year project? What did you do in your internship after third year? What do you know about PGDISEM program? Anything else you would like to tell apart from what’s mentioned in the form?

64

Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: Working in Automobile sector Briefly & quickly introduce yourself? What are the pros n cons of using hydrogen in automobiles? Explain in brief the working of ICE? What safety aspects do you find missing at the place you work? What was your major project? Why was it called mini tractor& of what weight? What was the engine HP? Why do you have an inclination towards environment? Then why industrial safety?

65

 Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (17-18) Personal Interview No. of panelists: 3 Duration: 10-15 minutes Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Owns a startup Tell me about yourself. What are your hobbies? Tell us about your start-up. What are your long-term goals? What is your CAT percentile? Why did you travel by flight and not by train? Are you biased towards trains? Tell me five reasons for not selecting you? You have got calls from many B-schools. What is the priority of NMIMS? Do you think you will get selected? Tell me something funny that happened with you recently. Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Engineer, work ex

66

Why engineers are opting for MBA? (The candidate is working in Deloitte) Deloitte is paying you handsomely. Why don't you want to go for a job change? What did you do in Deloitte that you are really proud of? What did you prepare for the interview? Tell us what have you prepared best and what should we ask you? (The candidate mentioned his love for food) Mention some food outlets in Bangalore. There are a lot of lakes with foam. Do you know the reason? What should be done? Why Bangalore is called the city of gardens? Which specialization would you choose? (The candidate mentioned about his extracurricular activities in graduation) What did you learn from your extra-curricular activities? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : Work ex (The candidate worked in Infosys) Who heads Infosys? What is the revenue of Infosys? Do you know about Sikka-Murthy feud? What were your job responsibilities? In which stream do you want to specialise in? Why 67

NMIMS? (The candidate mentioned about his inclination towards operations and social work) How can SCM be used for a social issue? Excerpts from Interview 4 Candidate Profile : Fresher How do you feel about being the last candidate? Tell me the story of your life in a minute. Why do you choose HR when you have decent tech background? Why not start your own startup? Give 3 qualities of HR personnel. Give 3 reasons why you are suitable for an HR course

68

 Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Pune (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of panelists: 2 Excerpts from Interview 1 A case based problem given to solve. The case - "You are the head of a potato chip manufacturing company, you offer a free toy with each pack, with a message clearly mentioning that the toy is meant for kids of over 1 year of age. A 6-month old child chokes on such a toy and dies. Will you issue a public apology or stay quiet?" Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Fresher Given a problem scenario: “Your company plans to venture into a new technology. And there's a vendor who is supplying you the product but with the old technology since a decade. He is saying that he'll make them using the new technology but you are not really sure about it. 69

There is a new vendor using the new technology. And you don't know anything about it. Whom will you choose? Justify.” Why do you want to pursue MBA? You are a fresher. Why didn't you take up a job? Any failure that you faced and how did you overcome it? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (CSE), work ex Tell us something about yourself. (The candidate mentioned playing table tennis and watching TED talks as her hobby) When did you start playing table tennis? And why do you like this game so much? What was the last TED talk you watched and how has it impacted you? So, how do great leaders inspire action? And what according to you differentiates them from the rest? So how will you inspire us? When you leave this room, how would you like us to remember you?

70

(The panel handed a piece of paper to the candidate) So this is a case. You have to read it and suggest your course of action.) The case: It was about an employee. He finds out that his boss is doing something wrong. You have tried talking to him but he didn't listen to you. So, what will be your course of action? So you suggested that you will take the entire team and approach a person. Won't your boss get very angry about that? How will you feel if some 10 people approach you and tell you that you are wrong? Have you heard the phrase "Boss is always right"? So, according to you, the customer is always right? You have Sanskrit scholarship for two consecutive years. Can you recite a Sanskrit shloka for us? When you walk out of this room, tell us why should we feel, this is the candidate who has to be selected?

71

 SIBM, Bangalore (2017-18) Personal Interview Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : (B.com- Fresher) Introduce yourself? Which city did you travel from? Which flight did you take? What is the name of the airport in Amritsar? What is your take on this year’s budget? Why is there no tax on agricultural income? Why do you want to do MBA? Which specialization would you opt for? What is the difference between CA and MBA? What do you know about investment banking? Name five investment banking companies. Who was the chief guest on Republic Day? Who is the chairman of Rajya Sabha? What are your hobbies? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Working in Pristine ideas (17 months)

72

Introduce yourself? Name 5 business persons originated from India. You don’t know any women entrepreneur? Name any 3 women entrepreneurs. What are your hobbies? What form of martial arts do you practice? What is the difference between Taekwondo and martial arts? Why is compound interest used in banking? Why do you want to do MBA? To implement your business plan all you need is money, which you can get even without doing MBA, then why you need a degree? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : Working in an IT company Introduce yourself? What do you know about marketing research? What are the parameters of marketing research? How many states and UTs are there in India? How many rivers flow through your state? What all have you done in social work? With which organization were you associated with? Why do you want to do MBA?

73

 Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Pune (2017-18) Personal Interview Average Duration : 10-15 mins No. of Panelists : 3 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: Fresher, Graduate in agricultural engineering Introduce yourself. What have you done in your graduation? How can technology be implemented in Agriculture? Do you own farms? What kind of crops do you grow in your farms? (Agriculture-based questions from academic subjects) Why do you want to go for MBA in agriculture? Why don’t you want to go for any other specialization? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Working as Software Developer in USD Global 74

Introduce yourself. Who is the CM of your state? What is your profile and role in your company? Which project are you currently working on? What affect will automation have on the IT sector? Companies like Nokia and Kodak were on the top of the market a decade ago, then what happened now? What is the reason for this downfall? As a business head, how will you handle such a situation? Why do you want to do MBA? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile: 3 years of work experience at ICICI Bank in Trade Finance You seem to be doing well in your job, why MBA now? Tell me a situation when you had a conflict with the values/practices of your organization. How often are you able to meet customers’ expectations? Why is the pricing of

trade

finance

products

different

for

different

customers? Isn’t it unethical? What have you done to improve your team’s performance? Why do you want to

75

return to Banking after your MBA? What are your views about recent Salman Rushdie row?

76

 Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (2017-18) Personal Interview Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : Fresher, B. Tech Introduce yourself. Why do you want to do MBA? Why are you choosing Operations? Why did you leave your job? Why do you prefer SIOM? What other options do you have? Have you ever worked on SAP? What hobbies do you have? What are the dimensions of a table tennis table? What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?

77

 Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists : 2 panelists Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (ECE) with Work ex Tell me something about yourself. Why MBA and why SITM? Which topic did you write the essay on in WAT? Briefly describe. Draw a simple circuit of op-amp. Explain any topic that you remember from engineering. What strengths do you think you have? Can you recall any latest news from the past two days? What if you don’t get in this year? What are your hobbies and interests? How are you going to pursue them in the college?

78

 S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai (2017-18) Group Interview (2 rounds) No. of Panelists : 3 Duration : 30-40 minutes Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : Work ex Tell me about yourself and why do you opt for this specialization? What is marketing? (Given a situation and asked to handle it) Why do you want to change your job and do an MBA? In one line explain- what will you give to this institute? Why should we select you- give a reason? If you are not selected, then who else should be? What do you know about PNB scam? Tell me one thing you like, and dislike about your parents Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Graduation in Agricultural Engineering, Work ex

79

So what do you know about union budget? What is twin balance sheet problem? Do you know about NPA problem in Public sector banks in India? What is FRDI bill? What is the impact of demonetization? What are the pros and cons of Minimum Support Price for the agriculture sector? What is priority sector lending? What quantum of loans are turning NPA corporate loans or small priority sector loans and why? What are your hobbies? (The candidate mentioned nail art and painting as her hobby) How would you conduct a market research to understand the customers who would want to pursue nail art or what would be your market segmentation for nail art? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : Operations Management, Work ex Introduce yourself using something that is not written in the form. What are your views on Tesla’s manufacturing set up in China? And why India was not chosen? What are your views on App based news to Print based? So 80

why do you want to do MBA? Tell us one thing which you want to include and one which you want to eliminate from your personality. Describe a situation when you were trapped in an ethical dilemma. Would you have an employee who aligns with the company’s values but is lesser in competency or an employee who is highly competent but does not align with company’s values? Which company you admire and why? Excerpts from Interview 4 Candidate Profile : Fresher, B. Tech (ECE) Tell me about yourself and your family. What does your name mean? What are the ingredients of Panchforon( Bengali dish)? What is the difference between hen and duck? Which eggs do you prefer to develop your body hen or duck and why? (A mini GD on the PNB scam) Why finance? What do you apart from your corporate job? What is a derivative? What is P/E valuation and its use? What will you not put in an almond cake? Was there any

81

ethical dilemma that you faced? Was there any news that shook you recently? Do you have any questions for us?

82

 T. A. Pai Management Institute (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists : 2 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (CSE), Fresher Tell us an incident where you refused to help a friend. You are the only fresher scheduled for today. Does that make you feel intimidated? How do you cope with it? Are you afraid? What benefit does that give you if any? Tell us an incident where you found yourself in a conflict with a senior/junior. How could you have done better in your under graduation? Why do you think you are suitable for PGDM? What qualities would you want us to focus in order to decide your suitability? Tell us about your family. What placement offers have you got? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (CSE), Fresher 83

Tell us about yourself. (Many questions asked on candidate’s life experiences) What major challenges have you faced till now? So, how did you cope up with these situations? Why should we select you? Why banking course? What interests you in banking? Why did you apply for this college with regards to BKFS? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (ECE), Work ex Why did you apply for all three courses? Why HR? Tell me one such policy of your company that you would like to change? Have you mentored anyone? Tell us one terrible experience that you had at your workplace. What did you learn from it? What should be the role of an ideal HR? What do you think is the most important role of an HR? What would be your preferred ranking if you get selected for all three? Excerpts from Interview 4 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (ECE), Work ex 84

Introduce yourself. Why PGDM? Do you have any regrets in life? Have you motivated anyone in life? What is the most important lesson that you have learnt in your professional world? What are your hobbies? How was your HR interview? How did your GD go? Excerpts from Interview 5 Candidate Profile : B. Tech (ECE), work ex Which interview went better? HR or PGDM? (The candidate selected all three courses) So, why did you opt for banking? What is rupee depreciation? Which companies get affected? Does your company gain or lose? How would you rate this interview? Should we select you? And why is that so?

85

 Tata Inst. of Social Sciences (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of panelists : 3 Duration : 15-30 minutes Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : Electrical Engineer (Fresher) Interview Experience : What is the crisis going in Maldives? What is your opinion on it? What help can India provide in this situation? What is resistance? What is the difference between AC and DC? Explain the working of electrical instruments in the room (bulb, fan etc.)? A case study was given : Nestle has recruited you as an HR. As you know Patanjali is giving a tough time to the food industry players, what strategy will you make to counter the competition?

86

Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Engineer, work ex Introduce yourself. And why HR? Keep it brief. Did you read our syllabus? Which subject would you want to specialise in? So, what do you do at work? How exactly do you impact the project? Did you interact with your HR executives? You’re in a PSU. What do you think of the HR policies in your company? What could be the areas of improvement? And how can that happen? But don’t HR professionals already attend business meetings? What are the areas where you think the HR department of your company can be proactive? Who is your GM, HR? and AGM? So, why was there an agitation when the PRP (Performance Related Pay) system was introduced in the PSUs? But what do you think could be the reason behind the agitation? How would you rate the HR department of your company out of 5? You mentioned about the bell curve system and its disadvantages. What are its advantages? 87

Suppose you are a HR manager of your present company, and you are at an IIM for recruitment. How will you

differentiate

your

company

from

the

other

shipyards? Consider a retail company. Its customers have given negative feedback on its social media page. Mr. X is looking forward to apply for a job at this company. He discovers these negative comments about customer service. Will this affect his willingness to join the company? How do you evaluate yourself at work? What drives you professionally? Fame or money? When would you consider yourself professionally successful? How much work-ex do you have? Do you know the political affiliations of the labour unions in your company?

88

 Xavier Inst. of Mgmt., Bhubaneswar (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of panelists : 3-4 Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : B. Tech, work ex, (shortlisted for both BM and HRM) Your 10th and graduation marks are good but why was there a drop in 12th? Which subject did you like in 12th? (The candidate mentioned chemistry) Where is isopropyl alcohol found? Where is acetone found? Define ‘mean’. What separates Asia from Europe? (another question from geography), What is the revenue of Infosys? (The candidate works in Infosys) Who are the founders of Infosys? What does a Voltmeter do? What does an Ammeter do? What is the difference between congruency and similarity? What is geometric progression? So, what are your job responsibilities?

89

Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Fresher, B.E (ECE) (shortlisted for BM) So you're from which place? How did you reach here? What is the meaning of your train’s name? So why did you come to Bhubaneshwar? Have you visited the campus? Tell us something about Lingaraj Temple? Have you visited the pond out there? Is your college a government-aided one? And is that the best college in your state? Tell me something about VLSI, ULSI and LSI. You must have studied embedded systems as a subject. Tell me something about it. So your college is named after Rajiv Gandhi. Tell me about him. Do you know he's introduced a man related to your subject in Engineering? Tell us about your extracurricular activities. Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : Work-ex Tell us about yourself. Explanation on school name i.e. who was St. Antony, why his name? (Since candidate studied from St. Antony's college)Do you remember the 90

name of your school principal? When you joined your organization, what was the first program you attended? What is the difference between the two? Explain your domain and work you do in your organization. You seem pretty good in your work then why do you want to do MBA in HR? Who is Arundhati Bhattacharya? Name any other female at such a high position. Mention some extracurricular achievements of yours. Where else have you applied for HR course? If you get selected in NMIMS and XIMB then what will u prefer. Why? Just because we are sitting in front of you.

91

 Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur (2017-18) Personal Interview No. of panelists : 3 Duration : 15-30 minutes Excerpt from Interview 1 Candidate Profile : NIT Trichy, Fresher Why aren’t you working? Why do you want to opt for MBA? Give two strong reasons. What are isotones? How are

organic

compounds

different

from

inorganic

compounds? What did you do in your internship in Germany? How are German work ethics different from Indian work ethics? What are your hobbies? Excerpt from Interview 2 Candidate Profile : Computer Engineer, Work ex: 10 months as Data Engineer

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Tell us something about your job? What is your role? How is a bubble chart better than a bar chart? You have data of infant mortality, average life expectancy and literacy rate. They’ve no correlation between them so how would you visualize it in one chart. Draw the same. Tell me two things that you don’t like about your company. Tell us about your clients. You don’t need to name them just industry/domain. What do you do in your free time? Which books have you read? Tell me about the last trip you had. What did you learn from the trip? Excerpt from Interview 3 Candidate Profile : B. Com, Chartered Accountant So you're working in Deloitte. Tell us about that. You're aware of the scams happening around like PNB etc. What do you think is the reason? Is it not being audited properly? So, the audit is not being done properly? So, is this illegal? Tell me about the PNB scam. How did they escape audit? So, not auditing properly is illegal? Which was your favorite subject during college? (The candidate 93

mentioned financial management) So, what all did you study there? What is capital budgeting? What are financial ratios? Can you give us an example when someone has been angry at you? Are you a single child? Tell us about an incident where you saw something wrong being done and you were powerless to stop it, something from your work. What does your father do? Tell me why MBA? What kind of role are you looking for post MBA? Did you give cat? Which other calls do you have? Excerpt from Interview 4 Candidate Profile : Engineer, Fresher So you have studied in South Point High School. Where is it located? Which board is the school affiliated to? Why do you think that the good schools in Kolkata are converting to CBSE from West Bengal board? Tell us what have you prepared for this interview? So tell us about some generic B-school interview questions. Will you hire someone who had done money laundering in 94

your company to save his family? Can you think of some other cases of the same situation? Tell us about your hobbies. Who's your favorite Bengali author? How do you think Satyajit Ray and Swaradindu Bandyopadhyay's detective novels are different? Tell us some strengths and weaknesses that you have.

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 Birla Institute of Management Technology (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile-Fresher, BBA Tell us about yourself. Why this college? Which is the biggest FMCG in India, and the world? Where do you want to see yourself in five years from now? Have you ever demonstrated leadership in college or school? Give example. What are your hobbies? What do you prefer in reading? Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile- Fresher, B. Tech in IT Introduce yourself. What did you do in your major project? What is the scope of about artificial intelligence in India? What are your hobbies/ what kind of music do you listen to? Name 3 popular bands in India. Which specialization will you like to opt? Why so? 96

 Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi (2017 18) Personal Interview No. of Panelists: 3-4 Average Duration: 15 minutes Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. tech in ECE, Working in Automobile Sector from 32 months Introduce yourself. Extempore-Think for 10-15 seconds and speak for one minute on “IPR”. In which Quality are you working? What Quality Standards you follow? Specify the number of TS Standard you follow? What is its equivalent to ISO? What is Ford’s Quality Standard? Ford ingenuously developed a Quality Standard. What is it? Name any three Social Entrepreneurs.

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Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate

Profile: B.

Tech

Planning

(Urban

and

Regional), Work exp.: 9 months Introduce yourself to the panel. What is this degree of yours- B. Tech Planning? Why do you want to do MBA? Name any 3 international real estate firms in India. Extempore-Think for 10-15 seconds and speak for one minute on “Rural India”. You have said about the haphazard development in urban areas- How will getting an MBA help you achieve it? Which ministry looks after urban development? And which one is responsible for connectivity between two cities? Who are the Cabinet Ministers? So your degree is B. Tech Planning, do you have any subjects related to Mechanical, Civil? Excerpts from Interview 3 Candidate

Profile: Petroleum

engineering

in

PDPU

Gandhinagar and working as plant engineer at GSFC 98

So you are born in Ahmedabad, did your petroleum engineering in PDPU Gandhinagar and presently work as plant engineer at GSFC,right? What is GsFC? Is it a state PSU? Extempore-Think for 10-15 seconds and speak for one minute on “Subsidy in Fertilizer sector". So what is status of food security in India? So as a policy maker what steps would you take? You mentioned leakages right so what steps would you take to curtail them? What do you do in your free time? Which games? You mentioned reading Books, which books?

99

 Goa Institute of Management, Goa (2017 - 18) Personal Interview Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. Tech (Mechanical) with work experience Round 1: No. of Panelists: 2 Duration: 15-20 minutes Introduce yourself. Tell me about your work experience. (Specific questions related to work experience were asked) Why MBA? What are the things you will do, if you become the Marketing Manager of GIM? What are the strategies that can be developed for promoting an MBA college? Why should we give you an admission? What are your hobbies? (Specific questions on hobbies were asked)

What

is

Brand

management

and

market

100

intelligence? What is the difference between sales and marketing? Round 2: No. of Panelists: 3-4 Duration: 30 minutes What was your role in your previous organisation? (Specific questions on job role were asked) What are heat transfer and Mass transfer? Explain the working of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. (Application related questions on heat and mass transfer in refrigeration) What is PERT and CPM? How is product management different from brand management? What different will you do if you are selected for a brand management role given you already have the product management experience? What do you know of the Mandovi River dispute? What do you think is the solution? What are the latest technologies where the brand is not as famous as the technology itself? What are the environmental issues 101

plaguing Bangalore? What are the solutions? (The candidate belonged to Bangalore) Excerpts from Interview 2 Candidate Profile: Working in UST global as a software developer Round 1: No. of Panelists: 2 Duration: 10-15 minutes Introduce yourself. Tell me about your work experience. (Specific questions related to work experience were asked) Why do you want to do a MBA in Big Data? How is Big Data useful for government organizations? Why don’t you go for any other specialization? What have you done apart from your curriculum? What work did you do in NSS? Round 2: No. of Panelists: 3 102

Duration: 10-15 minutes Explain the project you are currently working on? How did you get interested in Big Data? Why has Big Data suddenly become so important? What is sampling in probability? When you flip two coins what is the probability of getting either heads or tails on both the coins? Solve these 5 aptitude/reasoning questions.

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 Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai (2017 - 18) Excerpts from Interview 1 Candidate Profile: B. tech, Work ex Introduce yourself. What is the difference between dollar and rupee? Then why is dollar strong? What will you do to make rupee strong? If dollar price goes down, would it be beneficial for us? If rupee price goes up in the market, how would that impact you? Name any two media houses in India. What are your hobbies? Why MBA? Would you take a sabbatical or resign? Which other calls do you have? Why Great lakes?

104