And the day had come for which I was waiting for more than 1 month.Mine interview was scheduled on 25 th Feb in Kelling Worth Hotel,Kolkata.I remember Napolean saying-"Reaching the battlefiel first is the half battle won."So I reached at 1 o'clock (1 hour early to scheduled 2 o'clock.).One smiling guy from IIT Guwahati had reached the battlefield before me.One after one other guys/gal started coming in.Total 8 persons including one girl were there for the GD.One common denominator was that we all had wasted our four years in some college to attain a piece of paper which we were carrying with us that day.We were given tea n snacks and we were assigned a no,mine was 4.We entered the collosium for the battle unto death at 2:30 PM .Two profs of IIMB were sitting in the central couch and we were sitting in a half rectangular shape.I was almost in the middle,Usually the central position is considerd as good but on the flip side you are always at the risk of looking at the panelist.They declared the rules and timelines:It's a case study ,8 min for reading the case ,15 min to discuss it and 5 min to write the summary of the discussion.The case was titiled "what an Idea".Based on Idea Cellulars Ad featuring Abhishek Bacchan.The point of debate was that in what cases taking referendum is justified?I noted down 4-5 points in my sheet.The first speaker was the most experianced fellow from Daniel(He said we make Steel plants).He started giving examples of Indian Postal System and Indian Railways taking referendum etc.Then we all jumped into the game.I put up words like Decision making,Planning, Stategic decision etc.In my 2nd attempt I could say about some welfare issues where referendum can be applied.In 3rd instances I spoke about Semco initiative of Democracy @ workplace,but since nobody in the group had heard about it so group didn't discussed my thread.Overall I made around 5-6 entries and I came out quite satisfied with my performance.
For Interview my turn was fourth.One prof came out and called my name.I will mention him as JP(Junior prof as he was the one who was always taking the involunteery pain of coming out from the couch.The other one SP,Senior Prof)
Me:May I come in Sir?
SP:Yes come in ,please close the door.
Me: Good afternoon sirs.
Tey said me to sit down.I thanked him,then
SP:how you are feeling?
Me:Sir I am fine.
SP: What feedback you have got from the persons who faced the interview so far?
Me:(Weighing the options of telling that If I tell that no technicals has been asked then they will ask me technicals and I will be screwed for good)Sir they said it's going cool.
SP:Cool??
JP:Because AC is ON here.Ha Ha
Me :(Smilng)No sir I meant that the interview are normal,no stress interview.
SP:Given a choice to choose,what you would choose a stress interview or a cool interview?
Me:Cool interview.
SP:This means you can't work under pressure.
Me:No sir,I can work under pressure but when somthing big is on stake then I would prefer a cool interview.
SP:Tell me a case where nothing is at stake but the person is stressed?
Me:Sir In sports when we compete with our rivals..
SP:(inturrpted) We always compete with our rivals I think.
Me:Oh I wanted to say arch rival.then even if it is a friendly match we get stressed.
SP:But there Teams's pride is at stake.
Me:Yes sir but it is result of performance of the team throughout the year or season.
SP:Tell me the example in Business scenario.
Me:May I take some time.
Meanwhile they asked for my certificates.
SP:What are you doing in work?
Me:Blah...blah...
SP:What you don't like about Tata Motors?
Me:Prepared answer.
JP:Okay,Tell me about your weekness?
Me:Blah blah...
SP:Last time when you faced this problem?
Me:prepared.Blah blah...
SP:Why you want to do MBA?
Me:talked about entrepreneurship,VC,idea prototyping,Shaping the idea etc.
SP:What qualities VC looks for in the entrepreneur?
Me: (prepared answer) and said finally that for credibility I want to join a good B school.
SP:Tell us about your enterprise.
Me:Blah....blah..and my target customer would be working professional aged 20 to 35 years,then i realized that both were 35 plus.
SP:How you arrived at this data?
Me:Quoted HBR.
SP:Which issues?
Me:3- 4 months back so can't remember.
SP:That is true for US but your enterprise would be in India.
Me:Talked about talking to friend about this in different sectors.
SP:How many 35 plus you have discussed?
Me:Told about 2-3 professors of Globsyn B school .
JP:Which co will be your first client?
Me:My existing employer.
SP:Have you talked to them regarding this?
Me:No Sir.Talked about HR being peculier about keeping GETs on board.
JP:I believe you get paid well in Tata Motors.
Me:Yes sir,there is no discontent about the salary,but I have became an expert of vehicle testing and it wold take 7-8 years to come over and get some general management exposure.This is not in line with my long term plan.
SP:okay.do you have any question for us?
Me:No sir.
SP:Okay ,you can go now.
Me:Thank you sir.
and came out.It was 20 min long interview.
Should I be Hopeful for the Seat In IIM B? Talking about Hope I remember what "the archetect" said to Neo in Matrix :"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. "
Jai Ho.
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