Saturday
I had reached Bangalore 2 days in advance , some last minute things pending as always , I needed a pair of shoes to complete my wardrobe for D-Day and this was purchased from Koramangla. The fact that I was not carrying sufficient cash resulted in me bumping into Shashank , Mandeep and Vaibhav out of the blue in a street corner in Bangalore . Shasank's interview experience lead me to believe that the route would be clear of academics and it was a "feel-good" interview that was going to take place .
Sunday
2 visits to the temple and no prizes for guessing what I was asking for . The typical last day with a rush to read everything I had written in my one-stop ready reckoner, ironing of clothes and polishing the shoe.
Feb 23rd , 2009:Judgment Day
The day that India had been waiting for years altogether , history would be made today. No, obviously it's not me being referred to here. I tried to see whether Slumdog had already received any oscars before I left home - Resul Pookutty and the maestro A.R.Rahman awaiting the judgment of their work, while here I was about to put my case forward for the same to a different panel for a different reason.
7.50 am :
No, this was not the time I left from home. I had reached the campus by now and was heading towards the M-Block, the scheduled spot where the jury was waiting. I saw competitors everywhere, one outside the gate, one signing in the register just before me and another already sitting in front of the rooms.Everyone had come prepared to plead their cases and put their best foot forward to ensure a future stay within the same walls.The list in M-14 had two "Naveen"'s and one "Navin" and one "Neetha Joy" , one person from the fairer sex in the group, might lead to some order in the GD, I hoped.
8.45 am :
The bonding process had begun , but surprisingly only 5 people had turned up till 10 minutes before the scheduled time.I guess some of prayers had been answered after all, the GD was going to be the easier part. So, it was only to be the 5 of us yapping our way to glory for 15 minutes in the GD . I played the role of the " enthusiastic fresher " who was keen to interact with everyone with the group.
9.15 am :
Prof NarayanSwamy called each individual as per the order in the list, ensured that we sat at the right positions and no it was not a U shaped table with the panel sitting in front of you, it was to be a round table conference with 5 people and the panel sitting in one corner of the room making observations . Prof Bhattacharya greeted us and explained the ground rules to us. So, the fun began, the Case Topic : In light of the current Recession, job losses or pay cuts . What is your stance and what do you think should be the approach of companies ? We had some one paragraph of facts on the same and were asked to start after 10 minutes of preparation time.As soon as the signal was given, I was out of the blocks, starting off the GD, trying to lay a basic structure and define the questions which we were attempting to answer through the discusssion. It did not look like anyone wanted to take the stage from me and I had to go on talking for around a minute before someone took over from me. Through the course of the interview , I managed to speak many times throwing in some management jargon about the "80-20" rule, manufacturing sector's impacts, performance based pay scales and moving employees up the value chain. And while the lady went on one more of her "I have read this article about blah blah" we were asked to stop in what was almost less than 15 minutes , but then we were not really keeping a count and we did seem to have run out of content.
As the other Naveen.C had put it , it is very difficult to "ace a GD" , so I believe I contributed well, had enough to speak about and managed to just write a decent enough summary filling the space they had given me to write. And now, I had to wait, I was the penultimate person in the list and would have a good wait before I had my interviews .
Amidst all this, I remembered that history might have been made and was elated to know that Slumdog did sweep the Oscars and both Indians - Rahman and Pookutty had indeed won the oscars. So that was a good day for India , would it be the same for me ? Would it be possible that I could carry off the interview in a similar fashion to what I had done in the GD ? Half an hour down, the first person with 19 months of work-experience comes out and says the dreaded word : "Academics" ! I was stumped , but I hoped it was not the case with everyone. Naveen C had an interview on Carnatic Music and Naveen N had an interview on his work-experience and again a course which he had done almost 5 years before .So,what would it be for me - Navin M ?
The Real Thing
Prof NarayanSwamy(RNS) came out and called out for Navin M , it was time for me to present my case . I walked in greeted Prof Bhattacharya(MB) and waited to take my seat . So, it began , the jury was out and I had to present arguements in my favour and as it turned out, they tried to flatten everyone of them .One thing which I did do before taking my seat was place my extra-curriculars file on the table in front of them. A file with all my certificates tagged and assorted with the hope that at some point this would draw their attention.
MB: So, Navin . 94 % in 10th, 96 % in 12th and 88.6% in Pilani.( Now , I was dreading where this was heading towards ) Where does that leave you in your class ?
Me : Sir, I think I would be 7th or 8th in my class, I am not exactly sure .
MB:In a class of ?
Me:108 students who did the mechanical courses with me ( Technically,our batch is only 80 in number, but then there were dualites who were passing out with us as well and 108 I am sure was the number in our attendance sheets and besides that sounds better than 80 :))
MB:You are in BITS-Pilani, why are you in Bangalore for your interview ?
Me:Sir,I am currently interning with Oracle,Hyderabad . All students of BITS-Pilani take up an internship programme called Practice School 2 as a part of our curriculum and since most internship centers are in and around Bangalore I chose to give Bangalore as my center for the interviews
RNS decides to poke me , the facebook way in a mild fashion
RNS:What is a mechanical engineer doing at Oracle ? (Smiles around)
Now, that was a free hit for which I had prepared for
Me : The internship stations are alloted by the institute keeping in mind various criterion. I believe that the institute found it apt to allot Oracle to me since I had been placed in the IT arm of Morgan Stanley. This would probably be a good experience for me in the case that I miss out on IIM Bangalore and have to work with Morgan Stanley.
RNS: Is this a programming job with Morgan Stanley?
Me: The profile offered to me is that of an IT Associate, but I am not completely sure about what would be the kind of work I am doing.
RNS: Do you think you will like it ?
Me: Sir, I have an interest in Object Oriented Programming cultivated through my 12th standard where I secured excellent marks and merit certificate for the same. This knowledge is what helped me secure the job, but as to how much I will really be "enjoying" it I am not sure right now.
RNS : It looks good on your resume doesn't it ?
Me: Sir, it just a fact really , I am not sure .
RNS: Just a fact huh , Tell me Dont Mechanical Engineering firms come for placements in Pilani ?
Me: Sir, I managed to get a job with Morgan Stanley on day 6 of the placements schedule and the placements norm dictated that once a student gets an offer he ideally opts out to give others an opportunity. Especially with the current situation I thought that would be the best thing to do.But, later on when Exxon Mobil visited the campus and was in the open for all slot, I did sit for it and secure a job with them .
RNS: So, you have an offer from Exxon Mobil as well ?
Me: There are a few formalities to be completed with Exxon before the offer is confirmed as such ( The fact is that I did get a job with Exxon and I knew it on the same day as my CAT results, so when the HR female called up CAT was one of the various excuses I gave for not making a commitment to Exxon, when she was kind enough to inform me that the results were out. I had no other go, but to tell her that ok , I have got calls and that is where I would ideally be spending my time. After that I have not been contacted for these "formalities")
RNS:And what would be your choice ?
Me: In the case of not gaining an admission from here , besides the above 2 offers , I also have an offer from Lootstreet.com, a start-up venture whose founders are from IIM Ahmedabad and with whom I interned in the summer of 2008. I would want to get more details on the same before I make a final decision.(2 Minutes into the interview, no mention of Lootstreet, I had to take a gamble here and hope that they would pick it up)
RNS:So you have not yet decided what to do , is it ?
Me: Ideally I would want to be in IIM Bangalore and not decide from the above .
A pause before MB decides to get back to me
MB:Navin, I see from your eligiblity sheet (Oh no , please dont see anything in that !) that there is a # in a few of your courses and that you are "Debarred to register" for it. Can you tell me what that means ?
Me:Actually sir, students in Pilani are given an option for repeating the courses for which they are not satisfied with their grades . But, these courses which you mention are Study Oriented Projects which we take up in different semesters. For these, we take up the time and other resources from the professor under whom we are working and hence the institute does not permit us to repeat these courses (I was really lucky to pull that one off,the eligibility sheet given to us was something which noone really pays much attention to beyond the first line)
MB:Ok, so I see that you have done courses on Probability and Statistics(No,please dont go down those lines) , Operations Research, Optimisation Theory,Numerical Analysis and Production Techniques, do you remember anything from all this ?
Me: Sir, Probability and Statistics is there somewhere in the back of my mind, but I dont really remember everything we did in the course.
Smiles from both MB and RNS
MB: Already, ancient you say, what about others ? When did you do it ?
Me: Sir in my second semester, first year.
MB: Is it , wasn't it later ? (Takes a look at the grade sheet and nods in agreement) .What about Numerical Analysis ?
Me: I remember that Numerical Analysis had something to do with the calculation of approximate values of functions , there were different methods like Runge Kutta Method, Newton Raphson(!) Method . I just remember them as names and cant really remember the exact algorithms of each of them. Optimisation Theory and Production Techniques are courses in which I remember the basics that I had read.
MB: So, what do you do in Optimisation ?
Me:We try to achieve a given condition such as maximize or minimize a function within a given set of constraints. We can solve these problems by different algorithms such as simplex or dual simplex.
MB:Do you know what these problems are called ?
Me: I think they are called Linear Programming Problems , but I have my doubts and I am not sure whether Linear Programming is another approach to solving the problems or is the name given to them.
MB: Do simplex and dual simplex come under Linear Programming ?
Me: I am not really sure about that , I remember that we also solved problems graphically, not very sure about the names.(trying to pull off a sheepish smile)
MB: I am still not able to get you, so take a piece of paper and explain to us what you really learnt in OT .(This is not something I had hoped for to happen in the interview)
RNS:Ok, take this paper and explain it to us with a problem you have solved before
I try to take out a pen from my pocket and 3 of them come out.
RNS: Navin, Why do you carry so many pens around ?
Me : (Smiles) Sir, just in case, backup,you never know and I slowly get to writing down the problem they had asked me to.
Sir, there is a function z which we are trying to maximize say z = 3x1+5x2+8x3 given the set of constraints 2x1+7x2+4x3<=30 , 5x1+6x2+7x3<=40 and 3x1+4x2+9x3<=50. We can use the simplex algorithm to solve these problems by introducing slack variables and so on. MB: Can you explain to me what the variables X1,X2 and X3 mean ? Me: They could be basic or non-basic variables depending on our solution MB:No No, In real terms, some real-life example Me: Sir, they could be the costs involved in running a company, say X1 could be the HR costs, X2 could be the operating costs and X3 the material costs/miscellaneous costs (All this with the hope that they would take one of these terms that I am talking about and forget Optimisation ! )
MB: (Smiles) Are you sure this is right ?
Me: Not completely, but I think this could be one possibility.
RNS: Wait , you said these are the costs right , and what have you written here that you want to do with the variable z ?
I had initially started off with maximize and my example had been in the opposite sense.
Me: Sir, with respect to the example I am stating it would be minimize, any company would want to minimise the total costs involved in the running of the organisation , I forgot to change that.
RNS: Thats what I thought as well, why would anyone want to maxmize the costs ! Anyways, continue.
MB: So, what are the co-efficients you have mentioned in the equation ?
Me: Sir, they could be the weights assigned to each variable and how significant they are in the final contribution.(Now his smile has become much more evident)
MB: (Looking at the grade sheet) This is is 3-credit course right ? So how many hours does that translate to ?
Me: Three hours a week and a common hour to clear doubts and solve additional problems.
MB: And how many weeks does your semester run ?
Me: Sir, August to Decemeber , around 24 weeks (that was random and I would not know the implications of this till later)
MB: Are you telling me that all that you learnt during these 72 hours and the additional problem solving session was just simplex and dual simplex methods ?
Me: No, sir . We did solve a lot of problems on the same with different special cases , learnt the same through matrix methods and also moved on to different classes of problems later.
At this point of time, RNS decides to adapt a BodyLine approach, coming out with something that could have lead to me being forced to Retire Hurt with serious injuries.
RNS: Navin, are you from the BITS Pilani in Rajasthan that we all know of or is there some other place where you studied and we are not aware of ?
I managed to break into a smile or something else close to it, to avoid any other evident feelings from appearing on my face .
Me: Sir, I am from the same BITS-Pilani you are talking about and I apologise if I am showing my institute in the wrong light here and projecting a wrong image about it. The fact is that the real-time examples that you are asking me is just not striking me at this moment.
RNS: But I thought that you being a mechanical engineering student with such good marks would grasp these concepts easily and be eager to explain this to me . It does not look like you are interested in Mechanical Engineering, is that the case ?
Me: No sir, the exact answer seems to be slipping my mind at present and I am not able to recollect the answer to this specific question.
RNS: Would you be able to answer the same question when asked in a casual environment ? What would you say if I asked this question while we were taking a walk in the park ? (This was nothing close to a walk in the park for me! )
MB: Navin, dont feel stressed, answer casually .
Me: No sir, if I know the answer I can answer the question when asked in any environment . At this point of time, the answer is not striking me.
RNS: What was the grade you made in this course ?
Me: I made a B in optimisation
RNS is still not clear about my grade
MB helps me out
MB: A is the highest right ?
Me: Yes, sir . An A is the highest sir a 10 and a B is the next an 8.
RNS: So, did you get all your marks by copying or something ? MB breaks into a smile
Me: No sir. I have had to work hard for all the grades and marks that I have made .
RNS: But it does not look like you can appreciate the applications of it , so dont you think whereever you join - Shell or anywhere else, it would be better for you to gain some experience and join an MBA later ?
Me: Sir, if it turns out that I dont make it here, I might learn while I am working. But I believe that I will have enough chances to interact with people with diverse experience in IIM Bangalore's selected batch of students and I will be approaching them to ensure that I learn anything that I have missed out on because of the lack of experience. Also, with such reputed faculty available to help me out, I believe I can learn things faster .
RNS: Is there anything else you studied in the course and you are confident about ?
Me: Other things we studied in optimisation was about Production Centers and Distribution Centers for a company.Costs involved in transportation between each of them is given and we try and arrive at a solution where the demand is met at minimum cost . Simultaneously I was drawing a table of the question and demonstrating it to them
RNS: Do you know what such problems are called ?
Me : Transportation Problems Sir
RNS: Ok, anything else ?
Me: We also learnt assignment problems where we had to schedule a certain number of tasks among a given set of employees such that the objective is met in the best fashion
MB: What do you mean by "best " fashion ?
Me: Sir, since this is a mathematical approach I do not think we can qualitatively say that the results will be best, the algorithm is such that we minimise a certain entity : in this case man hours .
They seem to be satisfied with my efforts to put across my limited knowledge of Optimisation Theory.
MB:Ok Navin , where else have you got calls from ?
Me: Sir, only Bangalore and Shillong have called me for the interviews.
MB: What was your CAT percentile ?
Me : 98.8 Sir
RNS: In the case that you do not make it to Bangalore and get an admission from Shillong , will you be taking that up ?
Me: Sir, I have not thought about that , I will probably have to look more details about Shillong .(What the hell, who was I kidding here, I decided to let diplomacy loose ) But I do not think that I will be joining it if that is the case . Since I have time on my hand and I think I am made for IIM Bangalore, I would learn from my mistakes if any I have made this year and come back and give it a better shot next time around.
RNS: But it looks like you put all your effort in making it to the institute and dont really do anything after that ?
An 8.86 in Pilani and still he says this .
Me: If you give me the chance to join IIM Bangalore I assure you that I will be making the best efforts to ensure that I put to best use the facilities provided to me by you.
Smiles
RNS: Giving an assurance is one thing and proving from what you have already done is something else
Me: Sir, I believe that I have done it to the best of my abilities and I have to work hard for an 88.6 in Pilani.
RNS: It looks like everyone else relaxed by the time they reached their final year and you just got away because of that.
Me: That is not the case sir, I am a part of the first set of students who entered BITS Pilani through BITSAT .Most of us had aspired to join the IIT's and missing out due to various reasons. All of us had high aspirations and ambitions for our future and most of us were working hard to ensure that we achieved what we wanted.(Batch of 2005, stand up and fight for your pride ! )
RNS: Fine, so what are your other interests ?
Me : I have been an avid quizzer since primary school. A quarter-finalist at the All Asia Bournvita Quiz Contest and Champions of the World, I also take interest in hosting quizzes, literary events for an interested audience. I am also a sports enthusiast and a passionate fan of Arsenal Football Club, Roger Federer and Rahul Dravid .
A brief pause, RNS smiles at me and I smile back .
RNS : So why do you want to do an MBA Navin ?
Me : It is my belief that the 2 years that I spend in doing my MBA will change me as an individual. At the end of this period, I will be a wise, mature and accomplished person who has the knowledge to make the right choices from the different opportunities available to me. This would also be the best way to achieve the targets that I have set for myself in terms of career in both the long-term and short-term.
Finally, one question I had prepared for and a line I added intentionall with the never-ending hope that a bait works for once in the interview. They decided to relent.
RNS: And what are those ?
Me: I want to enter consulting after my degree since this would give me the chance to work across different industry verticals, work on projects across various sectors and with time find an area of interest I would like to specialise in. In the long run, I would like to start-up my own organisation , it is just one of those things on my wishlist and I think would be a memorable accomplishment .
RNS: But you do not need an MBA for that, you can learn on the fly.
Me: Sir, but an MBA from an institute like IIM Bangalore with its diverse peer group and renowned faculty would be teaching me a lot, exposing me to different perspectives and I think will be extremely useful for me . Besides, the kind of experience that I will be getting after a degree from IIM Bangalore would be the best place for me to learn on the fly different aspects about the running of an organisation.
RNS : What about your schooling, where have you studied ?
Me: Till my 10th standard I was in Bhaktavatsalam Vidyashram, Chennai and for my 11th and 12th I moved onto DAV Senior Secondary School , Mogappair.
RNS: So you have done all your schooling in Chennai ?
Me: Yes sir
RNS: What do your parents do ?
Me: My father works as a Manager(Electrical) in Container Corporation of India at Delhi and my mother is working with the Railways Tribunal , Delhi as an administrative staff.(Thats the closest I knew about my mother's designation )
RNS: So, both are in railways huh ?
Me: Sir, ConCor comes under the Ministry of Railways, but I am not completely sure about its status as a part of the Railways (Now this is because of the fact that my mother gets free travel passes, while my dad doesnt , so I was pretty sure there was some difference )
RNS: Was he working in some other arm of railways before he joined ?
Me : He actually worked with Central Warehousing Corporation and moved over to ConCor after going on a deputation.
RNS: Ok, you were telling you joined through BITSAT right ? So what is your rank in the same ?
Me: According to the institutes records, my rank would be 340 .(That is my id no and my seniors had mentioned at some point that it was my rank, though it does not take into account many people who dropped out and joined IIT's and NIT's )
RNS: And how many students took the test ?
Me: Around 50,000 students in the year I took it I think
RNS: And where was the cut-off for Computer Science ?
Me: (Very confidently coming up with a number) The last student to get Computer Science had the rank 216 Sir
RNS: Oh, it goes down so low ?
Me: Sir, students have certain preferences, many opt for electrical, instrumentation and mechanical above computer science
RNS: Yes Yes, that is fine
Me : Actually sir, BITS still has a system of giving admissions to around 35 students from states based purely on merit.
RNS: Even after BITSAT ?
Me: Yes, Sir. So 340 might not be the exact rank, there might be a slight variation .
RNS: Ok , Navin. Do you have any questions for us ?
Me: Sir, I have heard a lot about the student exchange program in IIM Bangalore and it giving us a chance to interact with the best business brains across the world at B schools around the world. Can you tell me something more about the same ?
RNS: That is something where after you join, you give in your preference about various institutes with which we are associated:
Me: Sir, Isnt Stanford a part of the list ?
RNS: No, what we have with Stanford is just a short 2 week program where students from here go there and a few of them come here. It is not graded .
Me: Fine, Sir. I had spoken to a senior who had the opportunity to visit Stanford through this program.
RNS: Oh, a current 2nd year student ?
Me: No Sir. He passed out last year , working in BCG currently, Gautham Krishnan.
RNS: Ok, Good luck Navin .
Me: Thank you sir, turn to MB and repeat Thank You sir .
AfterThoughts :
What could I have changed about the interview ? I dont think there was much scope for that, they seemed to be too interested in testing my optimisation. The fact remains that Optimisation Theory is not the only thing I have done in my life :) . Despite the overall tone of the interview, I have not lost all hope, I brought them down to the Why MBA standard questions had a few smiles in the 20 minute duration . Rather than a 10 minute chit-chat, it was a 20 minute long session where they either saw me crumble or decided I will fit in. What was the decision I will be knowing only later .
Unlike my other posts, this is one where I would want you to leave a comment with your verdict and comments on what I could have done better, I would greatly appreciate that.
For all those who google for the same: IIM Bangalore 2009 GD/PI experiences.
P.S:
The title credits rest with the master himself, Kaushik Mukherjee. People who know me will know that I am really pathetic at naming as my previous mundane titles suggest.
Conquering the dark
6 years ago
