IIM Bangalore GD / Interview Experience

Interview date : 7th April
Time : 9:00 AM
Venue : IIMB

Whew .... Back after a long break since March 15th, when I had the Calcutta interview !!

Starting the process @ 9 was pretty soon ... So, far it has either been 9:30 or 10 in the previous interviews .... Anyway, I might as well (dhodaa ... as if you had choice) go there on time .....

Manikandan dropped me at the venue at about 8:10 AM .... went to the place where it will be conducted .... One othe soul was already waiting .....

About the candidates in my panel : (only) 6 in number, all guys. Their profiles .....

1. Vignesh, an IIT-M 2005 pass-out - Mechnical - was working in Dawant and had resigned because of his IIM interviews
2. Tonmoy Shingal, an IIT-K 2002 pass-out - Electrical - has been working with TI ever since. He knew New Melchizedec (my classmate), Bhaskar and Madan (my friends in ECE department) who had worked with TI. In fact, he was a roomie of each of these persons @ different points in time !!
3. Sandeep, an REC-Suratgal 2005 pass-out - Mechanical - has been working working with Ingersoll Rand. There was something peculiar about this chap. He regretted having got the IIM interview calls. Yes, you read right ... do not have to blink and rub your eyes .... He wanted to go to US - his company would have sent him for an year for training by January itself, if he had not got these calls .... In fact, he had not checked his CAT results on the net and realized it only after the postal applications got delivered !! Had got all 5 calls expect the one from A.
4. Amit Deshpande, a BITS-Pilani 2004 pass-out - CSE - was the MP state 3rd rank holder in 10+2 board examination - has been working with Juno online services. He knew R K Padmanaban (my classmate) - in fact, had worked on the same project - Yes, you are right - the world is a VERY small place !!
5. Amit Gharg, a Punjab Engineering College 2003 pass-out - CSE - is working with Oracle Hyderabad.
6. yours-truly

Chatting / small talk was pretty easy because of the small group and the similiarity in background.

GD:

The format is as follows : it was a case study. 10 minutes to read it. 15 minutes to discuss it. 15 minutes to summarise the discussion on a piece of paper. No verbal summary was necessary.

The topic was pretty cool .... A retired Economics professor .... wants to give-back to the community .... starts his own college .... is not interested in monetary gains .... achieves a good recognition over a period of 10 years .... @ the age of 70, he gets a heart attack and his family wants him to retire .... what should he do now ? he has 4 options.

a. Hand it over to Mr. Verma - good @ implementing stuff - is sincere - is an yes-man - not an individual thinker.
b. Hand it over to Mrs. Kalpana Naik - popular with a section of staff and students - good @ implementation - can handle responsibity - the only problem she had was the she sticks to a 9AM - 5 PM work schedule - never stay late in spite of repeated requests and urgent situations. c. Hand it over to Mr. Sanjay Naik - husband of candidate (b) - good at giving great ides - not known as a good implementor - has a very indisciplined life
d. Sell the insti to a business house which is interested in buying it out - they are willing to offer a good price - but they have a condition - the 70 year old veteran should become complete aloof from the college matters and not be part of anything which has to do with the college.

(a), (b) and (c) are currently part of a working-committee under the principal.

The discussion was pretty good .... I supported that having a 9AM - 5 PM work schedule was not bad ... quoted examples that ladies who work under such restrictions are more productive than bachelors who do not have such restrictions .... that they take shorter tea / lunch breaks and their dedication is much more concentrated within the 9 and 5 time window .... highlighted the fact that candidate (a) was an yes-man and may not be a good leader .... warned that (b) may be influenced by (c)'s work habits since they are spouses .... (b) and (c) at the top may mean that it gets managed like a family business .... negotiate with (d) that (a), (b) and (c) continue to be at the helm of affairs ....

Overall, the GD went on smoothly .... No problems .... Wrote the summary of the discussion within the time allotted .... Was blaming my handwriting !!! Having a good handwriting in such situations is definitely a big plus.

Had a big wait ahead of me !! I was the last candidate on the panel .... The first person went in @ 10:05 AM ... My interview did not start until 12:30 PM .... in fact, I had started feeling hungry by the time it was noon .... Had only 3 pooris in the morning @7:45 AM ;-)

There were R. Narayanaswamy (Fin and Control) and another younger prof.

(P stands for Panelist)

P : What is the nature of responsibility at your organization?
Told about Account Services

P : What is your role in the development of Account Services?
Told about program specs, code review, test cases, test case review, functional testing (Jeevitha, Kamatchi, Karthikeyan, Ramya, Saravanan and Siddharth - No, do not sneer @ me ;-))

P : How long have you been doing this ?
Told

P : You have been working for 46 months now ... Have you been doing the same thing?
Told about how I started off in the SEC B & R project .... moved to CID ... how I learnt the system .... got DB2 DBA certification ... how I started leading .... the regular fundas ... Tried to divide the above stages into 9 or 12 month durations .... basically providing the picture that I had been constantly learning something or the other stuff over the past 4 years ....

P : You have stuck to the same place for a long time !! quite unlike S/W professionals who keep jumping once every 2 years .... Is it good or bad
Gave some gyan as to what should be the criteria for change and how I had not been in such a situation till now

P : Tell me about the SEC B & R project ....
Talked about the requirement of SEC ... how we as a clearing house fit in ... how we work with the stock brokers .... about 5 or 6 questions followed ... he genuinely tried to understand how Pershing fits into the scenario .... He kept on asking questions till he understood the business model of Pershing .... this session went on well ..... we talked about our competitors ... told about "National Financial" and "Bear and Sterns" .... thanks to an article about Pershing that a friend had forwarded a week ago.

P : Now after 4 years, why do you want to shift
Realized that this is the "Why MBA" question in different words, gave the gyan that I had kept prepared ....

P : How will your career advance if you do not take your MBA?
Told that I will have two options. (a) Applications oriented - become a Project Lead, Manager, Group Manager and Division Head (b) Tech. Oriented - DBA - DA - DBA division head.

Given this framework I tried to put forth the idea that there is a glass ceiling that I will face either a decade or 15 years from now. Explained that I will not be able to become a COO - even if I become one after decades, I will be expected to enroll in an MBA course - few people might realize what I am talking about !!! I let them know that I might probably never be able to make to the position of a CIO .... again, guess you know what I am talking about ....

P : Why dont you take the PGSEM course that we offer in Chennai
Had gone prepared for this question .... Told about the experience issue .... Told about the IT focus in this course that I did not want ... They were not willing to take that for an answer - were telling me that they have lot of other electives that I can take .... mmmm .... thought for some time ... told that I may not be able to do full justice to both my work and the course ... that PGSEM course is rigorous and office responsibilities would also increase over the next 3 years .... they accepted that answer and moved on .... Thanks !!

P : Would you be able to handle the change to an academic environment after 4 years gap
Told about the financial implications and how I had planned for it ....

P : Would you be able to handle the competitiveness of freshers who continue their education ... Would be able to handle the surprise tests, quizzes etc ....
Gave gyan !! What else ?!? Told about CAT and interview preparation in the past year and that I knew that I could do it.

P : Any questions ....
Asked if they have any full-time MBA plans in their Singapore campus ... they mentioned that currently they are looking only @ part time and executive level programs ....

Thanked them and exited.

Pretty cool ..... interview lasted 30 to 35 minutes ....

But, not an interview based on which they can come to any decision about my merits / demerits ..... the decision would largely be based on other factors .... which again might be anything .... graduate scores .... work-ex .... CAT score .... CAT distribution in various sections .... GD performance .... Let us see .... The day is not far before the results are announced .... Some day before the end of April .... Nobody seems to be sure about this date .....

Open for comments ....