IIMK interviews

February 14th - Valentine's day. For the first time in my life this day had a significance. It was my first attempt at selling myself to the IIMs and I could already feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I was supposed to be at The Monarch Hotel, Brigade road for the Kozhikode interview. There were around 30 people who had turned up and three panels waiting for their preys.


GDs at Kozhikode are usually a small piece of article about which we are expected to discuss for about 15 mins. The article was about whether panchayats have to be brought under the constitution and their roles in public works, education and health.


I couldn't recollect even a gist about the panchayat raj reforms. So I chose the defensive and tried defining panchayats and their nature. I went in three times with valid points and went with the croud rest of the time. I contrasted the pros and cons of having a local administration. The possibilities of a village head actually being as efficient as a trained IAS officer. Issues involving the powers that can be vested and not vested. I brought about the dangers in enabling the panchayats to have judicial powers since it could sometimes even violate the constitution. I finally talked about how it can and has helped in local infrastructure development and education.


Interview lasted for 30 mins. It was a well balanced interview that didn't spare a single area of testing. There were two profs one who knows everything under the sun and another a techie. It started off with a comment about my funky specs matching the tie.


1. Tell me about yourself? -

me: I answered. {I could hardly finish my third sentence when the other person interrupted}


2. I am bored of asking technical questions for the previous junta..tell me about your interests.

me: Gaming, Computer graphics designing, watching hollywood movies, reading non-fiction etc.


3. What games? cricket? football?

me: No sir. But i am a computer gamer.


4. Why computer games? {Said the stuff i had prepared. reasons, fav genre, my learning through it.}


5. Don't you think it is not good for your vision? what kind of games you play. { I tried to weigh the pros and cons and finally justify my stance. I also said i am good at FPS and RPG games}


6. So you love killing ohters? are you so cruel inside you?

me: { I was puzzed. Said it is not about killing others but the struggle for existence. I said I can't afford to lose my concentration even for a moment else i'll take a bullet on my forehead. Brought in the management skills of strategic planning, tactical moves, sensitivity and agility into conversation. I was convinced but he wasn't - probably he had never seen a computer gamer play before. A good lesson learnt.}


7. So where do you buy these game CDs?

me: {I could see something coming up} I usually buy them in landmark. But we do share games among our friends. I blurted out that i do buy some pirated games if i am desperate about a game.


8. So you don't find it unethical to encourage piracy?

me: { Now see that was my nemesis. I tried to bring in the current nature of piracy in US and India. I tried to contrast them and also how companies like MS are actually encouraging just to gain market penetration. But frankly he wasn't satisfied with the way I compromised my ethics. :( }


9. Do you watch movies?

me: {I said yes. But this time I was careful in saying that i like watching them in theatre. :) }


10. ( He questioned about why I had taken a course on C as well as NCFM.)

me: { I said they were taken at different stages in my life and it is not in chronological order in my file }


11. Few questions on NCFM - what module. what were the syllabi. what you learnt out of it. where are you strong. one question about equities.

me: answered everthing


12. (Finally acads). Your favourite subjects?

me: digital electronics and communication theory.


13. what is Frame relay? {bulll shitt}

me: {It was remotely communication topic. I said it was a protocol used in computer communication. didn't remember its layers or operation}


14. Is it related to ISDN?

me: Sir i think it is the backbone of the Integrated subsriber digital network. { I wasn't sure of the expansion though. So i said i have forgotten completely }


15. Have you studied satellite communication?

me: {A proud Yes.} :)


16. How many satellites are required for a GPS system?

me: I think it can be implemented with a geostationary network since its main objective is to track an entity at any point at any time instant. This can be accomplished with three Geo sats at 120 degrees apart along equator.


17. I don't want you to design a GPS. just tell me how many satellites are used in reality?

me: Definitely don't know sir.


18. Should it necessarily be a geo? what height are the geo satellites located?

me: It need not be sir. I forgot the distance sir.


19. Have you heard of GPRS.

me: { Thank god.I said its expansion. Its purpose. how data is transfered and services possible with GPRS.}


20. How to avoid packet loss in a GPRS network?

me: { clueless. Iterated the ways loss can occur. data corruption. complete packet loss. CRC. source and destination addresses etc. But never answered the question asked :)) }

We also discussed about LAN(ethernet). should it always be CSMA/CD or can we use TCP/IP.


21. What was the recent book you read?

me: I mentioned "The world is flat" by Thomas Freidman.


22. Who is he?

me: He is an economist from California Univ. { I think it was way wrong. He is a journalist and columnist from New york Times}

I talked about his views on Globalization. Its impact on the world economy, software and developing nations. Brought in Joseph Stiglitz and his anti-globalization views on WTO/TRIPS, pharmaceuticals etc. He had been to chennai last week and I happen to download his speech too. So that when was when I dominated the interview.


23. Has anyone of them got a Nobel Prize?

me: Freidman received one during 2001 sir. { Everything was right except for the name. It was Stiglitz. }


24. What is our GDP growth rate? How have the three sectors perfomed?

me: answered


25. What is inflation?

me: { I had read the yesterday's newspaper in and out. I defined it. How india has performed in the past. How it occurs. cost-push and demand-pull inflation etc.}

He went into the recent decision by RBI. { I said the CRR raise by 50 basis points. why it was done. What will happen because of that. I had a confident answer for that.}

But it was my bad luck that it wasn't a demand pull but a supply side scarcity that affected the commodities which were very inelastic. He asked me how increase in lending rates will actually bring down the consumption of rice and dal. It would rather increase the cost of money for industries thus spiralling the prices even higher in a vicious cycle. Obviously I had to say a humble don't know finally :))))


26. Is Reddy out of his mind then? what is thelogic behind it?

me: I had already run out of steam and said i didn't have enough theoretical backing to continue the argument.

He made a comment that YVR is indeed nuts and laughed. They were pleased about the way the discussion ended. I was more than happy since it being my first and not performing very badly in acads which I had never dared to touch.


Lessons learnt:


1. Games should be bought legally. Atleast thats how these guys want to hear.

2. Academics have to be revisited at any cost.