IIM Calcutta

The GD was a small business situation. About the entry strategy to be used by Sumo Inc , a digital camera giant in Japan, while entering India.

Interview:

1. Lots of questions on work ex which I don't want to elaborate again and again. They asked me on innovative applications for datawarehousing in Governance. I talked about farm sector reforms and education. How can we integrate DW and AI. It was a nice discussion for me.

2. Recently your college was in news regarding banning od cell phones and imposing dress code. What do you think of it?

3. You have mentioned your interests in entrepreneurship. Do you have any business plans yet.

4. Don't you think many people who have shone in this field are technical genius.

5. You are from a good college. why don't you go on to do an MS? Or an ME here?

6. How do you think IIMC will help you get what you want? You know anybody who are already entrepreneurs from IIMC?

7. Do you think the entrepreneurship cells in technical institutes are a success models. Did your college have one?

I am not able to recollect many questions exactly. Probably I got too bored of posting the questions. I remember talking more than what he asked for most of the times. It was the coolest ofthe interviews not only for me but for everybody.

IIM Ahmedabad

The case was about a restaurant chain which is successful in Ahmedabad is moved to Chennai. It claims to have two separate kitchens for veg and non-veg. But one day a chicken piece is found in a veg dish. The restaurant's reputation is under grave danger. What should the owner do?

Interview:

It was the best of the interviews in my basket.

1. What do you do in a typical day?

2. What is Business Intelligence?

3. Don't you think its a high profile job? Why do every software engg curse his job? Have you considered working in a manufactuirng or sales job?

4. So if you already love the job why do you want an MBA?

5. Will you join TCS after MBA then?

6. What kind of profile do you expect for an IIMA grad there?

7. Can't you get there without an MBA? Differentiate an MBA and Non-MBA in the role you just mentioned.

8. You have all six calls. anyother apart from that?

9. You gave 6 exams? Don't you have confidence in you?

10. What is the probability that you will make it to atleast 1 IIM? Work out in steps.

me: Answered in a complicated way and made a blunder. He kept on giving clues and i finally corrected.

11. What are P-type and N-type semiconductors?

12. Do they carry charge by default? Are they free electrons?

13. You have heard of Bohr's model. The electrons are infact revolving around the nucleus. Then why do we draw a line between two electrons in a covalent bond. How is it physically present?

14. You should have gone through the Budget? What are major two kinds of taxes?

15. What all comprise of Indirect taxes?

16. Is CST an indirect tax?

17. The cost of collection of indirect taxes has been very high for the govt. Can we scrap off the indirect tax and collect everything as direct tax from end customers?

18. You have mentioned about TAS as your other option. what is that?

19. Only one from TCS makes it? Why is it so tough?

20. What are your interests?

{ We discussed about "The world is flat", "Thomas Friedman" and "Stiglitz".

21. What is Stiglitz's claim to fame? Is he an economist?

22. Can we give him a Nobel prize?

23. How many Indians have got nobel prize?

24. What are the various categories for the prize? Which was the last one to be added?

25. There are two who have got Peace prize while residing in India. Who are they?

26. Who got the Peace prize last year?

IIM Bangalore

I finally was there living the life of an IIMB student for one day. It was held in the campus. There were three panels with two profs each.

The GD was a case as usual. It dealt with a conflict of two values of a company and the protagonist had to decide upon compromising one or none in order to pitch a huge deal. It was a cultured GD on the whole. I would rate myself 4th in the group of 10.

Interview:

1. So what are people discussing outside?
me: They are very much happy they are being questioned on their work ex and current affairs and not on academics.

2. Guess we have to change the trend then. Where can we start?

3. { The IT Prof started questioning on work ex then} tell me your profile exactly?

4. What technologies have you learnt till now?

5. How far have you explored UNIX?

6. What is the difference between C Shell and Bash Shell?
me: Answered the basic differences.

7. Have you done Kernel programming?
me: No. I just use is as a platform. We use it to schedule jobs. My major forte is in SAS.

{ SAS is an important business package that is used is IIMB research lab. I thought it could come in handy. But it never did :( }

8. Have you used crontab while scheduling?

9. Describe the business logic you have developed in the project.

{ Over to the Strategy Prof }

10. What is your stake on the Kaveri Issue? { Hailing form Tamil Nadu and sitting in B'lre, it was indeed a sensitive issue to discuss. I had to be as equivocal as possible. }

me: A 5 minute speech encompassing History, truth according to Karnataka govt. and TN govt., politics involved and my suggestions to solve the problem.

{ I seemed so convincing atleast to myself ;) }

11. What things would you consider if you had to move TCS to J&K?

me: Answered about the history, business climate, few things to be done on the govt. part before Tata's can take their first step.

12. You seem to be poor in maths. You have got D grade in two papers in math.

me: Grades aren't indicative of a person's talent.

13. But they do indicate how you have performed in the exams. Don't they??

{ I answered about Fourier transforms and cauchy's integral theorem being so tough for me intially. But they form a vital part of many other subjects and I pointed out a few in which I had scored A. The least I could do. }

14. Last quetion. Why should we take you?

IIM Lucknow

GD Topic: "Politicians are the same all over the world. They will talk about building bridge even where there is no river."

We had to write an essay about the same topic for about 10 mins. The idea is to evaluate the content of the student even before the GD.

For a moment the topic seemed to be vague. But it had lots of fundamental questions to be asked. Ofcourse we were supposed to talk about POLITICIANS. Is 15 mins ENOUGH???

I and another gentleman were donning the discussion. Hailing from Tamil Nadu I was never short of examples. Kalaingar's "A TV for every household" did the magic.

Interview: It lasted for 13 mins exactly. But was I really unlucky?? I should wait untill the results are out. This was clearly my worst performance. But everyone felt so. It was a cool interview for many people and never lasted more than 15 mins. I personally felt bad because I fear they could have hardly judged me by the answers I gave.

1. What make you feel happy?

me: Pat came a grandiose reply. Following my dreams and feeling a sense of control over life makes me Happy Sir.

2. Why are you so diplomatic? It was meant to ease you up. Are you tensed?

me: No Sir. I said normally I feel happy when I am with my friends. blaw blaw...

3. Why have you got such poor grades in maths? Math II - D, Material Science - D, Electronic Circuits II - D

me: {Jesus. It surely wasn't my day.} I wasn't actually prepared for that. Said the class performed almost in the same way barring few As and Bs. I pointed out how I worked out my weaknesses and performed well in the next two years. I had never got less than C after 4th sem.

4. Your University seems to be too lenient. You know in IIML if you get (2 Fs) you are out. or (4 Ds). or (1 F and 2 Ds)

me: I realised that D was mere pass in IIMs. In our college it is a little better.(60-70%). But he never seemed satisfied.

5. You have said you are the Team Lead. What are your responsibilities?

me: Answered

6. What can we do with a datawarehouse?

me: Thats from my work ex. Defined a datawarehouse.

7. Tell me two applications for it in Sales and two in Finance.

me: Talked about Performance tracking, Marketing strategy evaluation, data mining etc. Couldn't differentiate for Finance. Any Financial data can be analysed across geographies and timelines. I wasn't to specific.

8. Which management subjects you have studied in college?

me: Principles of Management, Engg Economics, TQM.

9. What is Producer's surplus?

me: Talked about demand and supply curves and if one produces quanity greater than what the market demands it will be a surplus. { That was bull shit. The actual answer is way different. Lemme explain now. Any quantity can be sold at a particular price. If the price increased the quantity demanded reduces and vice versa. Similary the supply increases, the price also increases. So the producers usually decide on the equilibrium price which is found at the intersection of demand and supply curve. Now if we look at the graph below equilibrium point the product could have been sold even at a lower price than the equilibrium price. The excess amount made by selling at the equilibrium price is the producer's surplus. }

10. What is TQM?

me: Told about Quality. Deming & Juran. etc { Should have talked abt TCS quality processes too :( }.

11. What is Deming's philosophy.

me:I remembered it had 14 points but I could recollect none. :(

12. What is the turnover for TCS?

me: Answered.

13. Who is heading it?

me: At last I felt insulted since the questions were deliberately easy. I added about the next potential CEOs also.

Two more questions which I am not able to recollect now.

Overall I wasn't too happy in comparison to my previous experience.