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Nov 2007:30 AM PST
-08:30 AM PST
Learn what truly sets the UC Riverside MBA apart and how it helps in your professional growth
08 Mar 2021, 07:23
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Latest ISB interview questions compilation for 2021 intake
The detailed interview debriefs can found at this link isb-204/interview_debrief.html
Interview questions
My interview lasted for around 45 minutes and was very conversational in nature. Both the alumni were extremely attentive and friendly. They introduced themselves at the very beginning of the interview. The majority of my interview was centred around my work experience. They asked me detailed questions about different kinds of projects I had worked on - my role, interactions with other team members, conflicts (if any), the impact of the project, skills gained, etc. I even received a few counter questions on the work I had done. They then asked me about my short and long term goals and why ISB. They asked me a few questions about my family and a few of the extracurriculars I had mentioned in my application. The interview ended with them asking me if I had any questions. The overall interview experience was good. Both alumni made me feel very comfortable and showed a very keen interest in my work and hobbies. Prior to my interview, I booked an hour-long interview training session with Preppie. The training was really helpful as they provided me with specific questions to prepare well for. The one-hour session with the ISB alumni was extremely useful since I received detailed feedback and tips on each point usually covered in an interview. The session prepared me to handle any curveballs that came my way. I would highly recommend Preppie for ISB aspirants
Questions:
1. Let’s dive into your current experience - what does your current organisation do and what is your role?
2. Did you interact with farmers? What challenges did they face?
3. In light of the farm act, how is your organisation’s intervention going to help farmers?
4. How are farmers incentivised to take your help as opposed to approaching Mandis?
5. What learnings or strengths have you brought from your previous job that helps you with your current role?
6. Why did you transition from your previous organisation to your current one? Was it your choice?
7. What did you do at your previous job?
8. Your previous organisation has acquired an e-commerce platform - what are your thoughts on that?
9. Where do you think your previous organisation is headed wrt to the new verticals that have come up?
10. What kind of data crunching did you do in your sales role?
11. Did you manage a team? How many people?
12. Given that you worked with distributors from different regions, how did you measure the performance of your team?
13. What steps did you take to understand the different regions you worked in?
14. Case: if you had to launch a new product (eg: water) in Mumbai and Chhattisgarh, what parameters would you use to measure the consumer type in both regions? (Delved deeper into this case)
15. Given you’ve had this kind of experience, why do you want an MBA? Why not continue in your current for a few more years? What is your short-term goal?
16. What do you hope to take away from ISB and contribute to ISB? - I mentioned ELP and the follow-up question was: you’ve had far more valuable experience than the ELP can offer so why MBA?
17. Specifically Net Impact and Marketing clubs - what do you hope to contribute and leverage? (I mentioned these two clubs)
18. Going back to your work experience, what challenges and learnings did you have in your first job?
19. What do you think is the pro and con of technology in education? (Question related to the sector of my first job - Education/non-profit)
20. Are you still associated with your first organisation as a volunteer?
21. Are you currently volunteering with any organisation?
22. Where did you grow up? How has that shaped you?
23. What are your interests? How have your interests changed you?
24. You said you’ve lived in Mumbai for the past 15 years - what changes have you seen in this city over this time? Are these changes good or bad according to you?
25. What questions do you have for us?
Q: Tell me about yourself.
Q: How did I help my previous firm grow (picked up from my essay)
Q:3 Follow up questions on the answers I had given to understand the details of it
Q: How did I bring a degrowing category in growth in my current job (picked up from essay)
Q: Follow up question with the answer I gave; To consider them as my management and pitch in the changes which I suggested
Q: Difference between UAE retail market and Indian Retail market (based on my work experience)
Q: How would MBA help me in my short term goal which I had stated in my essay
Q : Follow up questions with how would I not able to learn those things while working in my current role also
Q: Plan B if it does not work out for the short term goal I am striving for
Q: Any questions for us?
Q: Before ending Do you play any instrument or sing (picked up from my hobby)
- Tell us about yourself
- I had mentioned my love for fashion, so a woman from the panel asked how am I planning to inculcate in my career.
- Why ISB and why now?
- Why can't I just continue with my job and maybe my company will sponsor my education further and reach where I want to?
- Quite a few questions on my long term goal, how is that going to make a difference.
- What role do relationships play in a woman's life?
- What are the challenges faced by women in our society?
- My current role and how does it make an impact on the bigger picture.
- Two negative experiences.
- What is the different quality that I bring to the table.
- Asked about an automation tool which I made at my work
- What do I think consultants do?
3 Alumns - 2004, 2013, 2016 batch 1 good boy, 1 bad boy and 1 neutral (who was supposed to be just the tech guy but ended up asking the most questions) Grilling, Kind of stress. On top of it, they were really short on time. We started with me explaining my career progression with my current entrepreneurial experience as a focus. Few cross-questions here and there. Grilled me a lot on Entrepreneurship. Why MBA suddenly after just a year of entrepreneurship. What did you learn through this journey? What conflicts did you go through? How would you handle conflicts with your peers during your MBA course? -- "Bad boy" wasn't convinced with my answers. What is the one thing you would take from PGP at ISB - I mentioned Credibility - They respected this honest answer What Else? I said Networking - What kind of people would you look to network with - Entrepreneurs, Mfg/Operations guys, those interested in Adventure sport activities. What is that one thing looking at which one would never say this task has been taken up by me. - Inventory Management Are you a loner? What would you say you are - introvert or extrovert? I said - Extrovert of all the introverts - which they liked
What kind of legacy would you leave behind - Friendships A lot of cross-questioning on my long-term goal of Electric Vehicles. We literally finished on an agreement that the interview was intentionally made stressful and that I handled it well. My experience wasn't as similar as to other guys but could be because I have more years of experience but you never know. Not practising does help I guess."3 Alumni (2003 (super-entho and asked a lot of questions), 2012 (asked a lot of questions in the start) & 2015 (not much from her, asked only her prepared questions, I'm assuming)). All of them were product/marketing managers. The sequence of questions wasn't that surprising. - They started by asking about a project I'm most proud of and one project that was a failure. I had this prepared so went well. - Then they follow up with leadership and learning-related questions on projects mentioned explained earlier. - They dug further into my leadership style through behavioural questions. - Then they moved on to more behavioural questions about project management/event management/ my industry/ how covid has impacted it. - Then the why MBA, Goals and what am I looking to get out of ISB. - After this, they were mainly digging into why I want to move industries/roles. They thought the role and industry/role I'm in is quite exciting and hands-on but my goals are more strategy/backend/thinking work. - In the end, they asked me if I had any questions. The interview went on for 35 mins. The 2003 and 2012 Alumni were the ones asking most of the questions after the prepared questions were done. They had definitely decided amongst themselves as to who will ask what, barring the follow-ups. The interview was super conversational and wasn't as stressful as I had built up in my head. Till the time your story from now, to MBA, to goals is making sense you should be able to handle the interview.
Panel Members: 4 Alum + 1 ISB Adcom(Video Off) Interview Type: Conversational
Q1. Tell me about yourself
Q2. Follow up question on my diverse roles and what work I did, impact.
Q3. Follow up question on revenue recognition and a project experience on it since I was working as a Project Manager.
Q4. Why do you want to join ISB - why MBA?
Q5. Why not pursue your post-MBA goal within your current company since I have transitioned across roles?
Q6. How would ISB enable you?
Q7. Question from Essay - a living example that I mentioned
Q8. Question on initiatives that I am running(I mentioned in my essay)
Panel - 01 Female Alums (Co 2003) and 02 Males (Co 2018), another person who was on mute with video off throughout. The Alums were very friendly and made me feel comfortable.
Q: What does the company do? What was your role? What did you do?
Q: Work-related questions and follow-up questions.
Q: A challenge you faced at work and how did you resolve it? What was your learning?
Q: Why did you move from the corporate sector to the development sector?
Q: How have you grown in this job? What have you learned?
Q: What are your short-term goals and how will ISB help you achieve them?
Q: What is your Plan B?
Q: There are few placement opportunities at ISB for the development sector how will you get placed?
Q: What about ROI because you will move to the development sector post ISB?
Q: Any questions for us? The interview was not stressful, revolved majorly around my work. They were keen to know about projects undertaken and my role. It was conversational.
My interviewers were 2 ISB alumni. The interview was very conversational.
Some things that were discussed during the interview -
- A brief of my background in engineering and experience in the development sector.
- Explanation for gaps in my work experience.
- Explanation for why I have worked part-time.
- Motivations that drive me at work.
- Who/what influences me.
- Question about leadership skills from one of my essays.
- I asked them a couple of questions after about the time folks get to dedicate to pet projects/clubs. The entire conversation lasted about 40 minutes.
- They Introduced themselves. The panel consisted of three alumni and one Faculty (Camera off, No participation).
- Asked me to tell me something about myself and why MBA in a single question.
- Asked about my exact role as they were all in consulting and unrelated to my job profile (manufacturing)
- A challenging project I've worked on and why was it challenging. How did I work around it
- One work situation where I showed leadership
- Questions about my part-time start-up, my learnings, and things I would do differently
- Started with my introduction
- Challenging project I've worked on and why was it challenging. How did I work around it
- One work situation where I showed leadership
- My goals post-MBA and why I can't achieve the same by staying in Investment Banking
- Asked me about what I want to gain from ISB specifically
- Talked about one of my extracurricular social work experience
- Asked me more about my short term goals
- Then moved to any questions I have for them
1. tell me about yourself - gave a brief intro of myself focusing on my roles and responsibilities in my current role
2. what aspect of your job do you like the best and why - spoke about making pitch books
3. what has been a professional accomplishment/sometimes when you took initiative with cross-questioning on this - had helped team build credentials in a space so spoke about that
4. what is your goal - wanted to transition from my advisory to internal corporate strategy role
5. why do you want to do it - mentioned I have currently been evaluating businesses but have been doing it from an outside-in perspective, want to get more involved in the intricacies of business, understand the on-ground challenges
6. given that you get to work on diverse projects, wouldn't an internal role limit your exposure or be less exciting - spoke about how I already have four years of experience, would now like to build expertise in a sub-segment within consumer tech because these knowledge and skillsets are extremely valuable and can be monetized later
7. what would I choose between a PM role at Swiggy and a Gen-mgt role at Unilever - said would rather prefer a growth strategy role at Swiggy
8. why do I need an MBA - knowledge base + strategic/thinking skills developed through the course and peer group diversity; network
9. why not just do some course online and in fact invest time in building that consumer tech expertise - said MBA gives that classroom experience, can learn from people who already come from engineering/tech backgrounds
10. Career plan b and plan c
11. describe a time when you failed - spoke about a situation when I took more responsibility than I could handle and my learnings from it
12. any questions for us - asked them for some advice that they would give to a young professional like me
Q: Tell me about yourself.
Q: Why do you want to do an MBA?
Q: Are you sure this is the right school for you.
Q: How have you ascertained that doing MBA from ISB is the right path for you?
Q: Are you leaving your present job as a matter of normal process or are you quitting for a specific purpose?
Q: Have you ever been in a situation when you did not have anyone under you and you wanted to lead a team?
Q: Tell me about the time you felt that your Boss was wrong?
Q: What do you plan to do immediately after ISB?
Q: Any questions for us?
Q: Please walk us through your experience since graduating.
Q: Could you explain in detail your experience at X company?
Q: I'm unable to follow, please back up and explain from the top.
Q: Got it, now please explain your own role in all this in detail.
Q: So why did you leave this job?
Q: What do you want to do in life?
Q: So how does an MBA help in that?
Q: Could you name one or more companies that you would target post ISB? Why?
Q: Any questions for us?
1. Any questions before starting the interview. (Which I requested them to keep at the end as we may have interacted to a level that we both may have more questions for each other- they agreed)
2. Highlights of your carrier till now or key points of carrier?
3. Multiple questions from the above answer
4. Question referred from my essay as I had mentioned product management as my short-term goal- what specifically you would do in ISB to get you to product management, specific steps I would take?
5. Why you changed X companies in the last X years?
6. Questions related to previous company like what type of company, what was my profile, team size, team setup, project details, client details...etc.? (Probably they wanted to make sure my story was not cooked and also more clarity on what my roles and responsibilities were)
7. Question related to achievement ( clarification from 2nd question)
8. Changes in profile across the tenure- explain
9. You are in the 50% of the applicants with an engineering degree and IT background, what are you gonna do to differentiate yourself from the rest applicants, from an admission perspective?
10. What you want to do in ISB to have fun?
11. Fun activities outside which you are fond of?
12. Specific idea about startup ( which I mentioned in the above fun question as I like to discuss ideas of my product in the plan)
13. What if the program moves to a digital platform how it will affect you? (Impact of Covid)
14. Do You have any questions for us, you can ask now?
- I asked about the ELP program, Preparations they had before getting into the ISB curriculum and changes they observe as a person post PGP.
1. You've mentioned that you would like to work in a startup post MBA. Why did you choose to work in a big organization after your engineering? A follow-up question on why I didn't switch jobs. ( asked this as I am working in the same organization for the last 4 years)
2. What are the things you don't like about my work and a follow-up question on that.
3. Asked me to explain a certain aspect of my work I had mentioned in my essays.
4. Asked to describe a challenging situation at work related to people management.
5. A guesstimate on the number of Electric charging points required in India in the next 1year and 5 years.
6. How much time will it take to get entire India vaccinated and Why? ( probably asked this because of my Healthcare background).
7. Why ISB?
8. What's your Plan B, if you're not selected?
9. Any questions for us?
- A brief of my background in engineering and experience in the development sector.
- Explanation for gaps in my work experience.
- Explanation for why I have worked part-time.
- Motivations that drive me at work.
- Who/what influences me.
- Question about leadership skills from one of my essays.
1) Tell me about your profile
2) 20mins into recent projects and lots of cross-questions
3) One question on the essay
4) One quality you lack and how do you plan to overcome it
5) One question on a hobby
6) Any questions
1) Tell us about your work profile
2) Talk about why you have chosen this industry as a post-MBA goal.
3) One challenge of your current industry and what do you think can be a potential solution for it.
4) Talk about the project in which you received an award.
5) What are you looking forward to at ISB
6) A few questions on extracurriculars.
7) Do you have any questions for us.
-Tell us about yourself
-About the work experience, the challenging situation at work and the example that I mentioned in my essay and some probing into the same
-About my work achievements and hobbies
-Short term goals and a case study related to the same
-Finally, Why you?
-Any questions for us?
1) We went deeper into implementation, my role in the project, challenges in that project.
2) As a leader how do I mentor my colleagues.
3) Why do I want to join ISB.
4) Why did I pursue the different certifications I mentioned and how am I looking to use AWS experience in ISB.
5) industry-specific relevance of cloud computing.
6) we also touched upon my mentorship experience from the NGO I have been working with for some time.
7) As a re-applicant, what were my motivations to reapply.
1. Tell us about yourself.
2. Why MBA so soon after just completing an educational experience (I just graduated from the Young India Fellowship in June 2020)
3. Current work experience
4. Challenging situation faced and how did you overcome it.
5. What have you learned from your past work experience that helped you in this role.
6. Goals. What next after MBA?
7. Trends and challenges in the social sector.
8. What traits do you have that will help you keep up with the rigorous curriculum at ISB
9. Example of a situation where you worked in a team.
10. What do you bring/contribute to the class at ISB?
11. One thing you learned from the COVID pandemic and everything that happened in the past year.
- Walk us through your experience focussed on the most recent job you have had.
- What were the KPIs for this job
- Were there any transferable skills you used from your previous job in the current job
- What were the biggest skills you gained through this job
- Why ISB/MBA?
- What is your short term and long term goal?
- What is your plan B if plan A doesn’t work?
- Do you have any questions for us?
1. Tell us about yourself.
2. Why MBA so soon after just completing an educational experience (I just graduated from the Young India Fellowship in June 2020)
3. Current work experience
4. Challenging situation faced and how did you overcome it.
5. What have you learned from your past work experience that helped you in this role.
6. Goals. What next after MBA?
7. Trends and challenges in the social sector.
8. What traits do you have that will help you keep up with the rigorous curriculum at ISB
9. Example of a situation where you worked in a team.
10. What do you bring/contribute to the class at ISB?
11. One thing you learned from the COVID pandemic and everything that happened in the past year.
1. How are you Copping up with the pandemic
2. Can you tell us why were you conferred with the award XYZ at your place?
3. What are the challenges you might have faced during this 6-week international stint
4: You have worked for around 3.5 years till Why do you want to take up an MBA, and specifically why ISB?
5: What the biggest failure
6: Can you let us know regarding the KPI’s you have mentioned with regards to 1 of the tool you have developed at your workplace
7: What were the challenges you faced when transitioned from Tech role to business role
8: What was one of the biggest achievement
9: What was so big achievement in that
10: Working in the bank might be a bit hectic, and what motivates you to go to work
11: Do you have any questions for us?
1. Tell me about your life story
2. Why ISB - I mentioned academics, experiential learning opportunities, club culture, and alumni network
3. Why not get into IIM executive education programs - you will get the same if not better-experienced cohort and all other points you mentioned? Also, you are at the higher end of the spectrum in terms of work experience for ISB while you will be around average there.
(I did not expect to be asked for such a direct comparison with another school)
I mentioned the good qualities of ISB first (similar to the previous answer). I mentioned that I have not heard good reviews of the IIM course. Also, I don't want to be in a learning zone and performance zone at the same time and want to upskill in a structured way. Plus, all my connections I spoke to were of similar work experience as me when they joined, so not sure why the work experience is a problem.
3. Further deep dive into Current work experience
4. Biggest deal in current job - Challenges, value add, what did you do there?
5. Why did your company get the above deal (Grilling over this)?
6. Show an example of conflict at work - Here, the panelist wanted to hear of IB-like conflicts over mandates.
I had to be frank about it and mentioned that it doesn't happen in my firm. We are not at each other's throats for stuff like that and work as a strong team. I said that I can provide you with examples of other conflicts that I have handled and proceeded to do the same.
7. Some questions on the sector - Cross questioning on the same
8. Any questions you have - I asked 3 questions on their ISB experience and careers.
- Started off with an ice breaker which actually turned the other way round. Asked 3 quiz questions that were not answered correctly
- Question about my work experience. Little more about the work and then how many I manage and whom do I report to
- How is my performance rated
Situational questions followed after this:
- Challenges in work
- Conflict in a team
- How do you manage people with different personality
- Plan after MBA. what do you know about strategy
- Small case study on improving revenue for a mid-size bank
- Digitalization of banking - how to sell that to upper management
- If someone is not doing well in the team, how will you manage
- How do you adapt to change
- Backup plan after MBA. The second interviewer took this one step back, asked what if not admitted to ISB
- At the end, any Q for the panel
1. You work in the Govt/public sector so was it a conscious choice you made?
2. How will MBA help you in your job? (I had mentioned in my essay that I would like to go back to my organization)
3. Do you have any ideas or plans for the development of the sector? (had mentioned it in my essay and in an answer)
4. What if you don't make it to ISB?
5. How did your evaluator react when you informed her about your plans?
6. Tell us in detail about your journey from your foundational years.
7. How did you develop an interest in the financial sector during your Engineering? (had mentioned this in one answer)
8. Rapid fire kind of Qs: choose between speed & power, speed & perfection, and money & perfection
9. What do you think leadership is and tell us something about your leadership experience
10. Let's say you have some enemies. If I were to go to them and ask about what they think about you, what would they say?
11. What do you do outside of work?
12. Questions for us? (asked 2 Qs: tips to maximize the learning and overall experience if I get admitted and how ISB experience has changed you as a person and as a professional over the years)
• Q:1 - Tell us about your recent work
○ I answered it by telling about my work experience and startup.
• Q:2 - Let's go deeper into your start-up. Explain to us everything from scratch
○ I answered it, It took around 5-7 mins.
• Q:3 - Tell us what was your biggest mistake in it
• Q:4 - Why MBA, if you have already dived into ventures and learned a lot?
• Q:5 - Again why spending too much on MBA and not invest in your start-up?
• Q:6 - What would you change in your concept if you would start again?
• Q:7 - Why ISB and full-time program? Why not online courses out there?
• Q:8 - How you will manage to face competition in your business?
- Current role responsibilities.
- Business Model of the employer
- Few questions regarding my working domain and Indian market
- Why PGP? Why ISB? and why now?
- Alternate career plan if MBA is not possible.
- Discussion on my long-term goal, starting my own business, and any ideas I have in my mind.
- What if I don't get a product management job from campus?
- Brief discussion on my hobbies.
1. Interview started with introductions, after which I was asked to introduce myself.
2. Explain your background in detail?
3. How has the interest in the Operations and supply chain field developed?
4. What skills will you bring from the army to the business world?
5. Explain with an example of how you overcame a difficult situation at work?
6. What role technology plays in the business or military world?
7. Any questions for us.
1. Introduce yourself
2. How do you go about influencing people? Do you have any method for it? How do you benefit from it? Quality mentioned -> Influence
3. Why ProdMan and why specifically from ISB?
4. Follow up -> how is will help in getting you the ProdMan role?
5. What is the most critical feedback you have received?
6. How would you give feedback to others? Do you think influence and feedback go hand-in-hand?
7. Situational question <got bumped> How would you handle a person who is offended by negative feedback? Answered it. Follow-up, how will you influence a person who is offended by the negative feedback and is not a rational person? (Couldn't answer)
8. Back to PM. Why do you specifically want to do a PM role? People at your age like to do many things at once. What interests you to become a PM?
9. What happens if you don't get to do an MBA? What happens if you don't get a PM role at ISB?
10. Any questions for us?
1. Introduce yourself
2. Questions on the startup experience
3. Why MBA
4. Why ISB
5. Cross questions on Why MBA
6. Short term goals
7. Why don’t you continue in your current job and achieve your goals
8. Any questions for the panel
Q1: tell us about your current role
Q2: a challenge overcome at work
Q3: asked about a certain project from the resume, asked how I work with teams
Q4: why MBA? Why now?
Q4.1: you have a very technical background, why consulting? why do you think you’ll be good at it? - consulting is my short term goal
Q5: how many tractors are used in India?
Q6: questions for us
1. Tell us about yourself and why you here
2. So you want to be an entrepreneur, do you have any idea or plan to startup
3. Guesstimate: how many contact lenses are sold in India every year
4. Why do you want to do an MBA
5. Why ISB?
6. Why not PGP pro, max, or online courses or labs
7. Tell us about a unicorn you love and hate
6. What advice would you give a leading edutech founder
7. What do you think of payment players ipl ads
8. What do you like to do other than work
9. If you had million dollars to buy any car. Which one would you buy, and why? ( Based on hobbies)"
Q1. Tell us a bit about your career progression after your undergraduate
Q2. What would you say your highlight at Cognizant was?
Q3. Why do you think others haven’t done it?
Q4. Okay, so why do you want to move towards product management? What is your motivation?
Q5. At Cognizant you worked for 4.5 years. Was it the same work during the entire time or did it change in between?
Q6. There is an internship I saw in your profile. I have never heard of it before. Can you tell us a little about it?
Q7. People usually tend to take up certifications. Why did you choose this?
Q8. You have talked a lot about empathy in your essay. So how did you help your friend in SCB when you yourself were new there.
Q9. Given that you think empathy is the most important characteristic for a leader. What will you do in a situation when you have to fire an employee.
Q10. But will that not affect your own work. You will have so much to do and if you keep talking to 500 ppl, it will eat away your time.
Q11. Have you been in a management position before?
Q12. Then that is why you don’t know that things don’t work like that all the time.
Q13. So you are so close to PM in your current role, why don’t you stay there and get there, Why do you need an MBA now?
Q14. But if there is no MBA what will you do?
Q15. So you took a certification in BA and then moved to this position to learn more about your domain. Why didn’t you just take a Fintech course?
Q16. Fintech is such a niche area, you are so clear you need to get there, why don’t you take an MBA from other universities outside India. There are some great courses available.
Q17. What are you looking for from MBA? Is it just the ROI or will you be open to work in a startup with no salary?
Q18. Given that you are so focused on payments and PM, is there any product that you already want to develop or some space that you are excited about?
Q19. Any questions for us
1)They started with a brief introduction about themselves and then asked me to give a short intro about myself.
2)The next question was about my motivation behind switching industries and roles (I have worked in 3 different industries in two different roles).
3)They asked me to give them an example of a problem that I solved, what was my takeaway from it, and what I would have done differently if I could do it all over again.
4)They asked what I did in Russia and what was my learning and take from it (I had studied medicine in Russia for 2 years)
5)Few questions about my short-term goal and how I plan to transition to a new role.
6)Fallback plans if not ISB or not my target role.
7)Casual conversation about my hobbies, triathlon, fine arts, and fusion cooking.
1) Tell us about your role at work
2) You have said in the application that you Invest in the Unlisted Space. Tell us more
3) What has been your biggest professional challenge?
4) What was your learning and what corrective action did you take?
5) How do you think the PGP will help you with your goals?
6) What is your biggest Professional Achievement? (They asked me to keep the response to one line because I was answering other questions in detail)
7) Do you have any questions for us?
Q1- How did COVID treat you and what you did in the COVID period? (this was part of my application and hence they picked this up and drove the conversation towards this)
Q2- Can you elaborate on any emerging trends in HealthTech in India?
Q3- Where do you think India stands in terms of Fintech? Can you provide a contrast with the Fintechs in developed countries? What is the reasons for the contrasts?
Q4 - Why not Edtechs, why did you restrict yourself to just HealthTechs and FinTechs?
Q5 - A Resume Based question - How did do crafted a compelling investment thesis for investors?
Q6 - Can you walk us through any of the transaction where you would have done this
Q7 - Your recommender mentioned that you have handled complex transactions extremely well? Can you throw some light on that?
Q8 - Can you talk about any transaction where you played a key role? What was your contribution to that assignment?
Q9 - What do you like to do when you are not working?
Q10 - Which Bike do you own?
Q11 - Which Football Club do you follow?
Q12 - Why you chose these short-term and long-term goals? and Why ISB?
1. Why ISB?
2. Why MBA?
3. Questions about marketing such as
a. 5 Changes in consumer behavior in recent years.
b. Difference between Product marketing and Marketing Managers.
This was specific to me because I want a PMM role post-MBA and that I don't currently have a lot of experience as a marketer.
4. Questions about my company and my role in the company.
5. Learning from my extra-curricular activities and how I can apply them professionally.
6. Whether I have applied to colleges other than ISB?
7. Favourite technology product?
8. Questions about professional challenges and challenges faced in a team setting.
9. My perspective on marketing for EdTechs
10. Few factors important for EdTechs to succeed (because my company has an EdTech division).
11. What I find annoying about dealing with clients as an Account Manager?
- Sorry for the wait, how did you spend the 30 mins?
- Brief intro of everyone followed by my detailed introduction
- Why MBA, as you can achieve your goals without an MBA
- How do you prioritize tasks, manage risks?
(They had the impression that I was a manager. This was quite odd and disappointing to know. I had clearly mentioned in the application that I am an Individual Contributor. So clarified that)
- They asked me about my job role, accomplishments? My role?
- Again, they grilled me that seeing my career trajectory I can easily reach my post-MBA goals. So why invest soo much money
- One member in the panel had used the products I work on. So she asked me more about the release plan and roadmap
- Any last questions?
Q1 - You have written about automating financial models for MIS. Explain
Q2 - Any benefit from the above automation to the organization, team?
Q3 - Why MBA? Why P.Hd (P.Hd is my long term goal and I had mentioned it in the essay)
Q4 - Again why MBA when you are earning decent, working in a good company
Q5 - Any leadership opportunity was taken?
Q6 - Is ISB the right campus for your short-term goals.
Q7 - Asked what if I don't fulfill my short term goals
Q8 - Few questions on hobbies (I had mentioned reading books)
Q9 - Opinion on Indo-China
Q10 - Asked to name countries that are supportive of India's civil nuclear plans
Q11 - Asked the correct lending environment in India
1. Tell us a bit about yourself?
Upon answering probed a little about the job aspect. But nothing nerve-wracking.
2. Why MBA?
Probed deeply here. Again, nothing unnerving. Casual conversation. And all interviewers were keen listeners. No interruptions or stoppages from them.
3. Why ISB?
4. Why would a consulting firm hire you? What do you bring to the table? (Consulting was my short term goal)
5. In a consulting job, how much importance does subject-matter expertise play?
6. Questions you have for us? I had a few questions about student club activities.
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why MBA?
3. Why ISB?
4. What if not ISB?
5. Discussion about future goals - both short-term and long-term and how ISB fits into that
6. Asked to elaborate on my industry in India - some questions around that
7. Explain a situation where you solved a problem at work and what was your contribution.
Archived ISB Discussion
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siddharthkapoor
GMAT Club Reviews PM Intern
Joined: 10 Apr 2018
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08 Mar 2021, 07:44
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Woah, Nikhil! Thanks for the effort. I wish you had posted this topic before my ISB interview this year.
08 Mar 2021, 07:51
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siddharthkapoor
siddharthkapoor
Sorry about that. We thought all of our users are aware of the interview debriefs section but looks like not. So we are trying to make it more visible by posting them on the forum By the way, can you also add your interview experience at the following link?
https://gmatclub.com/forum/isb-204/inte ... brief.html
