4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Duration of Interview - 30 min
Panel no. - 5 (2 panelists and one Adcom member)
The interview was decent, and they also asked me a guesstimate question.
Studied Mechanical, later joined as an analyst in a consulting company and now as a product analyst in an Adtech company. Total: 4 years of work ex
Q1. Walk us through your profile?
Q2. Tell us the reason for the goals mentioned?
Q3. Tell me about an instance where your team made a mistake and how did you handle it? Who took the blame? What changed in your leadership skills after that?
Q4. Why do you want to become a Product Manager in an e-commerce industry?
Q5. Tell me about an instance where you goofed up and how did you handle it?
Q6. I see you are from an analytics background and have quite an experience here. So could you "Estimate the total cost of petrol utilized in petrol bunks of your city?" (Didn't expect this coming but I answered it decent enough)
Q7. Anything that you want to ask the panel
I would say to be prepared for any kind of questions. The interview is to know how dedicated are you towards your work and whether your essays are genuine or not.
Please feel free to catch up gvsaiteja96@gmail.com
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Had my interview on the 14th of November at 10:00 AM.
My profile - 2.5 years in big 4 consulting. 710 GMAT. Post MBA goal - Product Management
The interview started 5 mins late. The interview panel consisted of one alumni from Co'15 who was working for a tech company and another alumni from Co'14 who was an entrepreneur. One member from the adcom was present but with video off and mic muted throughout.
The panel introduced themselves and set the tone by stating their expectations from the interview. The format was more like a discussion rather than a question and answer interview. The whole discussion lasted about 35 mins.
First few talking points were on my age and me having a smaller amount of work experience compared to the usual cohort in ISB. I had to justify why I wanted an MBA now and not a few years later and also what I could offer to the ISB class with only 2 years of work ex. Slight grilling was done and lots of follow up questions.
After this followed a discussion on the tech industry and what I thought would be the next big opportunity etc. I was asked to explain as if I was talking to a layman( I had mentioned this as my one of strengths in an earlier answer).
Finally I had to explain how I would get a product manager role after ISB with a detailed plan. Some follow up discussions on my answer and they gave some advice as well.
Finally ended with them giving me positive feedback and how they liked how much clarity I had regarding my goals and career. They didn't ask if I had any questions for them but I managed to ask a couple during a discussion we had on the ELP projects at ISB.
I purchased the interview training package from Preppie to prepare and they gave me constructive feedback which I focused on. I also had a couple of mock interviews with my friends who are alumni.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Duration of Interview: 35 minutes
2 panelists and one Adcom member who had their video off and was on mute
The interview was very conversational, started with them introducing themselves
1. Walk us through your profile highlights
2. Why ISB and Why MBA
3. Tell us more about your short term goal
4. Challenges faced while leading a team
5. What went right and what went wrong with the startup
6. Things that you could have done differently with the start up
7. How do you handle the pressure in consulting
On the whole the experience was good, no red flags, I have taken help from preppie in the last minute, but yet they were very quick in arranging the mock interview. The preppie team has a given an in-depth feedback and helped me structure my answers. Highly recommend!
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
1. Introduce yourself
2. Questions on my work (15 mins)
(What do you do, some specific questions on my essay, conflict at work, and so on)
3. WHY MBA and why ISB
4. What if you don't make it into ISB
5. Hobbies related question
6. Any questions for the Panel.
The interview went on for 45 minutes and was genuinely interested to know my profile.
I would like to thank Preppie for their amazing training sessions and mock interviews. I would recommend them without a doubt.
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Duration of Interview: 35 minutes.
2 panelists and one Adcom member who had their video off and was on mute throughout the process.
The interview was entirely conversational and I was interrupted 2-3 times while answering. Both the panelists were extremely nice.
My interview was kind of decent. It started with my graduation and then questions mostly revolved around my work experience. They grilled me hard on why MBA and why ISB. Then they asked me about my family background and at last they enquired if I had any questions for them. I asked them what's the one thing they regret not doing at ISB and want to go back and do it, if they're given a Time Machine. Their answers were interesting ;)
Took the help of Career Edge for application process. And coming to interview preparation, Career Edge & Preppie were my choices. They are affordable and would help you along with minute details. Highly recommended.
Happy to help @srinivasyeluri1@gmail.com
Good luck guys :)
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Panel:
2 Alumns: One from 2004 & One from 2008. One moderator who was on mute the entire time
Please note that I have mentioned my level of preparedness against each question set for later reference.
1. Started with introductions- Prepared.
2. Questions around why ISB. - Prepared.
3. Questions around my current role in the family business and would it be something I would continue with post ISB- Prepared.
4. Questions on short-term career goals. And how ISB fits into the plan. Also, some cross-questioning that required detailed explanations- Prepared.
5. Questions around Business analytics and justifications around this change in career trajectory.- Semi prepared. Parts around why business analytics were prepared but parts around justification were mixes of spontaneous examples.
6. Questions around my role in the previous startups, learnings, and what would I do differently- Prepared.
7. SWOT analysis of myself: Semi prepared, strengths & weaknesses were prepared, opportunities & threats were thought of.
8. Questions around interests: Prepared.
9. Questions around class contributions: Prepared.
10. An open-ended question around cohesiveness of the entire “story”: Unprepared: thought of an analogy as an example and explained.
Overall Assessment: The atmosphere was friendly. The questions seemed more enquiring in nature. There was a connection drop once, where I almost puked my heart out. They also encouraged me with positive responses to keep my confidence going. As I mentioned above, because I was able to prepare some basic questions around and areas of interest in my profile, I was not wholly thrown off. This has got a lot to do with a couple of extremely supportive friends on my end and Preppie team on the other. The prepping team were ISB alumni themselves and had extensive experience with preparing aspirants. They gave their insights into multiple improvements areas and most importantly helped me structure the responses I had prepared in a consolidated manner. Overall, I felt good coming out of the interview. Fingers crossed!
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
I had my interview today morning!
Walk us through your profile!
Why do you want to do MBA now?
Given most of my experience was US/ EU Healthcare, I was asked questions as to what are the reasons that Healthcare/ HealthTech in India is not as big compared to EduTech/ FinTech?
What would be your recommendations/ business plan if you were to advise a startup focussed on healthcare that wishes to scale up its presence in India?
Further, I was asked what do you think is driving the investor sentiment for investing in EduTech/ FinTech in India?
Also, why don’t we see similar kinds of investments in similar products (PayTM, BYJU) in the US vs India?
On top of it, I was asked what is your take on the valuation of PayTM IPO? Is it undervalued or overvalued and why?
What will be your biggest takeaway from ISB?
What were the biggest challenges that you faced while you were setting up the office for your organisation in Gurgaon? How did you do overcome them?
Profile: Chemical Engineer, NIT Bhopal, 9.5 years WorkEx! GMAT 690
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
My interview lasted for around 50 minutes with 40 minutes for the questions put to me by the panel and the last 10 minutes for my queries.
The panel consisted of 2 ISB alums and there was one AdCom member who had their video off and was on mute throughout the process.
The interview was entirely conversational and I was not interrupted while answering. Both the panelists were extremely nice.
The questions asked were:
1. Walk me through your journey till now?
2. Since you work in FinTech what are the emerging trends you are seeing in your industry?
3. How do you think the more established firms maintain their advantage in a world where information is more democratised?
4. Since you are a painter what do you think about NFTs and their popularity?
5. What according to you is strategy (is it a process or an end to itself)? And what are the factors that should go into deciding corporate strategy? (this was based on my short term goal of wanting to move to corporate strategy)
6. How do you think ISB can help you achieve your goals?
7. What is your leadership style?
8. How will you communicate a difficult message to a colleague?
9. Tell us a bit about your social work projects, they seem very interesting and different from the rest of your work and ECs.
10. Tell us about your proudest moment from college.
The questions kept flowing from where we left the conversation during the previous questions making it a flowing and natural conversation.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Interview: 2 alums, one Adcom member
Date: 6th November
The very first question they asked me was to walk them through my career progression. Some more questions I remember from my interview:
- Deep-dive into the solar industry, the business model, customer acquisition etc.
- Since I was a reapplicant, they asked me what went wrong and how I improved since the last time?
- Post MBA goals, what kind of companies are you looking out for, what if you don't get into the companies you mentioned?
- What kind of courses are you interested in at ISB?
- Why ISB in particular and not any other MBA college?
- Challenges you faced at the workplace?
- Difference between sales and marketing? (profile specific to me)
- Do you have any questions for the panel?
The interview went on for 45 minutes and was genuinely interested to know my profile specifically the Solar Industry! The panel was very welcoming and conversational in nature. Would like to mention Preppie - Nishchay and Tadasmi sir in particular were extremely helpful in shaping my up my mindset and my preparation throughout.
Fingers crossed now.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Interview: 2 Alums(2016, 2017) + 1 AdCom(mute)
Time: 40 min
Date: 6th November
Questions:
Questions majorly asked around work experience. Got a lot of counter questions. They interrupted me as well few times.
Was asked about my community and volunteering experience.
Questioned how my long-term vision is related to my passion.
Was grilled a lot on my long-term vision.
Was asked 3 questions from the experiences I had mentioned in my essays.
No behavioral questions were asked.
Finally, was asked if I had any questions for them.
Overall, it was a very interesting conversation, both interviews were really friendly. They did grill me with a lot of counter questions!
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Interview structure: 2 alums and 1 adcom on mute
Questions:
1. You want a client facing role but your goals do not reflect that. Why?
2. Why MBA is needed to start a career in finance? Get a CFA
3. What are the challenges in a project(At work)?
4. What do you think about cryptos and equities(my hobbies)?
5. If you get into ISB, how will your batchmates remember you 3 years down the line?
6. Do you like to work individually or as a team?
7. Have you achieved all your goals on your own?
Grilled a lot on why you need to do MBA for achieving your goals. A lot of work related questions. Overall it was a friendly interview. Loved the conversation.
Strategy4GMAT helped me prepare for the interview; had 2 mocks with Manan and Gaurav and they helped me attain clarity as well as structure the answers better.
Good luck folks!!
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Details: 2 alums + 1 adcom member. The interview lasted for about 30 min.
Questions were mostly around my resume and work experience. They asked me a few basic questions, such as Why MBA, Why ISB, and how I will contribute to ISB. They tried to understand more on my essays and asked more about every point I mentioned in my resume. Overall the interview was conversational.
For interview prep, I took help from Preppie, and they helped me frame my thoughts and answers better. I would recommend them for preparation.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
2 alums + 1 Shadow adcom member
Time: Mid-afternoon
Questions revolved around work experience. Several general questions, such as Why MBA, and We do not have internships like other business schools, how will you learn in that area.
I sought assistance from Preppie, and the session with them was extremely beneficial in terms of gaining clarity and consolidating my thoughts. Highly recommended!
The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
2 alums + 1 Shadow adcom member
Time: Mid-afternoon
Questions revolved around work experience. Several general questions, such as Why MBA, We do not have internships like other business schools, how will you learn in that area?'
I sought assistance from Preppie, and the session with them was extremely beneficial in terms of gaining clarity and consolidating my thoughts. Highly recommended!
The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes.
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Just finished my interview. Alums from CO 2009 and CO 2012, both directors, one in a pharma company and the other in an FMCG.
It was a very behavioral interview. I had only 4 questions asked.
1. Tell us about yourself (akin to walk me through your resume/who you are as a person. I always felt this was the best approach)
2. What do you think about the way the history textbooks are being altered and the way pseudo science is creeping into textbooks and how that is going to affect the next generation? (I am from an education background working on people development and empathy programs).
3. I see you want to get into edtech product management. You can do that now too with your experience in consulting and education. Why MBA? It would have made more sense if you wanted to continue your entrepreneurial journey (subtle reference to my LT goal).
4. What is your leadership style? Provide examples from your consulting role and your startup.
I felt very odd because it progressed very quickly and I was asked at one point to get to the point and subtly told to be concise. The interview lasted 30 to 35 minutes max. More than a deep dive, it was more how I would sell myself. The initiative was on me to drive the interview and I think that made me very comfortable and helped me express myself despite the odd feeling of the super few questions. The interviewers were extremely polite and soft spoken and genuinely wanted to know who I was as a person.
I am still not sure how I should feel but it was something of a new experience for me with it being entirely a behavioral interview, akin to schools in the US.
Hope this helps. All the best guys!
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Interview: 2 Alums, (2016, 2018 passouts) + 1 AdCom
Time: 45-50 mins
Date: 30th October
Questions:
1. Tell us about yourself
2. Tell us something you do other than work outside your application
3. Why MBA
4. Why ISB
5. Palmistry - do you believe in it still (I had mentioned palmistry in my essay)
6. What NGO have you worked for? In what capacity?
7. Deep dive on project I had worked upon?
8. Pharma perspective a layman is bad what do you want say to someone like that?
9. Rapidfire - hard work vs smart work, ethics versus result and another one
10. Tell us a good place to Trek these days (I had mentioned trekking in my essay)
11. Time when you had a conflict with your team members or your colleagues
12. Policies that the government has taken to support Pharma industries in India
13. Grilled a lot on long-term goals
14. Any questions I had for them
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Done with the interview today.
My Experience:-
2 alums - 1 Male (2018 batch) and 1 Female (2008 batch)
Also had an ad com member who was on mute and video tuned off.
The interview started with me explaining where I was located.
1.) Tell me about yourself?
2.) Which position do you play in football? What are some challenges involved there?
3.) How did I contribute to a specific project? (Took this from the first point of my work exp)
4.) What are some challenges I faced as an Intern in the automotive firm I worked? Given that interns have a hard time when it comes to getting approvals.
5.) What would be the entry strategy for Tesla to get into the Indian EV space?
6.) Why ISB? Why not from a better foreign school? Particularly a US school? Given that EV markets in US and China are far ahead.
7.) Post MBA Goals? 5-10 yrs down the lane, where do I see myself?
8.) How will I contribute to the class from a diversity standpoint?
9.) Any questions for us?
I asked a couple of questions and they spent a good 5 minutes answering them. Overall my interview was good and it lasted for 35 min.
I want to thank the Strategy4GMAT team who helped me with this interview strategy and prep. The feedback was on-point in the mock interviews and helped a lot in structuring my answers better. They were very accommodating in the mock schedule as well.
The final mock interview with Mr. Manan Puri was beneficial. Based on my profile, he gave me the exact questions I might run into, which is exactly what happened in today's interview.
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
2 Panelists- (Both male)
My interview went for more than an hour, for the majority of the time I was asked questions based on my work experience (close to 45 minutes)
Some questions I remember from my interview:
-Was asked to choose a company out of the three I have worked with from my profile
-Bombarded with questions on the role I had from my chosen company
-How was I able to lead a team in the company? and what initiatives you took?
-You must have learnings from your Job why not dwell upon them instead of going for an MBA? (Basically why MBA?)
-My long term goal is to have a venture of my own, so I was asked questions based on it
The overall tone of the interview was friendly but I was heavily bombarded with questions and cross-questioned extensively.
For the interview preparation, I took Preppie's help where I took multiple mock interviews from them, they gave me some very actionable feedback that was tailored to my specific profile. They also helped me to structure my answers more eloquently. Each mock was a new experience for me and helped me remain calm on D-Day. Would highly recommend Preppie for anyone who is preparing for an ISB interview.
4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Had my interview on 24th Oct'21.
I got 3 panelists, 2 alumni, and an adcom member. Both the panelist were very experienced, one of them was from 2003 batch and had 20+ years of experience and another one is a product manager working for Microsoft.
My interview started out very chill, It was conversational in nature. We had our initial pleasantries and the first question was directly Tell me about yourself and Why MBA!
I mentioned my side hustle as a fitness coach and my long term dream of being an entrepreneur.
And the next 30 mins of the interview were around this topic, they asked me about my journey, how I got into fitness, What is my dream, Did I evaluate the risks here, who are my competitors, Why do I need an MBA.
They started proposing other courses that are available and asked me why I want to choose MBA over those domain-specific courses.
I guess I handled those questions well.
Not a single question about my work experience or what I do at work, rather they kinda grilled me on my hazy long-term goal of entrepreneurship.
The interview ended with the usual "Any questions for us?", I had a few and they took around 10 mins to answer them.
I took a mock from Preppie the previous day, and man! They really helped me structure my answers. The interviewer from preppie actually asked me similar questions related to my entrepreneurial dream! and it kinda prepared me for these types of non-conventional interviews! I would definitely recommend Preppie 10/10! Go for it guys :)
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4 years ago Nov 18, 2021 07:11
Hi All,
My interview was on 24th October. 3 alumns and 1 Adcom member on the call (adcom member with video and microphone off). The interview lasted around 30 mins.
Most of the questions were based around work experience. Few general questions like 'Why ISB?', 'What is one big conflict you handled at work?', 'Have you faced any failures?'.
I took help from Preppie and the mock with them really helped me get clarity and consolidate my thoughts. They're highly recommended!
Overall, the interview was straightforward. I did feel that a little more prep though, perhaps another mock, would have eased my anxiety and made responses on the day better.