ISB Hub

"Profile: Mechanical engineer working with Mahindra RnD. 3 years of experience. 710 GMAT. Top Tier College. Various Extracurriculars and Initiatives. Recieved my virtual interview invite on 29th Feb. Had preferred Hyderabad. Interview happened on 4th Feb. Very conversational and pleasant experience. Here is a de-brief: Q1 - We have already gone through your profile. Tell us something apart from what’s written that pushes you to pursue MBA? Q2. Asked regarding one of the initiatives that I had taken to start something in the social sector. Follow up questions. Q3. Queston on the greatest achievement essay. Asked my individual role. Asked step by step approach taken. Few follow up questions. Q4. What are your career goals. What companies are you targeting. Q5. Picked up on my long term entrepreneurship goals. Went deep into asking my role in one of the startup internships that I had done. Q6. Do you have any questions for us Overall very conversational and relaxed interview. 3 panelists. My suggestion is to be prepared with each and every possible question. I got nearly 2 months to prepare for the interview from the day I submitted the application. Good luck to everyone. *29th jan"

"My interview Experience: 7th Jan, Mumbai There were 2 panel members, one from Mohali and one from Hyderabad. They graduated 5-6 years before. The interview lasted for around 25 minutes. One of the interviewing alums visited me in the waiting room and escorted me to the main room. He did small talk and asked about Indore, MP etc. Questions: 1) Tell us something about yourself 2) Tell us all about dotflo (current startup that I am building in AI space) 3) Cross questioning on free chatgpt vs dotflo. Explain the AI part in simple terms. 4) What was your role at ZS? 5) You have so much interest and exposure to businesses and startups then why do you want to do an MBA? 6) Why did you select ZS as your first job when you could have taken a higher paying job from an IIT? 7) You have impressive profile and you can take admission in any good B-Schools in the world then why come to ISB? 8) What is that you will bring to the table when you get into ISB? 9) What are your short-term goals after pursuing an MBA? How will you achieve them? 10) Why take the pain of taking an exorbitant loan of 45 lacs and how do you plan to repay it given you are targeting a risky entrepreneurial journey? 11) Do you have any questions for us?"

"Hello everyone! I had my interview in Mumbai today; I'll share my experience. Relatively new here so not sure if this is supposed to be posted on a different thread. If so, please let me know. The interview was with two alums (Batch of '17 and '19) It started off well, they made me feel comfortable. Asked how I spent my waiting time - I said we fellow applicants were chit-chatting and getting to know each other which really helped ease our nerves (it actually did). They introduced themselves and the interview began. Tell us about yourself - I think what I said here really set the tone for the interview. I mentioned I like reading and we spent a few minutes discussing the last book I read. I also mentioned another hobby to which they said we'll pick it up at the end as we are keen on learning more about it (had written about it in my essay too) Tell us more about your work and what you do at work - They had different backgrounds so they were just curious and trying to understand my work Why MBA? - Since I am from a family business background, they went hard on this one You are already doing business, I don't see why you need an MBA? - Explained further. Why consulting? - Had it as my short-term goal, justified it. In consulting you will essentially just be suggesting what to do, but in your business you are already strategizing as well as implementing. So again, why consulting? - Defended my choice. Have you spoken to any ISB grads in consulting? - Yes, gave them names. Have you spoken to any other college grads in consulting? - Yes. Are you sure you still want to do consulting? - Yes. I am still not convinced on why you need an MBA and how will consulting help you? - Here I got the feeling that they were trying to test how I respond, but maybe they really were not convinced. I can't say for sure. What are your strengths and weaknesses? - I mentioned problem-solving as a strength, gave examples. They subtly tried to throw me off by saying this is not problem-solving, this is just 'jugaad' (it wasn't jugaad. I figured they were again testing how I responded to being challenged and I did not want to sound too defensive, so I just made a funny remark and we moved on) What if you don't get in to ISB? Backtracked to the hobby I mentioned at the beginning - talked about it for several minutes, they genuinely took an interest and seemed impressed. Do you have any questions for us? Remarks - The interview is very conversational, panelists are warm and friendly. Choose your introduction carefully, it will dictate the course of the interview. Have a solid story, be clear about it, and stick to it. If you are unclear, they will sense it and call you out for it. Choose your words wisely, do not blabber - the panelists are incredibly sharp and will catch on to any word and question you on it. Interact with applicants in the waiting room - it will relax you and it gives a good impression when you tell the panel about it. Don't approach the interview as a challenge but as an experience - it is an incredible one! Tricky opinion (not the best idea but worked well for me) - Gauge the panel's demeanour and based on your judgment, crack the occasional joke - it really helps lighten the mood and prevents both you and the panelists from getting too serious. Even one witty remark does wonders - One of the interviewers had a uniquely difficult name; towards the end he said you cannot recall my name, can you? I did not respond for a few seconds, the other panelist made a remark and then I blurted out his name. They were convinced I had forgotten it so they were taken aback for a couple of seconds - then all three of us burst into laughter. I believe that ensured a pleasant end to the interview. Good luck to everyone! If you have any questions regarding my experience, happy to help."

"My interview happened around 10 days ago and I can't stop thinking about it. I started by blurting out a compliment for an interviewer's jacket (we hadn't even reached the room, I don't know why I said that aloud and he just rolled his eyes). When I walked in it was 3 people (all alums, 19 batch M, 20 and 22 batch Fs). They gave their intro and said this would be a 30-minute interview with no pressure, they had gone through my essays and just wanted to get to know me better etc. They asked for a short introduction, lady in the center (and the youngest one) said she was intrigued and works in a similar field, and asked a lot of questions about the impact of my work, what challenges I faced etc. The other lady interjected for follow-ups etc. The gentleman did not ask many questions till this point, maybe once - when I tried to make eye contact while talking he was usually looking away or fidgeting, I don't know if that was intentional or not. Either way, I think I handled this part pretty well because I genuinely enjoy the work I do. Then the dreaded question they came in which was "you clearly like your job and make good money, why ISB then, why not get masters in data science, etc. I gave my reasons, they did not look very convinced, said can you explain the situations in which you felt the need for a business degree (framed it as "oh you already seem to know so much, what else do you wanna learn?"). This was the point when the guy stepped in, asked questions about my org structure, asked if I'd like to go back to my job after ISB, what roles I'd aim for. I feel like I didn't do my best to explain here - I answered the question of the post-ISB role in terms of what I'd choose during placements, not what I'd choose if I go back to my current workplace. He was reluctant to ask for clarification but I insisted and he went ahead and asked (glad I did) because I was able to clarify it (the job title barely explains the functions I do and will do in my current job and that was the confusing bit). Lastly, the interviewer in the center asked me to put in one line what I learnt from my career. I said "context is everything" - the older guy said "there is no context to the answer whatsoever" and everyone started laughing (me included, because fair enough). Then he waited a minuted and said something like "no but it's a fair quippy one line answer", and asked if I had any questions before I left. I went ahead and asked them about their experience, they all answered, the third lady joked about "oh do I need to answer as well" and I said "no pressure" but she did anyway. Also when the first guy answered it and mentioned networking he said "e.g. if I need to verify anything you've told me about your company or work I always know someone who works there so I can just call them and ask" so I said "so if I lied am I in trouble?" which fortunately, made them laugh. TL;DR I went on autopilot during my interview, and I can't decide if that makes me come off as charming or a d***head, and I'm a little worried that if it's the latter I might have screwed up my chances. I'm honestly only here hoping to get reassured that I did not screw up."

"I was asked only behavioural questions. 1. Walk us through your journey and what led you to ISB PGP. 2. Why do you want to pursue MBA in India (I am an overseas candidate) 3. 2 qualities of a good PM 4. Few questions related to what I'd mentioned in the application essays 5. One person (living/dead) who inspires me"

"ISB R3 applicant. Bangalore. Physical interview. 8/8/7 profile Background in Automotive and Chemicals Industry 6.5 work ex GMAT 700 3 panelists - very cordial and friendly Questions 1. Tell me about yourself highlighting family background, education and jobs 2. Elaborate 3 greatest challenge that you face on your day to day work 3. Tell me how you overcome them 4. How do you do product costing benchmarks 5. How you negotiate with vendors 6. Do you manage any team 7. What technology will you use to increase process efficiency while keeping the workflow same 8. Why MBA and what about your short term and long term goals? 9. Why consulting and why focus on operation 10. What is stopping you from applying to consulting now? 11. What kind of subjects will you focus on during MBA to bridge the knowledge gap 12. What are your other options apart from consulting? Are you open to different opportunities? 13. What are the other schools that you are applying for 14. Why focused only on Indian schools 15. Why not applied for MBA earlier 16. What if you are not getting selected this year at ISB? 17. Any questions for the panel? (Asked 2)"

"Entered the breakout room and greeted them both pleasantly. After basic niceties were exchanged, they went on with an introduction round. Let's start with a quick introduction. - Mentioned where I was based from - SRCC, participation in The Dramatics Society, Gold Medalist - Both jobs and one highlight from each - Trained classical dancer and writer They were quite happy with the introduction, "You gave a very good summary of your profile, we don't feel like we need to read it now" verbatim. One thing that stood out was your experience with the Ritva Foundation. Tell us more about that, one highlight, and what challenges you faced. - Explained in detail using CAR - Mentioned how I got the opportunity and our main aim distributed into two aspects. - Mentioned three challenges and how we overcame them with online campaigns, one highlight each That's very elaborate and interesting - thank you for that. What's the one lesson you took from the experience in your personal or professional life? - Mentioned how Ritva was my first team management experience - Learned how to lead a team and how to face problems - mentioned two things specifically I learned - to always have a backup with you that you can employ and to talk to your team and help them out - I currently employ these lessons as I lead content production at TTT Tell us more about TTT, about the company, and what is your role there. - Explained the two branches in detail and how I work in the ed-tech space. - Distributed my role into three parts - content strategy, production, and analysis - and described in detail. That sounds interesting - tell us more about your ed-tech platform and the type of courses you offer. - Explained 3 courses in detail and how every course has a different aim - Live courses so the duration differs You have mentioned being a feminist in your essay. Elaborate on your journey and how did you come to this realisation? If you have any role models that you follow, mention that as well. - Answered with honesty, reflecting on my journey as a feminist - Mentioned being in a small city and how my college experience pushed my journey, described my view of feminism in one line as well. - Mentioned Emma Watson and her HeforShe campaign and how it was unique since it considers male experiences as well. (Had a short conversation on this with both that there is no right or wrong answer here since everyone's experience is different and it's an evolving journey). Interviewer also pitched in and said that he really liked my unique take.) Thank you for elaborating. If we talk about immediately post-ISB, what does that look like for Pranjali? - Mentioned by short-term and long-term goals and the skills I need for that. - Mentioned three points as to what I plan to do at ISB and how ISB will help me. That's a good answer. But what is one specific thing that you currently are lacking in which you hope to gain after your one year? - Elaborated my weakness in self-confidence and doubt. - Explained the situation and my past examples - Mentioned how I am working on it currently and how ISB will help me inside and outside the classroom. Any questions for us? - Asked the two prepared questions on ELP and Dance Soc - On the ELP question, they were smiling since they apparently discussed it right before my interview. Answered quite in detail as to the number of opportunities and how you will find something for sure. - Similar answer on Dance Soc, that something or the other is always happening. - In both the answers, they said they got excited even talking about it, and answered very enthusiastically. Exchanged pleasantries and left the room. Overall, the interviewers seemed quite pleased by the end. We talked openly, and the vibe was positive."

"Interview Experience Background - Engineer with some PM and startup experience - post-MBA Goal - starting up GRE - 326 Duration - 40 minutes Started with - it is quite early in UK time. Thank you for joining so early 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Can we know about your work experience - some projects you are proud of? 3. Do you think what you do is important? 4. Tell me more about big data 5. Who uses the data you handle 6. Why do you want to be an entrepreneur 7. How has your father inspired you 8. Tell me about your experience of starting up with your friend earlier 9. How will you do things differently with your startup 10. You mentioned your mistake with trying to Startup earlier was to try and do everything yourself - now you are saying your motivation to Startup is learning about many things - how do you reconcile these points? 11. Tell us about your business idea 12. Who is the target market 13. What is your business plan? 14. Why ISB 15. Why not work under a fashion designer or take an online course 16. When will you start 17. Will you start in India or the UK? 18. What will you do if the startup does not work out? What is the plan B? 19. Will you opt out of placements 20. Does anyone report to you? Who do you work with? Are you an individual contributor? 21. Any questions for us? Overall, quite warm and friendly."

"1. You have worked with teams in different geographies, tell me one difference in the work culture and work 2. So, describe us the A industry landscape and pitch a company to us 3. You have worked on life insurance, it is one of the very difficult sectors. Could you tell us a couple of challenges you faced with life insurance and the project? 4. So, you have mentioned about badminton? Why didn’t you play competitively after that? 5. Sports teaches us a lot, what learning did you have from badminton? 6. Investment banking is very lucrative career, why do you want to switch? 7. So you want to start a business of your own, have you thought of anything? Any particular reasons you prefer the chosen industry? 8. We understood you at your workplace, who are you beyond your workplace. We want to understand your motivation behind social work? 9. So you want to start a business in fintech, and you have a knack for impact. Can you suggest me a way to bring the underprivileged to the formal banking sector? 10. Any questions for us?"

"I had my PGP admissions interview for ISB. It was conducted by 3 ISB alumni - Vismay, Harmanjit Singh, and Diksha Sonal. They directly jumped into professional and volunteering experiences. These questions were asked - 1. In your essay, you mentioned Product Management as your future career goal. Why are you pursuing Product Management? 2. Why ISB? How does a PGP from ISB fit into your career goals? 3. You have been with the Entrepreneurship Cell, come from a business background, and have been in your professional position for nearly 5 years, spending thousands of hours. By now, you would have already ⁠become an expert in product management. Why do you still want to pursue a post-graduate program? 4. Tell us about a time when you took a stand for your teammate or your family member. 5. Then they asked a question about one of the social volunteering experiences, asking about areas and ways of improvement for some current challenges. 6. What will you contribute to ISB and its cohort? Then, they abruptly ended the interview without allowing me to ask any questions. This was a very different interview experience as compared to the MBA admissions interviews that I have given so far for US B-Schools. ISB interview panel had read all of my application material - Resume, Essays, L.O.R. and had pre-prepared questions. Interview panels were also decided based on post-MBA career goals. 2 out of my 3 interviewers were from the Product Management line of work and had over 10 years of professional experience post graduating from ISB. The interview lasted for less than half an hour and felt more like one-way questioning (from their side) and me trying to justify every single point multiple times."

"Profile brief - GMAT 680, SWE with 2.5 yrs exp, bachelors from tier 2 Interview was very conversational and the interviewers were warm people who ensured I was comfortable. Except the questions that are marked with *, the rest are follow up questions based on what I had told until that point. interview lasted for 40 minutes, though it was scheduled for 30 minutes. *Tell me about yourself Tell us more about the consulting workshop you participated. Don't you think product management is a better suited post MBA goal for you given your technical background? *Tell us about a time at work where you handled a conflict *Tell us about the Young Leaders Program that you were a part of in your organization You want to move out of SWE and given that you have this much validation from within the organization, don't you think you can use that to pivot to a business role? (in other words - Why MBA) What will you contribute to ISB and it's cohort? Your workex is 2.5 yrs and ISB cohort average workex is 4.5 years. Do you think you will be able to fit in ? Given your profile, age and the fact that you are an engineer who is good with math, so CAT won't be an issue for you, thus aren't IIMs a more suitable B-school for you than ISB? Why ISB? Why not IIMs? *tell us about a time where you worked under extreme pressure, and how you handled it Any questions for us? All the best. just be ultra thorough with your application and about yourself - and you must be good to go!"

"My Interview (online) was scheduled on 10th Feb in the afternoon. It started about 45 minutes later than the scheduled time. It was a two member panel and they were very warm and welcoming. >The interview started as they asked me to tell something about myself which was not there on the application. There were a few follow-up questions from it. >Then they started asking questions mainly from the application >Why MBA now (5.5 years work ex) >About Work ex- asked to explain an achievement I had mentioned >Previous CAT attempts (I had mentioned it) >Why ISB? >If I planned to change my field after MBA and why? >Asked about an additional learning course >Instances I had mentioned in the first and second essay and justifications for them >Long Term goals (next 15 years) The interview lasted for about 35 minutes. It was very conversational and they make you comfortable so it doesn't feel pressured. Was a really good experience!"

"My interview was on Feb 10th, Online!. It was all about my long term goals It was just conversational in nature. Lasted about 40 minutes incl my questions. Panelists (2) introduced themselves, they were very friendly! - Take me through your resume - Why did you change roles? - Why ISB? - Tell me about your family business. Why are you not joining your family business? - What do you want to do after your MBA? - Detailed 20-minute discussion on my goals with follow-ups. Talked about industry, competitors, target market, growth, everything. Interviewer 1 wasn't convinced at first so I had to drill into details to paint the vision - Why not get started with your goal now instead of going for ISB? - Tell me about your siblings. (This came out of nowhere) - Any questions for us?"

"My interview started around 1.5 hours late! There were 3 interviewers in my panel and overall I had a good experience during my interview. 1. Tell us about yourself. 2. I had mentioned my NGO so a follow-up question on that 3. I also talked about my entrepreneurial experience and what I am currently doing The 2 panelists seemed very interested and impressed but the third panelist kept going back to previous questions (in a grilling tone) and started implying things about me. I explained my point of view to him and asked him to listen to me. He was not rude but maybe he was not satisfied by my answers. During the interview, I had gotten a hint that I wouldn't be selected so I was not nervous anymore. In my opinion, my issue was I talked too much about the things that were not in my application so the constant thing that the third panelist was telling me was - "It looks like you are involved in a lot of things, are you running from one thing to another without completely finishing the first thing?" I am taking it as a lesson and hopefully will do better in the future. All the best!! Hope this helps!"

"My interview was on Feb 3rd, 12 noon, Online!. It was all about my work experience!! It was just conversational in nature. Panelists (2) introduced themselves, one between them is an alum, they were very friendly! Q1: Where are you right now? Q2: Where is your work place? Q3: Why am working in different state? ( i am from Andhra and working at Odisha, so the qs) Q4: Tell me about your daily life at your work place! Q5: What are your Short term n long term goals? Q6: You r a doctor, and your long term goal is to set up your own hospital, so why you want to do MBA? You will do good even with your current designation now? (Am a doctor and explained my reasons) Q7: Given your profile, you last studied in 2016, how are you planning to manage the rigorous pgp curriculum at isb? Q8: What changes do you want to see in Health industry in future? Q9: How much do you earn? Q10: Any qs to us? Qs may look intimidating here, but largely they were conversational and follow up qs, so in my opinion, each interview will be different, but will be driven by your answers!! There are no right or wrong answers, its just about having clarity of thought at least in the interview will do good for you!! Advise: Take mock interviews exactly the day before your original interview at the same time!"

"Interviewed by Assistant Dean and someone from career services. 1. Introductions 2. Post MBA goals 3. Why specific industry? 4. How is it different from your current industry? 5. Elaborate on a project mentioned in the essay 6. Any client interactions? How do you incorporate their feedback? 7. How do you measure performance of your product in the field? Overall the interview did not last for very long. It went on for about 12-15 minutes. There was very little cross questioning"

"The interview was with two alums (Batch of '17 and '19) It started off well, they made me feel comfortable. Asked how I spent my waiting time - I said we fellow applicants were chit-chatting and getting to know each other which really helped ease our nerves (it actually did). They introduced themselves and the interview began. Tell us about yourself - I think what I said here really set the tone for the interview. I mentioned I like reading and we spent a few minutes discussing the last book I read. I also mentioned another hobby to which they said we'll pick it up at the end as we are keen on learning more about it (had written about it in my essay too) Tell us more about your work and what you do at work - They had different backgrounds so they were just curious and trying to understand my work Why MBA? - Since I am from a family business background, they went hard on this one You are already doing business, I don't see why you need an MBA? - Explained further. Why consulting? - Had it as my short-term goal, justified it. In consulting you will essentially just be suggesting what to do, but in your business you are already strategizing as well as implementing. So again, why consulting? - Defended my choice. Have you spoken to any ISB grads in consulting? - Yes, gave them names. Have you spoken to any other college grads in consulting? - Yes. Are you sure you still want to do consulting? - Yes. I am still not convinced on why you need an MBA and how will consulting help you? - Here I got the feeling that they were trying to test how I respond, but maybe they really were not convinced. I can't say for sure. What are your strengths and weaknesses? - I mentioned problem-solving as a strength, gave examples. They subtly tried to throw me off by saying this is not problem-solving, this is just 'jugaad' (it wasn't jugaad. I figured they were again testing how I responded to being challenged and I did not want to sound too defensive, so I just made a funny remark and we moved on) What if you don't get in to ISB? Backtracked to the hobby I mentioned at the beginning - talked about it for several minutes, they genuinely took an interest and seemed impressed. Do you have any questions for us? Remarks - The interview is very conversational, panelists are warm and friendly. Choose your introduction carefully, it will dictate the course of the interview. Have a solid story, be clear about it, and stick to it. If you are unclear, they will sense it and call you out for it. Choose your words wisely, do not blabber - the panelists are incredibly sharp and will catch on to any word and question you on it. Interact with applicants in the waiting room - it will relax you and it gives a good impression if the panelists ask you about it. Don't approach the interview as a challenge but as an experience - it is an incredible one! Good luck to everyone reading this! If you have any questions regarding my experience, happy to help."

"3 Alums: 1 senior (before 2010) and other 2 recent (after 2019) Questions were mainly on work experience, none of the interview panel were related to my past experience or future goals so the interview felt more like a learning experience for both sides. The senior alum seemed to be able to understand my answers the best. They were very concerned with why ISB and why not an online course or on-job training. Interview was at ISB campus"

"There were two interviewers 1 They asked about the introduction. 2 They asked questions about the topics mentioned in the essays. 3 They asked about your current role and responsibilities. 4 Why do you want to pursue an MBA? 5 Why do you want to pursue an MBA when you are currently involved in meaningful projects? 6 What is your leadership style? 7 What difficulties have you encountered when leading teams? 8 What initiatives have you taken to enhance team cohesiveness?"

"Delhi Location Interview Below questions were asked: 1. Started the interview with - tell us two things from your personal life 2. A specific instance in the professional setting when I lost my temper 3. Why MBA 4. A leadership example 5. A powerful and specific instance in the professional setting when I was working towards something for a long time and all of a sudden, the project stopped and all my efforts went to waste and I just had to move on 6. How would I resolve conflict - if i had an approach in mind and my study group partner had another approach in mind and both were very adamant, how would i resolve such a situation 7. 3 things I'll contribute to ISB and 3 things I'll get out of ISB 8. Why am I interested in my post-MBA industry Prob a few more behavioural questions that I'm missing but yes the interview was very behavioural in nature with the interviewers genuinely trying to understand me and my personal motivations and my fit with ISB."