ISB

"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."

"3 panelists all of whom were recent alumnus. One was from the class of 2020 the other two didn't mention which class they were a part of. Overall very friendly and conversational. The duration of the interview was about 20 minutes. 1) Can you give an example of leadership you portrayed in your company? 2) Since you come from a family of entrepreneurs, do you have any plans to start your own business? 3) Why Digital transformation based consulting? (Related to my goals essay as well as my work-ex) 4) Where do you see an MBA helping you in your job currently seeing as you're already in consulting? 5) One question related to a point in the LOR my recommender mentioned. 6) What are your weaknesses? How did you improve/take feedback? 7) What do you do in your free time? 8) Any questions for us? Had a small discussion with follow-up questions."

"EEO candidate Background: 18 months working in Strat and M&A team , BTech Mechanical Online interview with 3 panelists, all alumni, 2 from consulting, 1 from PE. Not a stress interview Interview questions: a) Intro b) Walk us through your role and responsibilities c) Current project you are working on, lots of follow up questions regarding the same d) Any accomplishment (Work or personal) that you are most proud of e) How will you add value to the community at ISB despite having lower experience than most of the batch f) What clubs are you looking to join g) Any questions for us Short interview, hardly 20 minutes. Focused mostly on work ex. Also wasn't asked a guesstimate despite mentioning outright in the essay that I want to move to consulting post ISB."

"One of the panelists came in to the waiting room, introduced herself and walked me into the interview room. There were 3 panelists in total and all were alums of classes ranging from 2012 to 2017. They seemed quite warm and were smiling throughout, but at the same time were quite professional. I was asked to get comfortable before we started. Questions - 1. What value are you going to add to the diverse cohort at ISB? - This was a very standard question and I had prepared 3 pointers, but I couldn't move past the first. The panel expected a very detailed reasoning for anything I put forward and we spent 3-4mins discussing my first point. 2. Then they directly delved into the work that I do. Since I am from an engineering(computer sc.) background and worked in healthcare/pharma domain, they wanted to know how the 2 fields intersected in my work. I had prepared for such questions. I kept my calm and talked passionately about the work that I do. One of the panelists had a similar background and asked many counter questions. (10 mins) 3. Can you come up with a healthcare tech. product that can improve lives of common people? (5-10mins) Even though I had prepared for this question (thanks to Preppie), I asked for couple minutes to collect my thoughts. It was appreciated by the panel now when I look back. 4. Asked about my extracurriculars that I had mentioned. Additionally, I had mentioned about classical singing in my application so they asked me to sing a song. Wasn't prepared for this at all, but I think I fared well. :) (2-3mins) 5. Do you have any questions for us?(2-3mins) I made sure to not ask any question who's answer I could get from google/alum/adcom. Instead I added a personal touch and asked them how ISB has shaped their lives and what advice they'd have for any incoming student. Interview was complete in ~30 mins. Overall, the panel was very professional and wanted to evaluate whether ISB was a good fit for my post MBA plans and also whether I was a good fit for ISB or not. Being thorough with my story from what I mentioned in my application, 2-3 practice interviews with Preppie/family&friends, confidence in my answers (even though I was all nerves throughout) and a genuine smile are what I feel got me the admit."

"I had my interview in Bangalore, off campus in the morning slot. There were 3 alumni. The interview was pretty conversational, and interactive. They started with their introduction, and then I introduced myself. The discussion after this mostly revolved around my industry, organization, projects I had worked on, teams I had worked with, my short term and long term goals. They asked different contributions I had put on my application, both professional and extra curricular. Before ending, they told me that my application was sufficient to understand my background and if there was 1 thing that I had not mentioned in the application. I kept that conversation on a lighter note, and stated a fun fact about me, we shared some laughs over that. You can use this 1 last question and play it to your strength, and that could set the tone of the interview for you. The interview lasted about 25 minutes."

"I reached the venue 1 hour 15 mins earlier than my assigned slot time. Also, the interview was delayed by about 35-40 mins. I think the wait time slightly led to a pressure buildup within me. There were 2 panelists. I was expecting the interview to start with the typical tell us about yourself question and had a lot of my explanation tied to that intro. But, the panel straightaway jumped to my current role and its fine details. Spend about 15-20 mins on this topic only. Not sure if they were fully convinced with my explanation about company's short term vs long term strategy. Second question was about my interest in Shariah finance. But, then again started linking it to my current role. Third was about my overall career progression. The next was about my personal interests. Before winding up, the panel gave me an opportunity to explain about something that I'm proud of. This, although looked like a fantastic opportunity, raised some sort of red flag in my mind. For me, it sounded like, "we aren't impressed yet, so do you have something to impress us?". But, I think I was able to pick out an important project that I led during my previous work and explain the impact and my contribution fairly well. Last, they gave me an opportunity to ask questions too. The interview lasted about 35-40 mins. Didn't go in the direction as I thought it to be, but I think that's how it is supposed to be.! We have to expect the unexpected 😃 Overall, I think, it was ok. Couldn't highlight some of my contributions and the impacts I have created at work and during college as much as I wanted to. But, hoping for the best."

"Background: B.Tech Mechanical Engineering graduate. I worked in a PSU for 3.5 years in the B2B Sales & Marketing department. Interview lasted 30 minutes. Interview Questions: The panel introduced themselves. There were 2 panel members, both alumni. We exchanged pleasantries. Q1. The first question was straight to the point about the work experience gap: "So you resigned 1 year back. What have you done during this time?" Q2. I briefly went through my roles and responsibilities in the company. Q3. “Talk about the major challenges you faced in the company and how you addressed them.” We had a back-and-forth discussion on this topic. Q4. “You mentioned in your application that you want to switch to consulting. How did you come to this realization?” I shared an instance from my company where my team implemented a novel idea that improved the company’s topline by incorporating a subsidiary’s capability of producing an in-demand product. The panel and I had a back-and-forth discussion regarding the technical and financial aspects of the idea. Q5. “That’s it from us. Do you have any questions for us?” Interview Experience: Overall, the interview had a conversational tone, but I noticed that I did most of the talking. I worry that I might have rambled on too much and missed the opportunity to highlight important points. We spent considerable time discussing question number four. However, I sensed that they were not fully convinced, despite our prolonged discussion. Best wishes for all R3 applicants!"