My Interview Experience PGPeX IIM Calcutta(One Year MBA)

#IIMCalcuttaPGPEX #InterviewExperience

Hello GMATCLUB community,

This platform has been of lot of help throughout my preparation for GMAT and for interviews later on. My small contribution to the pool, if it helps even one person I will consider my job as done

A brief about my background:
Myself Prashant, an engineer from NIT Bhopal and an MBA already from IIT Roorkee(it's not strange anymore ) Professionaly, I have worked across 4 industries in completely different profiles. I started my journey with Bajaj Auto Limited in its marketing team. For 3 and half years worked as an IT Consultant with Infosys. Took a leap of faith and joined Marketing team of Mr. Narendra Modi during his election campaign of 2014. Worked on my own social venture for 2 years. After taking all share of risks, finally sanity prevailed and since last year I am working as a Product Manager with Reliance Entertainment.
Total Experience: 9 Years at the time of joining.

This sort of diversity looks good on paper but is very tricky to handle cz in the end, like a girl-friend, companies and even colleges look for stability So I had my task cut out for all the explanations!!


Interview Experience:
Interviews was scheduled on 12th Nov in Delhi. While waiting for the process, I had a chat with few other candidates and realized how lucky I am for being called for an Interview at IIMC. The diversity, experience and work of my fellow candidates was exemplary.

Tip1:
At IIMC interview, be preparaed to carry all your documents in original for the verification before the interview starts. This process actually eases out your anxiety, if any

My interview panel had 2 professors; 1 Female(P1) and 1 Male (P2)

I was called in by P2, after usual greetings I was asked the most dreaded yet usual of questions

P1: Tell me about yourself
A: I started with my prepared pitch but I was cut short in between and asked to explain it in some other way, Thankfully, I had a back up plan, I blutered it out and in between quoted 40 million guests as part of World Culture Festival(I was a cultural coordinator)

P2, who, I thought was paying no attention..Jumped in between and said are you sure about 40 million? I said yes and continued with my answer.

Meanwhile P1 took out his phone and googled something

P2: Do you know the population of Delhi
A: I said, it's somewhere abound 1.5cr+ and as soon I said I realised guests were 4 million and not 40. I accepted my mistake and told him the right figure. He looked calm and I believe, I managed to duck that bouncer well.

P1: So you were part of World Culture Festival, don't you think you have destroyed the yamuna bank and water bodies? What's your take on NGT's ruling.
A: Thankfully I knew in and out of the project and was following the court orders. So I was able to explain my part. There were some counter questions, which I explained via the architecture brilliance of stage, fines, artists etc.

P1: You have worked with Infosys, what's your take on recent Sikka-Murthy controversy.
A: I have read about this issues multiple times so I was confident and went into greater details. P1 intervened and asked for some more details, which I humbly said I was not aware of.

Then discussion shifted to personality of Mr. narayan murthy, I was asked about his style of leadership, his philosophy, and his contributions.

P2: Ok that's about murthy, what happened between Tata and Mistry. Any comments?
A: I told them whatever I knew of. I had read about the case so was comfortable but then P2 asked me to comment on some PSA theory of management. Honestly, I had no clue and said if you can explain a bit then I can definitely add on to it.

Theory was about how owners of business chose managers to run their company and later on fight it out for the company's vision etc. He said this was very common in India, I added it's a global phenomenon providing some examples.

He asked for an exception, I quoted Microsoft because of smooth transition from Bill Gates to Ballmer to now Satya Nadella without much intervention from Bill Gates. He seemed happy, and I thought it must be right

Then I was asked about Nadella and his style of leadership, luckily l had listened to an interview video of Mr. Nadella so was able to wade through.

P1: Why do you meditate and why did you join Art of Living?
A: I told her my reasons.

P2: Why did you leave Infosys and support Mr. Modi ?
A: I gave my reasons, said though I was inclined towards Mr. Modi but decision was mostly based on to experience the whole election process. I thought this was once in a lifetime opportunity as elections were conducted in way that has never happened in our country. I took a risk, a massive paycut to experience the ride and the experience really changed my perspective. This ride later on became one of the reason to pursue 2nd MBA.

P2: I see you have already done your MBA, why again?
A: Told him about my reasons.

P2: What did you learn from your MBA @IIT Roorkee?
A: As I had no industry experience when I joined IIT so I spoke about team work, working on strict deadlines, and taking initiatives etc.

P2: What you won't do or expect from your MBA?
A: I said, IIMC is an educational institute and I will never consider it as a placement agency. If I use my learnings and network well, placement in a good company would only be a by product.

P1: Anything else you won't do at IIM, she meant anything else that you won't expect at IIM
A: I said I won't feel entitled to the tag of IIM. I added that with my study experience at 2 premier institutes, college can only provide platforms and resources for students to use. Just because we are in IIM, life won't sort out by itself hence we cannot take the brand for granted.(Guess I did well at this one :D)

P2: Don't you think 23L is a bit too much , it won't fit the RoI scheme of things. (I was under presure here to think of presenting my ideas in a different way)
A: Philosophy stuck and I said RoI is a very western way of judging success and failure. A movie or a book might not become commercially hit but can still become a classic. Similarly, for me a higher package won't decide the RoI but the whole gamut of peer learning, network and guidance from professors will. Guess he either got bored or impressed but we finally moved on from this topic.

P2: Since, you were not experienced when you joined IIT, which subject you were able to relate to(dint prepare for it)
A: I said consumer behaviour because even if I was not taking big board room decisions, I atleast was buying things as a consumer and could relate to why I buy what I buy.

He asked me about some products, we had a discussion around Kindle, FMCG products etc

P1: Tell me what you do at Reliance as a Product Manager
A: Guided her about the role, responsibilities and challenges. Quoted some of my achievements and finally they said any question for us.

I asked them about the international immersion and was told about the 2 colleges plus a new one that has been added recently.

Honestly, this was one of my best interview performance and I felt content that I gave my best

Tip 2 for candidates preparing for 2nd MBA:
A lot of you must be preparing for a 2nd MBA and apprehensions are but natural. This journey has been an eye opener of sorts, I have seen people from IIMs, FMS and even ISB going for a 2nd MBA from abroad. So you just need to be prepared for your genuine reasons, knowing very well that not every college will be forthcoming but many are

In my case, I am confident that this century will be dominated by Asia(importantly India) hence I decided to pursue mine from reputed IIMs because of their experience and brand value in India.

Result: Converted.
And now that I interact with my fellow students, I feel grateful to have been selected for the course Cohort is superb with people from all sort of backgrounds. I am really looking forward to the experience and share some more insights about the program soon.

Till then, All The Best everyone and PM me for any sort of help or discussion.

Cheers,
Prashant