| The focus of a B-school interview can range from | | | | way , this should be the shortest path |
| specific questions about your job to broad | | | | (I gave my interpretation with a straight path |
| discussions on life. Approach the interview as a | | | | from the lizard to theinsect passing thru the |
| conversation to be enjoyed, not as a | | | | centre of the in between wall)p2you say that will |
| question-and-answer ordeal. It may be about your | | | | be the shortest pathmyeah |
| hobbies – your recent cross-country trip. This | | | | (another moment of silence)p3ok manish why is |
| doesn’t mean that the interviewers are not | | | | APJ Abul Kalam so famous ?mwell sir apart from |
| serious. It just means that you’re being sized | | | | being the current president of our country , he |
| up as a person and a future professional in all | | | | was one of the few people involved in the nuclear |
| your dimensions. | | | | tests carried out by India on may 11th , 1998 , |
| Try to be your witty, charming, natural self. Do | | | | monday . The operation with the code name |
| not try to put on. The interviewers will be able to | | | | ‘ buddha has smiled ‘ made him famous |
| see your masks through. Students, faculty, | | | | throughout the country because even I didn’t |
| admissions personnel and alumni conduct | | | | know him before that date . Afterwards he was |
| interviews. Don’t dismiss students as the | | | | in news for being rejected a post of teacher at |
| lightweights. | | | | IIS due to some unavailability of degrees .p3you |
| Either way, you should have in mind what you | | | | may have seen this xavier institute , xavier |
| want to convey about who you are before you | | | | school etc . Who was this xavier ?m |
| go into any interview. Lack of preparation is a | | | | Sir I don’t have the exact idea but I suppose |
| common complaint among interviewers, and if | | | | he may have been some great person in the |
| you are prepared, you will stand out among your | | | | Christian field .p1ok manish what are you currently |
| competitors. | | | | studying ?m |
| Prepare structured answers for the following | | | | Computer Engineering , final yearp1how many |
| potential questions. | | | | bytes in a kilobyte ?m |
| 1. Why should we admit you into our MBA | | | | 1024p1 |
| program? | | | | 1024 ok whats the latest speed in the desktop |
| 2. What are your strongest abilities? | | | | equipment ?mp4 1.9 ghz |
| 3. What skills would you be bringing to the | | | | (fluke, this was as per my latest |
| classroom?(relevant if you have job experience) | | | | information)p1whats this hz in this 1.9 ghz |
| 4. What are you looking for in this program? | | | | (oops I didn’t knew that)mthis hz is the |
| 5. Tell me something about yourself? | | | | frequency . number of instructions executed per |
| 6. What are your greatest strengths | | | | secondp1number of instructions executed per |
| weaknesses? | | | | second ?? you are a computer scientist ! you are |
| 7. Where do you want to be in 5 years? | | | | supposed to know this.(this comment broke my |
| 8. Why do you want to study in this institute? | | | | heart .I didn’t have anything good to cheer |
| 9. What does “success” mean to you? | | | | about in this interview till now and that mistake |
| 10. What does “failure” mean to you? | | | | seemed to be like the final blow. I thought its a |
| 11. What are your three major accomplishments? | | | | gone case now)mactually what happens is when |
| 12. What have you disliked in your past jobs? (If | | | | an instruction is executed, data flows thru the |
| you have worked in more than one organization) | | | | data bus and its fetched from the memory (pin |
| 13. What kinds of people do you enjoy working | | | | drop silence)p2ok manish lets say we got a nth |
| with? (If you possess work experience) | | | | order polynomial . you know how thats |
| 14. What kinds of people frustrate you? | | | | writtenmyea sir |
| 15. How long before you can make a contribution | | | | a0+a1*x+a2*x^2+………an*x^np2yeah |
| (Not monetary) to the institute? | | | | suppose all the a’s are known and I want to |
| 16. In the past year, what have you been | | | | find the value of this polynomial for a particular |
| dissatisfied about in your performance? | | | | value of x . in such a way that I have to do |
| 17. What according to you is your ideal job and | | | | minimum multiplication. (as disappointed I was at |
| how will this program help you realise the same? | | | | that moment, I heard all a’s are |
| 18. What can you tell me about your past | | | | UNKNOWN)mfirst we need n-1 equations to find |
| bosses? (If you have work experience) | | | | these a’s (another stupid mistake I did)p2no |
| 19. Which is more important to you: money or | | | | no but all a’s are knownmall a’s are |
| the type of job? | | | | known ? well then it can be simplified |
| 20. What have you learned from your activities in | | | | asa0+x(a1+x(a2+x(…..))))))p2ok thats right . but |
| college? | | | | whats this principle called ?m |
| 21. Were your extracurricular activities worth the | | | | I don’t know the name of this principle sir but |
| time you put into them? What have they taught | | | | this is the same principle used in nuclear fission , |
| you? | | | | nuclear fission i mean . 1+3(1+3(1+…….)))). I |
| 22. What qualities should a successful manager | | | | read it in my 10th classp3you are in final |
| possess? | | | | yearmyesp3what are you doing in your final year |
| 23. What two attributes are most important in | | | | project ?mwe are implementing a proxy |
| your job? | | | | serverp3its a group projectmyes its a group |
| 24. What major problem have you encountered | | | | project with me and 2 other peoplep3so what |
| and how did you deal with it? | | | | exactly are you makingmthen I started the |
| 25. What have you done that you consider | | | | longest stretch of my speech. I made a |
| creative? | | | | thoroughdescription of my project. whatever I |
| 26. Who do you admire? Why? | | | | knew. even though irrelevant, I just went on and |
| 27. What do you get passionate about? | | | | on and on. (after finally I stopped)p1whats the |
| 28. What courses are you taking? What to | | | | fastest sorting method you know ? ( i wasn’t |
| Expect in an IIM Personal Interview? | | | | sure )mquicksortp1and the slowest ( this time I |
| SAMPLE INTERVIEW | | | | was sure that i wasn’t sure )min the worst |
| Given below is a sample interview a student went | | | | case bubble sort .p1quicksort and bubblesort , are |
| through before he got admission in | | | | you sure ?myes surep1can you explain quicksort |
| IIM-A.m-candidatep1,p2,p3- interviewersp1 was | | | | ?min quicksort we divide the array in half , and |
| technical expert with long face covered by beard . | | | | continue to do so till we are left with single |
| p2 was a man with plain glasses and wide face . | | | | elements , then we reverse the process and |
| p3 was an old man with white hair . All the | | | | keep on joining them while sorting the individual |
| questioning was done in a cyclic order of | | | | elements ( totally wrong answer but I explained all |
| p2p3p1p2p3p1…. | | | | this using my hands , so he was more looking at |
| Last time my grinning caused my plan to go | | | | my hands rather than listening to me )p1can you |
| haywire as I was grilled on marriage . So this time | | | | write the algo of quicksort ?msince I don’t |
| I thought of not smiling during the interview which | | | | remember it , I’ll have to make it |
| was a blunder . Again I had some particular strong | | | | .p1okayp2where are you from manish ?mwe are |
| points which I wanted to tell at any cost , like | | | | basically from an agricultural rural family in village |
| magazine , math magic , tennis , movies and my | | | | lala districtrewari. but I’ve been here in delhi |
| memory.mmay I come in sirp1yeah come in | | | | through out my life and the credit goes to my |
| manishmthank you sir . good afternoon to you | | | | father . Even though from being a agricultural |
| allp2good afternoon manish . See there is a lizard | | | | family , he had the foresightedness to visualise |
| at that upper extreme corner of the wall and an | | | | the importance of education . He got himself |
| insect at this point on the ground . Whats the | | | | educated , his brothers educated and today if my |
| shortest distance the lizard has to cover to get | | | | uncles are earning their livelihood they owe it to |
| the insect ? | | | | my father only.p2what are the various problems |
| ( ok so could there be a worse start than this . I | | | | people face in a village ?mthe most important one |
| was midway thru sitting on the chair and paused | | | | is lack of literacyp2and ..mand those people |
| right there only to search for these creatures | | | | aren’t aware of whats happening around the |
| from the lost world , the lost world because they | | | | world.p2but that is because they aren’t |
| were not there . So while I was hanging in the air | | | | literatemoh yeahp3what % of India’s |
| , I didn’t have a seat under me, I didn’t | | | | population is beyond the poverty line ?m |
| have any creatures before me and I didn’t | | | | I don’t know the exact number sirp3whats |
| have an answer with me . I had to imagine them | | | | the literacy rate of Indiamits above 50 but I am |
| to be there . I first seated myself and then tried | | | | not aware of the exact figurep3whats the literacy |
| to visualize the answer . The walls of that room | | | | rate of Rajasthan ? |
| were not meeting like the normal 90 degrees but | | | | ( oh yeah well sure , I don’t know rate of |
| at about 60 degree. The room wasn’t a 4 | | | | India , I will sure know that of Rajasthan )m |
| walled either)p2did you get the question ?myes sir | | | | I don’t knowp1you have been doing |
| , it will be square root of …..p2arre bhai , its a | | | | programmingmyeahp1what happens to the code |
| lizard . It can’t do these mathematics .m | | | | you writemthis source code is converted to the |
| In that case sir , its going to fall down and rush to | | | | object code and then its complied and linked to |
| its prey .p2fall down ? and get itself killed ?mbut | | | | form the exe filep1this exe file is in which |
| sir its a lizard ? lizard doesn’t gets hurt on | | | | language ( i didn’t knew )massembly |
| falling . Moreover , the time taken during fall will be | | | | languagep1assembly language ? who understands |
| much less than than during sliding on the walls | | | | assembly language ? |
| .p2so thats what you thinkmyeah | | | | ( obviously assembler )mcompiler ??p1you are |
| (a moment of silence. I got the impression that | | | | doing computer engineering ? you are way distant |
| may be I was going totally wrong. They | | | | from accuracy ( that was it . I had lost it , I |
| didn’t want a logical answer at all, but instead | | | | didn’t have the fuel left )p2whats this |
| a mathematical one)p2don’t you think this | | | | magazine all about ? you have written it quite |
| would be the shortest path ? | | | | many timesmso finally something which was one |
| (draws a path on the paper . Its from the lizard | | | | of my strong points , something which I was |
| to the opposite point of the wall touching the | | | | totally sure of . |
| ground . then straight to the insect)msir in that | | | | |