IIT Bombay Interview

This interview is hated for all the right reasons. It fell exactly on the day my close cousin got married and as a result, I had to skip it!!.....Me, pavan and pavan’s friend rakesh came along with me. I took the train this time. It was evening 4pm train and me and pavan got the berths at the same place. rakesh joined us from begumpet. Now started the fun part. The blabber mouth tht I was, went on n on about anything n everything in the world n also discussed many current affairs in the process since I had two brainy heads with me. Oh, by the way….pavan had IIM B,I,L calls while rakesh had all calls!!....so it was obvious tht I was the one benefited the most from those conversations!!....we discussed everything from crises around the world to flop movies to mba prep to future plans…..time just flew by and we slept sooner than we expected…..

Morning 3.30am it was and pavan woke me up!....we reached some place near dadar and got down at some station by 4am. We waited for a sub urban train tht came at 4.40am and landed up at the nearest station to IIT Bombay. Took and auto and having reached the girls hostel, I bade gud bye n waited for some girl to allot me the room. The room was big n already 5 people were fast asleep in tht room. I joined them too in a very short while. My interview was scheduled in the afternoon slot and hence woke up at around 9.30, got ready and had breakfast. Revised some crap and borrowed the news ppr from a girl who just landed into the room. I know this blog is getting boring now. Lemme directly jump into the interview part.

We were again divided into slots and we were the first to go for a GD. Our topic was again some case study. Its abt how a junior officer gets promoted on account of his work efficiency and the seniors hate tht and argue tht seniority should be given preference n go to the court. Is it legal to do so? Its some public firm where private partnership is involved. What is the due course of such cases in Indian Law? What should the company do now or what should it have done?.....fairly bad GD with occasionally becoming uncontrollable fish market…… we were 12 people and it was a bad GD!!.....

Highlights of the GD:

There was some guy sitting on No-7 in the slot and he started the gd by saying lemme take u thru the key points of the case study and started reading the lines of the case study!!!!!.....we let him make two points n I decided to interrupt but the guy beside me took over n did the same. Then there were too many differences of opinion about what should they have done and wat is the due course now…..according to me….the guy beside me scored the best as he also stopped many messy situations. He did say “lets allow the lady to speak” twice n I cud make my points. tht did give him some brownie points since I had soar throat and wasn’t able to shout my way thru the gd. Many of the good points were given by the guy beside me and one more guy. I made just 3 entries n made 2 good points. Many ppl were iterating their points and I thot it all got messed up many times since 4 people were talking simultaneously!!.....finally we did manage to sum up properly what we all thot and hence a happy ending to the fish-centered fairy tale…..

My interview was slotted last. Last but one rather. So I waited and waited and waited. I took feedback from every person who came out from my panel. We had a german on the panel and many of them were having trouble getting his accent. There was another lady stats prof on our panel. When I went, the panel was almost exhausted yet happy since the interviews almost came to an end on their panel and hence all general discussion happened. The biggest burning issue then was the budget. We got it just 1 day back. Hence the whole world was discussing it. I was asked to elaborate on points of my interest in the budget and also few other things on budget. Then they asked me abt why I left my job and what I am doin now n I elaborated the same. the german was keen on knowing more abt how I spent my time after I quit my job and also few things abt my prep.

The stats prof didn’t seem interested in me since, since at some point, she made a comment like. U left ur wonderful job just for preparing. Now wats the gurantee tht u will do justice to this course when u find a gud job. U might loose interest in it then. Oh, cmon mam!!....dont act like my 6 year old cousin who has great logical questions all the time but never do they come anywhere close to reality!!.....i realized tht the lady prof was very unimpressed with me for whatever reasons. I think there are gen I dont like u vibes from lady profs anywhere in the world when it comes to girls!!...something similar but much better than this happened to me in delhi too!!....there were few questions on who is shiv khera and some other crappy guy who I never even heard of!!....so I answered abt shiv khera n bluntly didn’t acknowledge the second person’s name!!.....

Having completed the interview, I know I wudnt make it. My deep sub conscious mind tht woke up just now told me so…..so its petty strong n clear tht I wudnt make it[:P]….. how ever after narrating my interview, ppl had something nice to say……some even went to the extent of saying…..hey tht second guy….may be it was just a fictious character….they wanted to check out the way u handle unknown things!!......very sweet of them but I knew I didn’t do well….some how I felt so….rakesh was on the afternoon batch too n he was on different slot. I kept waiting for him and many of the seniors came up to me and asked how the interview went n what they thot abt it…..i did get many contradictory reviews on my interview but I knew what was in store for me. rakesh was also last on his panel n came out very late. He said his interview went well and the panel ppl were happy with his answers!!....well atleast someone I know shall make it thru IIT Bombay!!!....a special mention here shud go to the seniors who organized the whole things for us…..they are all amazing n they coordinated well….lucky are the ones who would be goin there to study with those seniors!!....

pavan had his interview the next day afternoon and I was already bored!!....i spent the evening lazing around in the hostel and slept off after an early dinner. By the way, we had to buy food coupons in the mess but I never did. Only on day1 breakfast, I bout one coupon!!...rest all muft mein khaliya!!....arre yaar room ke liye already 200 paid off….why again for food is my point!!....anyway the next day, my mom’s first cousin called up n asked if I wud want to visit their house and I said yes. I went n met them n in the evening aunty, me and my cousin went shopping on the roads of Bombay…..it was amazing. Bombay has the cheapest n the best stuff anyone could ever get!!....i did some small scale shopping since the budget wasn’t permitting me….i took a sub urban train again n landed in the Bombay station….i had pavan waiting thr already and we had dinner on the train, spoke for a while abt the interviews and then slept off since it was an eventful yet tiring day…..

First impressions on the city:

the city is over crowded with people. In the 4.40am sub urban train….there was no place to sit!!....i couldn’t believe what my eyes saw….so many ppl on their way to work n tht too so early in the morning!!....i can’t believe it!!....the streets are too narrow…..the bus service is gud n also ppl seemed courteous too!!....one special feature among the buses there was to enter thru the back door n come out from the front door….i took tht bus from the campus to my relatives place….the long journey to tht place was good….too much of work was happening on the roads…..not too many tall buildings around the area tht I saw…..the main roads were real wide n smooth….people are hardworking n nice….auto people took one rupee less than the meter there!!....now how impossible is tht!!....

this trip was memorable in its own way since its my first trip to bombay. I did miss my cousin’s wedding in the process but I dont regret it anymore….get my cousin to hear it n she might want to kill me for saying this!!

A Place-O-Analysis

With all my interviews now completed and making it to IIT Madras MBA batch of 2008-2010….I am happy to present the analysis of the places I visited so far!......In the process I shall compare…..contradict…..curse…..criticize…. comment…. on all the cities I have visited…..

Statutory Warning: If the content of this blog hurts anyone…..I would not be sorry about it and would recommend them to consult a psychiatrist for being such a sissy!!

In the order of interviews, I have been to IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IISc Bangalore (for IISc and IIT Kharagpur as well), IIT Chennai and finally IIT Delhi. In the process, I have noticed something great abt every place n something not so very great as well…..in the due course of this blog, u shall be reading abt my musings and experiences in the diff places……

IIT Kanpur:

Me and my friend shruthi took the flight to Delhi from Hyderabad and then rajdhani express to kanpur……In the flight, even after having our heavy breakfast, we bout the not-so-good chicken sandwiches jus coz we were bored n wanted something to eat…..the 200 bucks went into the gutter since the sandwich was like the upma tht I cook for myself when no one is home…..after landing, our dear friend Smitha was there to receive us and show us around for a while since we had 3 hours gap between the flight n train…..we went to palika bazaar and bout lots of stuff for 500 bucks only…..it was my mom’s strict condition tht I don’t spend too much on clothes during my trips to different places!....n then we took the wonderful metro rail to the railway station from palika bazaar station…..metro rail is one thing tht makes us believe tht we aren’t in India…..at least for a while….n then u look around and find our very own software engineers and business men, all dressed up and standing around in the train…..we then bade gud bye to smita n hopped on to the train….it was 2pm and we were hungry…..meals were included in the ticket and with my never-eat-veg attitude, I ordered non-veg meals for myself and veg for shruthi….actually our whole idea was to play safe…..if the non veg dish isn’t gud, we wud still have veg dishes and vice-versa…..thankfully the food was decent n he even gave us ice creams!!....slept for a while n then woke up around 4pm to see tht tea and snacks were being served!!.....n then me n shru opened our great manorama tht we made for ourselves to get us thru the interviews and started revising [:D]….at around 6.45pm, we landed in kanpur. My close friend bhaskar was there to receive us and we left for the IIT Kanpur campus in an auto…..

My first impression on the city:

The station was too smelly….the autos are decent…..the place is horrible….the roads are waiting-to-be-repaired…..the weather was cool….

We finally arrived into the campus and then my whole view changed…..Awesome campus they have….amazing I must say…..we were allotted hostel rooms by some senior girls and then we went to have dinner at some canteen…..the walk from the hostel to canteen was long n nice….kanpur ppl have the best campus, I must say….spotted neel gaay on the way and returned to hostel after dinner….next day was our interview….

My Interview Experience:

We were divided into slots and I was on the fourth slot n moved to some SIDBI (small industries development board of India) building for GD/PI….My group has 13 people in all…..our topic was a case study…..some lady….Nancy for the time being….Nacy takes up job as ceo of a company and she was earlier working with HP and did a great job there…..she believes in making decisions herself and never involved too many in deciding….she gives her 100% in the job but at the end of 6 months, sales drop and board of directors issue her a one month notice to resign….a special committee is formed n they report all of nancy’s inconsistencies….even meager issues like she talks too much on phone or she eats for too long types will be quoted…..now we had to analyze what went wrong and why….is there gender bias in tht company….suggest any remedial measures…..we were all given 5mins to read n note….one min each to read out our points to the rest….n in the end 6 mins to discuss…..fairly gud GD with occasional spikes of fish market….I did perform well enuf and I was happy.

My Interview:

Me: may I come in sir?

Panel of 5 professor: yes, please take ur seat…

Prof1: so sahiti, ur from ece background….tell me how comfortable are u with ur subjects?

Me: quite comfortable sir(I hope u wont ask me subjects tht I have done one day batting for)

Prof1: okay can u draw us a full wave rectifier with phased lock loops?

Me: (@#$%&* the what!!) Sir I rem the basic full wave rectifier, cant recollect abt phased lock loops.

Prof1: fine draw it first.

Me: (drew the picture n I know its correct….i was really happy about it….)

Prof1: now can u draw the waveform for it

Me: (confidently drew the wrong waveform….i was so dumb tht u don’t even ask me…..i was in some world of my own and drew the wrong wave form)

Prof1: are u sure abt the waveform…

Me: I think so. I didn’t even bother to verify it!!....

Prof1: okay which is ur fav subject in engg….

Me: communication Systems.

Prof2 takes over: okay tell me what happens when u switch on ur mobile phone.

Me: explained in detail abt the base station, antenna, HLR, MST and all tht crap.

Prof2: okay now I am making a call from land line…how does it connect to the mobile….tel the flow…

Me: at the telephone exchange, its routed to the corresponding station.

Prof2: no, I am saying how does the connection get established?

Me: thru telephone cables ( I was so elated to give this answer[:P]….like this is the ultimate answer tht can ever be given!!)

Prof2: yeah, tht is fine. I am saying what is the exact process tht happens there.

Me: I am not sure about it sir. This is all I know.

Prof1, getting back to me: have u heard of WLL (wire locked loops) in telephone networks.

Me: yes sir, I have. Frankly, I don’t remember any of it. We don’t have a course in it.

Prof1: so what do u know miss Sahithi??

Me: (@#$%&*....fine I know nothing…but ece is not my cup of tea coffee milk n cool drink!!) Sir, I have answered to the best of my abilities.

Prof3: okay can we do some maths?

Me: sure sir. He asked me about the integral of something, which I cant recollect ryt now n I answered it.

Prof4: so u have resigned from ur job in july 2007. What have u been doin since then?

Me: I have been involved in various activities and also prepared for MBA entrance exams.

Prof4: what made u leave ur job? Didn’t u like it?

Me: No sir, I really liked my job. But I had decided to give Cat and other exams a proper shot. I was having too much work and wasn’t able to do it. I spoke to my PM and we arrived at the consensus to resign. If I wouldn’t have resigned in july,07. My next chance was in feb,08 which is too late to even study. I made the decision n came out sir.

Prof4: you could have worked it out with ur PM.

Me: sir, thr was a lot of dependency on me in the project. I had to act responsible and not leave the project at the wrong time. Since our module was completed in june and new module was just allocated, my pm said july,07 is okay. But once I got absorbed into the new module, I had to wait until its delivery which was tentatively feb,08. So I decided to resign.

Prof4: oh okay. So u have been preparing well then. What happened to ur cat? What is ur percentile?

Me: its ** % sir.

Prof4: can u split it?

Me: (split it up n told)

Prof1 to prof5: sir, do u have anything to ask?

Prof5: no nothing. U may leave.

Me: (finally im done)

So I guess the interview went just about okay with prof1 charging towards me with unexpected questions!!....since this was my first interview, I learnt a lot from it.

In fact, me n my friends who were preparing for CAT were so very much into the prep tht our conversations were as follows…..

Pavan: hey today I had pizzas at pizza hut.

Me: okay tel me who owns tht grp and what else do they own? Also their competitors?

Pavan: Amma talli!!.... any normal human would have asked me what pizza I had or who did I go with….we ppl are all cracked up with our MBA prep!....we aren’t thinking normally n humanly[:D]….

Me: I know. The other day, I was watching tv which was playing a big bazaar commercial. I immediately started thinking abt future group and its various other ventures. A normal person would have switched to another channel or watched the ad peacefully…..

During a recent conversation with one other frend of mine who got thru IIM Indore.

Yashu: I also got thru Carnegie Mellon with aid for MS in Management information systems. I dunno which one to choose?....

Me: I rem he was a great business fella. Tell me, what was his business? Why did he start this school? When did he start it?

Yashu: I dunno!!![:P]

Me: ever since ur mba interviews are done with, u hardly read n since this is not in India n doesn’t have an interview, u became complacent[:P]….very bad[:P]….

Yashu: edisavu le[:P]….i stopped reading news paper the day my last interview was over!....i don’t even watch news channels anymore.

Me: Neither do we!!![:D]

Some how, I know I deviated from the main topic n ended up some where else. But who cares man!....Deviating is my birth right!![:P]

I shall blog about my other interviews shortly. Do keep reading and commenting.