My IITM Interview

This is the last but one interview of mine and I wasn't tensed at all. With just IITD left in queue, I was all happy about going to Chennai for the Interview. Me and Yashu left by the bus from Hyderabad to Chennai and stayed at the Bank of India Guest house which Yashu's dad had arranged for us :)...To the uninformed, Yashu is my best friend's younger brother and had interview in the same slot as mine.

Had a quick breakfast and took some inputs from the guest house keeper about how to bargain with the Chennai autowallas! Must say, they are worse than the Hyderabad ones! Finally arrived at the gate and then didnt know where to go! Some bus came in and we promptly got into it, not even wondering where it would go to! Asked the driver if it would go to MBA dept and he didnt seem to know!!!! Our first management funda in place! When you dunno what to do, always blame it on outsiders :P....told the driver about how someone guided us to get into the bus. Then one of the students came to our rescue and told the driver to drop us at DoMS(Department of Management Studies) at Gajendra Circle(All you junta coming down for interviews this year, get into the campus bus and get down at Gajendra Circle or GC as they call it!

Having got down, asked for direction and sure enough, we saw the DoMS board at the GC itself on the left lane. Started walking towards it. Two striking things about the department from outside. The big tree in between the lawn and the CCD outlet( computers and compact disk outlet :P). Just Kidding da! The Cafe Coffee Day outlet it was!!!.....

The inside view of dept was very spacious and sure enough, we were ushered to the registration desk by some seniors. Having registered ourselves, we sat down and started observing the place. We saw a board where students have written feedback about their interview experience and I was jobless enough then to read the whole board. Everybody mentioned the HoD L.S.Ganesh's name and thanked him for the experience. i brushed it off as people maska marofying to the profs :P.... Many said it was thoroughly enjoyable experience!!! Is this a roller coaster ride or water sport!! How can an Interview be enjoyable I say!!! Perplexed I was!... many thanked the seniors for their help which I found quite an honest remark since the seniors did help us by answering our umpteen number of queries ranging from forms to GDs to previous interview questions :)

There was an introduction about the department by the seniors and they clarified the concerns that were raised. The HoD, Prof. L.S.Ganesh spoke for a while and wished us all the very best for our interviews.

I was slotted with a group of 12 people and given the group task. A GT is unlike a GD where people fight. In fact, my group didnt even fight for opportunity, everyone was given a chance to speak. And the few who didnt, the professors asked them to have their say towards the end of the GT. Haan Haan! pata hai ki maine ab tak GT topic nahi batayi! :P....I thought people are engrossed enough to not notice :P..... Anyway my topic was "You are a bunch of managers for a mall. There are many people who visit the mall and window shop or return back without buying anything. You are here suggesting various possibilities and strategies to turn these window shoppers into buying customers." I dont remember who started the GT but someone set the context properly by saying that lets identify potential reasons why people wont buy and address them individually. I dont rem all the points mentioned but I sure do remember my points :P My inputs were

• Women who come with kids have tough time handling them and generally dont complete their shopping if the child gets unmanageable. Hence I suggested opening up a small play area where two nannys can take care of kids while moms shop peacefully.
• I suggested appointment of women helpers for sections like cosmetics, clothes and jewelry since its easier for many women to communicate better with women sales person.
• Someone suggested coffee and eatery outlets where people can stand and eat with only one or two tables to sit. This would reduce time spent by people in sitting and chatting away and would encourage them to explore the whole shop.
• Someone talked about running user group specific sales promotions to encourage impulsive buying.
• Someone talked about installing sound systems inside the mall for announcing various offers running at various outlets and make the customers aware of them.

I dont remember the rest of the inputs given but this should have given you a fair picture of how our GT went. L.S.Ganesh and one other professor were our panelists who took final summary from two people who havent spoken till then. Finally, all of felt nice that none of us argued or fought over the issue :))

I came out to find yashu also done with his GT. We sat down and waited for chance to be called for the interview :). I was the first one to go in my Panel! :(....I was petty nervous but Mayank Batra(the senior who was handling our group) asked me to be cool and confident for the interview. He said "The professors are very friendly. They wont make you nervous and wont bother you too much. Just be yourself." I was still nervous and sat at the office waiting for the Profs to call me in. 15mins....20mins....30mins....I was outside and I didnt know what was goin on inside. Mayank told me that a German delegate was here to visit the HoD Mr. Ganesh and hence I have to wait for a little more time. I waited and finally after 40mins, I was called in :).

The professors asked me to sit down. LSG and one other professor on the panel. After I said Good Morning, both the professors apologised to me!!!! Sorry for keeping you waiting. It was an emergency. Man!!! Who would say sorry to just another student at their dept to take an interview! i said its okay and then LSG said "you have waited for quite sometime, isin't it?" and gave a smile. All my nervousness went down the drain! His face was so peaceful and I was so comfortable by then :). Now for the Interview Questions:

• Sahithi, Tell me something about yourself? I have rattofied this answer for so many times and even repeated it for atleast 2 interview of mine. There I go again with my blah blah blah introduction.
• Sahithi, You have left your job in 2007! you have one year of experience then, right? Yes sir. What did you do for the next one year? I studied for Cat and other mgmt exams. Why did you resign so early? Gave a proper explanation about how there was dependency in my project and I had to leave then or in Feb, 2008. So I choose July,2007.
• You have written quite a lot in your achievements. Quote one experience which is very imporant to you and why? I quoted my 11th and 12th experience in hostel since I was all by myself and learnt being independent and became emotionally stronger and so on.
• LSG asks "Sahithi, you score is really good but why is your Quant so bad? Did you find it tough?" No sir. I didnt have enough time towards the end and couldn't do justice to quant. I really regret that. LSG says " I was the one who set your quant paper this time and the general trend has been a low score in quant. Just wanted to know the reasons."
• Can you talk about the kind of work you did in Infosys? I told about my project and responsibilities. Some more questions followed on it.
• There was one question on my hobbies that I cant recollect right now. I think it was about why I discontinued my music practice after 10th.
• What other calls do you have? All IITs and IISc. What if you convert IITB and IITM? Which one would you take? I cant comment without getting sir. Just tell us what you would do? I would consult my parents before my final decision since they want me to stay down south if possible. Hence, even if its IITB, for me IITM would come first if my parents want me to stay south. Hmmmm, okay we buy that!

There were few more questions which I cant remember right now. I came out and felt so refreshed and happy. All those compliments on the board were actually true! Of all the interview experiences I had, this was my best. Btw, I went to all the IITs for interviews and to IISc as well! Only IIT Kharagpur was taken up at Bangalore.

I went to the feedback board and gave my feedback. Your professors rock and I love the experience. It might sound cliche but I am sure many of you would write the same when you come over for the interview! I waited for Yashu to come back from his interview and finally he was back! He was all smiling and said "Went well! how about yours?". "Same here!!!"

We grabbed some tea and snacks that were provided and sat down to discuss the questions asked. He had two profs on his panel, one of them being Dr.Ashwin Mahalingam. For those of you less informed, he is a US returned Ph.D who is with civil dept as faculty adviser. Yashu's interview revolved around chess and its intricacies. Even some concept of chess like check mate and all were asked. So all of you who wrote your hobbies without thinking, start thinking now :P. There will be questions on it! Since Yashu was a fresher, he had questions on his engineering subjects.

Yashu gave his feedback now. "Ossum experience!" "Thanks to seniors!". We walked out of the campus and took the bus to the gate. Took some rtc bus which the seniors had suggested to take to avoid chennai autowallahs!. After going back,had am amazing "Idiyappam and Kerala Chicken" combo at one of the hotels near our guest house. Then packed our luggage and left for Hyderabad!

And the post ends here. Hope this post helps all of those prospective students who want the seniors to narrate their experiences. Good Luck to the ones who will be shortlisted for the interview!