IIM Indore Interview

p1: a lady prof; p2: an old male prof
m: myself

m: good morning sir/madam
p1: good morning (p2 trying to psyche me by not saying anything and looking at me seriously)
p1: tell us about yourself
m: bla bla bla
p1: why did you leave your job?
m: got bored by the monotonous work... felt like taking a break...
p1: what kind of work you did?
m: explained them till they were satisfied.
p1: seems like you gave CAT 4 times... what did you do differently this time compared to last time so that you got all the calls?
m: concentrated more on my english by reading lot of articles on economist, guardian etc... also i had some luck...
p1: if you want to start a JEE coaching center, what are your plans?
m: i want to start something which offers good coaching at lower fee... also i can get friends from IITs and IIMs as faculty using my circle...
p1: almost all the coaching centers have the same plans... do you have anything different?
m: give me a minute to think... (after thinking for a while)... nothing else...
p1: so you did agricultural engineering?
m: yes mam (i sensed the trouble)
p1: what is a greenhouse effect?
m: i told my own definition...
p1: as soon as you enter IIMB, you can see a plant with no leaves... how is that made?
m: they are for decorative purposes... by using a method called hi-breeding we can have selective features in a plant... i guess the process is called selective hi-breeding (i discovered it)...
p1: describe the process briefly?
m: (WTH!!)... its been six years since i had that course mam... dont remember anything...

suddenly p2 came into picture ( i really dont know what he did till then)... his only aim seems to be psyching me...
p2: you say yourself to be an agricultural engineer and you dont know the answers to basic questions?
m: sir... its been three years since i left my college... all i have is basic knowledge... (thought of saying "look at my marks sheet... i can't answer any of your questions even when i was in college")...
p2: what is mitosis?
m: mitosis? hmm... i guess its the division of mitochondria in cell... (remember something about mitochondria during my school days)...
p2: what are the different processes in mitosis?
m: (what's with the questions from biotech!!)... sir, i didn't have that course...
p2: then what courses do you have in agricultural engineering?
m: named a few... agricultural machinery, tractors... and by mistake food processing tech...
p1: so you have food processing?
m: yes mam...
p1: what is the process of fat separation from fatty foods?
m: (my time's over!! :(...)... actually i dont know... its been a long time since i left college (same old story)...
p2: so what do you know?
m: just a smile... said nothing...
p2: do you know programming?
m: a little... all i did was a support related job for some pharmaceutical company...
(dammit... everyone said indore concentrates more on acads... i should have avoided this interview instead of getting screwed like this)...
p1: ok praveen... you can go now...
m: thank you madam/sir
again there's no response from p2... (get lost!)

thank god i didn't say blogging as my hobby at iimb interview... they were checking it online at the same time on their laptops... had they verified what's written here... i would have shown the door straight away!!

IIMB GDPI experience

i reached the iimb campus on time... unlike for any other interviews, iimb called candidates in some order... all the candidates were praveens... we were waiting outside the interview room and doing all introductions and stuff... we saw a lady prof and young dynamic male prof (just 37 yrs old!!) coming towards us... and then my worries started... young professors always are troublesome compared to their older counterparts... because they clearly remember their college days better than the old profs... anyways here are my gd and interview details...

gd topic: few cricketers inspite of all the controversies behind them got padma sree awards, but sportsmen who won medals at the olympics didnt get any padmas... we have to discuss the criteria for a sportsmen to be awarded padma...
it was a decent discussion... everyone got a chance to say something... i put in few good points (good in my opinion!)... we were given 20 mins for the gd... but the lady prof stopped us after 15 mins... then we were told to write a summary... after doing that we were told to wait outside... i was the second guy to be interviewed... i screwed it up big time!!

lets refer young male prof as p1 and the female prof as p2... myself as i...

p1: you said you are from iit kharagpur?
i: yes sir...
p1: your cgpa is so low!!
i: yes sir... when i came to iit, i had no clear goals and proper guidance... i was not so serious about my studies...
p1: even if you are not at all serious... i know iitkgp gives a minimum of 7... are you at the bottom of your college?? (damn sure he's a passout from my college :( !!)
i: no sir... but one among the bottom...
p1: tell me about yourself...
i: i told my history... ended up saying... "then i resigned the job"...
p1: why did you resign the job??
i: i was always interested in doing an mba... being a software engineer has never been my dream...
p1: first you say you are not interested in agricultural engineering, then you say software engineering... what are you interested in??
i: management sir... i have many ideas which can be implemented if i do an mba...
p1: what kind of ideas??
i: i want to start a paper industry...
p1: why paper industry?
i: my father has been working in that industry for the past 25 years... i felt that i can use his experience to setup a paper industry in my underdeveloped region...
p1: and what do you want to do?
i: i want to take care of the finance and operational side...
p1: i'm not able to get you... what do you know about paper industry??
i: i started of saying technical details... till p1 stopped...
p1: we dont want tech details... what can you do as a manager?
i: i dont know much sir... that's one reason i want to do management...
p1: what all paper industries do you know?
i: named a few local paper industries...
p1: what's the largest paper industry in india?
i: i dont know...
p1: you say you want to setup a paper industry and you know nothing about it?
suddenly p2 (good lady prof) came to my rescue... asking for my hobbies...
still p1 doesn't want to spare me... :(
p1 continues...

p1: which hall you used to stay in iit?
i: rajendra prasad hall of residence...
p1: when was it setup?
i: 1953 (??)
p1: (with an awkward smile)... do you atleast know when was iit kharagpur setup?
i: 1952(??)... 1951(??)...
p1: you dont know when was your college setup even after staying there for 4 years??
i: (please madam save me from him... :(... )
p2: ok tell us about your hobbies...
i: i play age of empires, a multiplayer strategy game... and...
p1: so you played it all your college days?
i: (please madam please...)
p2: which newspaper you follow??
i: i follow economist... i follow their forums also... they are very interesting and informative... i also read times of india...
p1: haha... none reads times of india for news...
i: i understand sir... but it has its good features...
p1: i know what those good features are... (clearly got his sarcasm... i responded with a smile)
p1: do you know what kind of news they give on sports section?
i: yes sir... mostly cricket.. and then football, f1 etc...
p1: no... its about cricketers and their girlfriends...
i: yes sir... i've seen that news... but mostly its about sports news only...
p1: tell me one thing that's good in TOI compared to other newspapers?
i: hmm... its not so biased like rest of the news papers... i gave few examples like sakshi in AP biased to congress... eenadu to TDP etc...
p1: do you know who's the owner of TOI? so that you can say if it's biased or not...
i: i dont know the owner sir... i never tried to learn about it... i only follow the news...
(by this time i came to know p2 can never help me... this guy will never allow her... )

p1: but you know the owners of your local newspapers? you say you follow international news like economist and your knowledge is limited only to your state?
i: govinda! govinda!
p1: ok... you can leave now...
i: sir... you didnt ask for my certis...
p1: no need...
i: i look confused... and shocked...
p1: we already have your certis on our systems...
i: thank you sir/madam... for breaking all my pride into pieces... :(