IIM Kozhikode was my first IIM interview. It was on 26th March 2010. Given huge amount of expectations I had from me, I was bit scared before going for the essay, GD and PI. I was completely soaked in sweat due to hot and humid weather and was rehearsing all my answers in mind during the one hour train journey. I was more careful as it was my first interview.
Essay: "Fools and fanatics are certain about things but wiser people are not"
I started with Albert Eistein quote saying, "There are two things in world that are infinite, universe and human stupidity. Though i am not sure about the former." I wrote who can be termed as fool and fanatics and why are they sure about things because they are driven by parochial attitude and a very dogmatic approach. Sometimes fanatics take decisions only to ensure that their points are accepted even when they know that they are wrong. I wrote tha wise people are unsure because they always try to figure out reasons and try to understand things better, which results into indecisiveness. There is a four dimensional apporach of taking decision. Single dimension is based on self perception. Two dimensional based on opinions and self perception. Three dimensional when two dimensional model is given a knowledge resource and the fourth dimension is innovation.
GD: A passage was given regarding water scarcity and mis-management of water.
I started the GD saying that water is life and the entire humanity is based on water. We have very limited resource of drinking water. Talked about resources not valued when in abundance and current drought has brought our mis-management to lime-light. Spoke points like water harvesting to volunterrily done by every citizen, sachin tendulkar being brand amassador of save water campaign, excessive use of ground water by farmers have resulted into decrease in ground water level, desalinization plant should be built, waste water from bathrooms and toilets should be treated to be used in carwashing or gardening in a society and also spoke about a brazilian campaign where government asked citizen to flush toilet only after three usages.
PI experience: There were three people in the panel. Two prof and an alumni. One prof was around 40-45(terming it as P1), another one was bit scary with big eyes and long beard(looked very simlar to Jharkand Chief minister Shibhu..hence terming him as CM) and the alumn was very young, tall and very serious faced(A1).
P1: You teach in Career Launcher. Do you take care of GD-PI?
Harshal: Yes
P1: What is good GD-PI or Essay-PI?
Harshal: I think essay, gd and pi is good. As there are few people who good at writing and few are good at speaking. Hence essay and gd will be helpful in testing both.
P1: How was the GD?
Harshal: Frankly speaking, I never expected IIM GD's to be so civilised as many things are stake. But the gd was extremely civislised and everyone got a chance to speak. We also put in many points and constructed very nicely. We were also able to summarize it, that was one gud point. P1: Rate the people in GD.
Harshal: (I started pointing towards the chair numbers) This guy gave in many points and came with many new ideas. The girl tried to speak but managed to give few points. The guy over there had serious communications problem. He tried to speak later but I am sorry that I spoke at that time. I felt sorry for him.
P1: Rate urself
Harshal: 8.5/10
P1: Who is the highest?
Harshal: That I cann't do. As everyone has different perception while doing that.
P1: We are looking for your perception.
Harshal: Still I cann't tell you who is the highest. But I can tell you top three. You decide whom you want to make first, second and third. One is me and others are chair 5 and 7.
P1: Still will you tell me who is first
Harshal: Here many things are at stakes. I know they are my compitetors but still I would not like to tell who is the highest.
CM: You did engineering and then you went into Career Launcher. Don't you thing you wasted an engineering seat?
Harshal: No. I didn't waste any engineering seat. I know I am not applying any technical knowledge out here but I am still applying my analytical skills. Also because I am an engineer I was able to work on e-learning module of Career Launcher. At the same time the job profile clearly specifies that an engineer is required for my post and hence I am taking a position which only an engineer can take.
CM: What u did in e-learning module?
Harshal:We were trying to develop a learning module where the classes will be conducted on net. This will help them to understand the concepts better, also revise them any time they want and will reduce travelling time, which is a major problem in mumbai.
CM: Don't you think e-learning module doesn't have demand in India?
Harshal: This is because students are very much used to human touch while learning. Hence for the intial phases we are trying to launch this as an teaching aid and not as product. So once people get used to things we can shift our focus from normal teaching to core e-learning.
A1: What is your favourite subject in engineering?
Harshal: (OMG!!) Sir, its Bio-medical instrumentation. (This is my ace answer as I am 99% sure that people don't know this topic)
A1: Any other subject?
Harshal: Others are not favourite as such. But being instrumentation it was a sandwich course so if you want you can ask me about electronics. I will try to answer those.
A1: What is K-map?
Harshal: I don't know. (Later I found that I knew the concept but never knew that it is called K-map. I am bad at remembering names and terminologies)
A1: What is semiconductor?
Harshal: (Explained him global concept about semiconductor being doped with impurity and all kind of shit)
A1: Differentiate between conductor, semiconductor and resistor.
Harshal: Conductor conducts alwaysss, semi-conductor behaves like conductor after some thresh-hold while resistor have higher threshhold.
A1: How can we use resistor?
Harshal: We can use to create different potential drop and can use to activate different gadgets at different time by using it like a switch.
(A1 was thinking resistor in parallel combination and I was thinking in series. Later I cleared his misconception)
A1: What is register?
Harshal: I only know that its a memory device rest I don't know.
A1: What is todays news?
Harshal: Maria becoming new ATS chief. 15% water cut in Mumbai and the finance budget of Maharashtra.
A1: Who was the previous ATS chief?
Harshal: I don't remember the name, but it is some person starting with R. I think its Rastogi( In reality it was Raghuwanshi)
A1: Fiscal deficit of Maharashtra.
Harshal: It was given in the paper but now I am not able to recall.
A1: GDP of India.
Harshal: 6.8 ( he was asking me in terms of money value but I gave him GDP growth rate. I didn't realized at that time)
A1: 6.8, what?
Harshal: percent (he understood what I was talking about)
CM: What do u do in spare time?
Harshal: I work for 9hr a day, 4hr travelling, 8hr sleeping and hence I am hardly left with any spare time. (I think I could have answered him better than this....but I took this learning to give better answer and helped in Lucknow)
CM: Don't you think you sleep more?
Harshal: During my peak season, I work for 14hr and sleep only for 5-4hr.
(I don't know what was trying to prove, but this was because I was irked by acads questions)
P1, CM, A1: Thank you
Result I got a waitlist 8, this is surely going to get cleared but I don't care now about this as I am already through IIM Lucknow.
Essay: "Fools and fanatics are certain about things but wiser people are not"
I started with Albert Eistein quote saying, "There are two things in world that are infinite, universe and human stupidity. Though i am not sure about the former." I wrote who can be termed as fool and fanatics and why are they sure about things because they are driven by parochial attitude and a very dogmatic approach. Sometimes fanatics take decisions only to ensure that their points are accepted even when they know that they are wrong. I wrote tha wise people are unsure because they always try to figure out reasons and try to understand things better, which results into indecisiveness. There is a four dimensional apporach of taking decision. Single dimension is based on self perception. Two dimensional based on opinions and self perception. Three dimensional when two dimensional model is given a knowledge resource and the fourth dimension is innovation.
GD: A passage was given regarding water scarcity and mis-management of water.
I started the GD saying that water is life and the entire humanity is based on water. We have very limited resource of drinking water. Talked about resources not valued when in abundance and current drought has brought our mis-management to lime-light. Spoke points like water harvesting to volunterrily done by every citizen, sachin tendulkar being brand amassador of save water campaign, excessive use of ground water by farmers have resulted into decrease in ground water level, desalinization plant should be built, waste water from bathrooms and toilets should be treated to be used in carwashing or gardening in a society and also spoke about a brazilian campaign where government asked citizen to flush toilet only after three usages.
PI experience: There were three people in the panel. Two prof and an alumni. One prof was around 40-45(terming it as P1), another one was bit scary with big eyes and long beard(looked very simlar to Jharkand Chief minister Shibhu..hence terming him as CM) and the alumn was very young, tall and very serious faced(A1).
P1: You teach in Career Launcher. Do you take care of GD-PI?
Harshal: Yes
P1: What is good GD-PI or Essay-PI?
Harshal: I think essay, gd and pi is good. As there are few people who good at writing and few are good at speaking. Hence essay and gd will be helpful in testing both.
P1: How was the GD?
Harshal: Frankly speaking, I never expected IIM GD's to be so civilised as many things are stake. But the gd was extremely civislised and everyone got a chance to speak. We also put in many points and constructed very nicely. We were also able to summarize it, that was one gud point. P1: Rate the people in GD.
Harshal: (I started pointing towards the chair numbers) This guy gave in many points and came with many new ideas. The girl tried to speak but managed to give few points. The guy over there had serious communications problem. He tried to speak later but I am sorry that I spoke at that time. I felt sorry for him.
P1: Rate urself
Harshal: 8.5/10
P1: Who is the highest?
Harshal: That I cann't do. As everyone has different perception while doing that.
P1: We are looking for your perception.
Harshal: Still I cann't tell you who is the highest. But I can tell you top three. You decide whom you want to make first, second and third. One is me and others are chair 5 and 7.
P1: Still will you tell me who is first
Harshal: Here many things are at stakes. I know they are my compitetors but still I would not like to tell who is the highest.
CM: You did engineering and then you went into Career Launcher. Don't you thing you wasted an engineering seat?
Harshal: No. I didn't waste any engineering seat. I know I am not applying any technical knowledge out here but I am still applying my analytical skills. Also because I am an engineer I was able to work on e-learning module of Career Launcher. At the same time the job profile clearly specifies that an engineer is required for my post and hence I am taking a position which only an engineer can take.
CM: What u did in e-learning module?
Harshal:We were trying to develop a learning module where the classes will be conducted on net. This will help them to understand the concepts better, also revise them any time they want and will reduce travelling time, which is a major problem in mumbai.
CM: Don't you think e-learning module doesn't have demand in India?
Harshal: This is because students are very much used to human touch while learning. Hence for the intial phases we are trying to launch this as an teaching aid and not as product. So once people get used to things we can shift our focus from normal teaching to core e-learning.
A1: What is your favourite subject in engineering?
Harshal: (OMG!!) Sir, its Bio-medical instrumentation. (This is my ace answer as I am 99% sure that people don't know this topic)
A1: Any other subject?
Harshal: Others are not favourite as such. But being instrumentation it was a sandwich course so if you want you can ask me about electronics. I will try to answer those.
A1: What is K-map?
Harshal: I don't know. (Later I found that I knew the concept but never knew that it is called K-map. I am bad at remembering names and terminologies)
A1: What is semiconductor?
Harshal: (Explained him global concept about semiconductor being doped with impurity and all kind of shit)
A1: Differentiate between conductor, semiconductor and resistor.
Harshal: Conductor conducts alwaysss, semi-conductor behaves like conductor after some thresh-hold while resistor have higher threshhold.
A1: How can we use resistor?
Harshal: We can use to create different potential drop and can use to activate different gadgets at different time by using it like a switch.
(A1 was thinking resistor in parallel combination and I was thinking in series. Later I cleared his misconception)
A1: What is register?
Harshal: I only know that its a memory device rest I don't know.
A1: What is todays news?
Harshal: Maria becoming new ATS chief. 15% water cut in Mumbai and the finance budget of Maharashtra.
A1: Who was the previous ATS chief?
Harshal: I don't remember the name, but it is some person starting with R. I think its Rastogi( In reality it was Raghuwanshi)
A1: Fiscal deficit of Maharashtra.
Harshal: It was given in the paper but now I am not able to recall.
A1: GDP of India.
Harshal: 6.8 ( he was asking me in terms of money value but I gave him GDP growth rate. I didn't realized at that time)
A1: 6.8, what?
Harshal: percent (he understood what I was talking about)
CM: What do u do in spare time?
Harshal: I work for 9hr a day, 4hr travelling, 8hr sleeping and hence I am hardly left with any spare time. (I think I could have answered him better than this....but I took this learning to give better answer and helped in Lucknow)
CM: Don't you think you sleep more?
Harshal: During my peak season, I work for 14hr and sleep only for 5-4hr.
(I don't know what was trying to prove, but this was because I was irked by acads questions)
P1, CM, A1: Thank you
Result I got a waitlist 8, this is surely going to get cleared but I don't care now about this as I am already through IIM Lucknow.
1 comment:
hey.. CONGRATS..
My IIMK interview was similar.. Initially we had a fight over whether god exists or not when I told them that i was an atheist... then a few GK questions.. finally got screwed over Engg subject questions..
Still made it through:)
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