IIM Bangalore interview experience

Since I presume that most of you have already read my PI experience of IIM Lucknow,I will not mention my profile in detail.

IIM B is considered as one of the best institutes in Asia-Pacific & is well known for its faculty base & highly intelligent students.Their selection criteria gives more weightage to academics & hence even few 100 percentilers were not called for the interview.

This is my dream institute.Though I couldn't convert my final call,it will always remain close to my heart.I attended around 10-12 interviews this year.But IIM B's interview was really challenging.The profs were/are super excellent in their area of interest & yes,they really mean business when they took interview.This interview was like an extempore for me as the profs changed the direction of the interview right in the begining.Their questions actually made me think from the business perspective & I was surprised at my ability.(Really!)

(This logo has been intentionally uploaded as I still admire it when I come across it.)

Day – 20^th February, 2012
Location – Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu Tara Road

Time- 2pm

Essay topic – The educational gap between the elite institutes & the others is inevitable & hence acceptable. (10 min to write down points + 20 for writing an essay)-Decent performance

PI

Left professor – R Srinivasan (Chairperson of admissions) (The guy who asked me most of the questions)-This fellow was real stud & his few questions made me really speechless._/\_

Middle professor - Suresh Bhagavatula (NSRCEL) (The silent guy, he was just observing me)

Right professor – Alumnus

Me

L – Tell me what you did in your company?

Me- Full story for 2.5 min. Till that time, no one even looked at me. Fully neglected. An alumnus was doing something on Laptop. Middle one was watching something on Ipad & left one was going through my certificates. They were just nodding their necks.(I think this is a perfect way of irritating someone...)

L-Why did you leave job?

Me- Honest reason… (Mostly accepted by them…I hope so)

L- You left job in the month of July. So did you have enough money to fund your expenses?

Me- Told…I don’t think that this question was part of my interview.

L-Forget about your scores, what will you do if you are not selected at all by any college in India?Let us say,I will call the admissions head of all these institutes & tell them to reject you.And yes,we all know each other.(Evil smile followed).What is your defense? All heads turned towards me.(Man this was the 4th question & he already started torturing me)

Me-Told that I would be a bit disappointed. But I won’t stop. I Will write CAT again. Also, I will write CFA. In addition to that,I mentioned that my aim was to convert all these calls & with firm voice said, "I have prepared well to convert the calls & hence I am sure that I will not perform that bad to get reject from all of these institutes".

L-So you are ready to spend one more year?(This man was really interested to make me spend one more year.I muttered to myself "Would you finance my spendings for a whole year?")

Me-Not a problem. But still, I will try my best to convert the calls.

L- Why MBA?

Me- Full story…1.5 minutes. May be he liked it.

L- How did you prepare for an interview & should we start with academics or work ex?

Me- Told about current affairs, academics, Engineering Mathematics as I taught it as a professor.(By that time, I understood that, he won’t ask me anything out of it.)I will be happy if you ask me anything related to academics.

L-ok.so let us start with your work ex :p:p.....I see that you have a certificate in Modular Architecture. Does it have any relation with Modular Kitchen? Is it possible to have a modular automobile?

Me- Told about modularity as an approach. Explained it. Explained its uses. Gave example from my job. How we reduced part count & increased savings & variety for marketing. Also explained how modularity is possible by giving example of door handle. Screws distance is maintained same for all handles. Only material, colour, shape changed to give different perception to customer. Told how Maruti is doing it with changed outer body & same engine. All were impressed.

L- Can laptop be modular?

Me- Yes, gave Dell’s example. Changing colour panels.We can have different SKUs with i3,i5,i7 microprocessors,different HDD versions etc etc...& releasing these models after every 6 months to keep market demand changing.(I never really thought about these things during my job,but somehow these things came out of my mouth)

L- So is Modularity related to marketing only?

Me- No Sir, we can change internal components also to change the performance. But if you want to impress the customer, external appearance makes it easier.

L- How it is done?

Me- Told about taking customer’s voice. Told how customer voice is converted into Quality Function Deployment Matrix (QFD). The same voice used to be converted into engineering properties by using Design Property Matrix (DPM). The same DPM was converted into business voice by Module Integration Matrix (MIM) & then release of final product. They liked the answer probably. & then they started with application part.

(Level of difficulty was slowly rising & I was already sweating like a dog in an AC room!)

L- He took Ipad in hand. Nikhil, the customer voice is that the Ipad breaks when it falls down & stops functioning. Convert this customer voice into engineering design. Use all the matrices that you want to use. You may convert it into Italian also, if you wish. All started smiling. (I have a certificate in Basic Italian Language)

Me- First of all,I was a bit surprised that my interview was being taken on a certificate. Then I talked about increasing material hardness, reducing brittleness, increasing ductility, stress analysis for compressive & impact forces. I think I was using excessive jargon. Middle professor for the first time cut me in.

M- So which material will you use?

L- Use cast iron man

R- No no how about mild steel?

M –Why don’t you use ivory, it looks cute.????(I muttered "paise kya ped pe ate he kya?")

L – Think of Gold also. ( They were not even giving me time to think)

Me- I laughed a bit when L said Gold & told him that such decisions can be taken only on the basis of in-depth structural analysis, cost etc etc

M-No no. tell me what as a designer you would do?

Me- What was this question? I told him previously only that how would I approach it. Then I told him of providing a fastening device to the Ipad, so that it wouldn’t fall. Even I was not satisfied with this reply. But still it was necessary to fight back.(Even I was unhappy with my answer,and somehow it occured to me that he already took control over my brain.It became really difficult to think & frustration was quite visible on my face.)

L- See it is not a camera. Else people will come & play with your Ipad. All started laughing.

Me- Defended saying I would provide a wrist fastener.

L- Can’t you think of something simpler? What did Nokia do that Apple didn’t?

Me- Again I said, use of polymers, plastics etc… (How come I forgot about the plastic covers!!!)

(Middle professor looked a bit disappointed.)...(At that moment,I understood that I have to think in a very simple fashion.When you work in a company,your thinking gets spoilt as you provide sophisticated design solutions to your customers.But not all industries have similar requirements.)

L- Ok, why refrigerators have locks?

Me- Told him about children kept away by mothers to prevent them from having something like chocolates, ice cream etc. I was about to mention safety aspect also that children may go inside & suffocate.but he again cut me.

L- Why would mother think that her child should not have a chocolate? & if she thinks so, why would she purchase?

Me- Stumped…Defended saying something.(I was dis-appointed when he asked such useless question & my confidence & enthusiasm started reducing...)

L-Then he said that they can provide handle at the top of the door where child cannot reach.

He went forward & said that you designers are fools...:(:( (May be he loss lot of money by investing in our company's shares or he got faulty appliance...In any case,it was not my fault...)

Me- Started defending why handle design is done like this…didn’t allow me to speak.

L- This is a very simple design solution.(Showed me angry face of a high school Principal)

Me-I smiled (Why why why) There must be other reasons also.

L –Yes yes, (His satisfaction was overflowing as he made me speechless)

But before I could tell, Alumnus came in.

Alumnus – What is CSR activity?

Me- told about it. How foreign business persons are doing it in India. Spoke about social responsibility of private entities. I explained What Government is doing. But population is huge in India. So there are expectations from corporate sector. I spoke about 1 to 2% of profits = CSR possible. But I also told that it should not be mandatory & should be voluntary.Spoke about Warren Buffett,his activities,how he is persuading other industrialists to donate money for social cause.blah blah blah...

L- What is corporate Finance?

Me- Gave definition about raising capital, working capital management, taking dividend related decisions, increasing firm’s value & passing it in the form of dividend to increase shareholder’s value also. Talked how M&A is connected with corporate Finance of Investment banking etc. Before L could say anything…

Alumnus – But what is the point if company starts giving all the earned money to shareholders?

Me-(Oh come on...why on earth would anyone do such thing?) Not like that. Talked about net profits & how company first of all invests in other projects & then passes on to the shareholders.

(By that time,I was pissed off & was eager to end my interview)

Alumnus – What is dividend rate? Do investors invest just on the basis of dividend?

Me- Talked about 2 types of investors. If pensioner is interested, he may invest in a company that gives dividend. But high earning individual may not as he has to pay more tax.

Alumnus – But why then pensioner would invest in dividend giving company only? Is it the only criterion? Why can’t he just invest in Bank?

Me-Told about Bank’s fixed interest rates. Told that it is a confirmed less risk investment.  He will also consider earnings per share. Also there is a lot of volatility in the share market. So he can gain enough money through share market.  Talked about various ratios & balance sheet analysis etc

Alumnus looked at others. They told that they didn’t have any questions.

L- Do you want to ask us any question?

Me- Yes Sir, it is not related to interview. Currently, in Euro-zone, if Greece & Portugal leave the league, what will happen? I couldn’t understand its long term implications (Was I arrogant, I don’t know)

L- Read UK Financial Times…You will get your answer. 

Done- 27 min interview. First half went smooth. Then they started with application part & then it started becoming dirty. Don’t know what will happen .Fingers crossed!!!

Verdict - Royally Rejected

Conclusion- I don't know why they directly rejected me.But I am quite happy that I got an opportunity to appear for PI of IIM B.Very few people having consistent academics have that privilege.My sincere thanks to those 3 individuals as they indirectly taught me how to think in a different fashion & how simple thinking pays dividends.May be 10 years down the line,when I re-read this interview,I will find many flaws & will laugh at myself & my half-baked knowledge.I still admire thou,O IIM B :)