IIM L Interview Experience

The second interview of the season was for IIM Lucknow and the venue was again HMATC in Dadar, Mumbai. The afternoon slot this time once more, but with a little change as they'd put up a list downstairs segregating the candidates into five different panels already - and we had to wait on our designated floors without the comfort of an A/C.

I had reached a little over an hour early. I made my way up to the third floor and found a fellow Puneite (Sagar Goyal, IIT Kharagpur alumnus) already waiting - he had been there for quite some time and he filled me in on what had happened in the morning session. By the time it was two o'clock, ten guys had assembled (no girl in the group!) and I recognized Nikhil and Suresh from the IMS workshop - realised that the level of the GD would be good as they were both held their own in the sessions that I had practised in with them.

The process started with an essay - 300 word limit, but the space provided was deceptively excessive. We were given the topic 'Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance' with a time stipulation of twenty minutes. While writing the essay, I completely forgot that there was a GD to follow. That in itself was another twenty minutes, and all of us were bored by the end of it - as the points all ran out, we naturally digressed to giving examples as far fetched from sex education (ignorance!) to the Satyam fiasco (ignorance as an ethical shield!). Overall, again a peaceful GD - everyone contributed.

We were asked to take a half hour break as our essays were evaluated and then the PI's were to begin. I was surprised when they announced that all ten of us would be done well within two hours. Of course, after my interview was over I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd specified them all to last just an hour.

I was the third guy in my group to be called in and the first two were both done in 12-15 minutes each. As I went in, one of the panelists, P2 - young, chill-looking, stepped out (to the washroom, perhaps?). P1 was a little older, looked a little forbidding.

P1: Give me your file.

(given - he started looking through it. Thank God! The form hardly had any space to mention your interests)

Tell me about your background as I look at your file.

(I was about to start with my version of 'Tell me abt yourself' when he interrupted me)

P1: So, your marks had a sudden dip in graduation. Why?

I: (Explained how PU employs a stricter marking regime)

P1: You switched to AP Board after 10th. Why?

I: My school which was the best for CBSE in Hyderabad, in my opinion, discontinued 11th and 12th because of less demand from students, who all wanted to join State Board colleges to prepare for engineering entrances.

P1: (Looking at my CAT scorecard) You have a good balance in all sections - good.

(P2 back in now)

P2: You are from Army Institute of Technology. Army background?

I: Yes, sir. In fact that has made me adaptable...

P1: (Glancing at my first year marksheet)Why do you have such a pathetic subject - Engineering Drawing?

I: (misunderstood him to be criticizing the subject in itself) Well sir that was in the first year.

P1: But forty marks! You must have just passed

I: (cottoning on to his context) Oh, I don't quite have an aptitude for drawing sir. Also, it's a tough subject and 50-60 is considered a good score in this subject.

P1: What's this 'Financial and Industrial Management'? You appear to have scored more here than in other subject?

I: (Explained that it had basic economics concepts as well as management principles. Resisted the urge to give out any terms which might lead to more questions.)

(P1 kept turning pages in my file, going over the extra-currics. No questions there)

P1: You are a fresher, right? (I was the only one in the entire group of ten) So why MBA now? Why not after gaining work-ex?

I: (Rehearsed answer)

P2: So which all calls do you have?

I: Sir, IIM Ahmedabad..(then suddenly remembered that my preferential order of ACLIK had been pointed out in a practice interview!)..then IIM L, of course..then there's IIM C, IIM K and IIM I.

P1: (He'd by now moved to the tennis certificates) So you play tennis. What other hobbies do you have?

I: Apart from playing tennis, cricket and football, I love writing. In fact my works have been published on CNN IBN and rediff.com. I also maintain my own blog.

P2: What is the recent event in blogging?

I: (Had read in the papers yesterday about the case against a 19 year old boy for defaming the Shiv Sena and how the court allowed the boy to served notice. Mixed them up with VHP, but remembered the case anyway)

P1: You write. Do you read as well? Which books do you read?

I: I'm currently reading Unbound India (Gurcharan Das) and I generally read from a wide range - fiction, bestsellers. I also read The World is Flat and have a typical interest in fantasy books like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

(No question on books from here)

(P1 handed over the file to P2)

P1: So you have been in Pune for the last four years right? What do you do there apart from academics?

I: (Mentioned sports. Then somehow spoke of trekking to different places like Lonavla and Rajmachi. I have never been to Rajmachi, I don't how it came up! He asked me if there was a village there and I said I don't know as I hadn't noticed)

P2: (Luckily he cut in before P1 could catch me out) How do you get admission to AIT?

I: Explained how it's based on AIEEE merit and restricted to Army wards

P1 and P2 looked at each other and decided that there was nothing else to ask me.

P1: Thank you, you can leave now.

(P2 asked me to show him my CAT admit card and handed me my file)

P1:(as I showed the admit card) I like the ordered way in which you've set your file.

I: Thank you sir. Good day.

The first thing that crossed my mind as I came out was that it was a really short interview, and they hadn't grilled me at all - on anything. I was also happy to note he hardly asked me any technical questions although the guy before me mentioned he got stuck on graph theory, in depth. Except for the Rajmachi slur, was a pretty satisfactory interview. Well, that's another one gone. On to March, with more interviews to go.