IIM I Interview Experience

I'm actually writing this on the bus back to Pune (thank you Dad for the USB modem!).

Well, this was it - the last interview of the season. I made my fourth and final trip to HMATC in Mumbai, again an hour early for the 1.30 slot. Luckily this time they had arranged for us to wait indoors, however thanks to the humid weather I had already given up on wearing a suit, opting instead for a shirt and tie. I walked in and met a couple of old timers again (Harsh of C and L fame), and as ever met some new faces in the process - Gokul Gopal, Tanvi Pradhan and Preeti.

The essay-cum-GD process of IIM Indore began late. It was already 2.15 by the time we were handed the case study and asked to begin writing. The case at hand was about a group of three friends who were studying in different coaching institutes, and had to participate in a GD with three of their instructors also on the GD panel. The instructors were apparently plotting against the friends, and had created a bit of a situation before the GD, thus presenting a problem as to how the friends would proceed in the GD.

The essay was for thirty minutes followed by a twenty minute GD, and I was quite happy with my performance especially in the GD. The group also did alright, although the panelists pointed out one of the candidates after fifteen minutes, asked him for his viewpoint and then we proceeded as usual.

One of the panel members came off as rather strict and harsh, as he seemed to be barking out instructions to us (he actually screamed at one of the candidates who didn't hand him his rough page...poor guy). He went on to inform us that we would be called in for the interview in random order (and that too when I was third in the order of things).

It was back to the waiting room, and what a long wait indeed! The room seemed to be emptying out, and there seemed to be no respite for me. I finally got an opportunity after waiting for over three hours, and the clock was pointing to a quarter past six as I was called.

There were two professors on my panel, both of whom seemed to be experienced - one was the grey-haired, harsh-toned P1 and P2 was comparatively mild and wore thin-framed glasses.

P1: Hand over your file.

(I hand it over, and he gives it to P2 who begins to browse through it.)

P1: (looking up from my form) So you're in Computer Engineering. What's computer engineering?

I: (Told, to the best of what I could think)

P1: Describe your project in layman terms.

I: (Went on to describe the 'Semantic Blog Cataloger'. This lasted a good five minutes I think, as he kept interjecting and asking questions based on what I said. I think I held my own pretty well here. He asked me about 'meme' in between, which I had no idea about.)

P1: Alright what did you study in Operating Systems?

I: Compilers, some examples of OS etc.

P1: What are compilers? And assemblers?

I: Told

P1: What are the different models in Software Engineering?

I: Waterfall model and...(I forgot the name of SDLC..damn!)...I can't remember the name of the other one, but it involves the different stages..blah blah.

P1: Alright so apart from academics, what else do you do?

I: Well sir I write and also maintain my own blog. I also play tennis...

P1: (interrupting) So what do you write about?

(A longish discussion on it followed. Then he latched on to reservation after I mention the blog on it which I wrote on CNN IBN. He asked me for the legal context. I didn't know it exactly, to which he asked if it was alright for me to write on something without having in-depth knowledge. I mentioned it was student feedback, but don't know if I really appeased him here)

P1: (P2 is still not asking any questions) So what all do you read?

I: Well sir, starting from Ramayan and Mahabharat...

P1: How many versions of Ramayan in hindi?

I: (had only heard of one) Sir, one - Ramacharitmanas.

P1: What's the difference in the original Ramayan and Ramacharitmanas.

I: The original is in Sanskrit, but apart from that no difference that I know of.

P1: Who wrote the original Ramayan?

I: Valmiki.

(A few questions on Valmiki followed, and I talked about the 'Angulimaal' story.)

P1: Ok, Mahabharat now. You know Karan right. Tell me about him

(A conversation on his loyalty ensued, which led to talk about how loyalty can also be negative as in the case of Satyam employees helping out Raju. I talked about it being in a different context and time, then went on to glorify other qualities of Karan)

P1: Why aren't you interested in joining the Army?

I: Rehearsed answer.

P2: (ah, finally he's out of his reverie!) What are your weaknesses?

I: (Tell him about my impulsiveness, and divert the talk to KBC Junior. They ask a couple of questions on it, then move on)

(Now P1 starts browsing through my file)

P2: What are your views on reservation? (Not again!)

I: Sir, I believe it is required to a certain level but needs to be phased out slowly.

P2: So this Army Institute of Technology is restricted to Army wards right? Isn't that promoting reservation?

I: No sir. It's different because the Army built a separate college for itself, funded it originally and now we're a self-sufficient college.

P2: But doesn't it translate to the same, since even if you don't gain admission to an institute of your choice based on merit, you can find a seat here.

I: Sir, it's based on merit, in the AIEEE. So it's not quite the same.

P2: Are you a member of pagal guy?

I: Yes sir.

P2: What did you read about the process?

I: (Told them about the GD/essay on case study which I read about.)

P2: Anything negative about the process or IIM Indore?

I: No sir, I even know a current student at your institute.

P2: Right, that will be all. Thank you.

P1: (handing me back the file and reading from one of the articles I'd attached in the end) So there's bound to be 'hell to pay', eh? It's already been a year. (Damn it! He was quoting from my reservation article now. Give it a break already!)

(I smile and walk out, wishing them a good day)

Well, it was a mixed interview and not quite my best to finish with, but that brings the curtain down on my IIM interview season. All five of them were indeed amazing experiences, and now I can finally put my feet up and relax till the results come out.

As far as I am concerned I did reasonably well (and to my satisfaction) in all of the outings and now I can only leave it up to God Almighty and whatever fate decides to have in store for me.