SP Jain GI (Group Interview) Experiences (2008)

[parulbajaj]

Slot : Jan 28th, 3:00 pm
Here goes my experience..

Well.. Things didn’t start off very well. Got stuck in horrible Mumbai traffic and reached the campus at 2:30! The ride was the most nerve-wrecking thing ever! Thankfully, things went off brilliantly from there..

The registration people were very nice and polite. Took hardly 5 min to finish all the formalities! I was, then, put in a Group with 4 other people. Don’t remember the specializations but I was the only Marketing person there. Chit chat before the interview told me that all the others were engineers with work ex. I got kinda scared, being a Microbiology fresher. But I guess that worked in my favour. It wasn’t too difficult to differentiate myself!

There were 3 panelists, 1 male Mktg prof (MP), 1 female Finance prof (FP) and 1 First Year student (FY).

We were first asked to introduce ourselves. Each introduction was followed by some cross-questioning.
Some questions were:

• Why Microbiology to MBA?
• I’m doing a PG Dip in Business Mgmt, so was asked why another PGDM after already doing one.
• One Mktg theory I would like to see in practice.
• Why a particular specialization? (Focus required, no global answers like I love numbers and money management for Finance!!!)
• Role at work.
• Suppose u have to meet a deadline at work and u know there is no chance u would, what would be ur course of action?
• Cricket as hobby – What kinda management did cricket teach u? Who would be the ideal opening pair for the Indian cricket team right now?

Pointer: Don’t let ur intro be too long. They’ll let u go on forever, u need to know when to stop! This guy in my group went on and on and on and finally FP stopped him.. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth..

This was followed by a GD, topic – “What if the Earth’s speeds of rotation and revolution were interchanged?”. FP told us that we have to start as soon as she says the topic. 10 seconds pause and I began. It was pretty chilled, no moderation required. More like friendly chit chat since the topic was fun. They asked one person to conclude and I did..

One of the guys (who got rejected later) had done some NSE certification course. They grilled him a li’l about the stock market. He couldn’t answer very coherently. The collapse came in and we all put in our own views about it.

This girl was a diabetic. They asked her about her therapy and stuff and then asked me to talk about the recent developments in the treatment of diabetes.

In the end, I was asked to design an ad/radio jingle for a pen in 30 seconds..

That was the end of it.. We went back to the registration room where after 10 min, the results were announced.. 3 out of 5 were selected from my group. No pattern there.. We, then, went for the 7 min test, the pattern of which has been described earlier.. Thereafter, we were reshuffled into different groups. My group had 5 people.. 4 engineers with work ex!!! Including puy, abhirathore!

The second panel had 2 profs, more authoritative than the 1st one. Surprisingly, it was very very short. We were asked to introduce ourselves for 3 min each. I was sitting on one end, they started from the other. Since I was the last one, they started cross-questioning me immediately..

• Why Micro to MBA?
• Why Mumbai for grad and not Delhi?
• Why another PGDM?
• Wot did u do in ur free time over the last few months?
• Why a particular specialization?
• Would u offer bribe to get an order for ur company?
• Something about domain knowledge for the work ex ppl.
• Why not Exec-MBA?
• Role in organization?

Oh and they asked me what calls I have.. I was the only one to be asked this question in the group. No idea why!!!

I was happy after the 1st GI. The 2nd one was too short to make anything out of. I’m sure the panel members are experts at this and would spot a good candidate when they see one.

This was followed by a 55 min Psychometric Test. 3 parts..

Part 1 – 50 questions, 2 line answers. Answers from the top of ur head..
Part 2 – On the lines of describe urself..
Part 3 – Information-based.

A great experience!!!! I loved every moment of it.. Amazing organization and co-ordination.. Awesome work!

Fingers crossed..

[saketkhaitan]

Originally Posted by parulbajaj

Slot : Jan 28th, 3:00 pm
Here goes my experience..

Well.. Things didn’t start off very well. Got stuck in horrible Mumbai traffic and reached the campus at 2:30! The ride was the most nerve-wrecking thing ever! Thankfully, things went off brilliantly from there..

The registration people were very nice and polite. Took hardly 5 min to finish all the formalities! I was, then, put in a Group with 4 other people. Don’t remember the specializations but I was the only Marketing person there. Chit chat before the interview told me that all the others were engineers with work ex. I got kinda scared, being a Microbiology fresher. But I guess that worked in my favour. It wasn’t too difficult to differentiate myself!

There were 3 panelists, 1 male Mktg prof (MP), 1 female Finance prof (FP) and 1 First Year student (FY).

We were first asked to introduce ourselves. Each introduction was followed by some cross-questioning.
Some questions were:

• Why Microbiology to MBA?
• I’m doing a PG Dip in Business Mgmt, so was asked why another PGDM after already doing one.
• One Mktg theory I would like to see in practice.
• Why a particular specialization? (Focus required, no global answers like I love numbers and money management for Finance!!!)
• Role at work.
• Suppose u have to meet a deadline at work and u know there is no chance u would, what would be ur course of action?
• Cricket as hobby – What kinda management did cricket teach u? Who would be the ideal opening pair for the Indian cricket team right now?

Pointer: Don’t let ur intro be too long. They’ll let u go on forever, u need to know when to stop! This guy in my group went on and on and on and finally FP stopped him.. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth..

This was followed by a GD, topic – “What if the Earth’s speeds of rotation and revolution were interchanged?”. FP told us that we have to start as soon as she says the topic. 10 seconds pause and I began. It was pretty chilled, no moderation required. More like friendly chit chat since the topic was fun. They asked one person to conclude and I did..

One of the guys (who got rejected later) had done some NSE certification course. They grilled him a li’l about the stock market. He couldn’t answer very coherently. The collapse came in and we all put in our own views about it.

This girl was a diabetic. They asked her about her therapy and stuff and then asked me to talk about the recent developments in the treatment of diabetes.

In the end, I was asked to design an ad/radio jingle for a pen in 30 seconds..

That was the end of it.. We went back to the registration room where after 10 min, the results were announced.. 3 out of 5 were selected from my group. No pattern there.. We, then, went for the 7 min test, the pattern of which has been described earlier.. Thereafter, we were reshuffled into different groups. My group had 5 people.. 4 engineers with work ex!!! Including puy, abhirathore!

The second panel had 2 profs, more authoritative than the 1st one. Surprisingly, it was very very short. We were asked to introduce ourselves for 3 min each. I was sitting on one end, they started from the other. Since I was the last one, they started cross-questioning me immediately..

• Why Micro to MBA?
• Why Mumbai for grad and not Delhi?
• Why another PGDM?
• Wot did u do in ur free time over the last few months?
• Why a particular specialization?
• Would u offer bribe to get an order for ur company?
• Something about domain knowledge for the work ex ppl.
• Why not Exec-MBA?
• Role in organization?

Oh and they asked me what calls I have.. I was the only one to be asked this question in the group. No idea why!!!

I was happy after the 1st GI. The 2nd one was too short to make anything out of. I’m sure the panel members are experts at this and would spot a good candidate when they see one.

This was followed by a 55 min Psychometric Test. 3 parts..

Part 1 – 50 questions, 2 line answers. Answers from the top of ur head..
Part 2 – On the lines of describe urself..
Part 3 – Information-based.

A great experience!!!! I loved every moment of it.. Amazing organization and co-ordination.. Awesome work!

Fingers crossed..

if u remember can u please tell what questions were asked to that nse guy abt the stock market??

[PhoenixSilver]

Hi Abhinav may i know why you chose marketing? i have my Sp jain interview on Feb 12 and i am an engineer.
I am expecting a question like, why general marketing and not Information Science marketing, any perfect answers???

[parulbajaj]

Originally Posted by saketkhaitan

if u remember can u please tell what questions were asked to that nse guy abt the stock market??

I- Interviewer
C - Candidate

I - Do u know about Valuation of stocks?
C - Yes.
I - There is a lot of talk about the Indian stocks being over-valued in the lght of the collapse.. What ratio tells us whether a stock is over or under-valued?
C - Umm.. *Thinks for 10 sec*.. PE ratio?
I - What is PE ratio?
C - Couldn't answer..!!!! They threw it open and I volunteered.
I - How is the PE ratio related to valuation?
C - Didn't know.. Others made random guesses..
I - Why did the stock market collapse?
C - US recession..
But they were looking for the IPO thing.. So he kinda screwed it up there..

All the best!

PS -Saket, please do not quote such long posts.. Edit them..

[Nishant06]

hi friends,
is any one of u scheduled for interview on 13th feb? please suggest what questions can be asked regarding operations as specialisation

[Simz]

Hi Guys.. Please forgive if this is the wrong thread to be asking this question but does anyone know when is SP Jain planning to come out with the 2nd shortlist..???

Sam

[Nishant06]

hi Abhinav,
Please tell me is there any eligibility based on the CAT Score for Profile Based interview calls from SP like if the guy is having 85 percentile then only he is suppose to attend the interview, etc ... Please Reply me back ASAP

[shomikray]

HEY ANY one can tellme that wen is the second list gona be out..
i got 97.10 in XAT . DO I STAND A CHANCE!!!
working in GM rite now!!

[parulbajaj]

Originally Posted by Nishant06

hi friends,
is any one of u scheduled for interview on 13th feb? please suggest what questions can be asked regarding operations as specialisation

Originally Posted by Simz

Hi Guys.. Please forgive if this is the wrong thread to be asking this question but does anyone know when is SP Jain planning to come out with the 2nd shortlist..???

Sam

Originally Posted by Nishant06

hi Abhinav,
Please tell me is there any eligibility based on the CAT Score for Profile Based interview calls from SP like if the guy is having 85 percentile then only he is suppose to attend the interview, etc ... Please Reply me back ASAP

Originally Posted by shomikray

HEY ANY one can tellme that wen is the second list gona be out..
i got 97.10 in XAT . DO I STAND A CHANCE!!!
working in GM rite now!!

For all such queries, kindly use the GD-PI discussion thread.. Please retain the sanctity of this thread and let it be for experiences alone..

Here is a link for the appropriate thread..

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...s-profile.html ([2008] SPJIMR Call getters Profile & Group Interview related Discussions)

[an_elusive_lady]

time to post my experiences too.

Date: Feb 11
Time: 11.00 AM

The document checking was done on time, by around ten forty five. Found a couple of others from my group and we were chatting. Very efficiently organised rounds.

First round began pretty much on time. There were 6 of us- 2 marketing, 2 Finance, 1 IT and 1 Ops person. Panel members looked nice- they were 2 eco profs, 1 male and 1 female. Seating arrangement was both finance ppl (1 boy and 1 girl), marketing girl, IT guy, me (marketing) and the Ops person.

We started off with introducing ourselves (keep it concise- dont talk abt family here) and then had a GD with the topic 'China minus infrastructure equals India'. Three members started talking at the same time and everyone was talking abot only one aspect - infrastructure in China and India. I introduced the labour idea (hope that was a plus for me) and we went into that track. Went on for fifteen minutes or so and then we were stopped. Overall, a good GD.

Then we had some individual questions. the finance girl had a non finance background so she was asked why finance and then asked to pick a topic that she knew well in finance. (Do not give general answers like you like numbers or finance is essential for business) my question was whether my having a retail background justified marketing as a specialisation. the ops/ it people were quizzed on their past backgrounds.

after this 4 of us were selected for the second round (finance ppl were eliminated) and then we were shuffled into new grps. now we faced a panel of 2 others profs and an SP jain student. One prof was a prominent member of the dubai branch of sp jain. there were again 6 of us. we started off by introducing ourselves. here we were asked to talk about our families also but most people were cut off when they started talking abt extended families

it was kind of a stress interview since everyone kept getting cut off and no one was allowed to complete their answers. some people were asked to relate their sports hobbies to management. i was asked what marketing meant to me. i started off abt product introduction, brand mgmt etc but was cut off. then another guy was asked why sp jain. then the prof asked me why sp jain. I began saying it was one of the top schools n he cut me off. asked me if this was the only school i applied for. said no. then he asked which schools. i said iims and a few others. he asked me if sp jain was the only school i had ever wanted to get into. i said no, iim was. then he said if iim is 10 what wd i rank sp jain. i said definitely 9.

then we were given a psychometric test. it helps if ur honest and consistent here. all u have to do is know urself well bcuz questions are repeated in different words. u should not have different answers to the same questions. this was rather interesting.

overall it was a great experience. loved the efficiency of organisation. hope all of u have good interviews as well and hope this helps others.

take care all!