SP JAIN Grp .Interview Experience
My GI exp pretty much in q&a went on a bit like this:
GI1: (two faculty members and a student on panel) 6 candidates-> marketing fresher female ,IM (2 of us) 1 from infy bangalore ,Finance (1 from infy again ! ),marketing another 2-3 years exp gy (pune ,swedish MNC) and another ops exp guy
Kicked off with intros:
My intro was good (i guess ) - Am blah blah working for TATA's for the last 4 + 1/2 years I worked in geographies of south ,east,west africa,south east asia,mid-east and south asia,domains,technologies,roles,projects,education ,parents,hobbies etc..
(panel)about your present project ?
explained about project and implementation,actvities ,standard chartered bank and client
(panel)clients of the project and how they use?
i practically gave them a qwiky intro to our project
does the bank make money on this project ?
one of the most profitable projects of the bank,major portion of the bank's transactions come thorugh this project
competitors for the bank's product ?
gave few names like abn amro,deutsche bank
who does this kind of software for deutshe bank ?
initially in singapore inhoused ,now bangalored i guess
what after mba ?
in medium to long term want to do research focussing on areas of info mgmt + emerging markets(i.e bottom of pyramid)
what is BOP?
CK prahlad's famous book "The profit at the bottom of the pyramid"
Did you finish reading the book ?
I read it and am re-reading it
are you reading the cases or the content of the book ?
mine was unconventional ,sir, i started off with the cases and then moved to the rest of the text, ITC e-chaupal took me there and then i covered rest of the book
hobbies ?
travelling ,thanks to my job and personally ,adventure sports like rafting and bungi jumping,volunteering,contributing articles,travelogues to magazine
why do crazy(or some other word ! ) things like adventure sports?
i do actvities which are absolutely safe ; to me it's more about conquering your own fears than any real concerns for safety
i was afraid of water when i was in priamry ,parents pushed me to swimming etc ,and now am doing rafting etc
(panel)Any questions to us ?
(me and it's question time ) How do you encourage / Do you encourage students to take up assignments in Non- Profit organizations post MBA?
(panel)We have DOCC and students do socially relevant projects.......etc
(me again)I mean post MBA ,sir?
(panel)We had 1 student who worked for NGO and now applied to LSE,and we will be happy if students choose this path may not be rewarding financially but has other career advantages...(i liked the answer ,very true )
(in brief about others : infy IM had to sing a rafi song as his hobby was singing,fresher female said she was reading Da Vinci code but could'nt expalin convincingly the story or plot , marketing fellow said somethign about importing goods to be sold at premium in India ,and use india as export base to produce same products here in pune !!!,IT guy applying for finance was asked about coimbatore )
GI2: (Brigadier and faculty)
This time 4 candidates - 4 months exp from infy for mkting ,finance guy from prev GI again from infy,IM from CSC Indore and me !
Intros as usual
My q&a:
Brigadier - you mentioned about adventure sports ,what was the most recent one?
I went on white water rafting trip on the zambezi river in sep 2004 ending,considered grade 5 by the british rafting association,i.e extremely dangerous and high waves,day long rafting trip takes you from zambia to zimbabwe
(faculty) How does it help you in your life /career?
Rafting is all about team work,working in unision and following your leader any silly mistake and everyone's in water
(panel)but life and career are different?
When you have responsibilites and family depending on you ,career becomes equally importantand you don't want to lose it beacuse of someone else's mistake
Future Plans ?
Research based career in medium-long term in IM + Emerging markets
Any event in life when someone you know betrayed your trust?
Once on a hiking trip in naivasha in kenya,3 of us got lost ,a friend of mine was supposed to be guide who assured us that he knew the routeand took the hike before ,and we got lost to realise that he never took the trip and we were lost somewhere in the rift valley
lessons learnt ?
Building trust takes years and breaking it takes just one stupid deed
What you don't like about TCS? ( 2 things)
Need for Hi performance work culture ,similar to GE vitality curve
Removing bottom 10 is too drastic?
Bottom 10 % can be counselled first and their objectives and role clearly definded and removal only in worst case scenario
If you are offered a role in TCS post MBA,would you consider it?
Yes,love to
(brig)What if there is another offer 75 % higher ?
I'll prefer TCS, i already have similar offers from others based on my present work-ex
(brig)Even if 100% higher ?
If a company pays such high pay for similar revenue streams ....( interrupted here but wanted to say this ---> and similar work ,it is probably not sustainable in the long run)
(brig)One word Yes /No?
No
(Faculty) say any MNC offers?
Sir, TCS pays me well
Whims/Fancy?
I want to be known as the greatest management thinker and business philosopher of this century
(others fancies ranged from playing cricket for India ....etc)
Like who?
Drucker and Prahlad
(panel)So Drucker has some competition?
(me)Possibly
Animal you would identify yourself?
Elephant ,for it's intelligence and team work
(panel)Team work as in TCS?
(me) And am sure , other companies too
I wonder why there were so many fellas from infy in GI and GD's this time around
Is something wrong in infy or something right ?( almost like the mongol invasion )
Overall am optimistic about the GI, lot depends on the weightage they give for all aspects
you can check out the longer and boring version here (if this posting itself is not long enough) --->
http://nomad-i.blogspot.com/ 
and my GI exp goes like this .. a bit too late, sorry for that -
25-02-2005, 08:48 PM
28-02-2005, 01:03 PM
Linear Mode
