IIM Indore GD/PI Experiences...

[fruskee]

My profile:
[B-tech (mech) + M-tech (product des)] from IITM. (Overall CGPA: 8.1)
2 yrs workex in design. (branch job)
99.95 overall percentile

Had my IIMI GD/PI yesterday at IIMB.
Case Study:
A Family consists of Ajay (father), XXX (mother), Vijay (Son), Anjana (Daughter)
Ajay, XXX and Vijay are highly educated and successful in their respective professions and each of them want Anjana to pursue a different career.
Anjana, a topper all thro' her school, joins med school though she had been preparing for engineering entrance exams.
But after a month or so, she comes back home with TC. Reasons for leaving: didn't like the practical sessions of dissection in med school, new hostel environment, ragging, etc...

6 junta in our group. Went on peacefully. Everyone got ample chances to make their points. I think I did fairly well in the GD. Started the GD and overall came in around 4 to 5 times.
5 mts to read the case study, 12 mts to discuss, 5 mts to write the summary on the last page of the blue pgp application sheet. (I was wondering why they had a full blank sheet)

Interview:
Sardar(1S), 2I, 3I

1S: What are your qualifications?
Me: Explained Dual Degree, B-tech (Mech), M-tech (Product Design)

1S: So you are a Mechanical Engineer.
Me: Yes sir

1S: Explain the principle of working an Induction motor.
Me: 3 magnetic bars, current through a coil of wire, etc... (was not very confident)
(I guess 1S did not knew the answer himself, he went on to the next question)

1S: What are the different types of lathe machines?
Me: Manual operated, Automatic or Computer controlled
1S: That is a very general answer.
1S: Anyways who is Sunil Dutt?
Me: He was a former actor and currently he is member of parliament from the SP
1S: Samajwadi Party, right? (I didnt knew that he was the current sports minister )
Me: I think so.
1S: Who is Barkha Dutt?
Me: NDTV reporter
1S: How are Sunil Dutt and Barkha Dutt related?
Me: I am not aware of any relationship between them
1S: His daughter or his sister's daughter???
Me: I don't know? I am not aware of any such relationship between them
1S: Not aware? OK. (Guess he was enjoying having fun with me and was forcing me to commit errors )
1S: Who are the female CMs?
Me: Jayalalitha, Rabri devi, Shiela Dixit, Vasundhara rao scindia
1S: That's all?
Me: I think so.
1S: Which state CM is Mayawati?
Me: I guess UP.
1S: UP or Uttaranchal
Me: I think UP ( again a forced error )
1S: OK
1S: Which state CM is Amika Soni
Me: I dunno
1S: (after some time) Jharkhand
Me: OK (why is he behind me why did I agree???)

2I: Do you read Newspapers, magz, watch TV?
Me: Yes sir. I do.
2I: Which are the Saarc Countries?
Me: India, Pak, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan (missed out maldives)
2I: What are their currencies?
Me: India & Pak: Ruppee, Nepal : Rupaiah? I dunno the remaining but their currency value is close to the rupee
2I: Which are the countries which were in news recently?
Me: Nepal (blah blah), US & Iraq (blah blah), Srilanka + Indonesia + India (tsunami) (could have spoke a lot more....)
2I: Who is the King of Nepal?
Me: Gyanendra
2I: Who is the king of Bhutan?
Me: I don't know
2I: Who is the king of Japan?
Me: I don't know the king but I know that they are changing their rules so that they can have a female heir to the royal empire, blah...

3I: You have done some courses in management at college. You seem to be inclined towards management from a long time.
Me: Yes sir (never even dreamt that they will go thro' my grade card in such detail. I had infact done my Minor in fin. mgmt. But never mentioned it anywhere becoz of obvious reasons )
3I: What are the principles of management (POM)?
Me: I don't remember them exactly. Its basically to increase customer satisfaction, increase shareholders value, etc?
3I: Are those POM?
Me: No sir. These are the tenets of business but I can't recollect the POM right now.
3I: Have you heard of EOQ?
Me: No sir. (Should have guessed it alteast)
3I: What do u know about inventory management?
Me: blah.. blah.... JIT....
3I: what is the diff b/w JIT and EOQ.
Me: I don?t know what EOQ is.
3I: What do you know about OR?
Me: Linear programming, simplex, transportation problem, duplex
3I: Give an example problem of simplex method application. Describe it on paper.
Me: Gave one.
3I: What is the objective function? What are the constraints?
Me: Wrote them on paper (This was the best part of the PI. Gave solid example and equations )
3I: What is Break Even point?
Me: Point at which the cumulative profits over the years = initial investment.
(should have simply mentioned as no profit no loss situation or revenue = expenditure)

3I: Your interview is over. Plz collect your certificates and Admit card.
Me: Thanks everyone and leaves

Finally done...
Junta, plz send in your comments abt my performance. I think I can rate it at around 5 or 6 out of 10. What do you say?

[rohitchandak]

Originally Posted by altruist

I am working in Blore. Have 20 months of work ex in IT.
I have done my electrical engineering from IIT Roorkee (CGPA 8.1)
10th -92% and 12th 84%

...............................
.........................
..........
.....
In the middle of the interview a peon comes inside to give tea. Due to the noise and nobody was asking questions then, I looked back to see who it was. I dont think it was a problem.

hi altruist
i think ur interv was good enough

looking at the peon or not filling the work x time is not a problem unless u urself don't feel embarrased at what u did

u didn't tell us anything about the case study
plz tell that

all other guys also plz tell us more about the case study


what did u tell and what good points were msde by the grou[p


rohit

[altruist]

Thanks rohit..
I could have done better by being proactive..i was a bit stiff initially..
anyway our case study was about Shubha and her boss.. I think somebody has already described that case study before.

[j0]

fruskee

1S: Anyways who is Sanjay Dutt?
Me: He was a former actor and currently he is member of parliament from the SP
1S: Samajwadi Party, right? (I didnt knew that he was the current sports minister )

errr you sure they asked you who SANJAY dutt was??

if so...you might have made a bit of a booboo.

[nithin]

Originally Posted by j0

errr you sure they asked you who SANJAY dutt was??

if so...you might have made a bit of a booboo.

uh oh, shouldnt that be sunil dutt??? and over that isnt he in congress party and not samajwadi party???

[fruskee]

Originally Posted by nithin

uh oh, shouldnt that be sunil dutt??? and over that isnt he in congress party and not samajwadi party???

Yeah! That was a typo mistake... (changes made to the original post)
They asked me abt Sunil dutt itself anywayz i goofed up and thought he was from SP.

[floydian_25]

Originally Posted by nithin

uh oh, shouldnt that be sunil dutt??? and over that isnt he in congress party and not samajwadi party???

right he's congress mp + sports min

[sriks]

my profile: cat=99.85%le, b.e mechanical, no work ex. 6 month break.

Case study :a full page case study. It was about a guy ganesh, with family business of running a hotel near the railway station .facing competition from a dhaba and also issues like parking problem. Losing economically well off customers who were regular before. The family has 300 acres of agri land lying around waste. With the present hotel -cannot expand it as the neighbouring shops don’t agree. Also ganesh has 3 brothers. Among them 1 is mcom, 1 is bsc and other 2 uneducated. (there was more seemingly unconnected data.)


I spoke about the u.s.p of the hotel being quality food and should maintain that. Also to clean up the place and make it glitzy looking. First thing anyone coming out of a railway station looks for is a honest looking hotel. So put up that look to the hotel. Also try to expand the building vertically adding new floor space. Then unnecessarily raised the point abt 2 bro being uneducated and 2 educated. I said educated ones should go to their village and explore some ethnic dishes and stuff. Then I realised I made a fool of my self with that stupid point. Then I got back to strategic location of the hotel issue and how to exploit instead of proposals for new hotel somewhere else.

All in all decent participation and some good points. But not very structured thinking display.





Interview: moderators took the interview. My panel had only 2 but other panels had 3 proffs.

P1= first proff, p2= second proff. M= myself



P1: so where are u from?

P1: so what are the 3 regions in a.p??

M: told them.

P1: who is Chandrasekhar reddy (rao) ?

M: didn’t correct him abt reddy/rao. Said he is the t.r.s chief.

P1: is he anything else?/

M: ummm. I think labor minister at the center.

P1: who is the governor of a.p?

M: ummmm.. susheel kumar shinde.

P1:who is p.m of Bangladesh?/

M: not sure.

P1: did u hear abt bombaigaon?/

M???? no.

P1: do u know where jamnagar is ??

M: I think it is in Gujarat

P1: then what is in rajasthan??

M: ok. I am not sure if jamnagar is in guj/ rajasthan.

P1: what is dandi??

M: it is a place in gujarat.

P1: y is it famous??

M: dandi march.

P1: doesn’t dandi mean the stick of Gandhi??

M: no

P1: what do u know abt dandi march??

M: gandhiji started the non cooperation movement by making salt against the rules.( it wasn’t actually abt non cooperation movement J )



P1: what is euro??

M: common currency of Europe.

P1: members of euro?

M: u.k, germany……

P1: so u.k has euro currency??

M: no it is still pounds. Uk just part of e.u.



P2: all the while he was looking at my certificates.

P2: so u are a mech engg??

P2: I see a lot of management subjects in your course.

M: yes

P2; so what all have u learnt??

M: I will start with industrial management.

P2: ok

M; I learnt various concepts like work study ,time study, wage plans etc.

P2: what is workstudy?

M: explained it.

P2: what are diff methods u use for work study?/

M; don’t remember.

P2: what do u learn about wage plans??

M: its abt motivation methods…..

P2: I am asking abt wage plans.

M: I remember only taylors plan.

P2: taylors wage plan??

P2: taylor gave wage plan or management principles??

M: ummm. Not sure.

P2; do u know tailors principles of management??

M: no

P2: how is it that u want to come in to management and u don’t learn ur management subjects?/

M: I don’t remember the names and details but I know the broad concepts… …

P2: cuts me off.

P2: don’t u think the case study was practical enough??

M?????

M: yes .very practical.

P2: then how do u think u did in that??

M: decent but not very structured ideas.

P2: which subject are u strong at??

M: applied thermodynamics.

P2: where is thermodynamics applied??

M; every where, starting with engines, aircraft prop, heat transfer etc…

P2: carnot cycle??

M: took the paper he gave and drew the diagram

P2: takes it back and gives it to p1

P2; so what is all aluminiun engine??

M: I think its body , cylinder block is aluminium

P2: what is the use??

M: aluminium makes it light weight.

P2: so what materials are generally used?/

M: cast iron.

P2: why? any probs with aluminium?/

M: no. but it has poor heat resistance and high temp. occur in the engine.

P2: so aluminium eng. Are risky??

M: no but costly.

P2: ok.

P2: do u know abt coolants?

M: heat transfer….

P2: I am asking only abt automobile coolants. What is the chemical composition?

M: not sure,may be ethylene glycol??

P2: look at p1 and gives a disappointed look.

P2: what did u learn in first year chemistry. Didn’t u have this topic?/

M: no sir . it was not there.( and I immediately regret saying that)

P2 and p1 look at each other and give “this guy is making excuses “ sort of a look.

P2: u may leave now. Thank you.

M; thank you.

[je_ne_sais_quoi]

Hi all,
name: venkat
bgrnd: 2 years work ex in Motorola Singapore, following my degree in Comp Engg there...
cat scores- 98.9 percentile

There were 25 of us this morning, all guys... one of them, from PG!-Rahul Abraham Mamman...
I had requested to be shifted to this date as I could finish my interviews with Kozhikode in the same trip..
anyway, the gd topic was about this guy called Muthu, who was a bank teller, when his bank gets burgled. He hands over the cash quietly to the burglar and then follows him, fights and retrieves the cash back, suffering a bullet wound in the process.. the public and media shower him with praise, but the bank authorities are more cautious..

Apparently, muthu has violated a company rule of conduct, which says that during the event of a burglary, employees should hand over the cash, raise the alarm when the situation is safe, and then call for police/insurance help.. Senior bank leaders feel that if this sort of conduct is not punished, it may set a dangerous precedent...there are some trade union issues if Muthu's sacked though..what should the chief manager of a bank do?

I think the gd was chaotic to begin with, sometimes with 3-4 people speaking at the same time. but later it kinda got settled down, we got our focus and we were able to agree on what should be done. I thought I did reasonably well, and spoke 6-7 times.. However, I cndt complete my summary ..

Following the gd, we were hanging out outside. talking of how it went...rahul was in the same group as me.. think we did ok, dint we?


I was called for PI. there were 3 gentlemen present (P1, P2, P3)..
After handing over my certs to P3, the interview started..P3 spent 5-10 mins going through the form and certs
P1: So Venkat, why do you want to come back to India?
Ans: general stuff- about india's economy growing, and with a helpful govt., there is a great growth potential, etc etc..
P2: So after your MBA, will you be willing to work in India?
Ans: yes sir, most definitely.
P1: What is your job profile at moto?
Ans: tell them, describing sw devpt model in Moto, GSM tech stuff..
P1(butting in): What is GSM?
Ans: Global system for mobile communications...
P1: What other competing mobile technologies exist?
Ans: Sir, CDMA, wide-band CDMA..
P1: Who are the major players??
Ans: Sir, you mean network operators, or mobile devices?
P1: Network operators...
Ans: In Singapore, GSM is the only standard: we have Singtel, M1, Starhub..in the US we have Verizon, Cingular.. in India we have Airtel, Hutch...CDMA operators in India- Reliance..
P1: What is your favorite subject in university?
Ans: Neural Networks
P1: what is ANN, how does it differ from normal networks.
Ans: told him.
P1: Ok, so tell me what is the Hidden Layer in the NN
Ans: Sorry sir, but I cant recall this. ..
P1: Ok, describe the function of the Hidden Layer??
Ans: Sorry sir, I cant remember..
P1: But you said this was your fav subject?? Ok, draw me the structure of a NN
Ans: ok do that..
P1: asks me a few more techie stuff abt NN
Ans: ans that..
P1: Ok, tell me wat else did you like?
Ans: sir image processing..my final year project was on IP and NN..
P1: Ohh is it? Tell me about Nanyang Tech uni..wat is the history
Ans: told him...
P2: what is the % of chinese and indians in Singapore?
Ans: told him..
P2: Tell me the difference between in chinese and indians..and their similarities
Ans: sir, in what respect?
P2: In business processes, say
Ans: answer this well..
P2: ok tell me about the south east asian currency crisis a few days back..
Ans: ans this beautifullly (i think)...capital market liberalization, currency speculation....fixed exchange rates so on..
P3 (finally looking up from my form): Do you know what happened in Iraq?
Ans: speak abt wmd, and america's war...
P3: That was sometime back..i mean a few days ago??
Ans: oh yes sir, elections just took place... the shia majority won the elections and are currently electing a prime minister..
P3: good, tell me something..you mention in your form that you like o.henry...
Ans: yes sir, i really enjoy his short stories..
P3: is that his real name or what. and why do you like his stories so much?
Ans: tell him...about the twist in the end of each of his stories..
P3: ok give me an example..
Ans: told him about the gift of the magi..
P3: How can this be applicable to mgmt??
Ans: here i get totally stumped...P3 gives me half a min to think...jst get kinda blanked out..
P3: ok never mind, tell me about saki..how does his writing compare to o henry..and is that his real name?
Ans: answer this welll..told them abt their wit (P3 gives a knowing smile)...but Saki's was more savage on the edwardian society that he was living in..told them his name..
P3: How abt wodehouse??
Ans: wodehouse is gentler, more lovable humor...and his use of language is almost lyrical...gave them a catch phrase frm wodehouse...and the world that he creates, is somtehing that everyone reading will want to inhabit..
P3: So differentiate that from utopia
Ans: sir, to me, that IS utopia..
P3: good

they all look at each other as if to see if there are anymore questions..
P1: i think that's all venkat..
P2: which other calls?
Ans: sir Kozhi, Indore and Bangalore..
P2: ok, thanks..
I thank them all and leave...Chit chat with the friendly crowd outside..then leave for home..

Overall performance I think was decent...but my weak points were:
1) i cdnt finish my summary
2) i cdnt answer the o henry relation to management question
3) cdnt answer the neural network question..

strengths
1) GD performance was good, i think..
2) I dint get too flustered when I said "I dunno" to a couple of questions.. and was confident throughout the interview..
3) interview mostly went pretty well

So junta, what do you think??

[hrishi]

Originally Posted by je_ne_sais_quoi

Hi all,
name: venkat
bgrnd: 2 years work ex in Motorola Singapore, following my degree in Comp Engg there...
cat scores- 98.9 percentile

There were 25 of us this morning, all guys... one of them, from PG!-Rahul Abraham Mamman...

Overall performance I think was decent...but my weak points were:
1) i cdnt finish my summary
2) i cdnt answer the o henry relation to management question
3) cdnt answer the neural network question..

strengths
1) GD performance was good, i think..
2) I dint get too flustered when I said "I dunno" to a couple of questions.. and was confident throughout the interview..
3) interview mostly went pretty well

So junta, what do you think??

hi,

It was cool man you are definitely in. They check for thinking process than the answers you give. And looking at the ans. you gave you showed them the attitude, knowledge,intelligence. So i thnk if you have appeared for all other pis the same way, then you have calls from all of them.

Hrishi

NIRMA