IIM K interviews [for batch of 2005]

[needforspeed]

Originally Posted by sahithi

My background:
B Tech Comp Sci
Work exp 15 months in TCS (software engineer)

CAT : 99.41 percentile
BLACK, MDI, NITIE

Reporting 24th Feb 11:30 batch Chennai

GD : clipping on self confidence leading to openness, flexibility , humility , …… learning from mistakes , taking other’s views ….. very vague topic and so was the gd
Average discussion by all of us , but no straining statements tho’



PI:

P1 and P2 : both of them friendly , relaxed ,not very enthu and not aloof as well …
S:Me

Mine is the first PI in our gd group … peace
But the 9:00 batch … all of them were grilled on acads … no personal questions , not much of hobbies ….. dint like to hear that

P1: take ur seat

P2:leave ur certificates here ( both of them went thru the certis during the talk)
P1:so how would u like to introduce urself
S: (very happy at the chance ) … did my best starting with my name meaning
P1: so what good did u do (my name has that meaning)
S: basically the good is I dint do anything bad …. And talked about giving back to society
P2:So Jane Austen novels…what of hers did u read
S:almost all of them sir
P2:Can you give us the names
S:named some 7 of them
P2:Which do u like best?and why?
S: told about the fav and why relating it to main character
P2: what is so great about her(the main character)
S: …… and she knows what she wants from life and what she doesn’t want sir
P2: what do u want in life?
S:….told long term career goals … also told on personal front
P2:what would u not want?
S:…….. talked some patriotic stuff … and ended with ant to escape from the excessive greed
by this time P2 completed seeing my certis and asked about some dates on TCS appointment letter and saw the score card and passed the file to P1
S:I explain the training program in TCS and clarify the dates thing
P2:how do u pronounce trivendrum?
S: said it
P2:laughs … two months in Trivendrum …?
S: donno sir and laughs …
P2:so u must have got all calls
S:missed Indore sir
P2: so if u get thru A,B and say K … and given that u r top performer in TCS training , u top the IIM too , offered a salary of say 1,50,000 US $ in an MNC , would u go for it … (bcoz I said greed and stuff in my previous question)
S: depends on the value it offers me sir
P2:In IIMs MP govt put up posters asking students to join the state govt with 25,000 rs and perks and u get to report to CM directly , would u take that up
S: that is exactly the kind of profile I’m looking for sir … given reporting to CM it must definitely be a challenging job sir
P1: what exactly u mean by challenging?and laughs
S: sir I’ll get to influence the policy …. Though final decisions are effected by all the political pressures , I can atleast try to bring some change.
P1:so ur weakness is u get impatient with delays , what is that, then will u compromise on quality for time
S: gave an example in the organization for explaining it
Then told depends on what client needs more .
P1:client may not tell but he might want , how can u take the decision all by urself?
S: only when the requirements are clear , I’ll …. In any ambiguous case , I will not take a hasty decision.
P1:so u’ll compromise?
S: depends on situation , system … talked about code , requirements and maintenance phase …
P2: asks about swimming (my current hobby) … name some famous swimmers
S: I don’t follow prof swimming sir …..just do it to keep fit (dint want to be quizzed on that) …. But still gives the Ian Thorpe name …
P2: how often do u swim?
P2:where?
P2: which strokes u know?
S:told about still learning butterfly
P2: others all u r proficient?
Here P1 asked few more questions , I’m not able to recollect ..
P2: one last question … u have been into NCC , so what three things did NCC teach that others dint ?
S: others dint teach sir?
P2: ok dint teach that strongly
S: started with me leading our scouts … and managing people
P2: interrupts … three bullet points please … and both of them see at each other and laugh … so first one is manage
S: number two is endurance sir
P2: oh physical endurance
S: both physical and mental sir
S: third is diversity … met many people

P1:so where is kozhikode?
S:north of kerala sir
P2: thank you
P1:thank you
All smiles
S: thank you sir



am ok with my performance ... what say?
sahithi

I'd say it went off well!! keep your fingers crossed.
I think the IIMK profs have taken a liking towards people from TCS...the huge contingent from TCS (abt 15% of our batch!) probably being a fallout of that

Do get in touch with any of us here if you have any queries about IIMK - its academics, placements, rankings, international exchange etc.

[IIMbthere]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

I'd say it went off well!! keep your fingers crossed.
I think the IIMK profs have taken a liking towards people from TCS...the huge contingent from TCS (abt 15% of our batch!) probably being a fallout of that

Do get in touch with any of us here if you have any queries about IIMK - its academics, placements, rankings, international exchange etc.

hey... i had a ques for quite sm time now... i hav got job offers frm TCS, IBM Global, CTS...
so which 1 shud i mention if asked in the i/w ....... i dont want to mention all 3 as tht wud open me to all kind of ethical questions ... frm ur this post it seems TCS shud b a gud bet but still if u can suggest smthing on this...

thnx in anticipation

cheerz
Rohit

[needforspeed]

Originally Posted by IIMbthere

hey... i had a ques for quite sm time now... i hav got job offers frm TCS, IBM Global, CTS...
so which 1 shud i mention if asked in the i/w ....... i dont want to mention all 3 as tht wud open me to all kind of ethical questions ... frm ur this post it seems TCS shud b a gud bet but still if u can suggest smthing on this...

thnx in anticipation

cheerz
Rohit

3 Job offers from campus or off-campus? Assuming it to be the latter, why not mention all three? I mean, if u are worried about the panel's reaction to ur hogging 3 jobs at a time, u can always say that u sat for all the 3 interviews not having any job, the results were declared later and as it turned out..u landed all three. Should impress them!

If u still wanna mention only one..i guess IBM would serve the purpose very nicely
Anyways, it may not be a strong influencing factor ..cos the panel normally looks to understand what one has gained over a period of time from the experience..and not really the company per se.

HTH.

[ronniekher]

Hi guys,

Thought of giving you all gyaan. Had my K interview today at Mumbai, the panel of Gopi and Ranesan ( K guys pls correct me if im wrong).
gd was abt someone who doesnt delegate work, ends up doing everything on his own, blah blah blah......
very peaceful, ppl giving each other chance, but for some reason 2 guys dint bother to speak
i personally did very well i think, gave gud exs, put a new perspective......lasted 10 mins or so
my background : IT engineer, 2003 grad, 18 mths programming work -ex
last person to be called
PI : G (gopi), R and M ( me)

R : u related to anupam kher ?
M : (smile) no
G : tell me abt urself
M: start, speak for 2-3 mins, in between they just dont seem interested, i still continue.....start with work-ex, then go backwards
R : how many ppl in ur company ?
M : tell em ( seemed surprised when i say 4500 !)
R : tell me a fav sub
M : Information Systems
R : what is information system
M: tell em
R : what are the hierarchies
M : tell em
R : data warehousing
M : tell em
R : serch engine
M : tell em
R : how does it work ?
M : tell em
R : give me the exact algo
M : dunno sir, havent worked on it
R : how can u say, u said this was ur fav subject, that shows u r a failure uve failed in this parameter
M : i know the concepts.......
R cuts me short, says : not concepts i want technical algo
G : ok, solve a prob.....
M : i solve, plot the end pts.....
G : how do u connect them.....how will u find intermediate pts....
M : depends on value of variable u give ( btw G is difficult to understand)
G : now gimme curve
i plot them.....
G : y dint u do earlier, u take time to understand
R : u have failed on 2 parameters now.......( smiles) u r taking things too casually
R : ok, tell me some other subject
M : s/w engg
R : tell me SDLC
M : tell em
R : implementation and post-implementation .....
M : tell em
guys, now the fun starts
R : y is post-implementation part of sdlc ?
M : its not a part as per the defintion, but prctically it is followed that the developers give 90 days post-implementation support
R : after implementation its a product, so its not part of the life cycle
M : i agree it becomes a product, but just to stick to theory, it stops at test, once you receive confirmation.....but practically, implementation and post-implementation are part of it.....

( well, not exactly )
R : ok, tell me what is product life cycle
G : draw the curve
M : ok....
G : draw ur curve
M : my curve ????
G : curve for a human being
i draw bath tub curve, and explain it as a function of illness v/s time

G : interesting, what if someone dies
M : curve terminates
G : this cant handle special cases
M : its a generic curve, in theory this is it.....
G : ya but theory shud follow practicality.....ok, tell me, is tis is exponential function of time
M : no
G : go
R : this is the only IIM call u shud have prepared better
i smile, say something like ok or something

so gys this was it.......in short, they hate it when you answer.....but i wud say just stick to ur point, and smile when they criticise you......i mean, i guess they were just stressing me when they were trying to take me on something i was damn sure of

K stalwarts, your feedbacks puhleasseeeeeeeeee.........this was my only IIM call


rgds
ron

[catiscrazy]

Originally Posted by ronniekher

Hi guys,

Thought of giving you all gyaan. Had my K interview today at Mumbai, the panel of Gopi and Ranesan ( K guys pls correct me if im wrong).
gd was abt someone who doesnt delegate work, ends up doing everything on his own, blah blah blah......
very peaceful, ppl giving each other chance, but for some reason 2 guys dint bother to speak
i personally did very well i think, gave gud exs, put a new perspective......lasted 10 mins or so
my background : IT engineer, 2003 grad, 18 mths programming work -ex
last person to be called
PI : G (gopi), R and M ( me)

R : u related to anupam kher ?
M : (smile) no
G : tell me abt urself
M: start, speak for 2-3 mins, in between they just dont seem interested, i still continue.....start with work-ex, then go backwards
R : how many ppl in ur company ?
M : tell em ( seemed surprised when i say 4500 !)
R : tell me a fav sub
M : Information Systems
R : what is information system
M: tell em
R : what are the hierarchies
M : tell em
R : data warehousing
M : tell em
R : serch engine
M : tell em
R : how does it work ?
M : tell em
R : give me the exact algo
M : dunno sir, havent worked on it
R : how can u say, u said this was ur fav subject, that shows u r a failure uve failed in this parameter
M : i know the concepts.......
R cuts me short, says : not concepts i want technical algo
G : ok, solve a prob.....
M : i solve, plot the end pts.....
G : how do u connect them.....how will u find intermediate pts....
M : depends on value of variable u give ( btw G is difficult to understand)
G : now gimme curve
i plot them.....
G : y dint u do earlier, u take time to understand
R : u have failed on 2 parameters now.......( smiles) u r taking things too casually
R : ok, tell me some other subject
M : s/w engg
R : tell me SDLC
M : tell em
R : implementation and post-implementation .....
M : tell em
guys, now the fun starts
R : y is post-implementation part of sdlc ?
M : its not a part as per the defintion, but prctically it is followed that the developers give 90 days post-implementation support
R : after implementation its a product, so its not part of the life cycle
M : i agree it becomes a product, but just to stick to theory, it stops at test, once you receive confirmation.....but practically, implementation and post-implementation are part of it.....

( well, not exactly )
R : ok, tell me what is product life cycle
G : draw the curve
M : ok....
G : draw ur curve
M : my curve ????
G : curve for a human being
i draw bath tub curve, and explain it as a function of illness v/s time

G : interesting, what if someone dies
M : curve terminates
G : this cant handle special cases
M : its a generic curve, in theory this is it.....
G : ya but theory shud follow practicality.....ok, tell me, is tis is exponential function of time
M : no
G : go
R : this is the only IIM call u shud have prepared better
i smile, say something like ok or something

so gys this was it.......in short, they hate it when you answer.....but i wud say just stick to ur point, and smile when they criticise you......i mean, i guess they were just stressing me when they were trying to take me on something i was damn sure of

K stalwarts, your feedbacks puhleasseeeeeeeeee.........this was my only IIM call


rgds
ron

Me no K stalwart but methinks you did a damn good job

Cheers
Kartik.

[needforspeed]

Originally Posted by ronniekher

Hi guys,


so gys this was it.......in short, they hate it when you answer.....but i wud say just stick to ur point, and smile when they criticise you......i mean, i guess they were just stressing me when they were trying to take me on something i was damn sure of

K stalwarts, your feedbacks puhleasseeeeeeeeee.........this was my only IIM call


rgds
ron

Hey Ron,

I think it went of ok...they used the standard methods to corner you during the interview. The 2 panelists must have been Rameshan (Strategy) and Gopal Choudhary (Stats).

I guess they tried to stress you out a bit, but as long as you managed to keep your cool, you shd be fine. If you have put in some good points during the GD and have managed to come across as confident, you shd convert.

Best of luck for the results..

[praps4u]

hi all .
Here is an account of my date with IIMK .
Venue : LIBA , 26 Feb 9 am
Name : Pradeep
CAT : 99.57
Work Ex: 9 months

GD Topic waz on NGOs becoming a lucrative business.
7 ppl in my group. an average discussion with people spending most of the time giving their own examples of NGO activities in the recent past.
I think i made 3-4 entries , but can remember only 2 solid points.
1 saying why NGOs are required at all
2 saying Govt.s shudnt consider NGOs as a competition but rather try 2 work in sync for the overall betterment of the society !!

Then the interview. I waz the first one to be called in.
2 Profs. (L , R)

L : Why do u want 2 do MBA after Engg.
Me : Answered
L : Doesnt listen properly ; says wats the point , all of u will go n sell soaps. Wasting Engineering Knowledge.
Me (IT Engg) : I say IT gives me a broad technical understanding which is absolutely necessary in the present generation .. etc........
L : Which Splization
Me : Will decide after 1st ; after getting good exposure of all the streams.. etc
L : persists
Me (makes a mistake): At the moment I can say , Finance , operations interest me.
L : Goes about saying , wat is the use of Finance , u'll only go to investment bank. Waste of IT.
Me: I dint say I will not take System , I may also take it up if i find it interesting.. .....wasted time in defending my options...
lasted about 2-3 mins of cross questioning.. which I answered confidently but not convincingly.
Nex: they look at my Mark sheet n then pick out subjects at random..
Datawarehouse:
L :Wat is it , diff between Database n Dw.
Me : answered
He wanted a Key word which I cudnt get. ( probably it waz Knowledge Management)
L : Who waz the author:
Me : cant remember...
Next : Resource Management Technique
L: Wat is it.
Me : Optimizing costn n Resources.
L : Example :
Me : Reg. an Attack Mission by a Plane on Enemy Base Station .
Said Cost , Resources , Constraints etc.
Asked : Objective Function :
Me : I think To Safely Hit the enemy , without losing our plane
L: dint seem too convinced..
wat r the two imp practices in RMT:
Me : suddenly remembered PERT n CPM. said full form.. asked me more , Cant remember ...... n a smile.
2 more qn.s most of which i dint know..
author: cant Remember..
then.. he pointed to R n asked him 2 ask something. He waz sitting silently , except nodding his head evry now n then , when i made eye contact with him
reluctantly asks me :
wat did u learn in Principles of mgmt.
I answer decently.. ( only answer for which they seemed convinced)
which author : , no sir , we referred notes from various texts.
ok thank you. all the best.
Me : thank you sir. ( to each).. n then leave.

used to think how some1 wud feel after they had had a bad interview . and I jus experienced that first hand.!!!!

IIMK Seniors , plz tell me if any of ur batchmates had this kind of an interview.
me felt quite down till y;day.. after which I decided 2 concentrate on the next one...
reading up on ALL the subjects i had in B Tech..
Surprisingly , no qn.s asked on Hobbies , or ANYTHING other than 3 subjects n which Stream. Do u think I shud've asked them 2 ask me on somethin more??
plz give feedback..
thanks,
~Pradeep~

[je_ne_sais_quoi]

Hi all,
Just wanted to share my experiences in GD/PI for IIM K.
My interview center was the Loyola Institute of Business Administration in Chennai. It was blazing hot (at 2) and my auto driver was complaining abt having to drive me for "2 kilometers inside Loyola". Just paid the guy 20 bucks extra and put him out of his misery

There were 16 of us in the centre. I think they got a student from Loyola to join in to make up the numbers. He was in our group for GD and dint speak one word, so it was kinda strange.

Anyway, the GD was a vague-ish topic- "Children, like work are responsibilities. Sometimes responsibilities can be a burden and a change would be needed to reduce the burden. The change can be something gross (like change of location) or something subtle, like change of attitude."
We were given a couple of minutes to think, and then had 10 minutes of discussion. There were 2 panelists from IIMK- by the looks of it, a Bengali(B) and a Keralite(K). The discussion was all right, nothing exceptional, with no one really standing out. But we were respectful of each other and there was good decorum- probably because no one had to take any stand and defend/contradict it. So we were kinda talking into a vaccuum.

The other group had the same topic for their GD, and they found it to be similarly vague.

We were called for interviews in the seating order that we had for our GD. Some of the folks had their PI's before me, and they were quizzed primarily on acads. One infy guy had done Operations Research at university, and was quizzed about linear programming and game theory. Another had done statistics in school and was asked about poisson distributions, etc.
Soon, it was my turn and I went in, my interview panel was the same as the GD. (Bengali n Keralite).

B: Hi venkat, please give your certificates to K. Do you have a certificate of experience?
me: yes, sir. I have it for my permanent position at Motorola, but I was working as a Project Officer in the Satellite Engineering Centre affiliated to our uni, which was a temp posn, and I dun have any certs for that.
B: Never mind. (I hand my certificates to K)
B: So give us a short intro of yourself..
me: do so, starting from school in bangalore, to university, and work experience.
B: Why do you want to come back to india?
me: put some fundaes about india's economic forecast, political will, etc. (B looks on silently)
B: Tell me, is the indian economic growth sustainable?
me: (i was waiting for this) speak about the close relation betn social cohesion and sustainability of economic growth. general fundaes here..
B: Which sector has the highest growth? Industrial, agricultural, or...
me: sir, what was the third sector? i'm not too sure on the terminologies.. I know it was'nt agri this year..
B: Services
me: yes sir, services sector had the highest growth..
B: (nodding), do you think this growth is sustainable? what about external shocks?
me: speak a bit export driven growth in services, so thats why we will be sensitive to external shocks, talk about currency exchange rate appreciation for a bit... (wanted to lead them the east asian financial crisis, as the I interview the day before, but they dont do so)
B: I see your salary in the form. You will probably be getting something around that after your MBA. So why do you want to do an MBA?
me: speak about my current commitments, etc
K: How do you rate yourself in the GD?
me: (I modestly say something..they look at each other for a sec, dunno what that meant)
K: so, did you get calls from all iims?
me: no sir, jst B, K, I
K: which will you choose between the three, if you get all of them?
me: sir, err...
K: ok, I think you will take B (smiles)
me:
K: between I and K? your answer will not affect our judgement.we just want to see your thinking..
me: I would be taking K, and give him a few reasons..speak about placements, culture, personal contacts with K etc (some ppl said Indore was better than K in placements)
K: Our placements this year were excellent.
B: yeah, we had 100% this year and top salary was 8 lpa.
K: but, we like to be modest about such things...
me: yes sir
K: ok, any questions?
me: ask him about the exchange program (standard qn!! someone was mentioning this qn after our gd, and I asked this to gain some time to think of something more interesting to ask)
B: goes into a reasonably detailed expln of the program..
me: do you think there is a value add to this? what do the students say?
K: (starts laughing)...students like it, but its mainly a prestige thing,
B: (completing K's sentence): its been just a year, so we havent seen the market's response to the program.
K: anything else?
me: sir, what does the sanskrit motto for K mean? "yoga: karmasu koushalam"
K: smiling again, thats a good interview question- you are interested in sankrit, why dont you tell me?
me: smiling...sir, I could understand the mottos of B and I, but this one had me stumped..but probably yes, I should research a bit about this...Thanks! (and take my leave)

I was surprised with my interview, to be honest. The panelists were friendly and pleasant, and no sign of them trying to stress me out. I think I was leading them to a few questions at some points during the pi, but most curiously, there were no acad questions at all! (im from a comp engg. bgrnd with 2 yrs experience in the telecoms industry).
so folks, what do you say?

[tachyon]

hey guys,
here 's my background
be in comp. science and 8 months work-ex at cognizant.cat percentile of 99.86

Had my iimk interview at chennai on 23rd Feb @ 9.00 am

GD topic: "cricket is extremely popular...cannibalizing other sports...bcci is very rich....govt. must pass a legislation forcing bcci to share the revenues for the development of other sports"

...the discussion was surprisingly boring and colourless ..it wasnt a fish market nor was it quiet..after abt 12 minutes we were asked to stop...

the interviews were held in the same order. i was the second to be interviewed.there were two in the panel ; one looked like a keralite(K) and the other was a bearded one who looked slightly intimidating(B).however as it turned out they were both extremely pleasant and cool.

K: so , tyagarajan what do you do?
Me: tell him that i work at cts in chennai
K: they have only one office here right?
Me: no....tell him that there are 5 offices in chennai alone and where i work..
K: where else?
Me: tell him
K: so , tell me abt this company
Me: i launch into a narrative of some facts and figures..
K: what do u work on?
Me: (assume its abt technology) mainframes...
K: oh...what language do u use?
Me: M204..
K: what? (looks positively stumped)
Me: i repeat and explain abt M204
K: ok, is it like PASCAL?
Me: its more like COBOL
K: ok , what is COBOL?
Me: tell him
K: what do you know abt data warehousing?
Me: (damn) give him globe and say i've never worked with it
K: who uses it?
Me: everyone...the high level management , the techies the customers...
K: really? (looks sarcastic) how does the high level management use it?
Me: give him more generic stuff taking a retail store as an example...
K: (looks partially satisfied) why cant they use a database?...how is it different
Me: Tell him abt easy querying , handling distribution and a couple of other jargons thrown in
K: (nods) what abt the different schemas?
Me: (my first googly)...what!:razz:
K: the different schemas like star schema and snowflake schema...
Me: say i dont know but offer to make a guess...
K: ok...go ahead (hands a sheet of paper)
Me: I try drawing a star but end up with some wierd shape...
K: is this the star schema(smiling)?
Me: i smile and draw a better star...
K: ok what abt snowflake schema..
Me: I have never heard of it sir
k: try guessing..u seem to be good at them(laughs)
Me: i draw two parallel lines
K: shouldnt they be connected?
Me: oh yes...i connect them at the bottom..
K: shouldnt the connection be at the top?
Me: depends on how you see it..(just a wild reason)
K: laughs and looks at b (yes , he was silent till then)
B: so , one of your interests is blogging...tell me abt it
Me: i tell him
B: tell me an instance where you have shown leadership skills...
Me: i tell him an instance from the form
B: no , another thing that not on the form...
Me: i talk abt how i was the project lead for a project in college..(all bullshit)
B: seems like you have had a course in probablity and statistics...what is a probablity density function...
Me: (here comes hell)...start to give him a rambling...
B: cuts me short...no give me in points when a curve becomes a pdf
Me: give him a sole point i could think of....
B: yes....more...
Me: i say the inevitable "i dont remember"
Bk..what are the two common errors in a hypothesis?
Me: (what the f***).....stare blankly before accepting defeat..
B: (smiles)..ok lets go to industrial management
Me: (groan)..
B:What are the four priciples of management?
Me: organising , planning.....(think)..leading?
B: ok...one more....
Me: tell him a few but none was right...
B: ok tyagarajan....all the best and thank you..
Me: thank you sirs....i rise to leave
B: whats your percentile?
Me: i tell him and walk out.

seems like i might have goofed up..but u never know....

[needforspeed]

Originally Posted by je_ne_sais_quoi

Hi all,
I was surprised with my interview, to be honest. The panelists were friendly and pleasant, and no sign of them trying to stress me out. I think I was leading them to a few questions at some points during the pi, but most curiously, there were no acad questions at all! (im from a comp engg. bgrnd with 2 yrs experience in the telecoms industry).
so folks, what do you say?

well well...ur one lucky guy i must say!
Most probably you had Dr Saji (Operations) and Dr Sarkar (Economics) on ur panel...and them not trying to stress you or cross question you is surprising! Mostly such interviews are for ppl who have significant experience...its the freshers they try to psyche out during the interview. Could be that they were very impressed with your profile and workex...which is why they were so cool. (Thats my take..no guarantees! )

Anyways, they were off with the highest salary figure!! Way higher than that this year - you shd come to know soon after our report is released.

One point that came up very poignantly here is

Originally Posted by je_ne_sais_quoi

K: but, we like to be modest about such things...

Unlike many other institutes, there is never any effort to tom-tom our acheivements ..so much so that there are many aspects of K that are unclear/unknown to applicants.

People who get a call and really want to make an informed decision, do meet up with one of us from IIMK b4 u decide .... im sure you would be surprised to know many of the things that we have to tell you.

All the best for the call...