ISB Interview Experiences 2004-2005

[ketanm]

Interview Experience

Rituparm Bakshi to isb-pgp

Hi,

Had my interview in Delhi today. There were three people in the
panel, two faculty/admissions and an alum. They were very nice thru
the interview and made the interviewee feel comfortable. A few
questions:
- What is the difference between an engineer and a manager?
- Questions related to failure essay
- Why lack of extra-curriculars
- Questions related to work experience
- Why MBA?
- After MBA, what?
- Any questions from us?

The interview took 20 minutes. Everyone came out satisfied from the
interview experience! So keeping my fingers crossed X

Good luck others!

Regards,
Rituparn


Interview Experience

prashant parameshwaran to isb-pgp

Delhi ( Feb 4'th 10:00 am)

I reached Taj Palace by 8:30 am , a good 1 1/2 hrs
before my interview time ( 10:00 am ). Was not sure if
any of those ministers would have wanted to go ahead
and block the traffic, took no chance.

Met up with a couple of students and obviously smoked
a couple of cigii's to keep my engine running

The STAGE :

There were 3 panels with 3 members in each panel. Each
panel worked like clockwork, sharp at 9 am , they
started calling in candidates. From what I understood
( yeah had 1 hr of experience ) , Panel 1 and 2 had
the usual general interview experience, as in nothing
out of the box . Though a number of candidates from
Rituparn's panel had the common area that asked about
: Failure/Weakness . Panel 3 was kinda wierd , none of
us noticed the first candidate disapper ( we guessed
they had the old toture chamber style of pulling a
lever and saying ' you are dumped ' and your seat just
falls into a huge pit. We needed to joke at that
moment to get our nerves relaxed ) . Yeah , obviously
this was my panel !!!!

There were 2 alums and one alum cum staff ( thought he
was firang : Raja/Vineet , any clue whats his name:
couldnt catch his name ).....i was called in a 10:05
am and ....

1.Once I went in they asked me if I wanted anything to
drink and with politely refused settling for a glass
of water ( DONT MISS THE WATER !!!! IT MIGHT BE
HELPFULL...REMEBER IT'S YAPPING TIME)
2. Luckily one of the panelist had stepped out , so
got time to settle in.
3. My first question was ' Tell me something about
yourself beyond what is mentioned in your essays'
4. Taking a clue from that they question me on my
contribution to the society
5. I took the lead from there and talked of my
internship ( damn !!!! I thought I was doing an
intresting internship, but the best of my story
telling skills didnt fascinate them )
6. The theme of my interview began " Prashant, you are
in the family biz and you want to work in a MNC for
3/4 years and then start a venture" : There was som
heavy duty cross firing on this : Why , where , what
logic, rubbish , have you seriosouly thought of it etc
etc .....I used examples of this internship and what
my goals where ....
7. They questioned why I had to take a path to those
goals .....it went on and on ( 20 mins!!!!!!!!!)
8. I wanted to talk of the work i have done for the
past 4 years , but they kept asking me to step out of
my essays ....
9.They then questioned me on the path i have taken and
stated that it was unsual from the what people from
family biz backgrounds do...etc etc ...
10. Then questioned me further on how the internship
was fitting into the larger scheme of things ...

They then wound up the interview in around 30-35 odd
mins and asked if I had any questions. Used a good 5
mins and ultimately found that 2 out of the 3
panelists were from family biz !!!!!!!!

BOTTOM LINE : I SUCKED , I SURE COULD HAVE DONE
BETTER. I HAD A LOT OF STUFF TO TELL THEM , BUT THEY
KEPT PULLING ME BACK WHEN I WAS TAKING THE LEADS.


The one good fact was that I did not get perturbed or
loose my cool : thats my key advise to anyone who has
a rapid fire round , go in with a slightly bindas
attitude ( not the kind with your chin up), tell your
inner self that the person sitting across is not going
to let me loose my true self and that regardless you
would not give in/succumb to the pressure.

The one good thing I did do post my interview was to
grab a great lunch and a chilled out night with a
couple of friends at a pub ( though drinking kinda
puzzled of how my interview went )

Hope this helps ....( not the drinking bit , but the
interview experience)

Best of luck

Prashant

[ketanm]

Interview Experience

Vijay Sarathy to isb-pgp

Interview panel: Mr. Menon, Mr. Vinoo Urs and one more adcom member,
whose name I don't remember.
Duration: 45-47mins (4:35PM to 5:20PM)
Venue: Taj Coromandel, Chennai

Menon: Vijay, we have read your application thoroughly so there are no
specific questions as such. Please feel free to drive the show and
tell us what you want to say about yourself, about yr family, yr
expectations from ISB etc.

[I didn't anticipate this full toss but started fairly well] gave a
small brief about myself, my educational background and my family.

Vinoo: Parlez-vous francais? (That's French for, do you speak French?)

[This was followed by the grill of the evening on my post-ISB plans.
Mr. Menon and I stuck to our respective stances, which made him to
finally remark, "Okay, now lets move on to something else other than
IT"]

Menon: Turn around; do you see that television set over there? How
many inches do you think it is and how many such sets do you think can
be sold in India this year? Give me a number finally.

[I walked them through the market sizing but lost track somewhere. Mr.
Urs prompted me to consider certain parameters and Mr.Menon finally
remarked, I think it's okay; we only want to understand yr thinking
process]

Menon: Any questions for us?

[Asked them some questions on their value proposition, their business
case respository etc.]

Overall, I think the session went okay although you always wonder if
you could have made a better sales pitch. It's one of those interviews
where you keep wondering if you made it or not. Atleast, the monkey is
off the back now and the agonizing wait begins. Meanwhile, let me
catch up with some partying

Thanks a ton to all the folks on this forum. This group has been of
immense help to my preparation.

--
best regards
vijay

Interview Experience

Rohan Chopra to isb-pgp (Delhi)

My InterviewI am happy it's finally over)


1. To start off, questions on the Leadership essay, y?
Reasons?

2. How would you increase the number of applicants to
ISB? (messed up this one).

3. Don't you think you need more experience? (I have
21 months of experience at present). Grilled!

4. What kind of a manager are you?

5. How/What would you contribute to the ISB? Grilled!

6. Questions from the resume - regarding projects I
have done

7. Any questions for us?

Overall, didn't do well. Fingers crossed, waiting for
Feb 28.
If I get through, I will be one of the "Tough
Interview survivors".

Best of Luck. Stay calm and you will do good.

Cheers,
Rohan

[capreal26]

Am reproducing my int exp script here...


Here goes my interview exp at Taj Palace on Sat eve 6 PM (board room 1)

Panel of 3. One of em was Hima (shez from adcom), One current/ex
student I beleive & a third gentleman.

Qns --

# Tell us something about yourself not in the application.

# Why 'you' ? Whats different about you ? What separates you from the
hazaaar IT junta ? -- I think I wasnt convincing at all on this one.
( They said the guy before you sings, paints & even does shaayari & we
asked him to sing at the end of the interview. & We'll also ask you to
sing at the end. This brought a big sheepish smile across my face
)

# Tell us something about your values ? Got grilled on this one.

# What do you do for fun ? What are your hobbies ? What would you do
if you had a 3 day holiday ?

# Question on essay responses on Xtra cirriculars/Community Work.

# Why do you need an MBA for the position I want to get Post MBA (from
the essays) -- Lots of discussion on this.

# One Question I asked them at the end.

Panel -- very cordial & puts you at ease. Not much of visible stress
but lots of it in undercurrent .

Overall feel. - Unsatisfactory. I think they are BORED of similar
profiles & just hear out the stories ppl have to say. I must say I
failed at getting the entire panel totally interested in my story. I
dropped many hints which I hoped they would pick up & the dicussion
would lead in that direction but It didnt happen.
I dont have much hopes after this kinda experience.

Rest of R2 junta -- All the best.


capreal

[pagalguy]

Ahoy Amit, the questions seemed pretty generic to me ,but then again, they are pretty tough to answer. Grilling is fine as long as you held your line of thinking and didn't question them during the interview

Moi still thinks you'll pull through , just hang on !

Best of luck!

[warikoos]

Anyone who has an admit from ISB from the second lot of interviews? Or will they 'stick' to their words of releasing the list on feb 28th only??

Responses will be appreciated.

Ankur

[kiran1979]

Did they actually say 28th.....No information on this...with two days to go ...its real hot......any one called ISB to check this up....

[dev_dut24]

yes, its supposed 2 b on 28th..
btw, does anyone have any idea on d numbers given admit on d first cycle?
devroop

[kiran1979]

Will they be publishing the results or will they be sending mails on sunday 27th night...
the brochure says not later than 28th so on or before 28th right....

I got info that there is no such number...its just a range of candidates the number differs and depends on the number on the quality of candidates....they may take more or less depending on thier standards in terms of quality...

[Vincentian]

hi,

so does that mean there is no real fixed batch size ... i think there surely would be some upper limit right?

-V

[kiran1979]

If you check the ISB site in the students section or in the placement section youc an see that the number of students has been changing over the years..