One Call - One Convert . Back to Delhi..

When does IIFT usually release the results?

Center: MSME, Chennai

Profile
10th - 85 CBSE
12th - 85 CBSE
Grad - CGPA - 6.5
Work Ex - 25 months IT sales
IIFT Marks - 42.97 ( SC Category )
Extra Curriculars - College Senate, Head of Organizing coll fests etc, 8-ball player, short movie making and lot more competitions won in UG

Essay: Food Safety Measures: Essence and Execution
Comments: Wrote abt the current situation, govt policies, Subbarao's call for quality expenditure etc.,

GD: Children from Nuclear Families more confident and Independent
Comments: No right or wrong about this topic. My group kept beating around the same point for a while.. Moderated reasonably well.

Interview:
Panel consisted of a lady and a couple of gentlemen. Lets call them L and G1,G2
G1 and L were the ones asking questions. G2 was a silent observer.
What i mention below is not verbatim but a gist of how things went in the interview room

G1: You did Chem Engg from NIT, Trichy? Why did you get into Sales
Me: Placement offer was withdrawn towards the end of the academic year, off-campus in 2009 was very difficult. Hence, joined an IT services start-up. Currently working for a diff company

G1: tell me more about your roles in your job in Business Development?
Me: Typical sales cycle. Handle database generation, cold calling, lead generation, prospecting, proposal management , pipeline management and closure.In the current job handle closure as well, earlier job only till prospecting proposal stage?
G1: About your company?What business?
Me : Explained

G1: why do you want to do marketing? you are doing the same thing now
Me: told him the difference between Marketing and Sales and how marketing will be a step up.


L: You can do part time MBA as well. Why do you want to get into a residential programme?
Me: Part-time MBA is good for ppl who wish to stay with their org in along run. not the same with me. Full time course-> diverse set of thoughts, Competitive peer group, better judge of student capabilities.
G1, G2 and L nod their heads. Convincing answer

L: Good marks in class X and XII. Why low in NIT, Trichy?
Me : I did not study well *plain faced*

The panel is struck by my don't give a shit answer
G1: Why? I know NIT, Trichy hostel.. I know what you guys do there!
( Me: WTF!! thinking to myself - if you're my alumni, I know for sure you're definitely a dopehead )
Me : *Again deadpan face*, Was involved in extra curriculars throughout. Marketing and PR team of Cult fests, College senate etc..( Basically puked out my extra-curricular stuff )
G1 and L convinced. G2 is not so sure
G2: what abt your CAT score?
Me: Messed up my Verbal cut off. no calls from CAT or CAT related colleges.
L,G1: Do you have any interests or are you aware of current situation in Business, Economy? Your opinions.
Me: I am not very well read in this regard, however i am informed that - spoke for ( spoke everything abt CRR, Subbarao's statements on growth, Davos meet, FAO reports on rice trade, FB IPO, Rafale purchase and some more )
L starts laughing, the other two smile.
L: So you are well read about the current affairs.Good. Smiles again.
G1:Will the Euro Crisis Affect India?
Me: In the Long run, our economy is well placed to do well. Not many countries from the Euro zone feature in our top trading partners and some more gyaan.

All Seemed Satisfied.

G1: You've mentioned that you are proficient Hindi. How?
Me: Resided in Delhi for 10 years as my Father was transferred there.
L : Ok, Anything else?
Me: I like Punjabi Cuisine and playing pool. Also my comments are published in Cricinfo Commentary regularly.
G1 and G2 smile. L is sorta puzzled.
G1, L: nice meeting you. Thank you
Me: Thank You. Have a great day.

Comments:
The panel is pleasant. They are not there to stress you out but they want to know you. They also want to see how consistent are you with your answers wrt to your CV form. I think their focus is on Your clarity of your objectives, knowledge about your work-ex and awareness of current affairs. Even if you re not prepared well enough, just be confident about yourself.
Also, do not make smart-ass comments, can go against you. I did that out of habit with my customers.

Thanks

I am still in a state of shock. I still cannot believe my CAT scores this year.
Category : SC
QA and DI - 96.42 percentile
VA and LR - 40.08 percentile
Overall - 75.64 percentile. I usually score well in Verbal Ability, above 90 percentile and was one of my strengths.
I only have an IIFT call - 42.86

Cribbing apart

Is there any decent B-School i can apply to, using CAT score?
24 months work-ex in Business Development.
X - 85%
XII -85%
B.Tech

Do you have a liking for number crunching? - comfortable but not keen
Do you like to work in teams or u like to work alone? - I love to work in teams, but i have a good experience of working alone as well.
Do you find it easy to convince people to do what you want? - It is very hard to convince people. Being in Sales, i have some experience but i find it easy to reason with people
Do you have a creative mind? - Not for me to say.
Do you like travelling? - I do
Do you find it easy to talk to strangers? - Yes.

About My Profile:

A chemical engineer from NIT, Trichy (2009). I have worked in the IT Sales & Marketing for about 2 years now.Worked at a start-up for 1.5 years before moving to the current firm. I Currently sell Mining and GIS software in A-PAC region. In IT sales, all that's needed infra-wise is a Phone and a Skype account.There's very little of travelling . I actually like the pre-sales, market research and the pitching/presentation part of my work. Though i like my line of work, i do not see myself doing the same 5 years down the line. At that point of time, i would be asked to manage Salespeople but i want to do more than that. I am more inclined towards Operations, Strategy and Marketing.

Operations : There always seems to be a gap between the Ops and Marketing/Sales teams. Most Sales people always oversell and 'over-commit' to customers and end up 'under-delivering'. Understanding Ops and the principles behind it will help me
Strategy Though i know Strategy can't be learnt in Classrooms, what i can take away is the principles, tools for measuring effectiveness, success etc.
Marketing: It is something that i have been fairly successful at and i would like to polish myself.

Morever, i have been working in Small/medium firms till now, but would like to be equipped with skills to face Challenges that might be thrown up while managing Big Organizations.