but has anyone being interviewed by ISB till now ?
when will IIM-Ranchi release their list...???any idea...
@caprion i think there is someone with the pagalguy id @preethi1990
who has given telephonic interview for ISB FPM. I m not sure of the area.
who has given telephonic interview for ISB FPM. I m not sure of the area.
@glock Congrats !. I am in IIMB at FPM. Please message me your questions and happy to help. Ofcourse we will meet during the post RAT seniors interaction session as well.
@caprion Congrats for your IIMB call !. Great to know that !. Which area did you apply for ?.
I am doing my FPM at IIMB and you have any specific questions, please send me a msg. Thx.
Folks, that are selected for attending the RAT and (hopefully) interviews at IIMB, here are a few tips from my side...
1. RAT is easier than CAT or GMAT. So if you already have a decent score in it, then don't worry too much about it. If you haven't taken these exams and have applied with a GATE/GRE score, then simple preparation from a book like RS Agarwal would do.
2. Make sure you attend all the sections in RAT. Time is never sufficient to complete the whole thing. So getting a balanced score in all sections is the strategy to shoot for. The sections are fairly similar to other AT tests i.e. Quant, Analytical, Verbal, Data Interpretation, Reading compre etc.
3. Some areas like CSP, Public policy have area specific tests which are either case based or essay based. The objective is to test your analysis and coherent articulation skills.
4. In 2011, about 135/180 of the people who came for RAT went to interviews. In 2012, some areas had rejections after RAT, but some areas called everyone who came for RAT. So from time to time RAT score is either used as a screening mechanism or only as a backup to supplement your interview performance.
5. The meet with seniors in the eve of RAT is a useful session to attend. You can get personal tips for the interview from your respective area seniors. I found this session very useful for my FPM interview too !. So if I were you, I wouldn't plan an evening out in Bangalore, but make sure I attend the interaction session.
Interview tips in the next post. Meanwhile any questions in specific send me a msg. Thanks.
@gajamani - thanks for coming out to help and for these detailed posts..
i have applied for Ops Management.
What area are you majoring in. Can you talk about your FPM experience and maybe what made you join IIMB...Can you connect me to somebody in Operations Management there plz
@gajamani thanks n waiting for ur interview tips 😃
When can we expect results for rat n final results?
@rahul5184 i also had couple of telephonic interviews for ISB FPM ....I had applied for operations management....i was told that the final round will a f2f interview and results would be out by 2nd of april..not sure though that whether i would be called now because there is hardly any time left
@adymos lets catch up on 4th at IIMB
@experience123 RAT will be the morning. The areas which have area-specific results will be in the afternoon. The results post RAT will be announced by around 8 PM on the same day. Based on whosoever is selected post RAT, they need to be stay back for the interviews that are typically scheduled on the following day. Those who didn't make the cut post RAT are free to leave. If you have got selected for both Indore and Bangalore, then you can take RAT at Bangalore and the score will be shared to Indore as well.
Thanks again. IIm Lucknow also mentioned written test. By any luck u know is it rat or smithing else?
@gajamani..how have been your FPM experience....I am mostly interested in Supply chain optimization and information sharing across it...any pointers of the professors around that area would be really helpfull
General tips for FPM interview. This is based on my IIMB experience, so not all of it may apply to other IIMs. So please apply discretion 😃
(1) Read your SOP thoroughly. Try and recollect everything you have written there and associate it with some real-life experience you have faced in your professional career thus far. For example if you say, research can help improve productivity, then try and associate with a real life problem you / your company faced etc. This is the foremost line of questioning followed in FPM interviews.
(2) If you have done a MBA then identify 2 or 3 specific subjects (related to the area you are applying) as your favourite subjects. Then be ready to answer basic questions on those subjects.
(3) If you have not done MBA, but you have done Engg. or commerce major, then expect couple of questions on your favourite subjects (you may be asked to name them). For example, POM and QM area students can expect questions on basic probability and statistics. Finance area students on financial accounting basics (if you have Bcom degree).
(4) Think out what your goals are, why FPM, what do you think you can gain out of FPM, what do you think your presence brings to FPM class room etc. They usually ask these questions.
(5)Prepare a 3 mins powerful intro pitch about yourselves. Dont repeat too much of what is written in your CV or in your SOP. Some overlap is okay. But cover more of the qualitative bits in this pitch. The focus should be to tell abt ur strengths and also create some €œplanted €™ leads which will become subsequent triggers for questioning you further. So touch upon either your professional experience or academic/research track record, where ever you are more confident on deep probing.
(6) For People coming to IIMB, the interaction session is an useful opportunity to ask all kinds of questions to your seniors about the program, interviews, and post-FPM opportunities etc. So allow time for attending this session and make best use of this session.
(7) You are not expected to remember everything from your Engg or whatever under-grad. But professors do ask questions to check how much you remember. They also check how you react if you dont recollect the answer. Be honest, if you don't remember the answer, and don't attempt to bluff. Because the professors usually catch it and can put you on the defensive for the rest of the interview. But at the same time, avoid saying simply I dont know.. if you know something relevant, or if you "kinda" remember the answer, but not very sure.. then say so, with those disclaimers attached.... Such a balanced approach works best !.
(8) For people with loads of work-experience the interview is typically not a stress interview, but the questioning is more about learning ability, how you can cope with exams, work load etc. They check whether you have the ability and interest to truly become a student. But they dont put you through a stress interview, because they don't suspect your abilities on that !.. But at the same time, for people with
(9) At least in IIMB, for most areas based on the CV and SOP itself, they identify who are the people they want to take !.. The RAT and interview process is to validate their choices and be open to some border line cases turning up as trump cards... So, if you are selected for interview, then you have a very good chance to make it... The number of people given offers by a department is an average of 3, however it may vary based on the quality of the interviewees in the 2013 batch, and the number of seniors selected in the previous batches.. The flexibility is usually + or - 1, which they decide based on the quality. They aim to have a certain total FPM students to faculty ratio, and hence an area which has had a lot of people getting in last year, usually takes less in the subsequent year, provided the number of faculty members has not changed. They usually target 10 people for interviews to select 3.
Hope this helps. Any specific questions please shoot !.
@caprion SCM and information sharing is a contemporary area of research. Almost all the professors in POM area work on something related to SCM. You can refer to the faculty profiles on the IIMB webpage and their publications. You can also do a scholar.google.com with the Professor name and see their publication list. I don't want to use names in the public forum, but if you need any specific thing, send me a mail.
@caprion Regarding FPM experience, it has been pretty good and I am very happy with it. But I did my PG here in IIMB and hence was familiar with the environment and what to expect out of the program before joining FPM.
(3) I feel FPM thesis is somewhat more rigorous than PhDs at IITs. Out there, they mainly let the guide evaluate the work; and it goes for one external verification which is too late to make any dramatic change to what you have done. Some institutes mandate certain number of publications; which can be of any grade journals. However in IIMB, the focus is on rigor while you are doing the research and getting your ideas past the DAC is the biggest challenge. There are no fixed number of years to complete the thesis. But they ask you to finish by Year-5 ; after which stipend is cut-off and you have to pay additionally 1 Lakh (or so) as continuation fees. A typical average guy would finish it in 4 to 4.5 years. An extremely good guy can finish it in 3.5 to 4 years. So this is a risk you need to be aware-of and during the thesis period. Since you choose the thesis topic in FPM (unlike Phds where you work with your guide), nobody will follow-up or chase you. You have to be completely self-motivated to complete the thesis, because finally the topic is your choice !!. Nobody can help you , other than your own self !!.
So some general tips (for everyone else) as well on choosing FPM (esp at IIMB) compared to doing a Ph.D from IITs or IISC
(1) FPM is extremely rigorous in terms of first 2 years of coursework. You are expected to maintain a certain level of class discipline and get a B+ grade point average. In some courses you will be directly competing with the PGP students to get those grades. Hence in the first 2 years one needs to be prepared for the toil of competing with 23 to 24 year students for getting grades. This is a hard thing for people with loads of work experience. If you don창€™t meet the grade point desired, then you are asked to leave the program. This is different in IITs and IISC where the pressure on coursework is NOT so high. The learning there is mostly on the research itself and in close working with the guide.
(2) FPM offers corporate placements also. But the corporate placements are limited and they are primarily Analytics companies (HP, Fidelity, etc.) or Consultancy companies (Infosys consulting, Accenture consulting etc.). They pay well compared to Software engineer salaries. However they pay less than what they would pay a PGP graduate. Also the openings are limited. So the main option is to become a faculty somewhere; and the salary structures will be as per UGC guidelines. These colleges do not value industry experience very much and most likely you will join as an Assistant Professor and you will have to work your way up !!. So post FPM if you are joining a college then there will be (very little) difference between a 25 year old and 40 year old FPM. So you have to be prepared for making this economic trade-off in life !. If one is looking for a high-flying corporate career then joining an MBA or Exec MBA program (like EPGP) may be a better option (financially) than struggling 5 years in FPM. If research and academic life motivates you, and if you are willing to make economic tradeoffs in the long-run, then FPM is a good bet.
(3) I feel FPM thesis is somewhat more rigorous than PhDs at IITs. Out there, they mainly let the guide evaluate the work; and it goes for one external verification which is too late to make any dramatic change to what you have done. Some institutes mandate certain number of publications; which can be of any grade journals. However in IIMB, the focus is on rigor while you are doing the research and getting your ideas past the DAC is the biggest challenge. There are no fixed number of years to complete the thesis. But they ask you to finish by Year-5 ; after which stipend is cut-off and you have to pay additionally 1 Lakh (or so) as continuation fees. A typical average guy would finish it in 4 to 4.5 years. An extremely good guy can finish it in 3.5 to 4 years. So this is a risk you need to be aware-of and during the thesis period. Since you choose the thesis topic in FPM (unlike Phds where you work with your guide), nobody will follow-up or chase you. You have to be completely self-motivated to complete the thesis, because finally the topic is your choice !!. Nobody can help you , other than your own self !!.
I suggest all potential FPM students think about these 3 things before deciding on FPM.