Hi friends, Hope you have had a gud time at the GD/PI process at SJMSOM, 2010. Though we have tried our best to make the process as smooth as possible, we are sure you must have felt somethings could have been better. Any feedback would …
Hi friends,
Hope you have had a gud time at the GD/PI process at SJMSOM, 2010.
Though we have tried our best to make the process as smooth as possible, we are sure you must have felt somethings could have been better. Any feedback would go a long way in making the process much more efficent in the coming years.
This thread is an attempt to get an idea of your take on the process.
Hope you make best use of it.
Looking forward to a lot of bright ideas.
Hi puys
I had my GD/PI on 5th, afternoon slot. First of all I am posting the process to clear any apprehensions...
1) For accomodation you need to go to Room number 235 C-wing, Hostel - 13. There you will be handed over the keys to your room.
2) There will be a presentation in the auditorium before the actual GD/PI process. This will be about SOM, Life at SOM and was followed by Central bank of India's presentation for their education loan scheme. For us it started at 1:30 pm. Do attend this presentation as it gives a lot of insight about SOM.
3) Then you will be asked to register and you will be given a batch id (A,B,C,D,E,F,G). There were 14 ppl in each group. Thereafter you will be taken to your respective rooms for Group discussion which is a case based discussion.
4) After the GD you have to come back to the auditorium for document verification which will be done by the seniors. You need to fill a profile sheet which consisted of % marks in each semester, Post Grad marks (if applicable), rank in class (supported by documents), 4 extra curricular achievements and your work experience.
5) After that you will be called for interview in the same order as your documents were verified.
P.S. It was a very streamlined and a smooth process, thanks to seniros. They have done a truly commendable job. They were doing rounds while we were waiting to clear our queries, they pacified us just before the interview, gave an insight about the do's and dont's of the interview and even helped ppl who didn't have the xerox copy of their certificates. It was a nice and enriching experience.
Also puys who are travelling by flight, one little suggestion. If you are hiring an autorickshaw from the airport to campus, always go by meter. It will cost you around 90-100 bucks from airport to hostel. Don't be fooled by the exorbitant prices the autowallahs ask at airport.
Multiple threads for sjmsom gd pi experience.mods please keep one.
Now my GD/PI exp
There were 3 panel members, Two ladies (L1 and L2) and one gentleman(G1). L1 and L2 were profs and G1 was an industry guy. The panel was same for both GD and PI
Case study : Recruitment or Retaing?
It was related to an employee who was recruited to a new company and got a good package. He was very happy, but as soon as he started working he realized that his career goals are not getting fulfilled and he is being overburdned with work from his seniors and his peers. He tried to remain calm and worked hard to change the scenario but in the end he resigned. His manager was suprised with the resignation but didn't appoint a committee to probe the matter.
Q1: Why didn't the manager appoint the committee?
Q2: What is wrong with the recruitment policy of the company?
Q3: Why was the manager suprised with the resignation of the employee?
Overall it was a nice GD. Almost everybody contributed, there was no chaos. I pitched in 3-4 times and made some points, but was rebuffed by everyone in the group on one point (Don't know how much damage it would cause). At the end G1 stopped us in between and gave 30 sec to everyone to contribute something else.
Now came the PI
Entered and wished Good afternoon to everyone
L2 : Tell us about yourself
Told backgound, family, interests said blogging and was stoped by L1
L1 : Is blogging good?
Yes
L1 : Why?
Fundaaaassss
L1 : But there seems to be a lot of hue and cry over the privacy issues on blogs.
Told there are two kinds of users, one who would share the information and the other ones who won't. The ones who would share the information it's their personal decision and they won't make a cry out of it
G1 : What is the adress of your blog
Told, then he went to see his phone, I wonder if he checked the blog
L2 : About the job profile. Kind of work I do. Told, system testing explained it
G1: Do you use any testing tool
Not at the moment, Had a session on QTP, but client has not sanctioned it yet
G1: Why MBA, why not MS?
Fundaaaaassss, long term goals etc, MBA aligned with the goals
Then there was further probing on why MBA part for like 5-6 mins What subjects, what industry, what profile....I was giving very general answers to his queries. In the end he said Vipin you are getting kind of repititive. Do you have anything specific in mind. I said I have some inclination towards Finance but no backgroud so want to come here and learn and then make an informed decision
G1: Strengths
Told one strength gave an example how it helps
G1: Any other?
Told
G2: Any situation
Told.
Thank you Vipin you may leave
Thank you all 😃
niks109 SaysMultiple threads for sjmsom gd pi experience.mods please keep one.
Merged both the threads.All the best for the GDPIs
ATB to everybody left 😃
Dosto.........Please pour in ur experience fds!
5 march 2:00pm
me too had the same slot as vipin. He has already told about the sequence of processes. Only thing is it takes a lot of time between gd and pi. in my case it was around 2.5 hrs. so be patient. seniors did their best. they even told us about the interview panelists and their areas so it helped.
my gd case was again same as vipin's. my group had 12 candidates. THe panel had 2 ladies and 1 gentleman. 5 min were given to go through the case and then 20 min for discussion. after that around half min to everyone to add something (in any order). in my group it was a slight fish market but everyone spoke something.
personal interview
G1: introduce youself considering we have not seen you cv.
Me: introduced
G1: what are you really passionate about?
Me: movies
G1: what type of movies?
Me: hollywood
G1: which is latest you have seen?
Me: told
G1: i havent seen that so cant ask any questions on that.
L1: have you seen avatar?
Me: yes
the we had a sort of chat about cost of movies and whether i would spent as much time and money as it was spent in case of avatar if i was the producer. it was very informal type discussion where all 3 of us were giving our views one by one.
Then G1 asked about my company, my profile, my responsibilities, how i take out time for watching movies, and when did i decide to do mba. This is all i remember now . there were some other random questions in between.
Overall it was a very informal and general discussion. i was expecting some technical questions and some stuff about why mba and why sjmsom. so i was really surprised and disappointed.
Not expecting much lets see.
All the best to all of you
i had my gdpi process today (6th March, Afternoon). I did not opt for accommodation and hence cannot comment about the same. I reached at around 1 PM and was made to sit in the audi. then a long wait after which the presentation etc etc.. we were then called for the gd.. a case study which was ok.. i pitched in with a couple of points but screwed up the last point badly but thankfully time was over before i could screw it further.. then the painstaking docu verification process made not so painful by a nice senior... interview panel was total bindaas.. had a great time.. i was sure until the last two mins of the interview that it was probably one of the best interviews of my life but then again had to screw up.. brain totally freezed on a question related to my preferred stream .. they just asked an example and i was tongue tied.. blabbered something and stopped finally... then they told me to go.. hopefully that last major blunder dint cost me a seat... anyway was a nice process at SJM... great going seniors... u were amazing...
I am surprised to see no techincal question from Eng stream....Awesome for me atleast...Hope it repeats for me too........
Hello Everyone,
First of all congrats and all the best to all those who have been called for GD/PI. Without wasting your time I'll straight away jump to the GD/PI process.
My GD/PI was on 5th Mar(7:30 to 1:30, Panel F). Had a long wait before the process get started. But i'm thankful that seniors were kind enough to make us as comfortable as possible under the given circumstances. Finally the long wait was over and then we were shown a small ppt on SJMSOM. Then we started filling our profile sheet(Do take all the extra curricular certificates required as they are verified.)
And then we were called for the case study. It dealt with a company's new CEO, for whom "data is god". How the seniors don't like his methodology and what he should do. we had another question that asked what should be the management style for small sized indian companies. We were given mins to go through it and a GD for 20mins. Overall a good GD. No fish market at all(Strange !!!). Every body was able to put forth his points and we were able to come to a consensus.
Now was the time for snacks. We were given 10 mins to have it and report back in he audi. Right after verification we were called for PI. Anyways that didn't make a difference to me as I was the last person interviewed in my panel. A 15-20 mins PI. My questions were more related to a "Leader". What should be his quality. Should he be a good listener or not? How do you rate your morning's case study? And the most interesting question was : "what would u do if u were to spend at least 2 hrs with 50 people of nearly 50 yrs old, when no one is interested to talk with u??":shock: Anyways handled the question well.
That was it puys...
ATB to all.
last year my interview was also very chilled out. no acads at all :D. but if u r working outside ur home state then prepare some gk stuffs about that place. they will ask that for sure. anyways atb.
hello puys this post is in two parts
interview date: 6 march time: 2pm
Case study: employee retention
A team of employees are given specific training costing 2 lakhs per person and after training one of the employees(Alok) has a lucrative job offer from another company but he is willing to continue if he is promoted.
the company dosen't have a vacancy so he can't be promoted immediately. alok is working on an important project and if he leaves then project would get delayed by 10 moths.
Q1. Is it good for the company to impart training and then let the people quit the company? what guidelines should be implemented for the benefit of employees as well as the organisation?
Q2. what should manager of alok do to retain him?
Q3. can't remember
Gd was a fish market and everyone was trying to get airtime. contributed one point on which some discussion happened and was asked to summarize.
P.S: Puys don't make the gd fish market, the panelists hate that kind of situation and if it does become one please don't contribute to the chaos.
My interview
3 panelists p1,p2,p3
p1 economics prof,p2 and p3 alumni
p1: describe yourself
moi: blah blah
p2: why mba?
moi: want to build a career in finance
p1: why finance?
moi: told that i have basic knowledge of business and finance( i am an engineer) gathered by reading newspaper like economic times and since i voluntarily started reading it, and now i have developed interest.
p1: editor of et?
moi: swaminathan aiyar 
(all 3 start laughing)
moi: i may be wrong on this one as he writes many columns on editor's page (puys when u are wrong accept it)
p1:why mba from sjmsom?
moi: gyan
p1: your view on budget?
moi: mentioned about increase in tax limits
p2: give the current and previous tax rates
moi: did it
three more questions on finance related terms which i answered well
p1: u seem to have good knowledge of finance so why didn't u opt for CA as career?
moi: interest developed after i joined the engineering institute and i have cultivated it along with decent percentage in my engineering
p3: how do you plan to use your engineering in the finance field?
moi: i may be designing algorithms( i am cs engineer) for automated stock trading?
p3: what is benefit of this?
moi: explained it in detail.( p3 was impressed)
p3: why didn't u contribute much in gd?
moi: pointed out the i gave one point which was discussed further and afterwards i thought that i shuld not contribute in to the fish market.
p2: so you mean to say that in future if same thing happens then you would sit quietly?
moi: actually that was a high risk move taken by me because it seemed that to me that by contributing to the chaos i might get myself rejected by the panel(p2 seemed satisfied)
p1: who is governor of rajasthan?
moi: could not remember the name but said governor is a lady
p2: r u sure?
moi: yes i am
p2: governor of mp?
moi: gave the answer
p1: who can be appointed a governor?
me: a person of eminence.
p1: so why was balram jhakad not apoointed governor of rajasthan?(gave me the clue to be more specific in my answer)
moi: person cannot be appointed governor of his home state.
p2: why so?
moi: he could influence the polictics in the state.(all three seemed to be happy with my response)
p2: u may go.
p1:(interrupting him) what are derivatives?
moi: gave the definition.(each one of them nodded and seemed happy with my answer)
p1: now u may go.
moi: thank u to all of u.
p3: atb for future.
@seniors: could you rate my perfomance
P.S: THE PROCESS WENT SMOOTHLY AND KUDOS TO THE ADCOM TEAM
P.P.S: EXCELLENT INFRASTRUCTURE, WOULD LOVE TO JOIN THE INSTITUTE
SJMSOM rocks and there are no two ways about it 
!
First, a snapshot of my profile-
X- 81.6
XII - 75.4
B.E- 82.9
JMET rank- 321
Work ex- 33 months at the time of interview.
Sector-duh.. IT, what else 
I attended the interview on the 6th and everything- right from the accommodation to the verification process to the GD-PI process was managed in a fantabulous way !
I had my interview scheduled in the afternoon. Reached SJMSOM at around 1:30 PM. We were divided into 7/8 groups with 12 people in each group. After that, we attended a presentation on SJMSOM and life at SJMSOM. We were given a profile sheet to fill . This was followed by the document verification process. During this process, the seniors in-charge got into a conversation with all the candidates - educating us about the school, the do's and dont's in the interview, etc. A special note of thanks to seniors-Rajesh and Bala for addressing my doubts at this stage.
Coming to the case study.
There were four panelists- Prof.Dinesh Sharma (G1) , a legal aspects prof (L1), a lady (L2) and another gentleman(G2).The panel was the same for the interview too.
case study:
Something on employee retention An FMCG company provides training to 16 of its sales employees with the aim of increasing targets,etc. The 1 1/2 month training costs 2 lakhs per person. Some months after the training,one of the employees(Alok) decides to quit. He has a lucrative job offer from another company but he is willing to continue if he is promoted. But the company does not have a vacancy to promote Alok. The manager Vinod is in a fix. Alok had been working on an important project and if he left, this would lead to a 10 month shortfall. Other employees would also follow suit if Alok is promoted.
Q1. Is it good for the company to impart training and then let the people quit the company? what guidelines should be implemented for the benefit of employees as well as the organisation?
Q2. what should manager of alok do to retain him?
Q3. Moi don't remember too 😛 
The discussion went on for around 10 minutes. The discussion headed to a fish market on a couple of occasions but thankfully, people exercised restraint. I chipped in with 2-3 points but couldn't get the group to discuss on those points. Overall, it was an okayish discussion.
Then it was the turn of my interview. A special mention to senior Yash. He encouraged, motivated and pacified all the candidates in my group before one went into the interview room. :thumbsup:
The best part of the interview was that the panel did not cut anyone short when he/she was speaking. They were ready to lend an ear to everything that we had to say. Another thing was that acads related questions were conspicuous by their absence. Perhaps, it was a conscious decision on the part of SJMSOM to go easy on acads and thank God for that ! 
As for the interview, mine went on for around 15 minutes i guess.
Moi (M)- Greeted everyone.
L1: Tell me something about yourself.
M : blah
L2: Why MBA when you are already doing well
M: blah blah
L2: lot of cross questioning on the B plan that I had spoken about.
M: blah blah blah.
L1: U said you have won some shlok recitation competitions in schoool. Do, you still recite shloks.
M: blah blah blah
G1: Have you read any religious scriptures.
M: blah blah.
G1: What is the biggest problem that India is facing and should be working on..
M: this being a general question, I ranted about illiteracy.. Sarv shikshya abhiyan, mid day meal scheme, PPP, yada yada...
G1: some questions on the same. what would you do if you are empowered to bring about changes.
M: hitwicket out:banghead::banghead: ! Couldnt come up with an impressive answer. G1 gave some hints which I later capitalised on.
G1: why your company product and not your competitor X.
M: blah blah.
G2 who was silent till this time comments- " He is here to market his company ";
G1: passes a comment on the same and there is laughter all around. I joined in.
L2: role model in life
M: blah
All: thank you.
It was a feel good interview but it was the case with everyone. So, don't know what to make of my chances.
A loooong wait now till the 21st of April. Till then, I will be breaking my head and cursing myself on how I could have answered questions in a better manner.
Anyways, it was an enjoyable experience. I have attended my fair share of B school interviews.. This was one of the best conducted processes. Kudos to the ADCOM for putting up a GREAT show and all the seniors (especially Meghna, Sagaran and Nandini) for answering our queries on PG !
Good luck to the people who have their interviews lined up.
P.S- We didnt get a table at Leopolds on Saturday night :banghead:. I hope SJMSOM gives me a reason to come back and visit the place and go and :drinking:
P.P.S- IMHO, SJMSOM is a little hard done by the rankings. There is more to the school than what the rankings depict. People who attended the interviews will vouch for this !
Cheers!
Update (21/4/2010) - SJMSOM results out. I am waitlisted at 20 (General). In all probability, I ll make the cut
Update ( 07/05/2010 ) - Offered admission. But due to some family reasons, opting for IIFT-D instead of SJMSOM.. But very very happy that I have converted the call of one of my dream colleges ..
Profile:
10th - 83%
12th - 74.6%
B.E (Comps) - 9.12
JMET rank - 122
GDPI - 6th morning 7.30am
My GD had total 12people. It was "almost" a fish market. "Almost" bcoz I felt it was a fish market, but some other from my group didn't feel so. 
Anyways coming to the GD topic, the case study involved lots of effort and work hrs being required by companies. The people working in the Co. say ABC has to put in 70-80hrs of total work, bcoz of which the wife of one employee complained that she is single-handedly raising their son. One employee had no time to sleep and he could only take rest in flights when he was on tour for business. The CEO of ABC compared the work-environment to that of freedom struggle. The questions asked at the end were - whether so much work pressure is alright and whether this is followed across various companies and whether it is correct to compare business to freedom struggle.
The panelists didn't like the fish market and hence they reduced the time of GD from 20 to 10mins. 
And one of them asked the people who were not able to put in their point to tell if they had anything different to contribute. During GD, I had tried to chip in 3times, but everyone had such high voice that I had to stop. The panelists gave the me the first chance to speak my views. Then they asked 3other people to tell their views. I hope bcoz of such GD, I don't get less marks
Then seniors verified our mark sheets and extra-curriculur certificates. Since my no. for the GD was B4, I didn't had to wait for long for my interview process to start.
Interview room
Same panelists as GD ones, I'll name them P1, P2, P3.
P1: Can I see your file (I had taken my resume and all certificates inside the room)
P2: So Alka, tell me about yourself that is not mentioned here.
I : bla bla bla. I mentioned something about my papa's transferable job and how there were adverse situations.
Then the interview was around wat adverse situation. I said something about curriculum difference. And the interview went along totally different dimension.
P1 : u had a subject in your collg as financial management. Wat is balance sheet
I : bla bla ..assets liabilites(thank god, I asked the same question to my papa the night before and had got the answer 
)
P1 : wat are these?
I : gave them definitions and examples
P2 : do u kno depreciation
I : gave definition and example of laptop having 10yrs warranty and its value decreasing as the expiry period approaches.
P1 : do u kno something abt appreciation
I : lots of fundas
P2 : hw do companies quantify brand value?
I : told them I couldn't understand the question. P2 explained but then I was not aware, hence told them the same. :banghead:
P3 : wat are your interests?
I : I said social activities. Explained them in detail and wat I have done till nw in collg and during work.
(They asked me about how will mba help in these. And bla bla)
P3 : ok, tell me abt ur work profile
I : mentioned abt my company , gave my job description and then said something abt cloud computing.
P2 : wat is cloud computing.
I : bla bla bla
P3 : you have mentioned in your hobbies as reading novels. Which one hv u read recently
I : 2states (such a book I mentioned that I guess they didn't get interested)
P3 : fav author?
I : John grisham
They asked me abt pelican brief and to tell them the story in brief. Then they asked me abt movie of the same name. I told I haven't seen the movie, then they asked abt the actress's name. I answered something , but alas it was wrong.
Interview over .
P.S : about GDPI process, it was superb , seniors were very helpful in every regard and making the process very easy-going for us :cheerio:
Verdict - Converted
Hey puys,
Had my GD-PI on sunday morning..
Case: About a 56 year old employee, Ganesh who was an asset to the company but now is unable to keep up with his sales targets. Amit, the manager/boss is in a dilemma of how to motivate Ganesh, and what could be done in the present scenario?
There were 3 qns too whose answers the group had to come up with.
The group did well IMO. There was no chaos or fish market, one of the guys didnt speak and he was asked to summarize later .. It was an above average performance but not the best..
PI experience.
3 panelists, 1 Lady(L), 1 prof and 1 guy from the industry and Me(M). All the panelists were very friendly, and giving me the chance to speak. They did not interrupt while I was responding to the answers..
(L) Tell us about yourself?
(M) Told.
(P1) Asked questions about my area of interest ?
(M) Told.
(P1) What is your work prfle ?
(M) Told.
(P1) Asked about my international work ex?
(M) Told.
Interesting questions about budget, country economy comparison and NPV.
All in all a good experience though there was a chance of doing better in some areas.
Btw, I totally agree with rsriram84, SOM IITB is completely underranked by some surveys.
I would like to congratulate all seniors for such a wonderful and streamlined process. I had heard this to be a great school, but it was only after coming here that I have completely realized the real worth of the school.
The students, panelists and the whole experience was amazing. I wont be exaggerating if I say that I will choose the school over the 10-18 ranked schools on the PG survey easily..Special thanks to : Seniors Rajesh K, Meghna Tyagi and SivaSubramanium..
wrong post
Profile:
10th 83%
12th 74.6%
B.E (Comps) 9.12
JMET rank 122
GDPI 6th morning 7.30am
My GD had total 12people. It was almost a fish market. Almost bcoz I felt it was a fish market, but some other from my group didnt feel so.
Anyways coming to the GD topic, the case study involved lots of effort and work hrs being required by companies. The people working in the Co. say ABC has to put in 70-80hrs of total work, bcoz of which the wife of one employee complained that she is single-handedly raising their son. One employee had no time to sleep and he could only take rest in flights when he was on tour for business. The CEO of ABC compared the work-environment to that of freedom struggle. The questions asked at the end were whether so much work pressure is alright and whether this is followed across various companies and whether it is correct to compare business to freedom struggle.
The panelists didnt like the fish market and hence they reduced the time of GD from 20 to 10mins.And one of them asked the people who were not able to put in their point to tell if they had anything different to contribute. During GD, I had tried to chip in 3times, but everyone had such high voice that I had to stop. The panelists gave the me the first chance to speak my views.
Then seniors verified our mark sheets and extra-curriculur certificates. Since my no. for the GD was B4, I didnt had to wait for long for my interview process to start.
Interview room
Same panelists as GD ones, Ill name them P1, P2, P3.
P1: Can I see your file (I had taken my resume and all certificates inside the room)
P2: So Alka, tell me about yourself that is not mentioned here.
I : bla bla bla. I mentioned something about my papas transferable job and how there were adverse situations.
Then the interview was around wat adverse situation. I said something about curriculum difference. And the interview went along totally different dimension.
P1 : u had a subject in your collg as financial management. Wat is balance sheet
I : bla bla ..assets liabilites(thank god, I asked the same question to my papa the night before and had got the answer
P1 : wat are these?
I : gave them definitions and examples
P2 : do u kno depreciation
I : gave definition and example of laptop having 10yrs warranty and its value decreasing as the expiry period approaches.
P1 : do u kno something abt appreciation
I : lots of fundas
P2 : hw do companies quantify brand value?
I : told them I couldnt understand the question. P2 explained but then I was not aware, hence told them the same. :banghead:
P3 : wat are your interests?
I : I said social activities. Explained them in detail and wat I have done till nw in collg and during work.
(They asked me about how will mba help in these. And bla bla)
P3 : ok, tell me abt ur work profile
I : mentioned abt my company , gave my job description and then said something abt cloud computing.
P2 : wat is cloud computing.
I : bla bla bla
P3 : you have mentioned in your hobbies as reading novels. Which one hv u read recently
I : 2states (such a book I mentioned that I guess they didnt get interested)
P3 : fav author?
I : John grisham
They asked me abt pelican brief and to tell them the story in brief. Then they asked me abt movie of the same name. I told I havent seen the movie, then they asked abt the actresss name. I answered something , but alas it was wrong.
Interview over .
P.S : about GDPI process, it was superb , seniors were very helpful in every regard and making the process very easy-going for us :cheerio:
Hi alka,
saw ur interview.... overall it was good.. if u think the answer for d first qs was impressive/blasting one (I : bla bla bla. I mentioned something about my papa's transferable job and how there were adverse situations.), book ur tickets to mumbai ! ! ! ! ! :cheerio:
Rgds,
Sriananth H