KJ Somaiya 2-3-2019 CDPI Review
I was allocated 9.00am slot at KJ campus in Mumbai. Venue was easy enough to find.
45 candidates were booked in my slot.
After introduction of staff and alumni a short video was presented.
Scorecards and ID were verified at this stage.
Alumni and adcom interaction was okay.
Candidates were divided in four group for Case Discussion.
Seating was two rows of five-six facing each other.
Topic alotted to my group was Social Media: enabler or polarizer. A brief paragraph was given to discuss and main question for discussion asked at the bottom. A blank sheet was also provided for notes.
3 minutes were given for reading the case-brief.
Discussion lasted for twenty minutes before the bell was rung.
CD panel consisted of one faculty and one alumni.
Case discussion went pretty good, atleast for me I think, and made some enough relevant points.
However it did keep on derailing at times into a discussion about the situation with Pakistan, although it was brought back on topic soon enough.
However there were atleast a couple of people in my round who couldn't butt in forcefully enough to interject their points, so do take care to be heard.
Trust me, when the discussion goes on you won't be able to keep track of time and may completely miss out on stating your position.
After the twenty minutes were up, the bell was rung by the panel.
Then they went around the group asking everyone to sumarise the discussion and your position on the issue in 30 secs.
The timing for this was exactly 30 sec so make sure you keep it concise.
The only moderation in this round was done to signal the end of the rounds.
Candidates were free to steer the discussion as they felt.
Overall, it went pretty well.
The next round was the Personal Interview.
Panelists were similar- one faculty, one alumni.
They asked for the candidate profile.
Interview started with standard describe yourself and why MBA type of questions.
Further questions were about parent's jobs and family background.
Asked about hobbies as well, and had a brief about discussion them as well.
They inquired about the gap after graduation and how I was going to compensate for that. Had some trivia questions about Singapore and some SAARC. Simple enough. Asked about further plans and what would I do if I didn't get selected. Standard stuff. One other question I remember being asked by the panelist was whether to prefer external beauty or internal potential. I gave a nuanced answer, however the panelist was insistent on a binary yes-no position. Also a few questions on how I would compensate for the lack of experience when learning in classroom. Managed them well enough.
Overall, the panel was pretty chill, and I got done after 15 minutes.
This was the last stage and after that we were free to go.
Key takeaways:
>Make atleast a couple of good points in the CD. It will end sooner than you think.
>If you are unable to start the discussion, try to take a contrary stance and go second or third. You will be able to make more points.
>Keep a clear, concise summary ready and present it under thirty seconds.
>Keep calm for the PI, it will go good enough. Just answer the questions as well as you can.
Hope this helps.