Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:28 pm Post subject: One long journey to IIM-Cal!!
Its been three years since an IIM-C alumni ( Baskar @ Ascent education) planted a firm dream in me about studying at IIM-Cal..Its been a long journey filled with failures and dissapointments - But then, all is well that ends well..Today i have received admission to the PGDM @ IIM-C..
Would like to my interview-GD experience in this forum..Nothing inspired me more than the experiences of people who cleared this hell-of-an-exam...!!
I am a B.E in Chem Engg & M.Sc in Maths from BITS Pilani..My life at BITS was more of a vacation than anything serious..I deeply regret my loss of focus in my UG - It probably cost me an IIM-A seat..But then,let bygones be bygones..
With just around 66% in my college, and no great extra-curriculars, my only strength was my 7 year work-experience at India's most respected Software company. This is my third attempt at CAT and this time i managed 99.55%. THe previous two attempts were close shaves at 98.6% and 98.3%. I had received calls from A,C,L and K. Final conversions are C and K.
I`ll first narrate my IIM-C GD-PI experience here.
The GD topic was "Is gen-X dumbing down?". There were 10 members in the GD group and 3 panelists. I wouldnt rate my performance as the best in the GD, as there were some very smart guys who talked about loss of originality in gen-X ( Remixes, A horrible '"Vernon God little" winning Booker Prize, Guru Dutt's movies Vs Karan Johar's K3G). Initially i didnt have too many points to talk, but then the best strategy here is to build on what others spoke. I also brought in some original ideas about how indian software industry thrives on gen-X. I explained how at 28 years i was sitting across the table with some senior Project Managers and working multi million dollar pre-sales deals.. In retrospect, i thought i coudnt think out-of-the-box, but then i certainly performed well within my limitations.
At the end of the GD, everyone was asked to summarise his/her views on the topic and i did that quite to my contention.
I was the first guy to be interviewed. I was extremely clear on why i wanted to be in an IIM after 7 years work-ex and with a handsome salary already in my pocket. All i had to do was to show them the conviction behind my decision. The first 15 minutes went as expected -" Why do i want to do a MBA". In my opinion, this can be the most crucial part of the interview or you can make it so ordinary by giving a cliched answer like " I want to be a CEO etc..".
I knew from my experience , as to what it takes to be a CEO, what it means to run your own company - I have no dearth of freinds who started their own companies only to go bust and join my organisation as Project Managers..Not to say that it is wrong to dream of being a CEO, but be prepared to the details on what it takes to run your own company.
My reasoning for a MBA was not based on a CEO dream. It was more practical. I narrated how i felt handicapped in my job with my ignorance of anything outside J2EE. I brought with a lot of convinction how i need to differentiate myself from the 2000 odd project managers in my company. I told the panel as to how much i can appreciate when i am going to be taught "Mergers and Acquisitions" or "Strategic Marketing". I had done my ground work by reading some basic info on all the courses that were being taught for PGDM in calcutta. You need to know what you will get to learn at IIMs before you can dream of it. This helps you to make an informed decision, especially if your oppurtunity costs are high.
The rest of the interview was about labour laws in IT, basic integration and differentiation ( integrate and differentiate pow(e,2x) ), Whether i fancy selling soda pops and surf, why i was not able to think outside IT in the GD conversation, Why so many software engineers were queuing up for IIMs.
In all, the panel was extremely freindly and it turned out to be a very cordial conversation with no inkling of any pressure tactics.
To summarize, i think i cracked IIM-Cal with my conviction on why i need to do a PGDM, and some realistic career goals that were different from what other candidates had to say.
I`ll post the rest of the GD-PI experiences later..
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: One long journey to IIM-Cal!!
Destinations aren't much without journeys.
Shaji
Raghavan wrote:
Its been three years since an IIM-C alumni ( Baskar @ Ascent education) planted a firm dream in me about studying at IIM-Cal..Its been a long journey filled with failures and dissapointments - But then, all is well that ends well..Today i have received admission to the PGDM @ IIM-C..
Would like to my interview-GD experience in this forum..Nothing inspired me more than the experiences of people who cleared this hell-of-an-exam...!!
I am a B.E in Chem Engg & M.Sc in Maths from BITS Pilani..My life at BITS was more of a vacation than anything serious..I deeply regret my loss of focus in my UG - It probably cost me an IIM-A seat..But then,let bygones be bygones..
With just around 66% in my college, and no great extra-curriculars, my only strength was my 7 year work-experience at India's most respected Software company. This is my third attempt at CAT and this time i managed 99.55%. THe previous two attempts were close shaves at 98.6% and 98.3%. I had received calls from A,C,L and K. Final conversions are C and K.
I`ll first narrate my IIM-C GD-PI experience here.
The GD topic was "Is gen-X dumbing down?". There were 10 members in the GD group and 3 panelists. I wouldnt rate my performance as the best in the GD, as there were some very smart guys who talked about loss of originality in gen-X ( Remixes, A horrible '"Vernon God little" winning Booker Prize, Guru Dutt's movies Vs Karan Johar's K3G). Initially i didnt have too many points to talk, but then the best strategy here is to build on what others spoke. I also brought in some original ideas about how indian software industry thrives on gen-X. I explained how at 28 years i was sitting across the table with some senior Project Managers and working multi million dollar pre-sales deals.. In retrospect, i thought i coudnt think out-of-the-box, but then i certainly performed well within my limitations.
At the end of the GD, everyone was asked to summarise his/her views on the topic and i did that quite to my contention.
I was the first guy to be interviewed. I was extremely clear on why i wanted to be in an IIM after 7 years work-ex and with a handsome salary already in my pocket. All i had to do was to show them the conviction behind my decision. The first 15 minutes went as expected -" Why do i want to do a MBA". In my opinion, this can be the most crucial part of the interview or you can make it so ordinary by giving a cliched answer like " I want to be a CEO etc..".
I knew from my experience , as to what it takes to be a CEO, what it means to run your own company - I have no dearth of freinds who started their own companies only to go bust and join my organisation as Project Managers..Not to say that it is wrong to dream of being a CEO, but be prepared to the details on what it takes to run your own company.
My reasoning for a MBA was not based on a CEO dream. It was more practical. I narrated how i felt handicapped in my job with my ignorance of anything outside J2EE. I brought with a lot of convinction how i need to differentiate myself from the 2000 odd project managers in my company. I told the panel as to how much i can appreciate when i am going to be taught "Mergers and Acquisitions" or "Strategic Marketing". I had done my ground work by reading some basic info on all the courses that were being taught for PGDM in calcutta. You need to know what you will get to learn at IIMs before you can dream of it. This helps you to make an informed decision, especially if your oppurtunity costs are high.
The rest of the interview was about labour laws in IT, basic integration and differentiation ( integrate and differentiate pow(e,2x) ), Whether i fancy selling soda pops and surf, why i was not able to think outside IT in the GD conversation, Why so many software engineers were queuing up for IIMs.
In all, the panel was extremely freindly and it turned out to be a very cordial conversation with no inkling of any pressure tactics.
To summarize, i think i cracked IIM-Cal with my conviction on why i need to do a PGDM, and some realistic career goals that were different from what other candidates had to say.
I`ll post the rest of the GD-PI experiences later..
Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:06 am Post subject: hi ranjan here
hii how did u keep up ur confidence
why do u think there was a failure in u r life
just let me know
how to come across the pain of failure in the past academics
as my records are not outstanding ---
