XLRI HRM interview Date 07/03/2017
10th/12th/Grad: 83.6/77.6/70.01 (B.E. in Computer Science) ;
XAT Score: 99.3 ; GK: 99.831 ;
Essay : Something between a high tide and a Tsunami.
GD : Customs and traditions should prevail over law. Everyone spoke about Jalikattu (I had predicted that), then a few more points. I gave example of regional local council in North East states. Benefits of Customs, benefits of law. Went silent. Then people started recycling points eg. One guy said 1+1=2, someone else said if you have one goat and I give you another goat it will be two goats. It was not leading anywhere. I interrupted a guy while he was repeating a point and introduced the structure of the GD and asked them to stick to it. While discussing the pros and cons, people went again to Jalikattu and 1 Cow + 1 Cow example. I asked them to list pros and cons as we had enough discussion already, a guy reintroduced the Example of Dubai but it had fallacy in it. Another girl wanted to continue, I interrupted and pointed out the fallacy. We completed the GD and the panel asked us to leave.
PI: Three Interviewers:
P1( Sitting to the left): Prof. Antony Uvary (OB)
P2: (In the Centre): Prof. Narasimhan Rajkumar (Marketing)
P3: (To the right): Prof. M. Srimannarayana (HRM)
P2: So You are Shivam, there was a movie recently something Shivam or Shiv.
Me: (I could remember the title track but not the name) Sir, Shivaaaaa.
P3: Arrey sir, he is a very diverse candidate, he is interested in stocks, He did engineering, working for a finance client. Had his BM interview yesterday, sitiing here for HRM, Right Shivam?
Me: (Smiling) Yes Sir.
P3: How was your GD yesterday? What did you learn from yesterday’s GD?
Me: It was a chilled out GD….
P3: No what did you learn? Your personal learning.
Me: That I need to be more patient.
P3: Exactly, That’s what I was talking about. Why didn’t you show that today during the GD?
Me: (Smiled) I learned it just yesterday… (Baby face) All 3 of the panellists laugh out loud.
P1: Why were you not patient today? Why did you interrupt that Girl today. Don’t you know it’s bad to interrupt people.
Me: Sir, we had a target in mind to complete the GD , people were repeating points, time was running out ,had we run out of time we would have failed as a team….
P2: But don’t you think team members’ happiness is supreme.
Me: Sir, the target needs to be completed that’s what we are here for, the team would not be happy if we don’t perform, even the company…..
P2: Suppose it happens with you at Accenture, the target is complete but you have some things in your heart, a concern what do you do?
Me: I make sure my supervisor knows about my concerns and these things don’t happen in future.
P2: You had BM interview yesterday, How was It?
Me: Sir It was good.
P2: What did they ask you?
Me: (Smiled) Stocks…..
P2: Ohhh, Isn’t it unfair that they ask you what you already know?
Me: (laughed) No they did ask me things I didn’t know.. ALL laughed in Unison.
P2: What did they ask you which you didn’t know?
Me: They asked me Jamshedpur’s role in WW2.
P2: Did you look it up?
Me: (I did look it up, the quizzer in me can’t let these things pass) Yes Sir, It was Tatas manufactured Armoured vehicles for British, supplied steel for expansion…
P2: Don’t you think it is Tata’s role not Jamshedpur’s? There is an anecdote Antony told me today. Do you know anything about it?
Me: No sir.
P2: Would you look it up today on the internet? You need to search more.
Me: Yes sir I will.
P1: Okay Shivam, You are working for Accenture, what do you exactly do?
Me: Told I work as a QA <Some more fancy Stuff>.
P1: How do you do that? Me: Told <Boring tech nerd stuff>.
P2: Don’t you think testing is a very dead and boring job. I meet people they are bored.
Me: No sir, I don’t know what other people tell you but my work is interesting.
P2: It gets boring after sometime, people are doing same things day in day out.
Me: No sir in our organization after sometime you can get up the ladder to do something more interesting.
P2:I am not talking about your organization, it gets boring….We have people with 5 years’ experience in our 1 year program. They tell me Testing is very boring.
Me: Sir, testing is a very holistic process there might be some parts of it which are boring also there are different types of testing, the really fun part is finding a bug and tracing it back in the code and mapping requirements, the people you mentioned might be doing functional testing…
P2: Yes, they might have left the tracing part to the developers.
Me: Right sir.
P2: This is a leader’s world. Do you agree?
Me: If all will be leading who’ll work? (All Laugh)… I believe we need workers as well.
P1: You are a worker or a leader?
Me: It depends on the situation, I can work as a leader and work with people if situation requires.
P2: Leaders need not be workers, eg Modi is not an economist, MMS was a better worker terrible leader….Would you like to change your answer?
Me: No sir, I think you need to be a leader as well a worker. Gave example of a TL who worked with his team and how the team respected him more because of this.
P1: What kind of leader are you? Me: Sir,.. Spoke something…
P2: Are you even listening? The question is, What kind of a leader are you?
Me: It depends on the situation sir,……
P2: Yaar ,He is such a situational fellow (All laugh).
P2: Let me give you a situation. Suppose your team is Incompetent, non-cooperative, they don’t want to talk to you, what’ll you do?
Me: Sir, I’ll try to convince….
P2: Arrey, they are Non cooperative they don’t want to talk…
Me: I’ll try to train them…
P2: They are incompetent..
Me: I’ll fire them.
P2: You’ll fire them, Okay that’s what I wanted to hear. Don’t you think it’ll create social problems? Wouldn’t it be unfair to them?
Me: Sir, If they are incompetent then they shouldn’t have been on my team.
P2: So, you’ll fire the HR as well?
Me: No sir, recruiting is a wholesome process, HR is one part of it, and I’ll analyse the problem and fill in the loop holes, so that we don’t get Incompetent people.
P2: Okay let me give you my example. You have joined a bank which was Govt. Owned first but is now privatized, the people are incompetent, and what will you do as a leader to solve the deadlock?
Me: I don’t believe a person is Incompetent in every field, I’ll find a role fit for some of the people, for rest of them I’ll arrange trainings and to act as buffer while this is done, I’ll hire new outside talent.
P2: But don’t you think it will be difficult to train people who had been doing same things for 20 years. Why don’t you fire them?
Me: Sir they know you can’t fire all of them so this won’t work, I’ll provide right motivators like fast track promotions as we know rate of growth in Govt. Banks are slow..
P2: Do you think it will work?
Me: Yes.. (In the mean while Gate opens and another candidate comes in…)
P3: Another impatient fellow… (All of us laugh).
P3 gets up to attend him.
P1: Shivam, you have 83 in 10th ,77 in 12th , 70 in engineering, why a decline in marks..
Me: Sir, I was involved with extra-curricular activities, look studies lightly, realized later scored 78-79% marks in 8th sem because I needed to get above 70% marks cumutatively. So I believe….
P2: Everyone says that, give us something new.
Me: I wish I could travel back in time and change that…
P1: What extracurricular, you were in Quizzing only..
Me: No sir I was a member of literary society…
P1: So what you were “Only Member” or member.
Me: A member (P3 comes back, arrey I left you smiling now I come back to see you are not smiling, kindly keep smiling) (I felt like Akshay kumar when Anu Kapoor said “Muskuraiye aap Lucknow main hain”).
P1: Do you know what “Only a member” and member means?
Me: I believe only a member participates in activities organized by club members organize them.
P2: Was it easy to get 79% marks.
Me: Once I decided I needed to score it was easy.
P3: Okay.
P1: No, he’s saying had he decided he needed to score he’d have scored in entire engineering, but he chose not to.
P2: Shivam in the section of your questionnaire under on which points you disagree with others vehemently, you have written when they give up without trying just because they are afraid of failure. Why?
Me: Sir, if you allow me I would like to cite an example.
P2: Okay…
Me: Most of the people in my organization want to get in an MBA program for obvious reasons but they want to get into tier 2 colleges and don’t want to even try to get into tier 1 college because they think they cannot do it. That’s what I meant.
P2: Suppose, I jump out of the window to discover if I can Fly. What will happen?
Me: Why would you do such a stupid thing? You’d break your bones… (Every one laughs)
P2: Exactly…so?
Me: But in the case I cited what would happen if you fail is you’d lose Rs. 1500 that’s what’ll happen at max, but you’d know for sure, if you are made for tier 1 colleges or not.
P2: Suppose, I am fascinated by statistics but I don’t like mathematics, should I prepare for Indian Statistics institute?
Me: No because you know you are bad at mathematics and you know that.
P2: So what if the people in your example hate maths so that is why they don’t want to spend 50000 at TIME to learn that they are not made for this?
Me: Then they should not try for Tier 2 colleges as well they also ask the same type of questions, they also have similar exams so trying and failing in the process and then choosing a tier 2 college is better than just trying to getting into tier 2 college.
P2: Okay Shivam, is there a question you would….. (P3 interrupts: Shivam I have a question but I’ll ask it after this question)…you would like us to ask from any part of your life but we have not asked yet..
Me: What if the question P3 wants to ask is the same question I want you to ask but you have not asked? (All laugh hysterically).
P3: Can you cite an example where you failed ..
Me: yes I failed in two subjects…
P3: No anything from Accenture.
Me: Sir It has just been 6 months so I can’t recollect something .
P3: Okay, you may leave. I get up reach the door..
P3: Wait Shivam..
ME: (I turn back) yes sir.
P3: One last question. (I keep standing), what did you learn from your Experience in sourcing materials from the UAE (I helped someone import something from UAE and written it as a frustrating experience in my Questionnaire).
Me: that you need to take into consideration external factors and plan accordingly also you should read about other people’s experiences so that you do not repeat their mistakes.
P3: You can go we are done.
Me: Thanks.