Tell Me Something about a Hero from Raigad

IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience –

(Mechanical engineer, worked for 6 months in JSW steel and thereafter doing part time job for a year)

6th Feb, 2016

Vile Parle, Mumbai. 1:30 pm slot

Number of panelists : 2 males (both were cool), the same panelists who conducted our AWT

AWT: A critical/analytical reasoning exercise.

Topic was related to the failure of teachers training program. I’ve written a decent essay.

So here goes my PI experience:

One of the interviewers calls my name and goes outside.

me: Good afternoon sir!

P1: So, you are from Raigad. Tell me something about a hero from Raigad.

me: (talked about Nana Patekar)

P1: (laughing) So, don’t you consider Shivaji

me: Yes, I do sir. But I thought you asked me about a living one…

P1: oh, for your generation film stars are the heroes. No?

(P2 enters and smiles.)

me: (suddenly realised that I was not loud enough. Gained confidence. Loud enough) Actually sir, I love Nana Patekar for whatever he is doing these days. That’s why I told his name so hurriedly.

P1: What are your views on current education system? Relate to your AWT topic.

me: (Explained what progress I’ve seen in recent years. Also tried to relate the changes that I’ve observed in primary education, as my father is a primary teacher.)

P2: So, what’s RTE?

me: (very brief answer)

P2: age limit?

me:

P1: Are you sure? Is it 14 or 15? Or 16?

me: No, it’s 14, sir.

P1: Do you know the lower limit for RTE:

me: It’s 5, I guess.

P1: 5 or 6?

me: I’m not sure, but I joined primary school when I was 5.

P2: You are an odd case then.

P1: So you’ve studied mechanical engineering. What were your favourite subjects?

me: Refrigeration & Air Conditioning

(they are still looking at me, maybe expecting more subjects)

thermodynamics, applied

P1: Tell me first law of thermodynamics and its applications.

me: (are you kidding me? explained very smoothly.)

P1: Tell us where does it fail?

me: (after thinking for a while) I don’t remember.

P2: Why mechanical

me: (tried to relate it

P2: I’m not satisfied. Give a sound reason for this. See, electronics engg. deals with electrons and hence the name. What’s with your branch?

me: (could not provide a good answer)

P1: You’ve studied 4 years of engg. and you don’t know that? strange..

P2: How would you justify the reason for leaving your last job? (reason: job profile ? )

me: (talked about how I was getting civil engg work, the harsh environment and the exhaustion it caused. I was working in a steel plant, which causes too much pollution.)

P2: So how can you survive in Ahmedabad? We have 2 months when the temperature is close to 48 degrees.

me: By harsh environment, I meant harsh work environment. I could not find enough time to prepare for CAT. And my verbal was very very poor. I realised that I need to work really very hard for that, and it was not possible if I stick to JSW. And I was offered a part time job, which could have provided me the extra hours for verbal preparation.

P2: What kind of job role do you expect from IIMA?

me: (uttered something stupid)

P1: What are your hobbies?

me: I like to listen to Bollywood music. I have an interest in classical music too, and I’ve been learning it since last few years.

(no cross questioning. huh…)

(OMG, P1 is yawning.. Disappointing..  Hey, but why am I paying heed to him? He is a human being. Chill..)

P2: Do you read newspapers? Which?

me: The Hindu. And I’ve started reading headlines of The Economic Times. (why the hell I said that?)

P2: Who is the editor of the Hindu?

me: (I’d read about him. Why my memory is not helping me?) I’m not able to recollect his name. (sad face)

P2: He was in the news recently because of some controversy. Do you know about that?

me: (Took their permission to guess about that controversy. Talked about somebody steeping down from a post, then how readers expressed their disapproval etc. This was totally irrelevant.)

P2: What you just talked about was related to a journal and not The Hindu.

me: Okay. I told you that I’m not sure.

(P1 and P2 look at each other, discuss something and now both are smiling at me.)

P1: Okay Milind, take that toffee and you are free to go.

(I was pretty sure that I was not going to make it to IIMA this year. The only positive thing about me was my confidence level.)