IIM Ahmedabad Interview Experience –
(Mechanical engineer, worked for 6 months in JSW steel and thereafter doing part time job for a year)
6th 2016
Vile Parle, Mumbai. 1:30 pm slot
Number of 2 males (both were cool), the same panelists who conducted our AWT
AWT: A critical/analytical reasoning exercise.
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 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 . 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 . 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 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 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 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 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 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.)