XLRI BM Bangalore 4th March 1:45
10th/12th/Grad: 95.8/85.8/83.7 (B.E. in IT); 1.5 years work ex at Oracle
XAT Score: 98.049; GK: 82.466; Essay: Okayish
GD: Innovation is the best insurance against irrelevance.
GD went well. We came up with three points for and against, and three criteria’s to rank them. Thirty minutes into the GD, as we were ranking the points, the moderators stopped us. I contributed well to the GD with points for both for and against stating examples.
PI: 3 male panelists.
P: So what does your name mean?
Me: It is the name of a river in Ujjain.
P: Have you been to Ujjain? Which state is Ujjain present in?
Me: No, I have never been there. I think it’s in Rajasthan.
P: Rajasthan? Really? Do you think there are rivers in Rajasthan? Take another chance.
Me: I get your point sir, I think it’s in Madhya Pradesh
P: Correct. Use your LTA and go on a Bharat Darshan and hang a map of India in your room. Geography is very important.
Me: (smiling) Yes sir.
P: So ITC comes to the college and is offering you 1 crores for heading a business division which sells Gutka. Will you take this job?
Me: Sir, I will give it a thought surely. See what kind of responsibilities they will be providing me.
P: You will be heading a huge division but won’t you feel bad in selling Gutka?
Me: I will feel bad, but they would not shut down the division if I don’t head it. On the other hand, if I do take the position, I can contribute to the society in other ways like CSR. Being in such a good position will help me organise more CSR activities.
P: Okay. So, you have a decent salary right now. You will be losing two years’ worth of your salary plus 20 lacs rupees for MBA. How do you justify that?
Me: I told them I have already thought a lot on this because I will taking a loan. If you are looking only at the monetary benefits, one should be looking at the long term, this amount of money would not matter so much 35 years down the line. Moreover, my major motivation to do an MBA is that I want to work in that area. I need to change my domain of work.
P: Asked about what I work on, name of product, name of clients, what I worked on, how I could make it better, what impact did my product have
Me: told.
P: so you say you were not giving enough time for your efforts, (I mentioned it in the questionnaire) How much time do you give now?
Me: Told that it depends on what kind of goal I have in mind. Now, I break down the goals into smaller tasks so that the timeline is set (Had already mentioned something of this sort in the questionnaire) Gave an example of becoming a senior application developer.
P: You said obedience and discipline were instilled in you at a very young age. When do you think these qualities will be bad for you?
Me: Told that because I am obedient, I do not question much, if I am told to do something by my manager, I would not question his authority, and it would be difficult for me to take a stand if I see he is wrong in something
P: Have you done something of that sort in your workex yet?
Me: Not exactly, but there was this one time, where a UI would be much faster if another technology was used. I talked to the manager about that, but we could not get permissions and thus could not implement it.
P: Give me 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of a joint family (mentioned in my questionnaire)
Me: Explained how having younger cousins made me responsible, having my ideals to look upto as well. Made me adjusting, so I do not have conflicts with people living with me, for disadvantages I said I had a lot of disturbance while studying. As I was thinking for the other one, another prof mentioned resource sharing, I said but there are more earning members as well. Then I said at times, there were conflicts, and especially when I was small, I sometimes felt it was not my house.
P: So you had so much trouble in thinking about the disadvantages, why isn’t the society moving towards joint families then
Me: Told that job opportunities in larger cities, parents do not want to leave their roots. Talked about ideological differences as well
Gave a candy. End of interview. The interview went on for about 25 minutes, the longest in my panel (don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad). All the best everyone! ?