Same interview with added smileys can be found out at following link:
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/other-exams-xat-fms-jmet/29283-2008-xlri-pi-experiences-bm-4.html#post1016818
Panel: Long hair guy (L), High Exp Prof (E), calm Guy (C)
Me (I)
Interview Starts:
I(wishing evry1): Hello Sir X 3
C: (Pointing towards seat) You can give your file to me. [was very much confused where to keep it]
E: oh, So you are from Sinhgad College.[Oops… no tell me abt urself….no why MBA…prepared this so much ][I was also surprised cos sum1 really knows my college ]
I [smiling] : Yes Sir
E: road to college has become nice after you passed out.[oh My god. These profs know everything ]
I : Yes Sir. Actually it started improving in my final year itself.
E; Good [Suddenly points towards my specs. My spectacles & tie being blue in color]Have you done any deliberate effort to match your tie color with your spectacles.
I : Not Exactly Sir Its pure co-incidence.
E : What do you work on?
I: Sir, I am into performance testing. I check the performance of a client’s website and deploy it online if it meets the requirements.
L [Interrupts] : So why do you want to do MBA then?[oh finally I was able to bring up this question and now see where it goes ]
I : sir, My present job interests me because it tests my analytical skills but its not giving me a platform to display my strategy skills.
L: STRATEGY [in a surprised manner..looks like time to grill me on strategy ]
Ok. Tell me what is strategy.[Oops.. I am weak at definitions..let me try ]
I: it’s a technique used to achieve any objective.
L: So, Strategy is a technique. Are you sure?
I : Yes [over-Confident me Little did I know that I am speaking to a person teaching strategic management at XLRI ]
L: ok. Why do you think you are good at strategy?[I wont get a better chance to show my credentials ]
I: Sir, I have participated in Robotic events and won several prizes in IITs, NITs and other colleges. I was a strategy planner and used to do SWOT [oh no. where from this word came up ] analysis of my robots and other robots & create a strategy which would help us win.[me..making innocent face hoping that everyone overheard the SWOT word but…]
L : Oh. So SWOT analysis. How did you do that.
I: Sir, SWOT means strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats. I can explain it better if I can take some strategy as reference that I implemented. Can I?
L: yeah Yeah. Sure
I: I would like to tell about IIT-Powai competitionStrengths and weaknesses are the intrinsic factors which I might know even before entering the arena or before going for the competition. Its like I can identify these as soon as I prepared the robot.
L: how do you determine weaknesses, I mean weaknesses of your robot or your team or your institute.
I: robot as well as team
L: Ok. Continue. Better list them down.[Oh No. listing means I have to think up the next points while describing the present as I was blank about opportunities and threats ]
I : ok. Strengths were 1) GOOD Speed of robot (described briefly)2) good maneuvering SKILLS (described briefly)Weaknesses were 1) Low Torque2) Not too rigid cktsOpportunity was carpet was provided for free fall of robot which we exploited.[almost completed..was satisfied till now..until i was interrupted ]
L: I am keen about threats. Tell me threats
I [blank for fraction of a second ]: Sir, Competitors were threats. We had 2 teams, one from Iran and other from Nepal. Both were very strong. So, it would have been sensible not to collide with any of these teams until final as each round was a knock-out one. So, we deliberately scored less points in some of the rounds to avoid the clashes with them.[bang on target ]
L: Oh my god. You already know so much about strategy management. Why do you want to do MBA. You have done so much, I don’t think you need this.
I: Sir, The thing is I knew in & out of robotics and hence I was able to apply strategy. Now, I want to learn in & out of business before entering into business strategy.[This one was the acer ][All look convinced]
L: So, tell me some strategy based companies.
I: Sir, Consultancies normally help out in mergers and acquisitions and prepare strategy for the same.
L: Agreed. Tell me the companies.
I: Lehmann brothers, DE Shaw, Mc Kinsey.
L: is it a deliberate effort that you said Mc Kinsey at last. Its evry1s dream company after allI; No sir, its just that I recalled it late
E: And how do you know about De Shaw
I: Sir, its into s/w too and hence I know it.
L & E almost signing me off,
C just completed seeing my certificates.
C: Ok, So you spoke about mergers and acquisitions. Tell me 3 recent acquisitions wherein some Indian company has acquired foreign one.
I [blank ]: Sir, tata is having talks with jaguar but not yet finalized. I don’t remember any other now.
C: ok. Tell me acquisitions from last 2 years.[Again me blank]
I : I am sorry but I don’t know
E: you know there is something going on in Pune Airport and it has been stopped
I: yes Sir renovation work is going on.
E: is it still going on.
[spontaneously]I: No Sir, it started operating from yesterday. Work is done.
E: So that shows that you read newspapers. Then why could not you answer that question.
L: its just that he started reading newspaper after getting this call [pakda gaya ][All started laughing. Me too joined ]
C: Do you follow any sport?
I: yes. I follow cricket
C: Ok. Tell me what is a flipper. I will give u a hint, Anil Kumble does it.
I: Sir, is it the wrong spin.
C: No. that’s the doosra.
I: Ok. I don’t know about the flipper then.
L: Ok. Tell me the difference between square drive and square cut.[Can we move out of cricket please ]
I(confused and again blank): Sir, I am weak at terminologies.
C: But you said you follow cricket?
I: Yes. I am good at statistics [I should not have said this but that was the only way I could have taken one more chance of answering a general awareness question]
L: oh. Statisics. Ok. Listen to this. Azharuddin in his period scored 3 centuries consecutively on 3 grounds in a series. Tell me 2 of these 3 grounds. Ok, Even one would be fine.[I was like…oh my god XLRI to gaya abhi….gaadi me baitho aur ghar wapas chalo ]
C(giving me a hint): One would be very easy
I : Sir, One should be Eden gardens.
L: oh. Good. Now tell me the second one.
I: I am sorry but I don’t know the others. I have to accept I am weak at general awareness.
C: ok. Then. It was good talking to you. You can leave
I: Thank you.
