isb interviews by mc

8/2/2019 ISB Interviews by mC

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Sinhadee

Hi Guys - am amazed at the amount of speculations going on but can understand the anxiety

levels; underwent the same while I was expecting the call for interview.

I had my interview on the 11th. The ques asked were:1. Tell us something about yourself that you have not already expressed in your application.

2. Long term / short term plans

3. Plan B

4. Ques regarding my orgn and my role in it.

5. Which sector I have enjoyed working in the most (I've worked in 3 different sectors)

There were some other questions as well but cant remember them (was quite nervous in my

interview) also the above questions are not in order as asked.

My take away from the interview:

1. Be very clear about what u want to do after MBA/ long term short term goals/ why ISB - tryspeaking it out either in front of a mirror or a friend. many times we know the reasons (we all

do) but fail to articulate it well in the interview.

2. jot down some interesting points about yourself - include humor it might help release some

nervous energy !!(for apart from application ques)

3. last but not least - stay honest (per me the panel is qualified to separate the bluff from

sincerity)

Wish all the applicants all the best.

Sjed

guys, I didnt post my IV experience coz I felt it pretty much standard and same as

posted in other ppl experiences...

anyways here it goes...

I had on 10th oct....hence initial assessment essay topic was "The first dinner

date", god knows I have done justice to it or not. I felt like I overshot the 200 word

limit.

Anyways, the interview panel had first question ready: Tell us some experience

that is not present in the application.

Felt blank mind for once then got hold of the situation by narrating one of my

recent experiences.

Then asked me what did i learn

Then one of the guy, asked me to design a technical system (since my profile is

semiconductors, so he got into deep technical stuff with me).

Then they asked me about any cherishing experience from my professional life

and couple of extended questions on that. he kept on evaulating whether i was

lying or not, by asking details.

Then asked me why ISB, why MBA, didnt get why NOW though!



then what i do in my free time, here I pitched in my hobbies as favorite passtime

then grilled on hobbies a lot with details on what and how!

was asked if i had any questions, asked some of queries related to how reco's are

evaluated etc..

that was it!

I tried to narrate it nicely as far as possible, pls forgive me if it sound repetitive! it

is what it was.

all in all 30-35 mins

Kishnik –

i have to agree on that. I felt my interview was super short and when i heard thatdreaded question of "so do you have anything to ask us" all i wanted to say was -

hang on, is that it???

anyway, here's my interview experience -

I reached the hotel at 2:11pm and my interview was scheduled for 2:40 [yes -

barely there!], despite leaving home at 1pm. I was unlucky enough to get some

awful traffic on Auranzeb Rd:( Up at the waiting room i was handed my essay

sheet with the topic "youngistaan". All i could think of was that pepsi add and RK

going "mein kabristaan se aaya hoon"...haha, had a little personal laugh on that,shook myself up, straightened my shoulders and got down to writing the essay. i

tried keeping it GMAT style with lots of transition words. [on hindsight i dont even

think they pay much attention to the essay because i forgot to give it during my

interview. i walked all the way down to the lobby before realizing and going back

up - and none of the panelists bothered to ask me for it either!]

i was called for my interview a couple of minutes after 2.40. There was some

confusion in the room because the lady got up and left and another gentleman

filled in her place. They weren't too sure who was supposed to be part of the

panel. We finally began - and there was one adcom and two alums. here's a list of questions i was asked:

so tell us about your work?

-answered in detail and gave them a lead on learnings

can u give us an instance where u learnt something?

-answered, but i think thr interest began ot waiver at that point :(

so what do you do in your spare time?

-told them. one of my hobbies is poetry and they latched on to that.

can you recite a couple of lines for us?

-was prepared for this - and there was a round of "good, very good"

so you r a re-app. what feedback did u get?-thankfully i'd been proactive about this.



so what was your score last year and what is it this year?

-answered..again another round of "good, very good"

where do you see yourself post mba?

-answered in detail about my career plans - both long and short term.

so any questions for us?

Thats it - not at all like my interview last year which went on for 45 mins. i Seems

to me they had already pretty much made up their minds...only time will tell which

way.

hope the post helps all those who are yet to give thr interviews!

I GUESS I DIDNT PLACE THE QUESTION RIGHT ... HENCE NO RESPONSES.

Hi, I have mostly been a silent member of this forum. I have applied for the R1 ISB round from

Kolkata and am expecting a call (fingers crossed).

But looking at the interview questions I am really cursing myself to project Strategic Decision

Making as my goal post my MBA. I am IIM(INDIAN IT MALE) with 6 years exp and 700

GMAT.

Please can anyone share their views about how I might be grilled on the Strategic Decision

making area ?

I could think of the following questions??

1) With the current market scenario, how do you think the IT strategies should need to change?2) If you have worked for a fin client->How do you think the IT strategies of the bank should

change in the current situation?

3) Outsourcing is the buzz of the IT industry -> What changes do you think are necessary to tap

the outsourcing opportunity?

Just my 2P!!!

Hope that helps

Blitzkrieg

I had the interview at 11.50 panel-3. The interview started some 40 mins late..and

i was called some 20 mins after the guy who was interviewed before me had

left...so i had a feeling that someone somewhere is cooking something.

About Me: Reapplicant (applied in 2006)

GMAT- 730( 2nd attempt)

Exp:6+ yrs in IT Products (5+ in the same company)

Acads-Pretty good (10th, 12th scholarships)

Extra Curricular-Excellent (Sports, Mountain Biking, Marathons, Traveling on



Motorcycle)

Topic for the essay: Reality TV

1.Tell me about yourself

2.Was stopped in between and asked : who would you go for Lebron James or Allen

Iverson?? Since i am a basketball player.3.Asked what was the Slam Dunk moment in my career till date- gave an ex of an

project that i led.

4.Asked about my motorcycling trips, specifically asked about couple of places

since one of the alum had been to those places.

5.Which motorcycle I ride.

6.What kind of bicycle I ride, since I am a avid mountain biker.

7.Then started the techie question...alot on technology, markets,

competitors..totally grilled.

8.The the bomb exploded...one of the alums said that we don’t have anything that

we can give to you at ISB. I had mentioned the role of Product Manager as myfuture goal. He was dead straight that they can’t add value to my profile for that

role. I tried to explain what i am looking for but he was not satisfied.

9.Then the other guy pointed out on my leadership skills...he was like dude ur

essays talk a lot about leadership..looks like i am talking to the next prime minister

of india!! And i was like WTF. Grilled inside out on leadership...too many situational

questions on leadership....as if i was sitting for the Army SSB interview again..well I

cleared that one not sure about this. How do u motivate your team...what will do

when this will happen..what will you do if this happens....

10.Then the other alum started again... i am still not convinced that we can give

you anything at ISB...and i felt like screaming..SCREW YOU..give few fundas.11.Then came a comment...” I think you are over confident” and i replied i dnt

think so..its just that i know my stuff well!!

12.Then came the question how would your team members describe you in 3

words.

13.Tell me about the two biggest biking groups in the world- and here i screwed

up...damm i forgot their names..I had that name itched on my last bike and when

it mattered I forgot!!

14.One the alum was quite and I felt like touching his feet...and so he came up

with a question: so u r a reapplicant , what feedback did u get- told him what

feedback I got and that I have improved upon my gmat and work ex in the last 3yrs.

15.Then any question for them-asked two questions.

16.Then handed over the essay before leaving.

17.Whole gang bang lasted for 30-35 mins...sorry but dnt have any better word to

describe the experience.

Exchanged greetings and had some water in the waiting room.

Thoughts on the interview: ISB is looking for people who know what their

skills/strengths are and where ISB fits in...no vague thots...just stick to your story

come what may be dnt falter. Be very very thorough with your application you

never know the other guy mite have the same interests...even if u have thrownsome crap...read read read about that crap. Couple of guys were let loose in just



15 mins. So i dnt think time is any parameter to judge the interview!!

All the best guys...feel free to ping me if u want to know anything more.

Sumyanand

Hi I also had similar experience even though it is in morning of 1st day of

interviews.... Don't know where it went wrong....

Nywayz.. BTW this is my first post in this forum.... I had my interview in Delhi on

10th of August....

Here is exp:

I reached 3 hours before my scheduled time considering Delhi traffic but to myluck there was no traffic on saturday... I entered hotel and ISB guys took me

straight to waiting room....I have been handed over the essay "My fav dinner

date"... Suggestion: Had your breakfast from home. If you are planning to have

breakfast in the hotel or somewhere near interview location... They won't give you

a chance even if you have reached 3 hours earlier.... :(

I firstly tried to write my dream diner date... but could not find much to write....

then I cooked up a story what every one is doing over there...( some benifits of

reaching early)...

I asked every one's experience after their interview and every one has almost

same experience that they are very sweet and friendly.... Personally i believe this

is the most dangerous interview tactic..... you will never know what they are

upto.... no cross questioning... no grilling... and then they show great interest in

whatever crap you are giving even though they have heard it million times... and

you will keep guessing how was interview actually......

Nyhow my interview panel consists of 3 panelists, out of which 1 I believe is

alumni...

q: r u a reapplicant?q: why didn't you opted for feedback?

q: then i don't remember what was the real question but related to why mba?

q: questions from challenges faced essay as i've mentioned cross cultural team

work?

q: what will you do if we don't select you?

q: driving force for you doin six sigma?

q: learning from it?

q: ny questions for us???

Bang n its over in 15-20 mins... well before the scheduled time.... Life is not fair....when I was waitin in the hall.. they conducted interviews up to 40-45 minutes



long.... :(... N when its my turn... they compensated in 15-20 mins....

What I have made out from this short interview is that they have predecided not to

take me or to take me.... N some how i'm feeling there are very rare chances of

second option....

Harsh.katruka

Hi,

had my interview today.. so sharing my experience..

the essay topic was : "reality tv"

3 people on the panel : 1 adcom, 2 alum

before the ques, somethin about my background.. I'm an IT major with diverse

work ex in IT industry and in family business looking to start a new manufacturing

venture in past 8 months.

the ques were mostly related to our new venture, my role, whether i feel any

significant diff b/w professional and family business, any enhancement felt in

family business, whether the timing is right for me with just 8 months intobusiness.

then a ques on debating and my hobby, qualities i would bring to MBA, the reason

for my diverse work ex in short career.

finally asked if i had any ques for them

overall it went pretty fine.. could not quite make out from their faces what they felt

though

hoping for the best..

all the luck to other puys too..

Cheers,

Harsh

Guessestimate –

The guesstimate question was pretty straightforward but calculation is not all. Howyou present it is also important. So what I'll try to do is explain each step that I'm



taking. It helps if each of us can practice this thing because ultimately this is what

is being tested.

<Interview mode on>

Estimate the volume of water in the oceans.

I can think of two approaches. Volume can be calculated by multiplying surface

area with thickness, or by dividing mass with density. (Explain how you will tackle

the problem - provide framework)

Going by the first approach, we can calculate the surface area of the earth given

the radius (~6400 km). Of this, 70% is water, so surface area of the oceans can be

obtained. Here, I'm neglecting the water contained in other sources such as seas,

rivers and lakes.

Now we have to estimate the average depth of the ocean. Given that the deepestpoint is about 11 km, I would take the average depth as 1km. This is because,

even though the number may not be exact, it won't affect the order (i.e., i won't

get 100 billion instead of 1 billion). Also, because the depth is negligible compared

to the radius of the earth, I can approximate the oceans as being a flat surface

with thickness. This should justify my multiplying surface area with thickness.

Finally, putting all the pieces together, I can arrive at a number.

<Interview mode off>

Going by this approach, I got an answer which is 3 times the original answer butthats okay.

The important points to note are that you should mention the framework early.

This will help you keep track of where you are and where you want to go in the

guesstimate. Also, postpone all calculations to the end; if your reasoning was good

enough, the interviewer might as well ask you to skip the calculation because it is

a trivial activity.

What you should definitely do is verbalise all your assumptions and

approximations. This not only tells them what you are thinking, but they will alsobe able to give you inputs which help you arrive at the final answer.

Quite a lengthy post but hope it helps.

Ankit.sri

Hi all

sry for a delayed post abt my iv which was on 11th...so here it goes



My Profile (Re-applicant):

Workex - 3.5 yrs...lots of job changes...business research, operations & analytics consulting

Education: B.Tech (iit d)

extra-currics: decent...mostly theatre in college.

Gmat: 770/4.5

Onsite( ) essay topic: "Rules are ment to be broken". 200 Words.

Panel (P): 1 Alum, 1 Ad Com member

P: why so many job changes in such a short time?

Me: i strtd with IT but didn't like it and then decided on conslting...n joind a business research

firm which led me to a consulting job. my last firm closed in march '09 so had to look for

another job.

P: why isb?

Me: knowledge, network, consulting heavy school.

P: ISB is not just focusd on consulting...don't u know abt entreprenuership at isb.

Me: i kind of backed my point here...which was based on my interactions with alumni last

year..but recently they have increased the focus on entreprenuership which i should have

acknowledged.

P: I think you will leave consulting as well in 6-7 months..

Me: tried to defend..my last two jobs were in consulting and i am focused on a school which

provides the right platform for consulting and i plan to stay in it for atleast the nxt 4-5 years

P: why couldn't u get into isb last yr?

me: low gmat, low gpa, couldn't articulate the workex properly.

P: would you consider if i giv you an option to work for two more years, finish your CFA and

then come to ISB?

Me: i didn't know wat to say so just told him that if i dnt make it this time i will apply to

foreign bschools in R2.

P: tell us something about urself which is not there in ur app?

me: strtd with my schooling and some personal experiences.

P: what will you bring to the class of ISB?

me: i was slightly confused if i should reiterate the point made in the essays so i said i will

come in with clear goals and strong focus on business education and i realize that to become a

successful leader one has to constantly keep improving in terms of knowledge and skills so this

ideology will help me to contribute more towards the learning of those around me.

P: Guesstimate: no. of 500ml water bottels consumed in one day in Hotel Hyatt (interview

location)

me: strtd with no. or rooms, percentage oocupancy, hourly consumption of water based on dfay

time.

P: haven't you missed couple of things?



me: yes i didnt acc. for hotel staff, consumption in lounge and restaurant, and events like this

interview where lot of people come in for short duration and consume lot of water..we had 5-6

bottles in our waiting room.

P: okay but what about people consuming tap water which is filtered in places like these.me: i didn't know that sir.

P: then you should have asked.

me: yes sir i should have. (here again disagreed with the alum) Sir i doubt if many ppl, most of

them would be foreigners, staying in the hotel would consume tap water instead of bottle water.

P: Why wouldn't they .. in most of the places like new york, london etc. the tap water is

filtered, spclly in hotels like this one.

me:

Probably thats the case but i doubt if a foreigner traveling to India will prefer tap water over

bottle water.

P: Okay. Any questions for us?

Me: no sir.

P: you don't have any questions for us?

Me: sir i happen to know some alums and would take it them more informally.

P: Who all do you know?

me: told about 4-5 people from my college.

P: okay. thank you.

Me: thank you sir.

i feel i could have easily avoided some of my comments and probably communicated ina better

way so keeping my fingers crossed.. Best of luck guys.

Ankit

P_1982

Hi,

I had my interview in delhi yesterday. I am a reapplicant with a decent profile (5.5yrs in IT, iit background, gmat 770, decent essays and reco).

But my interview lasted only for 13-14 minutes. I was asked apart from the profilewhat I wanted to add. No case interview, no guesstimate, no general knowledgequestions.

Not sure what to make out of this. My interview was towards the end of the dayand the panel seemed in a hurry to finish the interviews. I dont know how they will

judge me based on such a short interview.



Is it normal to have such short duration interviews? Is there someone with similarexperience?

Thanks.

Disciple of apocalyse

A bit late, but nevertheless should be helpful. Had my ISB interview on Sun, Oct 11at the 10.20 slot. Here's the skinny on things:

Profile:Male/24Work experience: 46 months (till April'10)Profile: AnalystIndustry: Management ConsultingEducation: Engg- Electrical (!)

Academics: 81% in 12th; 63% in collegeExtra-Curricular: Above average

Essay topic: Chalta hai

Interview:Panelists: Two gentlemen; fairly youngish (both must be in early 30s), first one wasan alum + marketing comm prof at ISB; the other dude was an adcom person.

Interview:- What does your company do?(My company has a very interesting business model; while it is difficult to give anelevator pitch about it but it so easy to write an entire essay on it. Unfortunately itried doing the former but ended up doing the latter; so I rambled, bumbled,fumbled, jumbled, tumbled through this answer)- What do you do at your company?(Again an interesting answer. Repeat of the first answer. Pained them with lots of gyaan)- What level are you in the company? Where does your company recruit from?(a + point: my company recruits from ISB for my profile; told them this and theyasked me the names of the alums working at my co., told them)

- Walk us through product XYZ that you had mentioned in the essay.

(Did that. Luckily I was carrying a copy of the product with me, so walked themthrough it.)

- What do you think is the outlook for the indian IT industry in the future?(Gyaan about how consumerization of IT and cloud computing in the west presentsa huge opportunity for the Indian outsourcing cos.)

- Cloud computing, interesting , what would be some of the challenges with this? Isprotection of data not a big challenge?(Discussion that started from cloud computing and the implications for datasecurity, meandered to data becoming an asset for the organization, and finallyended with the role of social media and its integration with ERP and CRM systems

etc etc.)



- What is your biggest strength that allows you to succeed at your job and yourbiggest weakeness that is holding you back?(Made this really crass, old joke about the weakeness, and the panelists just didntget it. I swear i could hear crickets chirping in the room after I made the joke. I wasalmost getting up to give them a high-five on the joke :P, but seeing the blank

faces had to some damage control)

- what all clients does you company have in India?(Told them)

- Case study on Mahindra-Satyam.(Since it was towards the end of the interview, wasnt sure of the time constraintsof the case, so rushed through the case. Did okay here, not exceedingly bad, notexceedingly good. )

- Questions for us.Asked them a couple.

So that was that. Nothing jazzy. Felt i rambled and was enthusiastic a wee bitmore than required almost at the expense of 'sounding' a bit green. The panelistsare fairly chill and civil, they dont cross-question you too much, so go there tohave a conversation rather an interview. Have fun guys.

TeeTee

First of all, thanks to all of you for insightful discussions and speculations on this

forum. This has been a great source for information for me over last couple of

weeks.

I am a re-applicant (last applied 3 years back) and had my i/v in Delhi yesterday.

Here are a few details:

200 words essay topic: “Rules are meant to be broken”

Panel: Mr. Kannan + 2 Alums

Q1. Did you seek feedback from Ad-com after last application? What was the

feedback? Tell us what you have done regarding that feedback since last

application? Followed-up by some discussion around the career change I made inbetween.

Q2. You have worked across various functions and industry, please take a project

of your choice and explain what/how you did? Then 2-3 follow-up questions on the

same.

Q3. Given that you have worked in diverse functions, why MBA? Follow-up

questions on long-term and immediate short-term plans after the MBA.

Q4. From the resume, they picked an award and asked me to tell them why I

received that? This one turned out to be a long discussion around the project,

results and reapplication of achievements in the other industries/domain.

These were mainly the questions or what I can remember, + I asked them couplesof questions



It lasted for about 25 minutes (I think there was discussion of about 5 mins each

on these 4 questions)

Brief profile: Work Ex (5 yrs)/Market Research (3 yrs) + Management Consulting (2

yrs)/B. Tech. /GMAT – 710 (5.5)

Singhsaman

Hi Puys,

Had my I/V yesterday and this is my first time in front of the PC since then :-).

It was actually a pleasant experience.

There were three people on the panel, one faculty and 2 Alumni.

They started the I/V talking about my extra curricular experiences, I think this was just to make me feel more comfortable and they were also making jokes and

throwing the stress out of the window.

Then they kept asking about my work for about 3-4 mins.

The usual questions of why MBA and why now followed.

Surprisingly why ISB was never asked!!

I had shown an Interest in Insurance sector and the rest of the interview can be

used to write a thesis on the Indian Insurance market.

They asked me absolutely everything about the Insurance scene in India and how

it compares to the west.

Thankfully I was prepared for this and did put up a decent show. There were only 1 or 2 questions where I did not give the answers the panel was

looking for and I think that is the only grey side of the interview.

But the panel was facilitating a discussion and created an atmosphere where I was

very comfortable during the entire length of the I/V.

Guesstimate question was what will be the difference in premium if a person in

India or a person in USA applies for the same amount of insurance, and my

reasons for the answer....I didn't do badly here as well and the panel seemed

satisfied with my answer and reasoning.

I don't know what will happen next but I am very happy with the way the I/V was

conducted.My one and only suggestion will be to know everything about the field where you

have shown interest in your application. They will grill you inside out to find out if

you are actually going to give in your sweat and blood to follow the ambitions

displayed in the application or is it just a means of getting into ISB. Be sure to

have numbers with you like how big your target industry is in terms of revenue

and capital and what are the prospects of growth? Who are the major players and

who are expected to jump in and make an impact?

All the Best everyone....Hope this helps!!



Classyadi

Right then, I had my interview today. They gave me a sheet of paper and I was

asked to a write a 200 word essay on my favourite dinner date. I started

scratching my head trying to recall somethign interesting and then finally settled

on a dinner I had in a village a couple of years back where I met some really

interesting people.

The interviews were running a bit late and I finally got called in around 3:10 (my

scheduled time was 2:40). THere were two people in the panel - a lady (she

appeared like a faculty member) and then was an Alumni. I can't recollect their

names.

They first asked me to tell them something that was not there in resume- I told

them about a venture that I am planning. They crossed quetioned a bit on that.

How will make it sustainble, how do u plan to promote it.

The next set of questions were on the work I do and clients I interact with. They

also asked me about challenges- especially those related to dealing with

multinational and multicultural team and what I had learnt. Also about the

different frameworks we follow to solve problems, on the various research

methdologies, etc.

Then they moved to energy efficiency, grilled me on that, asked me about what I

know.Asked me the steps GOI is taking to promote energ efficiency and about the

various initiatives in private sector.

After this they moved to hobbies- I mentioned that I like travelling and then they

asked my experiecnces and what I had learnt.

THen they the standrad question on if I wanted to ask them something - I asked

them about interantional students, there and what ISB was doing to increase the

number of in students.

Overall as expected the interveiw was more of a disucssion rather than an

interview- it was indeed a pleasure if you ask me. both the people on the panel

were patient and were willing to listen me out.

Fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Anupam –



guys

let's have some constructive discussion on the interview preparation.

to begin with, i'll list down few factors which ISB looks for in the candidate at the

time of interview:

a) energy & charisma - this is very important for them because a dull candidate

even with an excellent profile may not participate in the group learning.

b) leadership skills - clear demonstartion of this skill through succint examples and

backed up with whats written in the essay.

c) communication skills - adcom likes to see how a candidate can commuincatehis/her thoughts in a professional discussion. clarity of thought, slight humour, and

to-the-point answers will help.

d) industry knowledge - depth and breadth of knowledge of the industry the

candidate represents. one needs to be confident of his/her work area.

guys, pls do add to this list and provide your views on tackling the interview.

i am a reapllicant so i can definitely say that interview is an important factor in

admisison. for people with ok type profiles, they can make an impact in theinterview and grab that seat at ISB.

all the best!

anupam

Interview Questions

Some Interview Questions (some of them might be repetitive... )

Questions about your qualifications



• How do you think a friend or someone who knows you well would describe you?

• What do you think is your greatest weakness?

• Can you summarize the contribution you would make to ISB?

• What accomplishment has given you the most satisfaction?

• Please tell me about the greatest professional assignment you've ever handled.

• Tell me about your most significant work experience.• How would those who have worked with you describe you?

• Why are you the best candidate for this program?

• Have you ever supervised anyone?

Questions about work experiences/style

• What qualities should a successful manager possess?

• In what kind of work environment are you most comfortable?

• Are you a team player?

• How do you handle conflict?

• How do you work under pressure?• What major problem have you encountered and how have you dealt with it?

• How competitive are you?

Other questions

• Did you ever have a group leader or boss you disliked? Why did you dislike him/her?

• How would someone who dislikes you describe you?

• Talk about a group situation in which there were problems. How did you handle the

situation and what was the outcome? What role did you play in the group? How could

the group improve its performance?

• Tell me about a time when you experienced a failure and how you reacted to it.

• Tell me about a time when you were under considerable pressure to meet one or more

goals.

• Describe a situation where you had to resolve a problem at work and explain how you

resolved it.

• Give me an example of how you are a risk taker.

• If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

• What motivates you?

• What do you think is the most important/difficult ethical dilemma facing corporations

today?• Describe a situation where you did not agree with something your boss asked you to do

and how you resolved the problem.

I am from Aerospace industry. Here is a Product development manager's typical

responsibilities:

* Manage product development life cycle i.e. taking decisions such as whether the

software is ready to go for certification, whether a particular functionality is

required etc.* New Proudct Development: Defining new product roadmaps especially



technology roadmaps by consulting marketing guys

* Providing technical assistance and preparing product presentations (technical) to

assist businessdevelopment/marketing guys

* Customer Interaction : Participate in Critical Design Reviews, Certification

Authrority (FAA) reviews

Here is a Business Development manager's Responsibilties:

* Market analysis - Identify new business opportunities

* Competitor analysis - Study competitor product offerings and identify our

differentiation

* Marketing - Product Marketing - How to promote the product

* Customer Interaction - Voice Of Customer - Identify customer

needs/requirements

* Strategy - Based on the inputs from market analysis, competior analysis and

Voice Of Custimer, develop a strategy i.e. which market to enter, when to enter,what products should be offered, pricing strategy etc.

There is no distinct difference between business

development/marketing/strategy/product manager. They are not unique, rather

they are overlapping skillsets.

IT strategy consultant:

IT strategy consultant advises companies on how to use IT and benefit from it. For

example, an IT consultant advises a company to use SAP to reduce operatingexpenses or use ERP to streamline Supply Chain or use SAS to improve operational

efficiency.

To conclude, any company requires following set of business capabilites:

* Research and Analysis - Market Analysis, Competitor Analysis, Voice Of Customer

* Strategy - Business decisions based on inputs from all sources

* Marketing - Product Marketing

* Domain Expertise - Technical expertise

* Channel Management - Developing relations with vendors, suppliers etc.* Brand Management - Required to bring awareness about the brand/company

Regards,

Bharath

allow me to tk my shot at the discussion i am trying to explain the difference

between 1) strategic IT guy 2) product manager /solution architect. I take as an

example any business product (let's say performance measurement system in fin

domain)

step 1: product company comes up with a business strategy ("we want to capture



market in the space of performance measurement systems for financial

instituions") and vision of the product..strategic IT guy will collaborate in this stage

to formulate how IT will be integrated with the product vision, at what areas of the

product IT can be applied for value maximization

step 2: the mandate comes to a kind of top delivery guy, who inturn gets it downto the gang of product managers/solution architects. Each such guy is an expert in

a specific domain+tech. They colloborate closely with BAs, SMEs, senior managers

to develop the system end-to-end. Also, work closely with sales, marketing to

launch the product, create docs/manuals for the product et al

And ofcourse behind the scenes are the foot-soldiers like me who actually

code/develop the system

Thoughts??

Hi,

From my experience, an IT strategist is very different than a Architect/ Biz Analyst

1) Strategist liaison with the clients understanding the overall impact on the

business. For example, an IT Strategist will meet a FMCG company to understand

the marketing campaign they indent to start. He provides input as to how IT can

help the campaign. The output of an IT Strategist in this case would be, Marketing

Strategy using IT.

2) Biz Analyst - he understands the strategy and then with the client and the

strategist converts them into specific items such as website should have some

banners etc etc. Also he prepares the test scenarios against which the final

product will be tested.

3) Architect - He handles all the tech perspective of the project. His job is to deliver

a product which succesfully passes all the test scenrios the Biz Analyst had

prepared. Also, underarchitect there is a force of developers, DBA's etc etc.

Hi Sinchan,

I was thinking on my question and guess these terms are not very different. Solution architect

definition is little bit narrow and is more specific to technology part and one solution. Strateic

consultatns are having knowledge of multiple technologies and multiple solutions so that they

can suggest best of them. I still do not know how much involvement strategic consultant have

in overall IT solutions and where do we draw the line.

Also probably a software solution provider will have solution architect. On the other hand

company where IT solution is deployed, will have strategic consultants working with business

users.

Some of high level roles for SA are given on wikipedia (Solutions Architect - Wikipedia, thefree encyclopedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutions_Architect






1. Business Planning and General Management

• Takes ownership of a particular solution offering.

• Develops and executes the solution strategy and business plan to support the growth of

the solution offering.• Take responsibility in shaping, designing, and planning specific service lines within

solution area.

• Spearheads the marketing and promotion of solution area within and outside of

organization.

2. Subject Matter Expertise

Acts as a visionary and strategist related to solution area.

Survey landscape and market for solution insights, direction, vendors and methodologies.

Provides subject matter expertise to identify and translate system requirements into software

architecture and design documentation. The SA ensures the quality development of internal and

external, client-oriented documentation, evolving into recommended workable solutions to theorganization.

Actively seeks out speaking engagements at trade conferences and authorship opportunities in

trade publications

3. Business Development

• Assists Marketing Departments to develop marketing materials and positioning

strategies for solution area in conjunction with overall marketing message framework.

• Assists in the business development life cycle by serving as a solution Subject Matter

Expert (SME) in order to assist in the identification and qualification of business

development opportunities.

• Manages sales and marketing activities for the service offering.

• In conjunction with the Channel Development team, develop and maintain vendor

relationships within the solution offering.

well i guess it wouldn't have come across as a very mature question to ask..if he

could have slightly modified the question - "In what ways can i develop my profile

at ISB to break into consulting and get an offer from my any of my desired

companies?"..i think such a question is okay to be asked to the iv panel..as if the

ans they will point out the gaps in the profile which can act as an effective

feedback as well...

Nice. I think this question can shape up the flow of the interview. What I think adcom will try

to gauge from this question is -

- What is your passion. (Do you have any other passion or you are one dimensional)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_Matter_Expert







- Leading Q - Why didn't you go for the other thing in the first place and why this? (This i

believe will be a key question to answer). This will tell them how do you prioritize - what are

your key factors to make a decision. This needs to be in line with your essay stories.

- Do you see yourself going for the other choice after your MBA? or stick to the same line?

Why(for both cases)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by instigator

simplydoc, ..sjed is right..keep em coming ..

Here's one frm my side: How to go about this question " What would you have done, if you had

not chosen your current profession".

This has been asked by other schools too..

We can definitely tell many thing that we are good at ..but what could be the real motto of

asking this question?

Hello bharath

This is my understanding and please forgive me for taking examples from IT fields

(You guessed it, I am from IT)

Business development is mainly the sales part of business. A businessdevelopment manager looks for an area where his/her company can provide

solution to customer, identifies the business opportunity and pain areas, offer and

negotiate the deal with customer. For example, A business development

manager(BDM) identified an opportunity of SAP implementation, prepared a

business case and negotiated with customer to get that project. Once the project

is won, project manager takes control and ensures the delivery of the solutions. In

this example project manager will handle the SAP implementation.

Product manager is responsible for managing the complete life cycle of a product.

For example, a product manager of Microsoft windows vista will plan and managethe release of vista, release of patches, planning the next version of the windows

like windows 7 as well as when to stop support on the product and lebel the

product as obsolte . Product manager works with sales team to get the demand

of product, delivery team or developmental team to get the product on time,

marketing team etc..

I hope you find this useful.

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/37061-isb-class-of-2011-aspirants-220.html#post1671670




Doc,

You are doing a very good job of coming up with the questions... you are thinking

about the answers as well... but why are you stopping on the 2nd stage if someone

asks you something back? I am sure if you have thought you will have an idea of

how the idea is feasible?

Think about why they may say plan is not feasible -

- Have you studied the market?

- Have you planned out your product/service delivery/distribution?

- Have you thought about the capital costs and the operational costs...

- Have you thought about local challenges..

- Have you thought about government policies.

- Have you thought about global reasons for an impact...

- What are your assumptions – Have you validated your assumptions?

Overlord –

Hi puys,

Had my IV today....

Essay topic:- Should the govt regularise CEO salaries???

In the morning the topic given was " Comment on the limited edition Bapu pen from Mount

Blanc"!!!!!!

Anyway the panel had 2 people

1.Mr.Sanjay Singh-Adcom

2.Mr.Deepak-Alum

The alum had a perpetual sneer on his face and nothing seemed to impress him but otherwise

seemed like a nice guy.....

Questions:-

1.Tell us something that is not on ur app but of vital importance.

2. Draw some metrics to show how you would calculate the profitability of ur firm(i recently

started a small venture of my own)

I tried to give him figures but he didnt said he didnt want figures , I also told him that my costs

were literally 0 and every rupee goes to my bottom line but he didnt seem to understand...

3. Why did you shift to a different industry?

4. What do you bring to the table?how has your profile changed since year????(i'm a reapp)

5. Why ISB and why now??



6. your looking at consultancy so what do consultancy firms look for??

6. Why don't you wait for another year and learn the sales process inside out???

7. Where else have you applied and where do you plan to apply??

8. What do you do in your free time???

9. Any questions for us???????

asked a cpl and i also asked by when the remaining calls would be coming out since a lot of

puys are tense abt them.........nothin new to add though.....CAL calls are done.....hyd, bang and

chennai calls to continue till 5th nov...........so puys PLEASE RELAX and wait for your calls....

My take on my IV...........the content was there but i cld have been more clear in expressing

it......clarity matters......anyway my advice wld be know ur app inside out and once u take astand stick to it and always back up ur claims with evidence from ur work ex or app .....makes a

better impression and ob lends credibility......thats it for me i guess ....just have to sit and

wait....ATB to the rest of you guyz and please pm me if u need more details........

The IV lasted for abt 30mins

P.S.---Met 5 fellow applicants there......2 from bang, 1 from hyd,1-chennai and the other i have

no clue.......2 were from fin......2-IT out of whom one applicant was takin care of pre-sales in

infy.....

go through the thread......anyway the essay is the pre-IV assessment......you will be asked to

write abt 200 words on the given topics......the topics given till date are....

youngistan

Reality TV

Chalta Hai attitude

Fav. Dinner Date.

Comment on the Bapu special edition pen by Mount Blanc

Shld CEOs salaries be regularised by the Govt

Corporate Governance

Please go through the other posts for more info and PLEASE remember to contribute back by

posting your IV experience and fillin in the spreadsheet for the rest of the gang and for the guyz

who will be applyin in round-2....ATB for ur IV

Word given: Lemon

The interview was around post ISB if I don't get placed what I would do.



What did you do in your prev employment?What do you do in your free time?How will you cope with the rigors of academics?Are you mentally prepared?A couple of ques on my ECs

Finished my tele-interview...it lasted 20mins.

skype was not used...

interview questions:

1) talk for one min on 'harbor line'...blaberred something

2) What is your plan after ISB...talked about it..

3) questions around my current job

4) one estimate and approach question..handled OK..

5) what are the changes in app..I am a re-applicant..a little bit cross questioning on

that..

6) Any questions for us?

Profile: 4.5 years workex (2.5 India/2 US)

Roles: Individual contributor/Lead Engineer/Program Manager

Acads: B.Tech IITR (topper), MS Georgia Tech (honors), merit scholarships, stipend,

tuition waiver, publications, patents

ECs: Lots and very diverse

GMAT: 710/6post-mba area of interest: general management

Done with my telephonic interview (no skype) today morning. Two people on

phone.

I was asked:

1) to speak about 'corporate governance' for a couple of minutes

2) about one thing I would like them to know and is not already in the app

3) about the criteria for promotion in my organization

4) what do I do before starting a program

5) why I left my first job

6) why I want to pursue an MBA given that I am doing and earning so well in my

current job

7) what if, given current economic situation, I am not able to find the right job and

land up with something which pays me 12 lacs only

8.) what is one thing I am passionate about, was told that I do not have time to

think about this question

9) which movie (mentioned as interests in my essay) do I cherish watching and

why

10) Last movie I watched and the main characters in it

11) which type of music (mentioned as interests in my essay) do I like, which

composers, songs, albums

12) about any question I had for them



The interview lasted for 30 minutes and was very casual and had a logical flow to

questions.

For answering #6, I tried to explain the reason connecting to my goals and path I

want to follow but they didnt seem too convinced, so was cross-questioned a lot. If I am rejected, I know it will be because of this question.

Anyway, good luck to all.

Went for 20 minutes ( 2 people on other side )

--> Speak on "media"

--> Explain about XYZ you implemented at work

--> Why MBA

--> What type of job after MBA

--> Talked a lot about my extracurriculars

--> Asked them 2 questions to wrap up the interview

Originally Posted by MarketIt

i was waiting for the call for so long and finally when i did get it on saturday, i dint know what

all to answer to "why MBA"??

It is such a dreadful q!! i have so much to say and so lill to make sense of.. should i be talking statistics?

should i talk about my passi+ons?

and whatever i think sounds much less than what i want to say...

so anybody out thr who knows what makes a good answer to this question, inspire me!

My interview is on coming saturday

how abt this framework:

1)start with where u want to see urself after mba - short term stuff

2)continue with what u r doing now3)talk abt the delta in knowledge/skills/network/exposure that u need to bridge

4)fit in why mba

5)fit in how isb will help in pursuit of this knowledge is need be

Overall it went smoothly without any stress. Was surprised at the short duration.

No cross questioning. The phone line was not clear. Had to ask them to repeat

many times.

In retrospect you always think of better answers :-)





Originally Posted by MarketIt

i was waiting for the call for so long and finally when i did get it on saturday, i dint know what

all to answer to "why MBA"??

It is such a dreadful q!! i have so much to say and so lill to make sense of..

should i be talking statistics?

should i talk about my passi+ons?

and whatever i think sounds much less than what i want to say...

so anybody out thr who knows what makes a good answer to this question, inspire me!

My interview is on coming saturday

may be you can list down all the reasons

why you want to do an mba

why from isb

why at this particular juncture in your career

once you have this list try to remove the items which are very generic...a crude eg can be

because i want a higher paying job...

you should try to refine the list to reasons which are in some sense unique to your life situation

at this point in time...thinking through this may help you to cover some of the career

progression related questions with a coherent story.

hope this helps.

All the Best.

Originally Posted by sinchan

how abt this framework:

1)start with where u want to see urself after mba - short term stuff

2)continue with what u r doing now

3)talk abt the delta in knowledge/skills/network/exposure that u need to bridge

4)fit in why mba5)fit in how isb will help in pursuit of this knowledge is need be

HTH,

Sinchan...

I read an article lately regarding this...Almost same on Sinchan's line..and I am adding from

that article to what Sinchan has already mentioned..

0) Your application tells some strongs points about you...identify them...

0a) Identify a long term goal and a short term goal - These goals preferably should be

something where ur current strong points are relevent..

Sinchan's 3)talk abt the delta in knowledge/skills/network/exposure that u need to bridge to







reach those goals

Sinchan's 4)fit in why mba - You should say how MBA will help you achive ur goals..

Sinchan's 5)map ISB offereing and your needs - fit in how isb will help in pursuit of this

knowledge is need be

Business Technology Conclave at ISB

The Business Technology Club (BTC) of the batch of 2010 at ISB is organizing a

one day industry event, the Business Technology Conclave, on Friday, the 23rd of

October, at ISB. The theme of the conference is “Riding the Asian Elephant –

Emerging opportunities in the Asian Technology Landscape.”

It’s a great opportunity for the attendees to learn about the technology industry

landscape in India and Asia, and to meet people from industry.

The event features a key note address by the dean of ISB, Mr. Ajit Rangnekar and

two panel discussions organized during the day. The BTC has leveraged its

industry contacts to invite guests and the conference is generating a lot of

excitement in the ISB student community.

Panel 1 (Telecom Panel):

Topic: Improving the bottom-line: Next generation Telecom business models

Panelists:

•Mohan Moghe, Executive Director, Verizon Communications USA

•Vinay Goel, India Head, Product Management, Google

•Manoj Kanagalu, Senior Director, Wireless and VOIP solutions, Nortel

•Faisal Siddique, Motorola – Head (India and South-West Asia) Mobile Devices

•Deepak Gulati, President, TataDoCoMo India.

•Mangesh Kulkarni, Global Strategy head, Nokia-Siemens

•Anshoo Gaur, GM and India Head, Amdocs India

Panel 2 (IT/ITES Panel):

Topic: Asian Markets – New Hotspots for IT companies

Panelists:

•Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies Ltd.

•Amit Sircar, General Manager, Microsoft Global Services India

•N V Tyagarajan “Tiger”, COO, Genpact Ltd.

•Haragopal M, Global Head – Finacle, Infosys Technologies Limited

•Srini Komanduri, Director, Deloitte India

•CEO, Logica India

The registration is free. You can register and get all the conclave information at

the conclave webpage - Home

http://www.isb.edu/btc_conclave/




So, please take time out to register and attend BTC’s Business Technology

Conclave at ISB to enrich your knowledge and network!

Profile: Telecom/7.5 years exp/GMAT: 770

Attended the ISB interview yesterday in Hyderabad.

There were 2 panelists and I guess both of them were professors.

The questions were expected, as one could see from other posts in this thread.

They were:

1. Please take us through your career - latest first.

2. What is the most challenging task that you had at your work?

3. What do you want to do after the course?

4. Why do you need an MBA with this much experience and these goals?5. Why is WiMAX not picking up in India? Does it have a market?

6. Can you estimate how many characters are there in this book and explain us your method?

7. what do you do outside of your work?

8. Do you have any questions for us?

Atleast for myself, I answered all of them well. All in all it took almost 40 minutes.

But could not make out a thing from the interviewers reactions.

And after the interview, I was given a sheet to write 200 words on 'media activism'.

Enjoyed being in the campus.

Hope this information will be useful to someone.

Atleast I did derive useful information from this thread for my interview.

Yes, Skype with video conferencing. I think almost all of them on my interview

panel were faculty.

I really don't know what exactly they wanted to probe in the interview, cause I've

already addressed: why MBA and why ISB in my essay. It would've beenunimaginative if I had rehashed my statements from the essay, so I added to that

content.

Where I may have faltered is the role specification after MBA. I told them about my

senior Program manager interview at Amazon and how the feedback from the

interview was that I need to acquire a business perspective through formal training

i.e. MBA. Of course Pgm Manager is one of the roles and I'm also interested in Biz

Dev Manager type of roles as specified in my essay. I think the easiest answer to

this question is probably consulting (or a word oft used here: strategy consulting)

What do you bring to ISB in terms of diversity was another question? Some stuff onhow my cross-domain experience will help and also how grad school experience






































can be shared. I didn't sound too convincing, cause if I had said I can bring

business exposure experience the counter question would come right back at me:

Why MBA if you already have business exposure?

Hello All, this is a great forum to share one's ISB app/interview experience so here

I am to share mine.

My profile in brief:

MSc. Finance - BITS Pilani

MS Finance - SSB, Chicago

3 years Exp. in the Finance Industry as a Research Consultant

6 years Exp. in the IT Industry as an entrepreneur

A total of 9 years of work exp.

I wrote my GMAT on the Sep 10th and scored a 670 with a 42 in Verbal, 36 onQuant and a 6 on AWA. My test experience was marred with frequent power losses

at the test center and I suppose that screwed up my scores a bit. I was not sure

whether to apply in the first cycle but after consulting a few people I went ahead

and applied on the 14th, a day before the deadline. I was hoping I'd get a call since

I put in all of four days post the GMAT into my application process including essays

etc.

While I was waiting for the result I got a free retake of the GMAT from Pearson (I

complained to them about my previous testing experience). I had my GMAT

scheduled on the 15th of October. By this time however, I already received an e-mail from ISB saying I was short listed for the interview. On one hand it was a huge

relief coming before my GMAT retake but on the other, it did put a bit of pressure

on me to perform better on the GMAT this time around. I played it ultra safe on the

test and got a 720 on the second take with a more balanced V and Q scores.

My interview was scheduled on Oct 19 at Hyd. I went through my application a

couple of times and made notes on the questions I could expect and what answers

I would give. This is about all the prep I did for the interview. My appointment was

on the 19th at 16:50. I went about an hour ahead to the ISB campus. I found a few

others in the lounge area waiting for their turn and chatted with them for a bit. Iwas then handed over a sheet of paper on which I had to pen a 200 word essay on

the topic "Should the government regulate the salary of CEO's". Not too difficult a

topic to write a couple of meaningful paragraphs on! I got done with that in about

10 minutes and just hung around for my turn. Turned out that I was the last man in

for the day!

At 16:50 sharp I got called in for the interview. Two gentlemen on the panel. The

atmosphere was very relaxed and both of them were very cordial. Following is a

list of questions that followed:

1. You are already an entrepreneur running a successful business, why do you










































want an MBA? What value will an MBA add to your career at this stage?

2. Why ISB?

3. Have you focussed only on services in your biz or do you also have a product

portfolio?

4. If you have 3 people as your class mates at ISB, a deep sea diver, a radio jockey

and an engineering manager from PE industries, what value would you bring tothem?

5. What are your plans post ISB?

6. The ISB has workshops that will provide you the inputs you need for your

entrepreneurial work, why not sign up for one of those work shops, why waste a

year on the MBA program?

7. Are you applying to any other schools?

8. If you are admitted to another top B-school and are also admitted to the ISB,

which program will you choose and why?

I was then asked whether I had any questions and I did! I asked them 3 questionsof my own and that concluded my interview experience. Overall, it was incisive,

and very professionally conducted. I heard we can expect to know the results by

the second week of Nov and so I am waiting...with my fingers crossed of course!

In the midst of all the angst surrounding the wait for calls and the relief at

receiving calls, I did not see any interview debriefs. I thought I'd post mine.

My interview was on the 22nd of October at noon at the ISB campus. I had arrived

the day earlier and was staying with a friend on the ISB campus.

Before the debrief, my profile. I graduated from R V College of Engineering in 2005

and joined a high tech company as an Applications Engineer. Over the last 4 years,

I have been a Product Specialist, then R&D Project Manager. I have good extra

curricular activities, having captained the college quiz team to University

Challenge on BBC World and having been part of a two member band that

performs at Sunday brunch at a popular Bangalore restaurant.

I reached the admissions office 5 minutes before noon. I was signed in and given a

piece of paper to write a 200 word essay on whether private sector companies

should be involved in contingency efforts in light of the swine flu pandemic and

other recent natural calamities.

My interview started at 12.30 p.m. The panel comprised of what looked like two

alumni (given their age, although one can never really be sure).

First question, "What exactly do you do at your company?". I started by explaining

what the company does, what my group does and then drilled down into thedetails of my role in the group.








































Second question, "You have done a lot of things - the quizzing, the music, the

different roles in your company; what makes you tick?" I said I just liked asking a

lot of questions and had an almost compulsive urge to find answers. Also, this

questioning attitude is not necessarily limited to my field of study and work, but,

anything that catches my fancy. I substantiated this with a recent example.

Third question, "Tell us about your five strengths." I mentioned two professional

and three personal strengths.

Fourth question, "You've been on the ISB campus from yesterday evening. Have

you had a chance to explore? What all have you seen?" So, I mentioned that first, I

was extremely impressed with the facilities. I said that this made sense

considering that in a one year course, a student would not want to worry about

administrative affairs and ISB does a great job at taking care of those through it's

facilities. I then mentioned all the places I had visited on campus. I happened to sitin for a talk by a VC on "Due Diligence for Tech Startups" the evening before the

interview. I mentioned that.

Fifth question, "What did you not like about the ISB campus?" I mentioned

something on the lines of the main road linking the student villages being a one

way. So, even if you had to go to an adjacent SV in a car or a two wheeler, you

would have to all the way around. I was not very satisfied with the answer and

ended by saying, "I guess I have not been around long enough to start

complaining!"

The focus then shifted to quizzing. We spoke about the Tata Crucible regional

finals (where my team was runners-up). We talked about why I thought my team

lost. They asked me to ask them a question which I thought only I could answer. I

asked them a question that has elements from Hollywood, the RF/communications

domain and technology.

Next stop, music. They asked me how I happened to start my gig at this Bangalore

restaurant.

After all this, we were at the end of 30 minutes. They asked me if I had anyquestions for them. I asked them what steps ISB was planning to take to increase

the international diversity in it's student body and residential faculty.

Right at the end, "Oh, by the way, what do you plan to do after your MBA?" The

question almost came as an after thought. I reaffirmed what I had mentioned in

essay 3 and also managed to plug in sidewise how an ISB MBA would help me get

there.

After this, we exchanged pleasantries, they told me that a decision either way

would be communicated by the 25th of November and that was that!








































In summary, I think the interview started well. In the middle, I get the feeling I

could have answered some questions a little better. Also, I don't know what to

make of the career goals question coming right at the end, almost as an after

thought.

I hope this debrief helps all of you prepare yourselves for your respectiveinterviews.

Essay topic - “Rules are meant to be broken”

had my i/v today at isb...here goes the experience:

since i stayed back for the night at isb, was able to soak myself into the isb

charm..fascinating campus and lovely facilities..went to the i/v place ~11...wsschedules for 11:50..met couple of known faces and couple of new ones

essay topic: reality tv

called for i/v arnd 12..panel 3 alums..all seem to be pretty senior...

Q1:tell me abt what u do at ur current workplace?

Q2:little more probing..what i do on Web 2.0 front and all

Q3:r u a applicant?

Q4:why did u apply in R1 again? don't u need more time?

Q5:what was feedback? what did u do after?

Q6:questions on Indian and US economy (my feedback was lack of business

knowledge and i focussed on functional + gen. eco stuff in last one year)Q7:do u think US govt is somewhat responsible for the crisis?

Q8:tell me abt ur environmental work? litltle probing on that?

Q9:long term goals

Q10:whats do u outside work?

Q12:analyze ur own handwriting (i am interested in graphology)

Any question for us?? talked abt ELP and CAS...

total arnd 30-35 mins...generally a very conversational i/v and no stress at all..al

smiles all time around came out with "feel good factor"

thats all..results by 25th Nov max

hey guys

I had my interview @ ISB campus yesterday. I was scheduled for the first slot in

the morning.

Panel - 2 alums (one from the class of 2002, first ISB batch, dnt remember about

other one) and one adcom

Duration - approx 30 mins.







































Questions :

Let me tell you, it was very much like a personal interview, based on what I had

written in my essays, especially first essay (3 distinctive points).

It sounded like they wanted to cross check if I really have the qualities that I have

mentioned.almost all questions were pretty much analytical and open ended.

e.g. I had mentioned about my work in my family business. They asked me, "If

your father wants to start a similar business around ISB campus and he has asked

you to analyze the situation here and make recommendations, what would be your

steps for the same?"

I had many such questions on other qualities that I had mentioned in essays and

then some routine stuff like tell me something about yourself, why ISB, goals, etc..

Similar were the experiences of other candidates that I spoke with...

Another point to note:majority of candidates yesterday were with a current work ex of 2-3 yrs!

Overall, I believe I could handle those questions well. I tought the adcom was a

little less convinced than the alums (atleast from the facial expressions !).

Thats all about it... waiting for the D-day (11/25) when I would know how well I

did !

Hey guys.. just had my interview yest...

Essay topic (200 wrds) : Rules are meant to be broken

The panel consisted of 1 alum, 1 student and 1 faculty.

Started off by:

1. Something not mentioned in ur appl/essays.. I talked abt fam, extra curr.. me as

a person

2. what is the change in ur appln (I was a reapplicant). mentioend abt change in

job resp

3. Why shud we take u...? ... mentioned 3 reasons..

4. What if nt ISB this year..? I told them that i had my options in place...

5. Some particular questns on my work ex...

6. Any questions fr us...?

All in all I think it was decent.. but then they didnt ask me a word abt my future

goals or y MBA at all... so kinda not sure if it wen good...I keep my fingers crossed

Hi guys,

I had my iv today. there were 2 panels which were ivng IT folks. Mine was delayed

by 40 mins due to lunch and I was the 2nd guy to go after they came back. Theessay topic was " Chalta Hai " attitude which was distributed to guys going for IT








































panels. I was asked following questions -

1. Tell me something which is not there in profile. ( had rehearsed this but cudn't

get it properly )

2. Tell us something about urself ( they did not like the ans i gave for 1st q )

3. So u r writing a book, what is ur book abt ? - told them

4. What is the USP of ur book ?5. Few more questions about the hypothesis i have presented in my book.

6. Walk us thru a day in ur work. followed by some more questions about work.

u r doing same routine work daily, dont you get bored ? Where is the use of brains

and special skills in ur work

7. What were the initiatives which i have taken in my work

8. Guesstimate - I was asked which brand of tie i was wearing. Asked about its

price. Asked estimate the no of ties which will be sold in 2010. They handed me a

pen and paper and aksed write all what u want and calculate and give a final no. --

Did blunder here as I missed out 2 imp factors and came up with a big no. I waslater told and asked do u think XX wear ties ? do u think YY wear ties ? I almost

sweat for a sec.

9. What do you do in ur leisure time ?

10. What r 2 big learnings u took from movies ( related to my interests ) - gave

them the lame std ans from lagaan and tare zamin par.

11. Any questions for us ? - I told no. they asked again " so u know everything

about ISB". I told them I had attended info session and all my doubts were solved

there.

The panel was very pleasant and cudn' make out a single thing from theirexpressions, as while answering, one person was closing his eyes s if he is trying

to sleep or my answers sounded like lullaby . I was confident and calm when i was

in the waiting lounge, but as soon as i entered the iv room, some nervousness hit

badly and i got blanked out for some seconds when i was asked 1st question.

Overall not a good iv,cross questionings were there for every answer. This time

some very big luck is required compared to what i had when i got the call. overall

time 15-18 mins i think. All the best to who are waiting and those who got the call.

Sorry for the delay in posting - I got back late last night from Hyderabad but with a

totally satisfied (smug?) feeling...

I stayed at the ISB - in a Studio accommodation - the place has everything a family

could need and is about 1000 sq ft. Since it was me alone, was wondering if I

should have brought my mom along, she loves to fuss over me just before an

important event

Anyhoo, my interview was scheduled at 1400hrs but we were advised to be there

30 minutes before it commenced. So I got there at 1320hrs and took the sheet of

paper on which we were to write the essay.











































Now heres the thing - the essay is a sanitiser. My discussions and logic tell me that

the school uses the essay to make sure that it is YOU who has written the essays.

So what you write is not thaaaat important as how you write.

The panel consisted of young people all around (this was a, I'm assuming, non IT

panel) - totalling three, one being a student. I can only relate the questions assome of my answers are of a personal nature. Lets call the panelists P1, P2 & S

(student)

P1: So, how did u land up in finance?

P2: Why do you want to do _______

S: Do you know any firms that do ___. Why ISB then? How does the ISB fit in.

P2: Okay, since you want to do ___, what would you do in the case of ______

company?

P1: You can take a moment if you need to

(I didn't really need the moment. I just established some basic assumptions andthen proceeded ahead)

P2 then pointed out what he perceived as a flaw in my reasoning. So I clarified that

there was an activity I assumed would be happening and that the company in

question would not be sitting idle

P2: okay

p1: so, what drives you?

(I related an incident that changed my life and made me less risk-averse)

p1+p2: so what's the most risky / daring thing you've done?

P2: any questions for us?

(i asked them something that only the interviewers could answer)(was then about to leave when...)

p2: one last thing, who's your fav stand-up comedian? (i had mentioned that i love

stand-up comedy)

p2: why?

me: made a small joke at the end, thanked them and shook hands with everyone.

Was a great interview. I've seen a lot of interviews and this panel was excellent in

the manner in which they probed. I had a good time and was very comfortable

during the session. They answered in earnest and I'd done my homework about

ISB (including staying there in May) to be able to ask questions which meantsomething to me. (am hoping they take cognizance of that)

One thing I did notice, everyone waiting for the interview wore looks of despair

and gloom. Is it just me, or did people find the other interviewees a little distant?

dude,

u shud think of some strong reasons to give to move from testing to core finance.U

can safely assume that the question will pop up.Some pointers can be:











































1. how the short term goals pointed by u in ur essays are a worthy bridge to ur

long term transition.

2.What u have been doing || 2 ur s/w testing job to enable urself for ur targets.(all

b schools like the self-learning zeal in individuals)

3.Trends/SWOT for the industry/companies u r targetting

4.What u have learnt from ur exp. in ur current job which will help u in ur futureprospects in a 180 deg out industry.

Hi puys. Here's some update from my end. I interviewed at Hyderabad today

morning. My essay topic was 'Media activism'. Got done with it in 15 minutes and

started chatting with other prospects. While, I was socialising, an AdCom member

who introduced himself as Ravi, introduced himself and ushered me into the

interview room. There were 3 panelists on my interview panel - 1 AdCom member

+ 2 Alums. My interview was very conversational in nature and so was the case

with 4-5 other interviewees I spoke to. My interview was primarily essay based,

hence very profile specific. So, the answers may not be very helpful, but I post all

the question asked to me to give you an idea for your preps:

AD (AdCom), AL1 (Alum 1), AL2 (Alum 2).

AL2: Tell us something about yourself.

AL2: Will you recent promotion to Sales and Biz. Devp. make you reconsider about

your ISB MBA option?

AL1: Why MBA and why ISB in specific?

AL1: You want to enter consulting and I've read your essays and understood that

you have established networks in boutique consulting firms which you intend to

target. But, due to unforeseen circumstances, if you don't get into consulting post-

MBA, what would you opt for and why?

AL2: Tell us something about your Libya experiences?

AL1: What challenges you faced and how you handled them?

AD: In countries like Libya, what bureaucratic challenges did you face in addition

to the leadership challenges you mentioned?

AL2: You've been away from academics for nearly 5 years. Our program is very

rigorous. How do you see yourself coping up with and faring well in our institute?

AD: Do you have any question for us?

The interview lasted for about 30 mins. I didn't feel that any question caught me

off-guard. The questions and answers followed through very smoothly. But, did I

perform up to the mark to see me through to an admit? Time will tell

All the very best to all! In case you have any doubts on interviews, essays, preps,

reaching ISB, or anything under the sun, feel free to buzz me.








































Dear Puys,

Had my I/v yesterday at 14:00. Took some advice from Monil. Thanks a ton Monil

for helping out there. Essay topic "Chalta Hain"

The panel had 3 members 1 alum, 1 current student and 1 adcom memberVery very cordial.

Started with asking what food I liked most in Hyd(mentioned foody in hobbies"

Asked me to talk on my challenge(2nd essay) and why was it a challenge

Then went on to entrepreneurial plans and cross questioned on the same like

1) Capital source

2) Market potential

Then why ISB ? why MBA ?

then one from the adcom... you sound like a super achiever why leaving all that

and coming to ISb .... hopefully got that right

finally the current student spoke .... something about my EC ....

then any questions for them... overall around 30 mins....

Guys go thru ur essays........ well and again and again ..... corroborate every point

and question yourself sentence by sentence.

My question is how much sense does it make to do MBA from ISB to

progress in product development roles? and How ISB can really help in

this direction?

Had my interview yesterday at 2:00, panel 8. 3 people, 2 students and 1 adcom

member.

Essay topic was 'the chalta hai attitude'

Started with do you like where you work.

From there went on to another question from my profile itself (I shifted from

technology to IT pre sales)

More questions about differences in technology and pre sales

Then questions about differences in door to door sales (I worked in TOI as a salesrepresentative for a month) and IT sales.
































Then Where do you want to be after MBA, if IT, what do you know about it.

We talked about the advertising strategy of Accenture (I work at Accenture). From

there I got a analysis case to calculate Accenture's ROI from adverts. Did three

steps then expressed utter ignorance. The lady explained it further.

Then What are the important aspects of proposal management.

Can you describe a situation where you went above and beyond your normal callof duty.

How much of the proposal work do you do.

Accenture's revenue for the last year, I added this year's revenue myself.

What do you like to do apart from work?

Any questions for us? (Asked them a few generic ones)

Smiles all around, handshakes and then left.

Some points to note,

Interviewee must maintain posture as I realised one of the panel members noticingthe same time to time.

I have less experience (2.5 years) yet there were no questions for the same.

Look the panel members in the eye when talking, and try to look at each one of

them.

Hi Guys,

My interview experience, I am from Bangalore and had my interview in Hyderabad

on the 25th 11.10 AM

GMAT: 710/6

Exp : 7 yrs (3.5 IT, 3.5 Entrepreneurial)

12th : 83%

B.E : 73 %

I reached Hyderabad on saturday morning. Wanted to go see ISB before i went for

the interview but felt very lazy, slept the whole day and watched TV.

Couldnt sleep the whole night, Not because i was tensed but because i slept

though the whole afternoon. However i would advise everyone to sleep well the

night before. There were more misfortunes, it seems the name of hotel i was

staying in "Samrat" was pretty common for hotels in that area. My cab landed at

the wrong hotel but then with some frantic calling got the cab to come to the right

one.

Reached ISB at around 10 AM, Boy oh Boy ..... the impression that you have at the

gate, its just amazing. The security could figure out that i was there for an

interview, was too well dressed. Drove down the long and winding driveway to

building which had come in my dreams an innumerable number of times.








































Walked in and there was already a different reception table for the interviewees,

the lady told me to wait as i was a little early. She asked me to come half an hour

before my interview time and showed me the way to the waiting lounge. There

were already some people there for the 11.10 AM batch, 2 of us from Bangalore

and there were two girls from Mumbai. We talked about arbit stuff and then it was

time .... walked in to the table and took our essays and were directed towards theplace where the interviews were supposed to happen.

Finished my essay, the topic was "Media Activism", I wrote something, and then

kept waiting for my turn. The interviews were running late, around 40 mins or so. I

was not very nervous till that point of time, there were people waiting along with

me and we started talking about some arbit stuff. I had my interviews with Panel-7

and there was a girl who had to be interviewed by the same panel, so i knew i had

at least half an hour before i go in. She is called and is gone for what seemed like

eternity ............ i was thinking what all they could be asking her, then decided she

isnt me and started reading the booklet about ISB that we were given along withthe essay.

Around 25 mins later, the girl comes out. I wanted to ask her about what she was

asked, given that she was interviewed by the same panel as i was going to be. But

i just kept looking at her .... i must admit she was beautiful and then i realized she

was almost leaving. Hurried to ask her what was she asked, she told me it was a

casual conversation and not any sort of a stress interview. I felt good ... none of

the people i had talked to had been asked guess estimate questions. Couldn't help

noticing again that she was really beafutiful ...... Men would be Men, i suppose !!

My turn came, I was called in. After waiting for about an hour, there was no

nervousness no expectation .... i just wanted to get this done with. Walked in and

there were 4 people. One lady and three gentlemen, They all introduced

themselves and i was asked to sit. So far so good ........... then it began, the

bombardment

1. I had mentioned in my essays that i am already half baked coz i had been

attending courses on and off.

I was asked what i meant by "Being Half Baked" , answered and they seemed ok.

2. Give us two instances where you have succeeded against odds ?

I gave them two instances, One from my entrepreneurial venture and other of a

CSR kind of thing i had done.

There were a lot of questions on what were the odds and how did you solve them. I

don't want to be critical here but i could feel that none of them were entrepreneurs

otherwise they would actually know the odds of a as simple a thing as finding

office space. Or on second thoughts they really wanted to know if i knew the

answer or not .... never mind, we will see how it goes.










































3. Why do u want to become an entrepreneur? How do u think ISB would help

you ?

I tried giving them the usual answers of alumni, network, course curriculum,

faculty, but was interrupted a couple of times. The lady told me she knew all of

this and wanted to know what exactly did i want. I said i wanted to check where iam at, if what i am thinking is right or wrong and something else. One sentence ..

phew !! She seemed ok.

4. What are your future plans, what sort of a venture do u want to set up.

Gave them a brief about what I wanted to do, there were tertiary questions but

since i had planned the venture myself i was able to answer all of them.

5. Do u completly want to opt our from the placement process?

I replied in the affirmative. Just a "yes" ........... i knew well by this time that the

panel had enough of the normal crap and all they wanted was crisp and clear

answers.

6. You have indicated that you want to pay the fees via a bank loan, don't you

think that its a little risky considering the fact that your venture might not work

well.

I told them that i have been planning for an MBA since a long time and have saved

enough to pay my fees but would like to save it to be used in my venture and notpay the fees out of it. They seemed to understand.

Then the end came, they asked me if i had any questions.

I asked them if they had any concept of "Incubation", stupid me that i forgot that

work. The lady in the panel actually got what i wanted to ask and helped me out.

Kick me for that !!

There was a current student in the panel and he explained to me that they have a

system where some part of the funds are earmarked for incubating exciting newideas. I was happy, shook hands and then left.

I really don't know how the interview went, Everyone i talked to had a similar good

experience so i dont really know whats going to happen to me. A word of advice to

everyone who has their interviews, if you have prepared answers for the normal

interview questions, also keep a crisp one sentence answer ready as a backup. If

we think from the point of view of the guys taking the interviews, they would get

really bored after hearing the same thing again and again for the whole day.

So be a Gladiator, give them something they have never seen before. Win thecrowds and you will win your freedom ..... :-)






































Best of luck,

Santosh

Generally questions like this tell u to assume tht there is only one store(if not, we

can divide the result by number of stores in the city to get an avg).I think following

steps shud do:

1.Population of the city

2.% of the population which uses pen/pencils i.e the potential buyers(yes, there

may be many who don't use pen/pencils)

3.frequency of buying/customer/year(will be easier to assume a ballpark figure on

a longer time scale)

4.frequency*number of potential customers = sale for one year.Sale/day can now

be found

Ok guys, here's my interview experience....

When Mumbai calls started around 15th and I didn't get one for two days, I must

admit that I got a little tensed. I then though there was no use in pulling hairs over

something I couldn't influence, and decided on using the Diwali weekend in the

most enjoyable way - sleeping. When that coveted sms did come through on

Monday the 19th, I was in the land of dreams and noticed it much later.

The interview was scheduled at 11:50 AM on Sunday the 25th. So, I did NOT get

that so-called 7-day notice . I got the flight tickets next day - flying in on Friday

night and out on Monday morning. On the flight, I got acquainted with two more

Puys going for their interviews on Saturday. I went one day in advance as I have

college friends there and wanted to spend some time with them.

Sunday, 25/10/2009. I reached ISB at 11:00 AM. This was my second visit to this

beautiful campus - went for a coprorate quiz in 2005 when I was employed in

Hyderabad. Was asked to wait till 11:20 AM for the essay sheet. Collected it and

went down for the interview. Topic was "Media activism". Got a little carried awayand wrote around 50 words more than the 200 suggested.

As I was waiting, the dean emerged from one of the interview rooms and assured

us there was nothing to worry about and that we should be natural. Looking at my

large frame, he asked me if I was a bodybuilder. I answered in the affirmative and

also couldn't resist my martial arts background... . He joked that I shouldn't use

that on the panel.

Even after the preceding candidate left, I wasn't called in till after 10 min, at 11:57

PM. I was wondering whether I sould say "Good morning" or "Good afternoon" andfinally opted for the former.







































Even after the last candidate out, I wasn't called in until 10 minutes later. I just

hope they found something interesting in my data sheet that captured their

attention. I was called in and met the interview panel - a professor (P), a lady (L)

and a gentleman (G). The last two were younger, probably alumni.

I was first asked about a timeline for my future ventures and why I chiose them.

Then they individually grilled me on the three inter-linked ventures in which I had

ventured interest - P (microfinance), G (equity), L (marketing). I was told that one

term that I was using for the last one was wrong but overall they seemed satisfied.

However, I did face some pressure on the unofficial hedge fund I run with 4

friends. Evidently, the returns promised were too good to be true even though we

started in January when we had the benefit of the markets at the lowest.

P asked me on challenges in work, and I asked permission to explain a little about

my work before going on to achievements and challenges. I may have rambled ona little here but they gave me a patient hearing. P also asked me why I was looking

to change from IT management, and even for that change why I was looking at

microfinance and not general finance.

L asked me on my secondary career as an online journalist and whether I had

picked up any management lessons from the industry leaders I had interviewed. I

confess that I did drop a few names of people I interviewed but I think it didn't

digress from the discussion.

Finally, P asked me if I had any questions. I asked whether ther has been a changein ISB's approach to teaching and placements with regard to the depleted job

scenario. I also asked on the scope of the international tie-ups with Kellogg,

Wharton and LBS.

While leaving, I added, on my own initiative, something which wasn't in my

application - my efforts to publish my sci-fi short stories and the not-discouraging

response I have received till now.

Overall, I think it went well....but then, that is what most of the guys who haverecounted their experiences have felt. Since ISB will take only around 1 in 3

interviewed (guesswork here), some of us must be wrong .

My profile in a nutshell:

Manager in TCS Eserve (formerly part of Citigroup)

Work-ex 5.5 yrs as of today.

Acads - 90% plus in X, XII

BE - 8.34 CGPA

EC - Very good, I thinkGMAT - 750, 5.5








































Depends on following conditions:

--> How many other stationary stores are near by

--> How many schools/colleges are in the vicinity--> Where is the stationary store situated? In a housing society/schools&colleges

area/commercial street

1. In a housing society, no store in the vicinity, two schools and a college near by,

on a weekday

Average school strength - 500 - 500*2 -1000

College strength - 200

Nursery to 1st class - pencils - on an avg. one pencil comes for two weeks (Mon toSat) - 200/12 - 16

2nd class to 10th class - pencils - uses for records - avg - one pencil for month -

800/30 - 26

+2 college - pencils - Biology guys - one pencil for two weeks - 50/12 - 4

Maths & Arts guys - one per month (miscellaneous use) - 150/30 - 5

Housing society - 100 houses - office goers - one per month - 100/30 - 3

Others - misc. use - one per three months - 100/90 - 1

Others - commuters on the road etc. - 6 -

Total penicls on a weekday - 51

This is pretty wide. We can have many assumptions

In Cronological Order

1) In 1930, after the Great Depression a law was passed, which restricted i-banks

divisions to access the balance sheet of the retail bank division. This law was

passed to keep the two modes investments [a)Investment in I-Bank 2) Saving] of

separate. This law was revoked in 1987 giving the I-Banks access to the balancesheets of the relatil banks giving them more access to capital and also exposed

the common junta to increased risks indirectly. However nobody at that time

thought that this is a risky affair.

2) Bush government agenda - "house for everyone", propelled the real estate

market and home loans became easier to get. This fulled the sub-prime lending

(Sub Prime Lending - Lending to ppl with not so good Credit Records at an higher

rate of interest).

3) As the number of home loans grew and the number of hoam loan insurers

(Freddie Mac) remained constant, banks had to look for other alternative to hedge

credit risk and also the banks wanted a mechanism by which they could off-loadthe loan from their balance sheet. Offloading the debts from the balance sheet







































helped in two ways

a) It diversified the credit risk

b)The bank couldlend again to a new customer as the hoam loans were in

demand.

The above two things fulled "Securitization" (READ - Secutitization, CDO's etc) . By

means of Securitization a bank could get a loan off its balance sheet and couldlend again. So this was a great thing for the bank because

a) They could lend as much as they wanted - ( there is a limitation to how much a

bank can lend READ - TIER ONE ration)

b) The risk from the loan went in the market in forms of CDO's and hence all the

bank got by giving load was its fee.Great na----The greater the number of loans

and CDO's the bank dealt with, greater the bonus. Thsi cause the leverage ratio to

increse to 42 times in US, where a normal leverage ratio is 18-20 times. (READ -

Leverage Ratio).

4) However, the home owner came to know soon that, the amount of money theyare paying or will pay till the end of the loan term to the bank is much more than

the value of the house. So they started defaulting/declaring bankruptcies. US

bankruptcy laws are very good. Unlike india, where banks can take over all your

property if you defauly, banks in US can only take the property on which the loan

is. So, ppl just started dropping the house keys to the bank..thats it.

5) Now, there where banks like Bear Stern, Lehman who had invested a lot on Sub-

Prime loans and the financial world knew that these banks were in problems and

people lost confidence in these banks.

FALL OF LEHAMN

The banks often borrow and lend money in the money market. This is not open to

everbody and is a market only for banks and financial insitutions. Banks borrow

money far time span of as short as overnight to 3 years (3 month loans are

borrowed the most). The interest rate here are lesser than the normal market and

teh banks have to pay by a certain time lets say 11 AM of someday. If the money

is not paid by that time, this will lead to bankruptcy.

Lehman had to raise cetaian ammount by 19th sep 2008. It went to money market

to raise that money. As ppl had lost their confidence in Lehman, nobody wanted to

lend to Leman. However, at this time ppl expected that Lehman is too big to falland would be saved by FED but as we all know it did not happen. The collapse of

Lehman froze the money market as none of banks were sure of the credibility of

the other bank and this is where the recession was at its zenith.

My Profile:

IIT Kharagpur

GMAT: 750/4.5

Family Business + IT: 2 Years 3 months (till now)











































Had my interview on 11th Oct in Delhi. My Experience was startlingly similar.

There were two or three questions however, which stood out.

First: How do you propose to pay the fees - Loan or Savings?

Ans: Family Money.

Second: Would you care to opt out of the placement process?

Ans: Sure

Third: Why ISB (I know the question is generic, but my experience here was

different)

Ans: (Me) ISB this ISB that..... (Adcom) yeah yeah I know all about ISB. I work there

remember? (Me).....I dont want to miss out on anything. I know what I know but I

dont know what I dont know. So to know what I dont know....I want to be in a

BSchool with a diverse peer group. Gave example from ISB blog posts...where ppl

have said that after joining ISB how they came to know about the opportunities inthe world. How they feel the world to be their Oyster now (....i guess you guys got

the drift)

Rest was specific to my profile.

Now my question is why would these people be interested in the mode of

payment........is there a bad answer to one such question?

And yeah just to make sure they understood my plans....they asked one more

question

Trick Question: So just in case you decide to leave your family business and take

up a job....what would it be?

Ans: (Droop my shoulders....as if disappointed by their scepticism) Since I have

past experience in the IT sector....I think I will go for an IT job only.

Q: To what profile?

Ans: In a manager's profile......talking to clients, forming strategies etc.

This I feel was a trick question to make sure that I wasn't lying ......but I have no

idea about the first one.

Lets discuss.

Please help me formulate a response for questions as these

1. Estimate the number of coffee cups consumed per day at ISB capmus

2. Estimate the number of pencils used in India per day

3. Estimate the number of mobile phones in India




































this is very imp! my interview is tomo!

I'l take the first one....

Let's say the number of students in the campus is 500

Divided into - say - 5 sections - means 100 students in each section

Out of these 100, lets say 80% take coffee. tea or any hot beverage that needs

coffee cups - that makes it 80 consumers in each section

Let's say a day for a section has two sessions in the morning and two sessions in

the afternoon, so a break in the morning has 80 cups being used and another 80 in

the afternoon.

Other than class hours, during breakfast most ppl have coffee, let's assumeanother 80 cups per section for brkfast

During the extensive night outs, ppl might need coffee atleast evry two hours.. so

from 10. p.m to 4 a.m. each coffee/tea drinker would consume 3 cups... so makes

it 80*3 = 240 cups at night

so for the students in one section - it would be 80 (breakfast) + 80 (morning

session) + 80 (post lunch session) + 240 (night outs) = 480 cups

so for one section = 480 cups

5 sections = 480* 5 = 2400

Next the profs,

Assuming there are around 20 profs in the campus in day:

80% consuming cofee/tea = 16 profs

Breakfast = 16 cups

Morning session = 16 cups

Afternoon Session = 16 cups

Evening session = 16 cups (assuming they dont have nightouts)

makes it 64 cups for profs

Next the other staff and visitors,

assuming 50 as this number with an average of two cups per day makes it 100

cups

Next the defective cups:

for every pack of 100 there might be atleast 2 defective pieces (another

assumption)

So totally we haveStudents - 2400





































Profs - 64

Staff & Others - 100

making it 2564 cups

and for every 100 there are 2 defects implies for 2564 there would be ariound 52defects

So the totalno. used or bought would be 2564 + 52 = 2616 cups!!

yes, this is filled with assumptions - wud be glad to hear comments and other

approaches

need to ask following questions:

--> Whether coffee vending machines are available near classrooms?

--> Whether coffee vending machines are available for visitors near reception or

waiting area?

Coffe vending machines are available near classrooms, in campus and in reception

for visitors and it's free of cost

Number of ISB students : 570 - 40% will have coffee - 4 times a day - 228*4 - 912

Number of Professors & Administration office : 100 - 40% - 2 times a day - 40*2 -

80

Visitors - 50 - 40% - 20

Total no. of coffee cups - on a normal day - 1012

if there is any admission info session - 1012 + 25 - 1027

if there is any big conference - 1012 + 100 - 1112

This entire calculation is assuming that coffee cups means the cups used for

having just coffee and it's a disposable cup.

Hello!

I just had my interview in skype video call.. It was ok .. they dint seem disappointed or

impressed.. it was about 25 mins..

1. Speak on The Sathyam Scam for 1 min

2. Describe my current role ( when i did, there was some cross questions on what was in

my job scope and what was not)

3. How do i manage the team in my job scope and what are the challenges4. 1 achievement at work


































5. The came up with a difficult situation in my work scenario and asked me

6. Future plans after MBA

7. What if my salary upon graduation is lower than what I currently?

8. Learnings from the volunteering stuff that I did..

Any questions for them .. asked about Leadership development programme - and with that theysaid they will come back to me by 25th November.. Good luck to all!

Hi Puys,

Had an interview at Hyd on 25th... just got free so thought I will post my

experiences.

I had never been to Hyd before so I reached a day in advance. Was cool and

comfortable till and through the interview. I would say many of the questions were

on expected lines (I had mentally thought about those questions before). Had a

panel of three members, one of whom left half way to catch a flight. The questions

were direct and not of the nature to create stress. I was very relieved that this

time around they were giving us sentences to write about rather than words, I was

tense about getting a word that I do not understand .

The process of interview was more about finding more about me as a person and

what I had done in my life / what I want to do in future so that isnt useful to others.

One thing I want to tell everyone here is, please ensure that you do atleast one (in

fact more - but none is a crime ) mock with someone in the MBA circle (present or

past student or a tutor) before going there. I had a mock with my friend in IIMB the

previous night and it helped a lot, even if you are confident of your chances,

please do this to avoid telling something undesirable. This is a time compressed

format (at max you have 45 minutes) and so even if you open your heart it might

not be visible to the person in front of you so better be prepared as to how you will

ensure visibility .

If I do it again, one round I will do with a person who will ask all typical questions

and dig deeper and one person who will be more creative and ask unexpected

questions, like in my interview I was asked about the agriculture sector and its

problems in attracting younger talent, fortunately this is something I am

passionate about and so I gave him reply that I am haapy with, but I think others

might benefit from thinking about atleast a few areas related to their profiles and

how you will handle an unexpected question.

I am sure that if I had taken more mocks, I would have been even more prepared

and so I would have answered a few questions better, but I am happy about my

own performance, admission or not I am happy about the process till now, let me

hope for the best.








































Well I'm sure you'll get a call. And even if you don't, there are other places you

gatta apply to for back up. Anyways you'll not get any questions on your GMAT or

on your acads, thats simply because these guys dont have access to your scores

during the interview. My interview was quite unique compared to some of theother interview experiences I have read about in the earlier posts and thats

probably down to the fact that I have a very different profile compared to the IT

guys out there.

So here it goes...

Please take us through your profile.

You've said in your essay that you would like to start your own PE frim after

working for 10-12 years post your MBA. Why would you wait that long?

I see that you have taken a salary cut of almost 1.25 lakhs when you moved from

DE Shaw to the NGO, why did you do that?I knew I was going to be quizzed on that and I told them that I thought I was

capable of managing more responsibilites than what I was doing at Shaw and most

importantly I wanted to work in the area of staretgic planning and this opportunity

with the NGO really excited me. I think that all the 3 members of the interview

pannel were quite happy with my answer and there was no further questions on

that.

Do you think DE Shaw was a mistake for you?

This was a tough question and probably the most iportant quesion in my interview.

I wont share what I said here coz it wont be relevant for anybody out there. But

what I can tell you is that you have to be able to highlight your learnings fromevery experience and justify coherently why you did what you did.

What do you mean when you say you want to work on more innovative projects??

I told them about my experience in the sports management start up where I was

responsbile for tying up starategic partnerships and conceptualizing and marketing

international sorting events. I also told him about a fw imprtant projects that I had

managed during my time at my present NGO. Bascially, I was able to explain why I

wanted to move on from Shaw and they looked quite content with my answer and

there were no further questions on that.

If not an MBA, then what?

Then an alum popped up with a question, both your recommendors have said thatyou are a dynamic and out of the box thiker. Could you give us some examples

from work where you have exhibited thses skills?

This was an easy question fro me since I had a lot of innovative projects to talk

about and again they nodded in aprooval.

If not an MBA, then what?

Wich are some of the other places that you applied to?

And here I noticed one of them taking notes on the answer I gave.

Do you have any qeustions for us....I had a couple.

One of the things I asked them was "How do you evaluate two candidates, one of

whom who says that he is focued on industry x as career option and another

candidate like me who wants to work in varied industries and is more focuesd on















































the roles that he works in rather than the industry that he works in?"

He answered my question with another question- How do you evaluate wheather a

person who says is interested in industry x actually understands indudtry x well. I

said you will ask him certain questions about that industry and gauge his abilities

based on the answers he gives. He said exactly and he went on to say that he has

been a member of the admission commitee for 10 years and he has seen a lot of fellaws who says they have x goal or they are passioante about x industry, but just

dont have the knowledge or understasnding in that area to back them up. What

we evaluate in a canddidate is the passion, motivation, ambition and integrity for

doing an MBA backed with certain skills that he/she has acquired over the years.

I liked what he said and I felt he said that to me coz he saw those qualities come

out very effectively during my interview or so I hope .....But it is very important

to show that passion for wanting to do an MBA and it must come out effectively

during ones interview....thats the advise Ill give you from what I learnt from my

interview experience.....

Best of luck mate and keep your hopes high.....

I am listing below the questions that I was asked at my ISB interview. I

do hope it helps those of you interviewing over the next few days/weeks.

Duration: 27 mins

Medium: Telephonic + Skype (I could not log in on Skype because it is

blocked in this part of the world)

Panel: A lady (Adcom) + Gentleman (Presuming he is a professor as both

of them weren't alumni)

Pace: The interview was paced well. Looking back I think I spoke alot!!!

The interview flow went something like this:

1. Why can't we see you on Skype?

2. So why exactly is Skype blocked?

3. We'll give you 30 secs to collect your thoughts and would like you to speak on

the following topic: "USA should be weary of China's growing

consumerism"

4. There were cross questions based on my response5. Since I plan to enter a non-traditional industry post MBA, they

immediately delved into this by asking me - Why have you decided to

enter industry XYZ and why now?

6. My long term goal is to start my own firm - so the next question was

about what business models I plan to adopt

7. To answer 5. I first gave a quick background about the industry and

its current state in India. I then pulled out examples of firms both in

India and abroad and discussed their business models and told them I

would be adopting similar models.

8. Was cross questioned on one particular business model to clarify

revenue, costs and funding.




















































9. How will you specifically fund your venture??

Uptil now most of the questions were asked to me by the lady. At this

point the gentleman steps in and says:

10. You've got a fantastic application, great work experience andperformed exceptionally till date. To start your own successful firm you

don't really need an MBA. We have a great centre called WCED. All you

need to do is come down here and work on kick starting the firm.

11. Obviously I went in to explaining to them Why I wanted an MBA and

expanded my response to include Why ISB in particular.

12.The lady then went back and prodded a little further to find out my

motivation behind my move to XYZ industry

13. Immediately after your MBA - which companies are you looking to

join?

The companies I plan to join are located in the US. So I explained tothem that I will be taking care of my own placements and that I have

already initiated dialogue with individuals at my possible future

employers. The reason I selected companies in the US was to ensure I

could learn best practice in the industry and also work with mature

organizations in the industry. I used the opportunity to explain to them

that one of the reasons I was interested in the Outbound Exchange

program (part of my Why ISB response) was so that I could go spend two

terms in the US and use the time to engage with my future employers.

14. If this doesn't work out have you thought of a backup plan?

I have a back up plan and spoke to them about it15. How is the economy in the country you are residing in?

I'm not sure whether I did the right thing here but I used an analogy of

number of cars on the road and traffic jams to make my point

16. What do you do outside work?

17. Do you have any questions for us?

Asked them one and then asked them whether any of them were part of the

alumni because my next questions could be only directed to an alumni?

18. They asked me what it was and then the lady on the panel told me

that I should speak to the ex-ISB students that I am in touch with and

gave me a few other names of ISB entrepreneurs that I should get in touch with inmy current city.

19. I thanked them and we ended the convo.

Overall a pleasant conversation.

A word of advice to puys looking to start out on their own in the short or long term

- make sure you are prepared well to answer questions on your future business.

You are bound to be grilled on your plans and rightly so.

Overall I do not usually rate how well an interview went because you can neverreally tell what the other person was thinking. So I guess, for now I am content













































with joining the pool of all the other prospects who will be looking at the emails

very intently over the following weeks.

Over and out.

ps: If you need anymore information - please feel free to send me a PrivateMessage.

Groaned at 2 Times in 2 Posts

Thanks: 98

Thanked 41 Times in 36 Posts

Re: ISB class of 2011 aspirants!!! - 29-10-2009, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by isb2011

I believe you are still to post your IV experience. Even I have to post mine; this

weekend I'll.

I knew somebody would say this,, Anyways here you go..

I didnt get any Why MBA and Why ISB questions surprisingly... Most of the question were

to do with my intersets and hobbies and some extra currics.. And few about my short term

goals.

Though the first question was "Tell us about urself" kind. The interview did last around 30minutes I guess I didnt keep tab after I came out.

And yes the interview started almost 40 Mins late. There were 2 members on the panel one of

them was alum.

But in the end was a good experience and relieved that the last part is over and now need to

wait for the final result.

Hope this helps.

Advice: Just Be honest

Hi Maverick ....

I have read in some websites and blogs about this question ... and my approach to

this wud be ..

not repeat too much of what is there in your resume .. instead say what u feelabout ur self and how people around u perceive you .. also tell one or two stories



































http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/international-indian-mba-schools-accepting/37061-isb-class-of-2011-aspirants-post1709977.html#post1709977



(very short and precise) about your strenghts..

my approach wud be

1. brief description of myself

2. on the professional front - my strenghts and one signifincant acheivement ..

3. on educational front - summation of background and an acheivement ..

suggest not to use years or dates etc ..

jus my ideas .. hope u find it useful

hey guys

im done with my interview.. it was rather off beat from the rest and got over in

about 20 minutes

my interview largely focused on my extra-cirricular activities.. the reason why I co-

founded an ngo (i am full time working professional and this is not my primary

work) , work done, achievements, a guesstimate question followed in the lines of

the discussion we were having (probably because I had written about my

analytical skills and have worked as an analyst)

some questions on my work and the market were thrown in.

i had written about my entrepreneurial ambition straight after isb and area of myinterest. i was surprised because there were no questions about that. moreover no

questions of introducing myself, why mba, why isb.. and the other usual

questions.. none of these were asked

my advise would be -

1. if you have done something substantial in your ECs then be ready for the any

type of questions

2. i feel isb interviews is about filling the gap.. example - if your application makes

it clear about the motivation for your doing an mba or give a good reflection of

yourself, then those questions would not be asked..3. expected the unexpected.. on the basis of prior interviews, you really cant make

out about how your interview will shape up.. just be honest and be yourself

4. we have a tendency to go on talking.. be to the point

I had my I/V on 31st Oct. approx 20 minutes.

The essay topic was "Cloning", filled the entire page without bothering about the

100 word limit. Got complemented on my hand writing, the interviewers found it

pretty good for a 4+ years IT guy.

I had mentioned my International exp as a USP and was asked what specificlearnings have I acquired over the years to present it as such. Next was about my






































career goals - short term first followed by long term. I think my short term goal

was pretty clear from the essays, so a one liner was all it took from my side. Next

was about a satisfying experience from work. One of the panelists asked why did I

select a college experience for essay 2, which I think I answered satisfactorily. The

final question was why ISB. And to conclude I asked a couple of questions.

All done in 20 minutes flat.

1 stock question was how did you manage conflict in a team.

just finished with my interview/international/ skype

all the questions were based on my business plan and specific to my field

topic to speak for a minute- global terrorism

3 member panel

for establishing retail pharmacies in the us why do you need an mba from india,

you could as well do an mba from the states it self.

you can come spend some time and establish a person to hire for you from india, y

do you need an mba.

so are you trying to establish a body shop to exploit people like most software

companies are doing currently.

how would you set up your pharmacy.

what is the most important thing you would like to see in your pharmacies

how does drug distribution in the us workand how do you see generics versus brand.

why do you prefer generics, more questions on generic utlisation.

give us an example of an underserved location which you know of.

what about immigration issues

what would you do when the shortage will end at a certain time in the future

so how well will you pay and retain your pharmacists.

any questions for us.... total time of approx 20 minutes

ok guys.. The more detailed version of my IV exp..

I reached the venue a bit too early and had to wait for an hour to pick up the essay.. The essay

was "Credit card" and 100 words were kinda too less to write anything noteworthy.. Somehow

managed to write it but was not too satisfied..

Then the interviewer A comes out and asks for my essay.. He tells me they need to read it first

and will call me again.. That was a bit odd coz i dont remember reading here/seeing there

something like that happening..

Then after 10 mins I get called in. 2 interviewers from Career services and one alumni. To






































break the ice they asked about my journey and stuff.. Then came questions about "challenging

assignment".. not much of grilling in that..

Then the why mba question.. and then based on my reply, it deviated to my job and why i cant

try to move into roles within my company. quite a bit of grilling on this.. then they asked if I

have to move within my company, how long will it take.. they didnt sound to convinced withthe answer. then question about why i struck with my company for this long being an IT guy..

Then question about my experience abroad and the places i visited there.

Then they asked if I had any Qs, I asked about some alumni related stuff which turned out to be

a good question.. (I almost forgot what I wanted to ask due to the relief that iv and ended)

Then when I was about to leave, the alumni asked did I get any help for the essay.. I had not

taken any help as I am good at it, so obviously I said no.. Then he asked how many drafts I

went thru, i mentioned 5..

Could not gauge any reaction whatsoever..Only worry is so much of focus on my essay and the whole IV was always around my essay. I

am not sure whether I should take the spotlight on my essay, it was a lot more that what other

Puys had mentioned.. including the 100 word essay..

Hello All,

Done with my interview on 29th Oct.

It was a telephonic interview with video conf on skype.Panel consisted of two

adcom members(A1 and A2).

A1(most questions were asked by A1, he looked disinterested in me several times)

: Please speak on " Role of technology in society".

A1 : What could be role of very cheap laptop in dispersing knowledge.

A1 : You are an engineer, and worked in tech for ~6 years. Why dont you stick to

engineering and leave marketing/business to others.(In short why MBA,I was asked

5 times "why mba" in different ways )

A1 : You are in leadership role already, what good is mba anyways? Its not a magic

stick.

A1/A2 : Work related questions.

A1 : You play hockey, have you seen Chak de india . ( heck, I havent).

A1 : State of hockey in india

A1 : Why ISB.

A1 : What is hiesenberg uncertainity principle (OMG!!)

A1 :You want to startup , why mba is gonna help.

A2 : If you cant startup, whats plan B.

A1 : one fine day, if you start hating technology( i stated technology as one of my

passions), what you are gonna do.

A1 : any questions for us.

Overall it carried for 30 mins. 13-15 mins only on "why mba". Panel were veryfriendly.











































I have my fingers crossed.Hopes are going up and down in more volatile fashion

than stock market.

I never said that style is the mantra. What I said is this:

If you get a call for interview that means ISB is interested in having you

as a student but would like to know more about you. So in the interview

they do some of this:

1) Check your attitude and confidence.

2) Check Your approach to questions that are not so easy to answer e.g.

guestimates, some diplomatic questions, random thoughts, etc.

3) Check that You have done your research on Why MBA, Why ISB, etc.

4) Check You are the one who has written the essays and not someone

else.

5) Check if you match what is written in your recos.

6) A few more that I don't know.

So if you completely skrew up on these then you can assume to be out. If

you excel in these by perfectly giving facts, figures and examples from

your learnings then you will be accepted easily (though told only in the

end )

But if you do good in two to three points and ok/bad in one or two then

you are on the borderline. In this case your i/v rating is added to your

complete rating and evaluated again with that of others.

Hello Guys,

Done with my interview yesterday !

Truly conversational interview. Entirely from my application !

Questions:

It was for around 20 minutes or more but when i came out i actually felt i just went

in. 90% of the questions were form my extra curriculars. Why this why that? How

this how that?

And rest was career goals....

Tips:Know your application in and out. I suggest, open your app, read each line and


































question why? how? Do it for the whole of your application. Do this as your first

step and once done with this go on with the pther stuff which you may be asked

about. I heard some int experiences wherein guys who got interviewed completely

got grilled from the word Go. So you may never know form one experience. Know

as many expeirences as possible and then prepare. The summary i collected from

the interview experiences i heard was the interview can be about anything oneearth. It may go even only in one direction (for eg: in may case: extracurriculars)

and in some cases entirely on goals for the whole fo 30 minutes. So you never

know whats there in the panel's mind. Prepare as much as you can in the 4/7 days

you get for the interview prep and go for it !

They treat you very well inside. Trust me !

And yeah Thanks to everyone who have posted their expeirences. More than

anything they helped me to get into the groove and got me a feel of the entire

interview episode which was undoubtedly required for me in the short gap of 4days i had for the interview prep.

All the best guys !

Hi,

I had my interview last saturday at 2.40 PM.

There were two members in the panel - one from adcom (Ad) and another one was

probably a professor/alum (P/A).

I was given the topic "Credit Cards", scribbled the entire sheet.

Ad: You have been with Honeywell throught your professional experience. Why?

Me: It gave me everything I wanted .

Ad: Then, why do you want to leave the company?Me: indirect why MBA? question. Told them that I would like to get into Business

Development and like to go back to the same company/industry post graduation.

P/A: Since you are from communications (ECE) background, can you tell me how a

mobile phone works?

Me: To be frank, it was a shock. I thought I will be considered an IT guy . Luckily,

I knew the answer. Told them about GSM technology.

P/A: Do you know the frequency specifications?

Me: I only know high level details, I dont know nuts and bolts of it as I didnt work

on GSM. I fet he was satisfied with my frank answer.

P/A : you mentioned in the application that you taught Digital Communication. Canyou tell me what is modulation and why is it required?






































Me: Told him everything about modulation along with mathematical equations.

Ad: She asked me couple of questions about my extra-curriculars (I am a lyricist

and music composer).

Ad : your designation is just senior engineer, dont you think you should work for

couple of years more to get diversified work experience (indirect why now?

question).

(In my company, the role is different from the designation. Designation is based on

experience. I had already mentioned it in my application. I am sure they asked this

question to see how am I going to answer.)

Me: If you see my application, you can see that my experience is well diversified. I

worked as a team lead, onsite co-ordinator, Intellectual Property Analytics Focal.I

feel this is the right time for me to do MBA.

P/A: Describe a typcial day at your workplace

Me: Told him about business case presentations for pursuing new business

opportunities etc.

P/A : Can you explain the business case you prepared for Indian Navy in detail?Me: Explained in detail. I felt I did well here.

Ad: Your recommendations are really good. Tell me three important team playing

skills.

Me: Explained three qualities in detail - Open to others' views, Willing to share

information, and able to motivate and inspire the team

Ad: Whats the most challenging assignment and the learnings?

Me: Re-iterated whatever I have stated in essay 2. They didnt seem too

convincing.

P/A: What do you do in your free time?

Me: Actively involved in number of community service initiatives. Mentioned thoseis detail.

P/A: How was your appraisal rating since past three years?

Me: I got the highest appraisal rating in the first year and second highest rating in

last two years.

P/A: If you are Chidambaram, what would be your three top priority issues and how

will you solve them?

Me: Top three issues : Naxalism, Terrorism and increasing acid attacks on women.

Proposed solutions.

Ad: Any questions? I asked them couple of questions and that's it. Done.

Suggestions:

In the entire interview, they are just checking if watever you mentioned the

application is genuine. So be honest and genuine.

Go thru your application thoroughly.

I came out of the interview with a very good feeling. I gave my 100%. If other

applicants are better than me they will be in, otherwise I will be . ATB.

Had my interview yesterday, 10:50 am.

The essay topic was "Music Therapy", not an easy one but wrote quite some stuff














































(100 words).

There were 2 people in the interview, both alums. I handed over my essay to them

and they started

Q. Something not present in your application?A. (Wanted to mention about one of my quality with work related example. Hence,

started with introduction about my workplace and the role I handle. Explained the

quality with 3 examples backing it up)

... They looked happy ... and I felt satisfied with a good start

Q. Your progression from Engr to Sr. Engr? (I had mentioned about my promotion

in one of the essays)

A. (Mentioned about the work I got when joined the job and the kind of qualities I

exhibited during the course of first two years. These things enabled me for the

promotion).. they did not give any expression of approval or disapproval :(

Q. Why MBA?

A. (Told about my career progression till now and the plan which I have in mind

and how MBA will help me reach there)

cross question ....

Q. But then there are people who have achieved that without an MBA? So, why

dont you follow the same path?

A. (Spoke about formal learning, well defined path etc. Backed it up with areference to an alum who has gone ahead in the same path which I want to follow)

Q. So what is the industry you are targetting?

A. Answered the same.

Q. You have mentioned about XYZ quality in one of your essays? How do you

achieve that?

A. (Gave a detailed answer with 2-3 examples to show different scenarios, where I

could show XYZ)

.. they said "good", and I felt "wowwww"

Q. Any questions from us?

asked 3 questions and a couple of cross questions.

So, overall the interview was centered on my profile and my goal. No grilling about

ECs, hobbies etc. A very friendly environment. The interviw lasted for about 25

minutes.

Best of luck for all the remaining interviewees !!s






































Hey Puys

Had my interview on Nov 1st. Two member panel – the dean and a faculty of the

college.

The interview was centered around my work and why MBA. It is the same aseverybody has already posted with questions such as

How has your work experience been ?

Why not continue on the technical side ?

why MBA ?

An area of improvement ?

Some questions on my ECs.

They were very pleasant and tried their very best to make me feel comfortable. I

felt I could have answered a few of those questions in a more crisp manner.

Goodluck to puys waiting for the results.

@Puys waiting for the calls. Just hang in there. We still have time. Goodluck for thecalls and interview.

Please don’t take things written on a lighter note seriously.

Puys / Guys / Invertebrates (aka non contributors – sorry, don’t care)

I am in a good mood without any reason, so will post my i/v experience. A quote

dedicated to the i/v:

Some memories we live not only once but multiple times over…

Reached b4 time, like most people did. Half an hour before the i/v, collected the

essay topic “cloning” and wrote some crap. Thought of using Java clone in

between but thankfully decided against it.

2 of us were waiting. A “maal category” female who just finished her i/v with the

other panel, left her room. The champu sitting next to me was supposed to be the

next bakra after her. Thought “beta tumhe zara mushkil hoga impress karna

(assumption: haven’t heard of a panel of only females).

My turn came. Panel: An alum (A), 2 other ppl (could be adcom/faculty), M(gentleman) and F (lady). In the split second that I had to adjust in the new

surrounding, I guess I noticed a sheet with checkboxes. I guess I saw excellent,

very good, … (basically a sheet to rate candidates, based on diff parameters).

Could be my imagination, but I wasn’t drunk.

Questions:

1) F: how are u this morning

2) F: u r a reapplicant, what was the feedback

3) F: why do u think that was the feedback

4) F: why isb

5) F: rate yourself 6) F: other schools u r applying to (for a split second I thought that this is not “sach










































ka samna” and I don’t have to speak my heart out but gave away the names of

the 5 schools)

7) F: why isb then

F: Do you think u can get placed there, if its isb

9) M: then question based on why I wanted to pursue the specific domain I had

mentioned in the essay [I used a silly comparison, the kind that invokes feeling of

numbness]

10) M: I understand that but wouldn’t that mean …, - One line answer (either M

was like: no point is asking this stupid female, she doesn’t even understand my q

OR ok, fine, that’s ur opinion OR probably ur point is correct but that is not what I

asked OR who creates these ppl, god save isb): basically not sure of his reaction

11) M: q based on EC, what did I exactly do in the charitable organization

12) M: Has it made any diff

13) A: What do I do in my free time

14) A: Was it way back or do u do that now also

15) F: Any q for us (some answered by F, some by A)16) A: From ur app, I can’t see …, have u ever done so and so… (yes, right, in my

300 words I can stuff career progression, short terms goals, long term goals and

why isb and still be crystal clear. Wish I could write in telegram style…)

It was time for bye bye and I gave them the sheet with the essay – though nobody

asked for it. I thought why did the i/v end so soon, was I that bad. When I was out

of the room, I realized it had lasted for 30 mins. Someone was waiting for his turn,

asked me how it went, don’t r’ber what I said. Drank a glass of water.

Never felt uncomfortable during the process but can’t judge how it really was.

Went ahead and had tea, it was good. Thought if a cup is worth 10 bucks, I can

recover the reapp fees by having 100 cups. Silly, get back to normal!

One I composed:

Whether I deserve it, is for them to decide,

Irrespective of the outcome, I am prepared for the ride.

Seriously guys, don’t kill urself over something we have no control on. Another one

I like:Chand khilaono ke khone se, bachpan nahi mara karta hai…

Again, please ignore lines that are not really useful…

hey Puys!

Came back to office today and saw some lively discussion going on in the thread

Had my iv on sunday and had the chance to meet a few active and a few silent puys..was a gud

experience chatting with them...and thnx to the puy who posted abt this Creative serviceapts..its was quite a comfortable stay!Thnx.









































And about the iv exp..

Essay on "music therapy" - wrote something, was not in a position to kill too many grey cells

..besides that "i will die if they ask me one hard question" lady was radiating enuf tension to

make me want a therapy myself ..ok kidding..

The panel had 3 members.One left after a small intro(had a flight to catch it seemed)

The question were based mainly on profile and some current affairs..1.What do u think of the current indian economy scenario?..a lot of minute details followed in

this discussion(went on for around 10 min)

2.How is our eco. related to that of ROW, i mean how well insulated we are

3.What is ur project about/what do you do in it?..generic details,team leading exp,minute

details in a few things

4.Some questions on ECs..very specific to profile..what i learnt from em'

5.Had generic discussions on IT industry and how it was impacted by recession,et al..asked

some specific figures...

6.Do u want to ask something?asked one question(not what i had originally prepared,forgot that

one :( )

There were some small question here and there in the iv which i am not able to recollectnow..and as someone has very well pointed out, " i cud have said that", "i cud have done that"

is seemed like hardcoded in my thoughts...

neways lets see what turns up..but i have started to give some serious thots to contingency

plans..anyone with me??I guess deadlines for some gud schools with starts swooshing by

soon.......

Topic to speak about: Credit Cards.

Panel : 2 people(director and asst. director admissions)Questions all related to my profile: One challenging assignment which they wanted

from more recent assignments. I started off with the one I mentioned in the

essays, but they asked me for a recent one. I also had brief discussion around

activities I do apart from work. Finally = any questions I had. they explained well

for my questions. I/V ended on a lighter note by my saying that it is 5AM in the

morning here.

Hi Puys,

Just finished my interview. My Profile: 700/7+ IT Exp (4 years International)/Client Team Lead/good acads and OK ECs.

It was a telephonic interview with skype thrown in for some fun. 2 member panel

Amit (probably an ALUMNI/STUDENT) and Deepak (Deputy Director - Learning and

Development (I Think)).

Q1: Think for 30 seconds and speak for a minute about Credit Cards. Wish it was

the other way around!!!

Q2: You are a Reapplicant. What was the feedback and whats changed.

Q3: You say you are an SME. I find it hard to believe.

Q4: Would you be able to use your SME expertise to explain the business report to












































a CA.

Q5: What book are you reading. What is it about.

Q6: What was your role in building the project to its current state.

Q7: Where do you see yourself immediately after ISB?

Q8: Any questions for us.

All finished in 13 minutes! All questions from the application itself. Now the nail

biting hair pulling agonizing wait begins. Like many of us here, I dont know

what to make out from this short and sweet (?) interview.










isb interviews by mc

Documents