Written by Umang Saini
on 

Interview

I have given very few interview's in my life till year 2007. All that changed in 2008 in which I have already given five till now.

Below is the list of interviews given so far
  1. For admission to St. Gabriels in Roorkee
  2. For admission to St. Mary's Academy in Meerut
  3. For NTSE scholarship in Allahabad
  4. For selection in NDA in Varanasi
  5. For admission to FoE, DEI in Agra
  6. For job as Engineer in MindTree Consulting Pvt. Ltd (Now MindTree Ltd.)
Six interviews in a lifetime till 2007 and now 5 in last three months. Phew. Here they are
  1. IIM-Indore - Feb 12th
  2. IIM-Lucknow - Feb 15th
  3. IIM-Ahmedabad - Feb 20th
  4. IIM-Khozikhode - Feb 22nd
  5. MDI-Gurgaon - March 14th
Pass, Inconclusive, Fail (The results are color-coded)

I had several requests to post the content of these interviews. Here they are. All 11.

a. Admission to St. Gabriels - Who's a doctor? What is a bank? Don't remember the rest.

b. Admission to St. Mary's - About a prize, what bank's do, interests.

c. NTSE - Algebra, Co-ordinate Geometry, Taj Mahal's history, Rural Economics, Indian Literature

d. NDA - Who are you? Interests, aspirations. Case study to manage/plan a trip. Discussion on multiple states in India. Whether they are justified, benefits etc.

e. FoE, DEI - Who are you? Interests. Physics, General Knowledge and Current Affairs

f. MindTree Ltd. - Who are you? Interests. Implement a traffic signal system with live input of traffic volume. Other questions on Micro controllers.

g. IIM-Indore - Social Service. Ramon Magsaysay awards. Baba Amte. Electrical Load forecasting. Generation / Transmission / Distribution. How to add an RFID to Electronic Meters. Permanent magnets in large generators.

h. IIM-Lucknow - Who are you? What does MindTree do? Copyrights and Patents.

i. IIM-Ahmedabad - Who are you? What do you do? How do you do, what you do? Major project in College. Indian Space program and Chandrayan mission. Multiple-states in India, implication. Politics. More Politics. BTW what else do you do. (I blog). Purpose of blogging. More Politics, especially on budgeting for Science and Technology.

j. IIM-Khozikhode - Who are you? What do you do? Exchange rates. Some unknown question on finance. Solution for traffic congestion and road accidents. Explain RFID.

k. MDI-Gurgaon - Who are you? What do you do? History and economy of Agra. Discussion on Indian Agriculture, subsidies, solutions to existing Agro issues etc.

So there you are. There were the things that were asked.

My Preparation - Google Reader. Upwards of 6k items in a month. (300 a day, 250 subscriptions). Reputed magazines, technical journals, news sites, blogs of eminent people in industry. More market news. More gadget news. 75 podcast's.

My rating on MBA interviews - IIM-A , I interviews were amongst the better one's. IIM-K, L were not interested at all and asked dull questions. MDI was in the middle, interviewers were interested but not engaging.

So. I have a 66% conversion in 9 interviews so far, 2 were inconclusive. Don't take my word on preparation. The most important thing is whether you want it badly enough or not.

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US