IIFT - The Talk

I had given 3 interviews before - all technical. This was to be my first B-school interview. What made it special was that this was the only school giving a true "MBA" degree. If you didn't know rest of the b schools give you a diploma.

Went and sat in the conference room. Fellow competitors, few old professors and alumni.

An old professor addressed us

"You will be divided into 3 groups of 12 each. First you will have a group discussion and then an interview. Our group discussion is an hour long unlike other places which have it for 10 minutes where the people are expected to shout. We want our students to take a stand and not say yes for everything. In the group discussion you will be judged on 5 parameters - content and not aggression, articulateness, team play, moderation and body language. You will have two professors and two alumni for your entire process. All the best!"

We are made it to sit in order around an oval table with our registration numbers in front of us. A professor addressed us

"We will have GD in this way. First each one of you will speak for 2 minutes on the topic in order. Then each one of you will moderate the discussion for 2 minutes in a different order that i will choose. The moderator will be recognized by this red flag which will be kept in front of him for the 2-minute duration Then you all will summarize the discussion for 1 minute in the original order."

He then brought out a sealed envelope and handed it over to a guy to tear it. To everyone's surprise that guy struggled before which the professor snatched it back and showed it to him "You tear it like this!"

The topic for the GD was
"Impact of rupee appreciation on Indian economy"

The first guy started..

"See the purchasing power parity of India... which is defined as..... blah and blah..." He had learnt it and he had to tell it no matter what!

24 minutes got over.

"why don't we start the moderation with you" .. said the professor pointing to a girl next to me which meant i would be the last to moderate.

Surprisingly barring one other guy nobody else knew what moderation meant. They again spoke non-stop for 2 minutes. The sad part being that the others after that guy who did moderate properly also did not look at him and learn. 5 of them didn't even realize the flag was kept in front of them.

when the conclusion part was going on, a huge tall dark and imposing person in a brown business suit walked in and stood in the corner of the room and watched the proceedings. We later came to know it was the dean of the institute.


I was third to go in for the interview.

A Lady professor ushered me into the room. I expected to see 4 and i saw 6!. from my left to right sat the Dean, Vice-Dean, Lady-Prof, Alumni-1, Prof, Alumni-2.

Alumni-1 and Alumni-2 looked dapper in their business suits and blackberries in front of them. All of them had a copy of the interview form that they had gotten us filled days back. It had few basic questions on why management, an event that changed your outlook towards life, hobbies, contributions to social causes etc.

So Alumni1 told me to introduce myself and then the

lady-prof:"Your parents still live in the village?"

VC:"Yes Mam"

Lady-prof:"So what is this some kind of upcoming village, like a town or something?"

VC:"No Mam, Its a very small village... not more than 50 houses for sure"

She had this look on her face. she was just not ready to believe that i come from a village.

Lady-prof:"So tell me the 3 problems that need to be immediately addressed in rural India"

VC:"I actually feel..."

Lady-prof:"Just 1 2 3...{cuts the air on her hand three times}... no stories"

VC:"Education, Healthcare and Infrastructure... In that order."

Then few questions on my work, my employers and my business unit and the problems faced by large corporations in getting work done as opposed to start-ups etc were discussed

Then the talk somehow veered towards the cottage industries, employment in villages, geographical patents of India and how come we have not been able to capitalize on it.

This was a true blue "foot in the mouth" experience..

"I think there is a basic flaw in the marketing. I mean lets take the example of Mysore silk which is a geographical patent. Why do we have to market Mysore silk as Mysore silk sarees, why not Mysore silk Lingerie"

Dean and Vice-Dean of the college, a lady professor who i found out later was a marketing genius of the college!,a split second of silence , the two alumni look at each other and before it could get worse..

".. and skirts,shirts etc"

And i would not have been surprised had they told me that the interview was over and i could leave.

IIFT and NITIE were the only two institutes of the ones i attended where the panels that take your GD and PI are different and so it does not give you an edge in the interview if you smashed your GD nor does it kill you if you screwed it.

But then i had the Dean visiting my GD before and he was also in the interview...

Dean:"Did you prepare for the GD topic before?"

VC:"No sir... Just that our sector is badly affected and so we do discuss about over lunch"

Lady-prof:So how is your employer handling it?

VC:"Our main markets are Asia/Africa where we sell in local currencies and so this rupee appreciation has not affected us much".sigh.

Alumni2:"So you have read 'To kill a mocking Bird'.... Tell me what the book is about"

I felt that i had already shown i am a chauvinist by using words like 'Lingerie' in front of a lady before and so didn't want to talk about that incident in the book at all.

VC:"Its the story of a lawyer told from the eyes of his daughter about his fight against a racist society in the southern maycomb county in the thirties"

Alumni2:"No no.. tell me about that incident"

shit!. You asked for it sir, not my fault and i went

VC:" An innocent black man is accused of RAPING a white girl. The whole society knows about it but still wants the black man punished for racist reasons and atticus finch is trying to convince them to stand on the side of the truth". Ufff.

Alumni2:"Who is the author?"

VC:"Sir... Harper Lee"

Alumni2:"he or she?"

VC:"Female sir"

Alumni2 smiles and looks down. alumni1 and lady-prof look at Alumni2. Alumni2 looks at them and says

"He is right"

Lady-prof:"alright.. we are done!.. Can you go back to the room and tell the girl to come over and stand outside the room?"

VC:"Sure Mam"

Went back and gave the girl crisp instructions and dashed back to the house. I was about to board an airplane for the first time in my life!.