IIM Indore

Although i had attended two B-school interviews by now, but this was to be the first of the ELITE group and Isha Koppikar it was who was to start the great series of talks.

4 of the 10 people had not turned up in our group. I just could not fathom the foolishness of someone missing an IIM interview!.But then i was to learn later of even more bizarre things. One guy who had missed his morning slot(after having turned up half an hour before his actual time at the venue!) was put in our group. So 7 people of which there was one girl.

There were two professors one in his early thirties and the other in his late thirties , very young for the standards of an IIM.

We were ushered into a huge room with three tables arranged in a U shape and one single table far off completing the square on which the two faculty members sat.

The young-prof[YP] addressed us, whilst the relatively-old-prof[ROP] watched the proceedings.

"Please keep only the admit card and the interview form in front of you. Rest of your belongings may be kept aside"

After we did that, he handed over an empty sheet of paper to each one of us and

"We will have a case discussion for 15 minutes. Then you will write the summary of what the group discussed on the last page of your interview form. It should be written in points. You can use the empty sheet of paper as well as the case-paper to make notes while you are discussing.After that we will have interviews in some random order."

He then gave us the caselet and were given 3 minutes to think.

The gun was fired and then launched one of the most boring discussions i have ever been part of.

The case involved an young man on the crossroads of his life and he had to compromise ethics over business.Obviously all Utopian solutions were being thrown around. I tried my best to give actionable solutions, which obviously involve some bit of compromising on ethics part.

Me and one another guy did most of the talking or rather beating about the bush. Thankfully the 15 hours ended and then i realized 2 of us 7 had not talked at all!.

YP Came forward and told the 2 guys to speak.

After they were done he told us to write the summary of discussion. I wrote and then realized i myself could not read what i had written.

The first guy was called in for the interview. He came out and said they were asking too many questions based on your past academics. So did the second and third guys. Me and the other talkative guy started discussing some stuff.


Apparently one of the guys was asked about Bernoulli's equations and so the other guy was trying to explain me.I mugged that shit up even without realizing the fact that that question was asked to that guy and was a possibility that they may ask this other guy because they were from mechanical engineering background. Sigh.

My turn finally came and i walked in...

YP:"Please give me your file and take your seat."

VC:"Good afternoon Sir!"

ROP:"Vishwachetan, please introduce yourself."

VC: Tape Recorder on

ROP:"So if you have to start a Web initiative, how would you go about it"
[Ok, this question was asked because i had written about an entrepreneurial idea that had hit me and about which i had written in the "most significant incident of my life" question of the interview form]

VC:Rattled off the same thing again in vivid detail. Threw in alot of technical jargon knowing the fact that they would not know about it. Talked so fast that they did not even stop me when i said "... that would cost 3000 dollars which is 12 lakh rupees.. and so would require venture funding!"[ Ok readers.. 3000$ = 1.2 Lakh rupees and not 12 lakhs. And a 97+ percentile in Quant. sigh]

YP was neck deep in my file going through every single page.

ROP:"So what are the evils of social networking?"

VC:"Lots of personal information is out there which can be misused by people with malicious intents. Also the fact that people do waste a lot of time on these applications present on these websites"[There was so much more to tell but i just went blank]


ROP signals to YP and he takes over

YP:"So what are the types of networks?"

VC:"Sir, whats the parameter?"

YP:"I am just asking you the different types of networks!!??"[with a quizzical look]

VC:"Lan Wan and Man".Also explained them

YP:"Pan?"

VC:"Sir, what Pan?"

YP:"You have not heard about Personal Area Networks?"

VC:"No sir!"[My bad!.. this was sad!]

They look at each other so surprised and worse they are now worried if i work at the company i say i am working.

ROP:"Do you know the OSI Stack?"

I rattle off the names of layers.

YP:"Ok tell me about the significance of slopes"

VC:"Sir they give relation between the variables"

YP:"What about lines in 3D.. do they have slopes?"

VC:"Sir, all line have slopes. Obviously 3D lines also have"

YP:"So how do we find the slope of a line in 3D"

i smile and say

"i don't know sir"
[Its direction cosines for those of you interested]

YP:"Explain Fourier series"

VC:"A curve defined in the harmonics of its sine and cosine..."

i am cut short

YP:"see... one important thing in management is to use layman terms to explain complex concepts"

I again smile and say "i don't know sir!"

YP:"Tell me about database warehousing"

VC:"Database is a well organized abstraction of raw data"

YP:"I asked you database warehousing... not database"

VC:"I don't know sir"

YP nods his head in disgust.

YP was still going through my file and i guess he happened to see a certain 'Constitution and Professional Ethics' subject in my final sem mark sheet and

YP:"So do you know whose signature is their on the original copy of constitution of India?"

VC:"No sir"

YP:"Make an educated guess."

VC:"Sir, it was written by the drafting committee and so they should have ratified it before handing it over and so i guess the head of drafting committee Mr Ambedkar's signature must be there"

YP:"No.. make another guess"

VC:"Ammm... somebody must have received it from the drafting committee, usually the head of the nation who is president in our case, So at that time it was Mr Babu Rajendra Prasad. So i think its his signature thats there on the constitution"

YP:"How sure are you?"

VC:"I am not sure sir"
[It was Mr Jawahar Lal Nehru, which i found out from my sis. what luck.]

ROP nods at YP

YP:"Alright Vishwachetan... All the best for your other interviews!"

shit!.What did he mean by that.

YP:"Please don't stand back outside the room and leave the venue immediately!"

man oh man!.