Hyderabad Interview Experience - 8

Below is a detailed description of the interview experience of PAK, whose interview was on 30-11-2006 at ISB, Hyderabad.

His Profile:
GMAT: 700 (AWA - 6.0)
Work Ex. : 2.75 years
Extra Curr. : Good

Interview:

"There were only 2 members in the panel-1. Mr. Sanjay singh-(S) 2. Amitesh(not sure if he was an alumni or a current student)-(A)

Mr. Sanjay asked most of the question with just one question from Mr.Amitesh. So here goes the questions...

S: Ok. So you seem to be a person who believes that education has made you mediocre. So why do you want to indulge in another round of education and make yourself more mediocre.

My Reaction:They had gone through my blog thoroughly!! I couldnt help but show my amazement on my face :-)

Answered this quite confidently.

S: So you seemed to have worked in a team that analyses cultural problems in TCS. That sounds so different and interesting. Can you tell me more abt it?

I spoke in detail about the team and what we did there..

S:From your essay i gather you had a music band and looks like you have learned a lot through the experience.Since 300 words were less to address such a topic that is so close to your heart, can you elaborate more on what you learnt from this experience?

I spoke in length abt certain instances where I had to make tough decisions in the band and also about how I handled people of different egos and sensitivities. .

S: Ok assuming you confront a similar situation at work wherein you have to choose between a team member who is smart and has good skill set , but has an attitude problem and a another enthusiastic team member who probably is not so skilled but works for hours to gether without showing results , would you still choose the guy who is less skilled because he is more dedicated?

For this I said that in a professional environment the focus is different and the customer needs to be given utmost consideration. So I would have chosen the guy who was skilled and could deliver the results on time rather than the guy who showed ethusiasm and hard work but cannot deliver towards the end.
However, I said in a band where I was the leader and had the choice to make a decision, I would want ppl with the right attitude in my band since sincerity and
dedication were of utmost consideration to me to keep the band together.

S:Is there anything else you learnt through this experience?

I told him I learnt how to convince and persuade ppl(to sponsor my band) and to not lose sight of my vision and to be perseverant in going behind my goals.

By this time we had crossed about 15 minutes..
Now started the real grilling(at least for me)

S: So you wnat to get into consulting.Let me give you a problem.If I manufacture a pen whose unique quality is that whatever I write with it vanishes after 4 hours,wht do you think could be the market size for the pen in India?

For a moment I was wondering who could possibly use such a pen .. I could not convince myself with my answer but went ahead and said that maybe kids might fancy such pens and could probably buy it. Then I made a very STUPID statement saying that maybe students and ppl in a professional env can use this pen to take notes in class or in a meeting.I then started estimating the market size of each of these groups..

At this point Mr.Sanjay gave up on me and said" Boss,you have strayed TOO FAR from the correct approach and I dont think you are gettin anywhere. Maybe I should reallly take you into ISB just to teach you how to solve these question "

I laughed and said "yes I guess I am stuck.." He then gave theories to argue against each of the assumptions i had made and I realised how stupid i had really been. I had no other optrion but to surrender which I gracefully did..

Mr.Sanjay said "Maybe apart from just writing blogs, you should also start reading some books on consulting " I smiled again and said that i have indeed gone through material to prepare for such questions, specifically the kellogs case book and the material available on the yahoo groups. But I said maybe I was not able to apply these theories in practice. I confessed that I have a lot to improve on this front..

At this point Mr.Sanjay asked Amitesh if he had any questions for me.

A: Have you faced any failure situation at work that was instructive ?

I wasnt quite sure if i got the question right and asked if he could repeat it. He kindly consented and repeated exactly the same words :-)

I narrated an incident where i could not meet the deadline while working on my first assignment and how one of the factors for the failure was because I could not get along with one of my team members who was a bit bossy and authoritative. I told them that i was new to the project and did not knw much abt the product on which I worked. So I was aksed to get tutored under this team member . But the way he put me under constant pressure and hurt my confidence did not allow me to learn eficiently but instead made me question my abilities. I told them that I did not raise this issue to my supervisor then as I was not confident of openly confronting a conflict with a co-worker ,especially when I was new to the team and to the professional environment. But when I missed the deadline because of such conflicts , I realised that it was high time i raised this issue to my boss, which I did. And later we had an open discussion with the team member and sorted out the issue.

(Personally, I feel I neednt have quoted this incident -I feel it is actually quite irrelevant to the question and the situation does not really qualify as a failure. )

Finally Mr.Sanjay aksed me if I had questions for the panel.

I asked him the following
1.You are facing an increasing no of applicants each year. Do you think you would be able to invest so much of time and energy in evaluating an applicant as
thoroughly as you currently are? If tomorrow you had say 1.5 L appl just like the IIMs, would you stil be able to give each applicant a fair chance as you currently do?
2.Would experience be a major criterion while selecting ppl for the wharton global consulting practicum? Your website mentions a competitive process through whichstudents are selected for W-GCP. Could you please explain to me the process?

I received a very diplomatic answer for the first question.Answer to the second question was pretty detailed and satisfactory.

After this I thot I ll stop questioning them but then my curiosity got the better of me and I asked Mr.Sanjay "Could you please tell me how to apprach the case
question you asked me? "

He laughed and said "If i did, I knw it will be on your blog tomorrow " But after a moment of hesitation he glanced at Amitesh and said "Ok. Let me tell you this much at least. When I told you about the pen, did it not strike you to ask me what the pen 's cost was? "

I lierally wanted to remove my shoe and hit myself .. How Could I Have missed such a basic thing? I wondered.. I could do nothing but flash a big smile at
Mr.Sanjay and concede that my common sense defied me today "

He smiled at me and said ," All that we look for is a structured thot process"

And then he said it was a pleasure interviewing me and I said this interview has been a great experience for me too...

I shook hands and left the room... A moment later , I realised I had forgotten to give them my essay sheet.My topic was "The election comission of India ".I went
back , knocked and went in.. Mr.Sanjay aplologised for not remembering to collect it during the interview itself.."

And then the Ordeal ended...

And personally I feel so has my ISB saga. :-)

Overall feeling: I should have prepared a lot more on case interviews because i goofed up big time on this one. and the interview panel made it very clear to me that they werent happy with my performance on this front. To an extent they even made sarcastic comments on the same.

But I must confess I had a great experience interviewing with them and in fact found the interview very interesting ... I maintained a cheerful disposition all the time, at least i dint feel intimidated by the fact that I didnt do the case question well.. "