Postmortem - My Interview Experience

For the benefit of the propsective applicants for ISB, I have analysed my interview as follows.

Before going further, I would like to give my profile

Age : 34
Marital Status : Married
GMAT - 660 (AWA-5.5)
Undergraduation : IIT, Kharagpur (1993)
Work Exp. :- 8 months in ECIL in Corporate R&D
9 years in Income Tax Department as IRS Officer

Extracurricular activities : Not bad
Achievements : Lot many
Specialisation : Taxation, Accounting, Banking Enquiries, Investigation of Tax Frauds,Analysis of Financial Statements
Post-ISB plans (were): Work for 2-3 years in phrama or IT realted industry and then start my own venture

Now, coming to my interview, it lasted for 45 minutes and I answered all questions confidently except one question on benchmarking, which I did not know. At the beginning of the interview, they said that I have a good profile and also that they are looking for people like me. But at the end of the day, I could not get it. Then I wondered what could be the reasons. Then I remember that Ms. Hima Bindu from Adcom stressed on my placement post-ISB as I said that I want to change my career, work for two to three years in private sector and then start my own venture. She asked my "are you sure you want to work only for two to three years as I have to give my recommendation to the placement cell?". Then I said "yes". The main reason for my rejection, it appears, is placement.

After the interview is over in respect of an applicant, the interview feedback is combined with the application evaluation, including your essays. The final call is made after a meeting is held by the admission commitee with the Dean and management. In the final call, the main aspect seen is how to increase brand value of ISB. In this respect, whether ISB can place you well after completion of PGPM is also one of the factor. Myself being in Government Service for almost 10 years, it may be difficult for ISB to place me properly post-ISB. I can also give one more live example of my friend whose experience was 10 years with present salary of around Rs. 15 lakhs who could not get into ISB. Here also the placement played a major role.

Many of the high salaries in ISB are from international placements and mostly in consultancy sector. For consultancy, most of the companies who are coming to ISB are looking for placements at junior level management, suitable for candidates with 3 to 4 years experience. In fact, the upper age limit for any consultancy job is around 30 years as it involves lot of travelling, extended working hours etc. They know that I will not be able to shift my family at this stage of life. Hence, they thought that ISB may not be able to provide me suitable placement for me in India.

I sincerely advise the prospective applicants to introspect whether ISB can give you the proper placements.