Round-1 2008-09 Telephonic Interview Experience - 3

This is the interview experience of an R1 applicant who has been admitted to the Class of 2009.

Profile

Acads: Good, BE - Biomed, Gold Medalist in the program MS - Biomed,

USAWork-exp: Healthcare industry in USA - 6.5yrs to date Comprises of R&D, Customer Relationship Mgmt(Mktg) and Program Management

GMAT: 710/5.5

Interview: Telephonic -

She had a phone call scheduled at 6:30am ET. Got a call at 6am from Mr. Srinath preponing it by 15min. Interviewers were Ms. Hima Bindu and Mr. Srinath.

Questions:-

1. Talk about "Sunflower" - spoke only for 3-4 min and used a decent analogy.
2. Then, we went thru my application details. First off, came the standard Q: Walk me through your career progression/ Talk about yourself.
3. Ms. HimaBindu asked me why I didnt want to pursue my career in R&D and why I opted for CRM and Program Mgmt roles. I told her that my initial experience was to build a solid foundation in the healthcare industry and to learn about the products, processes and business. CRM was to enhance knowledge about Customer engagement and to tie in how we make products to what the end user/customer wants, etc. Program Management was to go thru the entire product life cycle development. This is just the gist...but went thru some details... I told her if I wanted to continue in R&D I could have but it wasn't were I wanted to grow in my career.
4. Then the discussion evolved around my goals... Strategic Marketing...she said why not opt for Mass Media... my reply was that Mass Media would be good but not in line with my aspirations. I would like to continue in Healthcare industry and whatever experience I have garnered would help me take the next step - Market research, developing marketing programs for products I already know about, etc. The sole reason for doing an MBA to build a solid foundation in business principles - specifically in my area of interest.
5. She asked me to give an example of a product that I thought was well-marketed... Discussed one... There were some interrupted questions, answered those and went back to what I was initially talking about.
6. Then, we talked about my extra-curricular activities and about the most challenging professional relationship I faced and how I handled it.
7. Then I asked a couple of Q's and that was it.

The interview lasted for about 30min and went reasonably well.