IIMK interview experience

IIMK interview experience

Venue: Monarch Luxur Hotel, 67, Infantry Road, Tasker Town, Shivaji Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001
Date and Time : 25 Feb 2019, 08:00 AM

CAT18 Score : 99.88
Class 10 = 91.xx
Class 12 = 86.xx
Engineering : 82.xx
Work Experience : 30 completed months as Software Engineer

Document Verification was done very carefully so some people were sent directly for WAT and got their documents verified later. I was one of them.

WAT Topic : Social media : Boon or Bane
WAT was for 25 minutes with no word limit. A big A4 sized sheet was provided and we could write on both sides.
WAT timings :  09:00 to 09:25 AM.
WAT prep : 3/5
WAT performance : 1.5/5 (Serious lack of content and statistics)

NO GD.

Resume writing :  (15 mins) 09:30 to 09:45 AM.
2 questions were given :
1. What is your most creative work at office? Explain. (About 80% of A4 sheet)
2. How your feedback has helped others? Explain. (Entire A4 page)
RW prep : 0 (or -1 maybe)/5
RW performance : 4/5 (Kafi kuch pel dia)

I was the fourth to be interviewed in the panel. Total 12 candidates were to be interviewed by my panel. The interviews were very short for all people before me (7-12 mins).

There were 2 panelists, one male professor who was about 55 years old, another male professor of about 40 years of age.
I was not asked for the documents which I was carrying and kept those on my lap the whole time. They only asked for my IIMK form which had details about me.


Q1: Arora? Are you a Punjabi?
And : Yes I am.

Q2: Which place in India are you from? Beta city bhi batana.
Ans: UP, Rampur.

Q3: Punjabi in UP? Whaaaaaat??
Ans: Told the entire history of how my ancestors came to UP. They were interested in it.

Q4. What all is going in UP?
And : Started telling about CM, his work, they asked me to stop midway.

Q5: Explain 'some random word'.
Ans : I had no idea, told them I don't know.


Q6: Explain Psychology?
Ans : I don't know much about it to talk about, can tell the basic definition. They moved on.

Q7 : Would you mind sharing your CAT percentile?
Ans : Told.

Q8. What is the strategy of Dell?
Ans : Sir you mean product strategy? They repeated the question, and told me to answer in terms of sales. Then they started very minute cross questions ans were not happy wit what I spoke.

Q9: Your company strategy is not good.
Ans: Oh Okay. (In my mind : Sirji java developer hu main, gareeb admi ko kya hi maloom strategy ka.)

Q10. What do you do in office?.
Ans : Told them about my product. One prof said, I don't have a device from your company, so I don't care.( I was stumped.)

Prof :  Okay I am done. Other prof nodded.
I was like abhi abhi to shuru hua hai. 3-4 mins hi hue hai sir.. (in my head : ye kya ho raha hai?)
------------This is where interview ends--------------------------

Prof : You wanna ask something? Remember, you can ask only 1 question.
Mayur : Can you tell me about spiritual subjects taught in K?
Prof : We don't teach. Who told you?

Mayur : Sir, It's mentioned in curriculum.
Prof : Okay maybe. I don't teach.

Mayur : Can you please shed some light on those subjects??
Prof : Kaha se research kar ke kaye ho beta? I am not spiritual. Neither this prof is. We don't know.

Mayur : Some gibberish gyan about IIMK. Meanwhile, I took one prof's name.
Prof : Ye kya ho raha hai? Acha jao yar tum. Tum kafi pad kar aye ho. Niklo ab. Acha ruko ruko, dost hai kya tumhare IIMK me?

Mayur : Kafi hai sir.. I was about to tell names, he was like, tabhi itna bol rahe ho IIMK ke bare me, chal ab nikal le jaldi se, aur darwaza band kar dena.

Duration : 3 mins for interview, 2 more minutes for gyaan.

Interview Prep : 4/5
Interview performance : (ho kya raha hai)/5.

Update :
Verdict  : Straight convert, won't be joining.

SPJIMR-PGDM interview experience | 2019

SPJIMR-PGDM interview experience | 2019

Venue: The Pride Hotel,Richmond Road, Langford Gardens, Bangalore
Date and Time : 14 Feb 2019, 07:45 AM. Plenty of rose-selling kids outside hotel spotted me wearing a suit and asked me to buy roses. Had to crush their hearts by pointing out that I need no roses this year. Maybe next time?

CAT18 Score : 99.88 (Sectionals 97.5+)
Class 10 = 91.xx
Class 12 = 86.xx
Engineering : 82.xx
Workex : 30 completed months as Software Engineer
Specialization : Information Management

Document verification was done very very very minutely. They looked at every detail of every certificate which I shared.

Psychometric test and WAT was to be completed in 30 minutes with no individual time limits.
WAT Topic : Governments have been unable to curb naxalism.
WAT had 300 word limit and we were supposed to finish it on both side of A4 sized sheet.
Psychometric test had questions like how much do you trust others?? Do you speak lies? and the likes.

WAT prep : 2.5/5
WAT performance : 1/5 (Got no points. Managed somehow :( )

Psychometric test Prep : 0/5
Psychometric test performance : Nobody knows.

Group Interview 1. [5 candidates][Panelists : 1 male prof of about 45, one female prof about 45, one male alumni about 35 years old. Both professors seemed like marketing ones, hence asked very detailed questions to marketing candidates]

Details of 5 candidates :
1. Male, Marketing.
2. Male, IM
3. Male, Finance
4. Male, Marketing
5. Male, IM (Yours truly)

Q1  : Introduce yourself (Time limit : 2 mins, were told not to tell whatever is written in the form already)
Ans : Told them about workex, college, hobbies, hometown, career plans. Was done in 60 secs.

From here, grilling started. I am only writing questions which were asked to me.

Q2  : Why IM?
Ans : Related with workex, explained the entire story. They were happy.

Q3  : Where do you see yourself working post few years?
Ans : Told long and short term goals.

Q4  : How will SP help?
Ans : Studies.

Q5  : Give me some examples of product management companies which come to SP.
Ans : Named 2.

Q6  : So what if you get a similar job without an MBA, will you join SP?
Ans : Told them that it will take a long time, plus I might be willing to change from tech to something else in future, not possible without MBA

Q7  : Name your company's competitors.
Ans : Named 3-4.

Q8  : What does a product manager do??
Ans : Full gyan. They seemed happy.

Q9 : Business model of Dell?
Ans : IDK about Dell, but started sharing my product's. They said, not interested and asked someone else, something else.



GI 1 lasted for 30 minutes for all candidates cumulatively.

2 out of 5 people progressed for round 2. Both guys for IM were taken to GI2, others were thanked for their time.

Total 24 candidates reported for GI1 for 9 am slot, and 7 were taken for GI2. 4 out of 7 were from same college in Bangalore, 3 being from same batch.

Group Interview 2. [4 candidates, 1 male panelist about 60 years old and 1 female panelist, about 40 years old.]
Details of 4 candidates :
1. Male, IM (Yours truly).
2. Male, Ops.
3. Male, Marketing/Fin? Don't remember
4. Male, Marketing

Basic intro for 30 secs each

Someone started sales and this is how it went. Mentioning only those questions which were aimed at me.
Q1  : Tell us how you company sells products?
Ans : I said, we don't over-promise, full ethics etc etc. They said YES/NO? I chose to say NO to over-promising.

Q2  : 2 unwanted traits of your future life partner?
Ans : a) Extremely self-centric b) Financial illiteracy. They argued but I explained well.

Q3  : Explain a situation where you were forced/asked to do something which you never wanted to? How did it go?
Ans : Explained a very personal narrative.

Q4  : You mentioned spouses helping each other. Are you okay with taking sabbatical for your kids if your wife is onto her way for promotion?
Ans : YES. Narrated another inside family instance.

Q5 : Define yourself in 2 words (preferably adjectives)
Ans : Done. They started digging it and I lost some calm here. Recovered soon.

Q6  : Situational question. Let's say we at SP don't allow students to apply to those companies off-campus who come for recruitment. Let's say a girl applied off-campus, got a 90 LPA job. What should we do? She broke the rules, but we want the best for her. Also if we relax rules, people wold start doing this more often. But this made the placement burden less for SP, right? Comment.
Ans : Tried beating around the bush. Finally was warned to answer YES/NO kinda answer. Said something on the lines of punishing the candidate and let her face the consequences, so they were not happy with the answer.



Panelists : OK guys, we are done with the interview, you have got anything to ask?

Yours truly asked a philosophical question, they dismissed it politely, making me look stupid. I was really stupid to ask it TBH.

Total GI-2 duration : 25 minutes.

Interview Prep  :3.5/5
Interview performance : (No idea)/5

Update :
Verdict : WL-13, converted in June 2019, won't be joining

CAP interview experience

CAP interview experience

Venue: Monarch Luxur Hotel, 67, Infantry Road, Tasker Town, Shivaji Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001
Date and Time : 13 Feb 2019, 12:45 PM

CAT18 Score : 99.88
Class 10 = 91.xx
Class 12 = 86.xx
Engineering : 82.xx
Work Experience : 30 completed months as Software Engineer

No Document Verification, direct WAT

WAT Topic : Too much scrutiny by activists and constant media glare has been the concern for courts and judiciary. Comment. (Not verbatim, but this is the gist. It was a small paragraph rather than a phrase)
WAT was for 20 minutes with 300 words as the limit. A big A4 sized sheet was provided and we could write on both sides.
WAT timings :  2:10 : 2:30 pm.
WAT prep : 3/5
WAT performance : 1.5/5 (Had no points to write but managed somehow.)

NO GD.

I was the first to be interviewed in the panel. Total 16 candidates were to be interviewed by my panel.
I was waiting for the interview to start from 2:30 till 3:15 pm. I was really impatient since other panels had interviewed 1-2 candidates each by the time I was called.

There were 3 panelists, one male professor who was about 60 years old, another male professor of about 40 years of age and one alumni who was about 30 years old (and he never spoke).
I was not asked for the documents which I was carrying and kept those on a table nearby. They only asked for my degree and engineering marksheets.


Q1: At Dell, what do you do?
And : My team works on a product which collects health information of device and predict failures, saving critical data for organizations and individuals due to system and software crashes.

Q2: Can I register for the product? How? Costs involved?
Ans: Told the exact functioning and told them the cost depends on so many factors, can't tell you the exact pricing.

Q3: Your gross salary is xxxxx per month. Which corresponds to Y LPA. Your total cost of mba would be 15L(fee) + 2*Y, which I think is not very good decision considering the placements. What do you have to say?
Ans: Sir, I think it is an investment and not an expenditure. A career of 30 years is based on this, hence willing to make sacrifice. They counterquestoned if I am really planning to work for 30 years and not retire soon? I said, why not work till you can? They laughed hard.


Q4. What will you learn here?
And : Subjects taught, will help become product manager.

Q5: Explain data privacy and data snooping?
Ans : Privacy told. Snooping? I had no idea, told them I don't know.


Q6: Okay guess what is snooping?
Ans : Looking at things which you are not supposed to? He said, I was almost correct and decided to move on.

Q7. How long have you been in Bangalore?
Ans : Told along with where I did my grad and my schooling and hometown.

Q8: Explain what product managers do? And other industries where they are needed?
Ans: Yes, with some random gyan.

Q9. Rate Modi tenure out of 10.
Ans : I started with budget, they stopped me and said base your answer on 4 years. 7/10.

Q10 : Why 7?
Ans : Told 7 good points, 2 negative. They asked for 1 more negative, I blabbered something which made no sense.

Q11 : You said GST as a badly executed plan. Care to explain?
Ans : How business folks had to maintain 2 books rather than 1 since it was launched on 1 Jul and not 1 Apr.

Q12 : What would have been a better date?
Ans : 1 Apr?

Q13 : You mean 9 months later?
Ans : 3 months early was possible too, right?

Q14 : There were operational challenges, 1 Jul was the best they could have started. What do you think was the best possible date?
Ans : Not sure sir.

Q15 : Do all organizations in India start their FY on 1 Apr?
Ans : I think so. (They started laughing. I said, I am not sure.) Told them that Dell as a company starts in Feb in US. They told me that I am wrong. I told them substantial proof that they indeed start in feb. They said 'It's impossible' or something like that and were displeased.

Q16 : Your hobbies?
Ans : Trek, Cooking and cricket.

Q17 : What do you cook?
Ans : Same pulao story with friends on sunday. They laughed very very hard. I joined them in. The alumni said, 'typical bachelors'.  They said I am a forced cook and asked me how I developed this hobby. Told them with some witty comments.

Panelists : We are done. Do you have any questions for us?
Mayur :  Nope, thanks.

Panelists : Thanks Mayur. That's it.


Duration : 15-18 minutes.

Interview Prep : 4/5
Interview performance : 4/5, Financial illiteracy was very much visible, the rest of the interview was totally peaceful.

IIFT interview experience

IIFT interview experience

Venue: The Pride Hotel, 93, Richmond Rd, Langford Gardens, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560025
Date and Time : 11 Feb 2019, 09:00 AM

IIFT18 Score : 99.9*
Class 10 = 91.xx
Class 12 = 86.xx
Engineering : 82.xx
Work Experience : 30 completed months as Software Engineer

No Document Verification, direct WAT

WAT Topic : One nation-one election
WAT was for 20 minutes with 300 words as the limit. A big A4 sized sheet was provided and we could write on both sides.
WAT timings :  09:10-09:30
WAT prep : 3/5
WAT performance : 3/5 (It was Okay.)

GD Topic : Can MOOC platforms replace conventional classrooms?
GD was for 30 mins, with everyone being given 1 min each randomly to speak.
GD timings : 09:45 to 10:15
Very peaceful, all spoke well.
GD Prep : 3/5
GD Performance : 3/5

I was fourth in the panel. All people before me had 10-15 mins interviews with break of 2 mins in between.

There were 3 panelists, one male professor who was about 55 years old, one female professor of about 45 years of age and one alumni who was about 30 years old (he did all the talking).
I was not asked for the documents which I was carrying and kept those on a table nearby.


Q1: At Dell, what do you do?
And : My team works on a product which collects health information of device and predict failures, saving critical data for organizations and individuals due to system and software crashes.

Q2: Explain to me in simple terms. How does it help me?
Ans: Told the exact functioning and motivated them to try themselves.

Q3: Are you happy with your salary?
Ans: Gave a very balanced answer. (Hint : NO)


Q4. How will IIFT help you become a product manager?
And : Subjects taught, will help become global product manager.

Q5: Data leak issues and data security?
Ans : Fumbled a bit, could not answer well. But they seemed satisfied.


Q6: You're on so many social networks. Do you read all terms and conditions?
Ans : All my accounts are 10+ years old, hence I never read in past as I was just 14 years old then. But now I do.

Q7. Mention your achievements in office.
Ans : Told.

Q8: Will you be open to other sectors apart from product management?
Ans: Yes, with some random gyan.

Q9. Why IIFT?
Ans : Some gyan.

Panelists : Thanks Mayur. That's it.


Duration : 7 minutes.

Interview Prep : 4/5
Interview performance : 3/5, Did not get enough chances to speak.

Update :
Verdict  : Straight convert for Delhi campus, won't be joining.

IIM Bangalore PGP Interview Experience

IIM Bangalore PGP Interview Experience

Venue: IIM Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore
Date and Time : 12 Feb 2019, 02:00 PM

CAT18 Score : 99.88 (Sectionals 97.5+)
Class 10 = 91.xx
Class 12 = 86.xx
Engineering : 82.xx
Work Experience : 30 completed months as Software Engineer

Document Verification started exactly at 01:00 PM and I reached just on time.

WAT Topic : Rote learning is getting replaced by Modern collaborative methods.Compare the merits of both and write a short note.
WAT was for 30 minutes with 250 words as the limit. A big A4 sized sheet was provided and we could write only  on one side. The other side was for rough work. We were given first 10 mins to think and 20 mins to write.
WAT timings :  14:00-14:35

WAT prep : 3/5
WAT performance : 3/5 (It was Okay, could have written more but the space provided was very less.)

I was sixth in the panel. All of us had 25 mins interviews with break of 2-5 mins in between.

There were 3 panelists, one male professor who was about 55 years old, one female professor of about 45 years of age and one alumni who was about 50 years old.
I was not asked for the documents which I was carrying and kept those in my lap for the entire duration.


Q1: At Dell, what do you do?
And : My team works on a product which collects health information of device and predict failures, saving critical data for organizations and individuals due to system and software crashes. I have won xyz awards and initiated abc transformations at office.

Q2: The product which you make covers  or you support other manufacturers also?
Ans: Only dell and the companies which we have acquired. No one outside.
Named a few companies which we acquired. Told their products. How we together are a bigger group and face challenges from competitors. Somewhere mentioned razor-and-blade sales strategy. I don't know why and how.

Q3: when was it launched ??
Ans: For enterprises, 5 years back. For clients, 3 years back.


Q4. What does a product manager do? Why do we need them?
And : Requirement analysis to delivery, explain each step. They seemed satisfied.

Q5: When we were students, we had Computer Science and and now you guys study Computer Science Engineering.What's the difference?
Ans : Fumbled a bit, they asked me to retry. I told them it's about the application part. Earlier, CS was more theoretical. Now application based. They asked me to guess when did we witness this difference by educational institutes. I said, since most product companies started coming to India in early 2000s, hence this chance would be about 15 years old. They simply nodded and said nothing.


Q6: Why don't we have enough products by Indian software companies?
Ans : Lack of enough talent. (They said, we are IIMs. We provide vision and talent)
I said, lack of subsidies and help from govt as in case of China (they stopped me in between and said don't bring govt in between). Then I said, I don't know.

They kept asking me to think more.
I said, Indians do not have market to develop those products for. With new wave of internet with Jio,, most people can now access Internet. That was not the case earlier.
They told it's wrong. I finally said sorry and they decided to move on finally.(Checked online, this was touching the actual reason)

We discussed this for 5+ minutes, they were not willing to accept my answers at any cost. I finally said "Sorry, I can't answer this." They decided to move on. (I was crying on the inside while this was happening.)

Q7. What do you think about moving from traditional IT to cloud technologies?
Ans : Told that we are going this at office.

Q8: Which all industries need product managers?
Ans: Tech, Non-Tech manufacturing like Maruti Suzuki, consulting companies also hire product guys. Most CEOs are basically product owners and basically most product managers go on to become CEO.

Q9. Why do you think IIMB would help you become a product manager.
Ans : Named an elective subject, the prof who teaches and slight contents. They asked something about it, I replied. They were impressed since I knew the name of prof.

Q10. Size of IT industry and who are leaders in service domain?
Ans : Told the size of IT and names of top players

Q11. So you are from Bangalore?
Ans : Been here for 2.5 years, before that engineering in Dehradun, and lived in UP all my life before that.

They commented that how Dehradun and Bangalore have been ruined in last 20 years. I was not asked anything on this, they discussed amongst themselves. I just kept nodding.

Q12. How do Google Plus do? Did you like it as a product?
Ans : Chose 3 parameters and compared. I told them Google will shut it down soon. They told me google has already done that. I asked if support is available? They said they don't know. After reaching home, I realized that I screwed up one parameter. Rest 2 were fine.

Q13: What are your hobbies apart from Dell?
Ans : Cooking and playing cricket. I also told trekking but they cut me in between.

Q14: What do you cook?
Ans: North Indian food. Basic stuff.

Q15: Tell me the steps of your favorite dish?
Ans: Told them the steps to make Veg Pulao. I also told them that it is quite famous among my friends and I prepare it every Sunday for dinner. They said, it's not called pulao. I told them that it tastes nice and we are okay with it and I'm not sure what else is pulav. I somehow missed adding spices and salt (Thought of this after coming out of the interview room).

Q16: Do you play cricket with Tennis ball or Leather ball?
Ans: Both.(Took sometime to reply)

Q17: Do you think we should keep MSD in team for 2019 WC? Why not Rishabh Pant?
Ans: As a player, both are almost similar now. But Dhoni has a unique cricketing mind. A prime example : Last over of 2007 T20 WC when Joginder Sharma was given last over to bowl against Pakistan.

Panelists : Thanks Mayur. That's it. Do you have any question for us?
Mayur : No. Thanks all. :)

Duration : 23-26 minutes.

Interview Prep  :4/5
Interview performance : 0.5/5 (Screwed up badly in the middle. I started shaking when I could not handle a few questions in between, but kept trying to maintain eye contact. 5 mins after the start of interview, I realized I should make hand gestures too.)



Note : There were a lot of small cross questioning and I tried to handle to the best of my will, but failed miserably in a few small questions, hence creating a non-positive impact overall on the panelists. I was done with my interview by 5:25 pm and then met 3 friends there. Finally departed from the lovely campus at 7:30 pm.

Update :
Verdict  : Straight convert, will be joining.