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
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
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