My K.J Somaiya Interview

For College   K.J Somaiya

Course           PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management)

Location of Interview

Venue              IIFT Campus, New Delhi
Slot                  10^th  April, 9.00 am

Profile:

Cat 2010

QA    98.65

VA    82

DI     59.33

Aggregate  90.77%ile

Work experience                      21 months    11 months  Soft Skills Trainer

                                                                       6 months    Verbal Trainer(TCY)

                                                                       4 months     IT (Infosys)

Any Special thing about you:      Infosys Drop-Out by choice. 

Rank-1 in India’s list of most Unlucky people. (Have close to a dozen  rejections to my name).

Topic for Essay   (10 minutes)

Should the marketers advertise in costly IPL matches.

Group Discussion  (20 minutes)

There were 9 people. We were tagged with numbers from 1-9.There were 2 panelists. First, we were to read a detailed case study, one page long & then panelists would randomly call out any number from 1-9, that person would have to give an extempore for 90 seconds regarding the case. After all the candidates were done with extempore, the panelists would signal to start the GD & the floor would be open for the discussion.

(We didn’t get any time for interaction amongst ourselves, so I was scared that this would turn out to be a fish-market.)

Topic for GD  

A person was hired from outside the company to launch an e-portal for accompany which had just one centre of retail in Mumbai. The person left the company before 30 days as he got a better offer without serving the notice period. The company has held back his salary & he has approached an NGO which is ready to fight a legal battle with the company under the labor laws. The company has a 30 day notice-period policy but has a never enforced it before & legal battles tale long time to settle in our country. Also, the position is vacant while the e-portal has to be launched.

1)      What do you think the company should do?

2)      What changes do you recommend in the HR policy of the company?

3)      What can be done to prevent such incidents in future?

(I gave the extempore pretty well. After they signaled to start, yours truly started the discussion. The group was very competitive & all of them could speak well. I pitched in with some 3-4 points in middle, including solutions & changes in the HR policy. After about 18 minutes they told us to summarize. Yours truly summarized the discussion taking around a minute to do the same & the group was happy to listen. I loved to be a part of such competitive group since very few points were repeated & whenever anyone changed or tried to give a direction, the whole group happily relented)

Personal Interview     (13 minutes & 37 seconds)

Panel Members Intro:  2 panelists.  For the sake of convenience I shall call them by :

OP (Old Prof, observant & did most of the talking   40+,  Left Side)

YP (Young Prof, soft spoken & mostly a listener       28+, Right Side)

        I suspect he was an Alumni…

Me (Yours Truly…)

Personal Interview 

ME : May I come in ?

OP  : Yes Please (I walk 3 steps) & Sahil Relax !! , Make yourself comfortable...

ME : (pleasantly surprised at such courtesy) Pleasantries exchanged & I ask the permission to be   seated.

OP :  So Sahil, Tell us something about yourself.

ME: Well rehearsed answer mentioning my inclination towards reading autobiographies of business leaders & watching a lot of inspirational English movies

OP : So, have you seen this movie The Beautiful Mind ?

ME : (Thanked Shashank for giving me that movie in 2^nd Year) Yes, Sir I have seen it..

OP  : Who was the actor in that movie ?

ME : (Stumped..) Sir, I had seen that movie in 2^nd year so can’t recall the name (how the heck could I forget it was Russell Crowe) but it’s about a person who is schizophrenic & develops the game theory. (Was not sure about the game theory thing but still went on with confidence). I also remember one famous dialogue from the movie.

OP : Which one ?

ME : Terrified, Petrified, Mortified, Stupidified….

OP : (smiles & nods)

OP :  Sahil, have you seen the movie Chariots of Fire ?

ME : (with a smiling face) Sir,you won’t believe it, I just finished downloading & will watch it next.

OP : You must watch it. Very inspirational & you will like it.

ME : I will, definitely Sir.

OP :  So, which is the best inspirational movie that you like ?

ME : The Pursuit of Happiness.

OP :  Why ?

ME : (Random Gyaan)

OP : So Sahil, you like reading. Have you read Abraham Lincoln’s autobiography ?

ME : (Pencil, aur ban hero… mat padh political leaders ke bare mein….) Sir, actually I have not…

(All this while YP was listening & smiling)

YP : (comes to my savior…) Sir, actually he likes to read Business Autobiographies…

ME :(thanked him in my heart of hearts… careful with that Idiom...It was asked in CAT 2010. Many got it wrong….)

OP: Oh.. So, which one is your favorite…Which others have you read?

ME : Lee Iacocca is my favorite & I  have read Jack Welch, Micheal Dell & Sam Walton…

OP : Oh Ford..

ME: (could not believe it, he knew about all movies & then had read almost all books. I got to know, that today I was up against a brilliant mind…)

 OP : So tell me about Lee Iacocca ?

      ME: Started & told them how he started from Engineering division & then Sales & went on till the  presidency  of Ford & then saved Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy.

   

     OP : (He wasn’t done with me. Asked everything with a smiling cheerful face ).So what do you  think is Lee’s greatest achievement ?

   ME : Sir, as per me it is saving Chrysler from bankruptcy because that alone would have cost US Federal Govt. millions of Dollars in Employment Welfare. In fact, he convinced the government that either you give us the loan & have a good chance of getting it back with interest or tomorrow morning the unemployment of USA would go up by 2.5% . He also convinced some of his best colleagues to come out of retirement & help him to save Chrysler.

OP: (nodded & smiled)

OP : What would you say was the best moment for Lee Iacocca in his life ?

ME : Sir, the fact that he became so famous that he was asked to run for Presidency of USA.

OP: No … The fact that he paid back the loan very fast..

ME: (could not argue) Yes Sir, infact the line in the book says : the loan was paid so fast that the US Federal government did not know how to cash the cheque.

OP : (smiled & nodded)…

OP : Sahil, how many times did Lee Iacocca get married ?

ME : (ab yeh kahan se aaya... ) I think once only Sir…

OP : No, twice. He remarried after his 1^st wife died…

ME :(nhi aata tha to hero banna jaruri tha… Har jagah apni  PD skills dikhane ki zaroorat nhi  hoti… Janhit mein jaarii  !!!… )

OP : It is there in the book …

ME : Sir, I don’t remember. But I know the fact that all the money raised from the book went into charity.

OP : Yes, you are right..

(Finally, he hands it over to Young Prof : YP)

YP : Sahil, you have read all autobiographies of foreigners. Now tell me about some Indian one..

ME : (aur maaro Style.. ab pta lagega..I knew there were the likes of Ambani’s & Tata’ & Mittal’s but I had not bothered to read about them in my engineering & till date)..

Sir, I won’t call it an auto-biography but I just finished reading about R.Gopalakrishnan. He has wonderfully put down all his learnings in the book .R.Gopalakrishnan has an experience of over 3 decades with HUL.

OP :  Currently he is on the board of Tata’s...

ME : (Could not believe it. He  knew about him as well) Yes Sir…(Explained a bit about what the book was about)\

OP : Did you notice him in the presentation (K.J gave us a presentation about their college before the process.)

ME : No Sir.I think I missed it.

OP : Well, he did come to K.J Somaiya for a guest lecture.

YP : Sahil, now tell me about a movie in which a central character was a Woman & how it inspired you..

ME : (Sir,kya bacche ki jaan loge…) Sir, I remember this movie called “Freedom Writers”.The movie is set in in,I think, 1950’s with a protagonist being a female teacher. In those days, USA was battling Black vs White problem & a law was passed under which Blacks & Whites would study in the same classes. She taught them how to adjust & co-exist & told them the importance of writing down in a diary what ever they felt about the world …

OP : Ok, Sahil  (looking at the profile form).You seems to be interested in Soft-Skills & you train people as well. It seems like you are already into Management stuff. So, why do an MBA. Sahil, MBA is a passing fad. Leave it….

ME : (Arey Sir, is baar agar nh hui to bas…..) Well Sir, I think it is the right time for me to transcend to the next level. I would like to my majors in Marketing. An MBA would give me a thorough understanding of various verticals under marketing which would help to fulfill my long term goal of entering the Marketing function of a company. Moreover, I also feel that if reading books can provide me certain amount of knowledge ,then a 2 year dedicated course would definitely put me in a good stead.

YP   : So Sahil, tell me something about Chandigarh & also 2 unique things about it?

ME : Chandigarh gets its name from the Power of Goddess, Chandika. There is also a place called Chandimandir & hence the name Chandigarh.

Well, unique things about Chandigarh are that it happens to be the only city to have been designed by a single architect Le Corbusier. There have been cities which have been designed by architects but not by a Single Architect.

Also, Chandigarh is the most well planned city known for….

(OP interrupted & said something about Chandigarh, I can’t recall that… Then YP looked towards OP & added that Chandigarh also happens to be the only city which is a Capital of 2-states)

ME : Yes Sir, I was about to add that (How could I forget that at this crucial juncture..Cursed my self when I came out & felt like kicking myself)

OP : Ok, Sahil we are done…

ME : (once again with a smiling face) Thank You Sirs, thank you for your time..

Panel : (Nodded & said Thank You)

ME : (walked 4 steps towards the door & before opening the door, I turned & said) Thank You Sir. It was very nice talking to you.

OP : Oh!! Same here… Very nice interacting with you as well…

       (with the most cheerful face.) All the best & (I think he raised his thumb meaning Thumbs up !!)

Verdict : Awaited

Post Script : Converted !!!