IIM Shillong GDPI Experiences

gdpi
Free WAT PI Workshp by Cetking ———————————————————————————— IIM Shillong GDPI Experiences Venue: Delhi Hotel Mantra Amaltas, Friends Colony (W), Mathura Road (For people who have a problem finding it, its right on the main Mathura road. If one is going towards Ashram from Faridabad, it will be on the left about half a Kilometer before the Ashram red light. Use the service road to access it. A guy I spoke with, had trouble locating it) Profile 10th: 85.16% (Had 6 subjects) 12th: 90.25% (Had 6 subjects) – Science with Economics Graduation: 63.7 (Delhi University) – B.A (Hons) Economics CAT 2014: 97.16 %ile sh Work Experience: 17 Months with a world reputed Financial Research Firm. ECA: I would rate myself 10/10 on this. I have been very good at extracurricular activities across all spectra right from school itself. Have won tons of competitions and have two files of certificates and stuff. Waiting Area and Verification Process There’s a noticeboard outside which directs people to the waiting area in the basement. Pretty decent, had some books (Sort of a mini library), a non functional pool with very little (and dirty?) water (-1 for the Hotel Management). Parent’s and guardians can also wait here along with the candidates. Although the reporting time was 8:30, I reached by 8:20. The moment I stepped in, I saw that there were already 30-40 candidates already seated (Woah, you guys really are punctual! ) I had barely managed to seat myself in the front row (since all the back benches and other mid seats were taken ), then a guy dressed in a IIM Shillong T-Shirt came in and started the process. The guy was extremely professional and polite. Wow just wow. I was amazed at this guy. He was the perfect opposite of a typical Indian college babu that I have dealt with through my college life, govt offices and SBI Banks :P. He was cheerful, bright and extremely polite ( to the point of apologizing in advance in case he pronounced names incorrectly since he was from the North East and not very good at names). He made us feel very comfortable, offered tea, coffee to the candidates and the parent’s/guardians. (+1 Respect for IIM Shillong) He outlined the basic process of the interview. He would take the roll call and we had to approach him and present the Call Letter, the Interview Form and the Photo ID. He took the form but returned the photo ID and the call letter. We also had to sign the attendance sheet along with filling in our CAT IDs. Also he announced that before entering the interview room, we would be required to switch off our mobile phones, as failure to do so would result in disqualification. The interview panel may ask for your phone at any time and if they find it is on, you would be chucked out. Although we could use them while waiting. Although my name was in the middle of the list, I asked him by what time my interview would be over (since I had to arrange for transportation accordingly), he surprised me saying that I would be one of the first. I had barely grabbed a glass of water then one of the panel members came in and took 3 of us for the interview to the third floor. I was third in line and had to wait in an area adjoining the interview room which was spacious, airy and bright. I walked around the room and had a nice view of the area. The interviews had started sharp at 9:00 AM and the first candidate was called in. Now since I was one of the first, I can assume that there was only one panel as I barely had time to loaf around and check out what was happening. Although others on the forum have reported three panels. Interview P1: Male Professor (Late 20’s – Early 30’s) – The one who took us from the basement to the interview. Never smiled. Could not identify him later on as his photo was not on the website. P2: Female Professor (Middle aged) – Warm and nice. I could later on identify her from the website. Smiling. P3: Male professor. (Mid 30’s) – Cordial and helpful. Smiled too. I could identify him later from the website as well. M : Me (Yours truly, Bellator) I was feeling confident, relaxed but with a few butterflies in my stomach ( normal for me ) I entered, closed the door and waited by the chair to be seated. Wished them while smiling and maintaining eye contact. They asked me to sit and then asked for my certificates. I had already arranged my certificates in proper order and handed them over. P1: I see that you have been a quizzer, so you must be well updated. M: (Smiled) I try to be, Sir. P1: So spectrum has been in the news. Tell me about spectrum. M: Spoke about the 2G allocation process by the previous government and the new one. Spoke how it is a resource for the government etc etc. Mentioned open tender and sealed bid auctions. P1: What is the difference between this open tender and auctions by the different governments. M: Explained well using examples. Mentioned Dutch auctions as well. P1: Ok tell me about Nathuram Godse. Why has he been in the news? M: Told about right wing Hindu groups installing an Idol and a mandir of him in Mathura ( Later on I checked and it was Meerut, but I guess it didn’t matter much :/ ) P1: No. No. Leave that aside. Tell me more. Why has he been in the news for the past 6-8 months? M: (Flummoxed as I had just told him!) Sir, As last year a right wing Hindu govt. came into power they would push for their agendas. P1: (Not looking convinced at all): Tell me more. At that moment P3 interjected. (Thank you P3!) P3: Tell me your opinion on Nathuram Godse. M: Gave a balanced answer as how some see him as a hero and how he moved people to tears at his trial vs how he took the path of violence and assassinated the father of the nation. P3: Dont give me a politically correct answer. Tell me your views. What do you think? M: I believe it is wrong Sir for anyone to take up the path of violence. He assassinated the father of the nation and I believe that the punishment and justice that was meted out to him was fully justified and I stand by that. P1: I-S-I-S. What message are they trying to send? M: Gave a full lecture on Arab politics, history, US Invasion of Iraq, Shia-Sunni conflict etc etc. P1 nods to P3 who nodded to P2. P2: So you are from economics background? M: Yes Ma’am. P2: Tell me about the Laffer Curve. M: Aced this one. Told some nice trivia about it as well. P2: How is the Laffer Curve different from the Engel’s Curve? M: Told her that its been a while since I have studied economics. But could hazard a guess. Told that Engel’s curve deals with Income inequality which is very different from the Laffer curve which deals with taxation. ( I was partially correct, Engel’s curve deals with Income and demand not Income and inequality) P2: So where do you draw the line between Micro and Macro Economics? M: (Took a few seconds to gather my thought and answered well) P2 then asked about the Look East policy then a few hypothetical questions. Eg. If you were the central banker of this country which policy would you follow etc etc. P3: Talked about my ECA after going through my certificates and publications, and how I manage my time etc. We had a nice chat about life, time and our pursuits and desires. Then he went on to ask me about my job, job satisfaction in it, what I had learnt from my job, my role, then mergers and acquisitions about my company and its parent which is based in New York. I was well prepared for all these and I answered well. He knew more about my company than I did but I somehow managed to dodge that bullet because a lot of events took place before I had joined! They thanked me and asked me to leave, returned my certificates, and I thanked each of them in turn. (P1 did not even look at me, while the others smiled and were warm). While I was halfway to the door, P2 offered me a toffee. I smiled and declined since I was almost at the door by then. (I think she looked a bit surprised that I had declined). Overall I felt it went quite well, I was relaxed, smiled and maintained eye contact for the most part. I guess it lasted about 25 minutes and I was out by of the Hotel by 10:10 (pretty neat ) All the best to all of you who have yet to give their interviews! ————————————————- Profile 10th 87.85% 12th 94.20% Final Year B.Com.(Hons.), Delhi University: 76.5% CAT 98.45 percentile.. . Verification Process The waiting area was pretty cool what with a pool and all Only one guy came in to do the verification. He called out the names one by one and he checked the: Call Letter. Form. Identity Proof. That’s it. The weird thing was he was matching the photo in the form with the id for like 10-15 seconds. Everyone who was wearing glasses was asked to take them off for the ‘photo matching’ Also some informal chit-chat about other calls, India’s chances in the world cup. After that we were asked to wait. Candidates were called in batches of 6-7 at a time for each panel, there were three floors. Panel A,B,C respectively on floor 1,2,3. Once our name was called we were taken to a second waiting room. Candidates were being interviewed one by one out of the 6-7 and the others had to wait. So, if your name is 5th or 6th in the group, then good luck, because you’re going to be waiting for a long time. Interviews ranged from 20-30 minutes. Panel C Three panelists. P1: Male professor. (Mid 40s) P2 : Female professor. (Late 50s) P3: Male professor. (Late 50s) All three were warm and cordial. Asked for my certificates, so I started unzipping the folder and they were like no problem hand it over, we’ll see what to do. SO, ARRANGE YOUR CERTIFICATES PROPERLY IN A FOLDER IN WHATEVER ORDER YOU DEEM FIT. But don’t go in without arranging them. Would give the wrong impression. Include all the achievements, accolades, extracurricular certificates that you want them to see. Anyway coming to the interview, my experience was so far from baseline that I wasn’t even sure whether I should share it. I mainly talked to P1, a little bit to P2 and I don’t think I talked to P3 at all Things I remember that we talked about: Tell me about yourself. They said if I am non-judgemental then what would I do if a team member was incompetent. . Delhi elections and how if Arvind Kejriwal decides to take the city for a ride, how we can do nothing about it.They told me to suggest amendments in the constitution to ensure that doesn’t happen. ‘Finding yourself’ They were like we know that’s a supremely heavy question but tell us what have you really found out about yourself. Our place in the universe. They said we see your ethics but sooner or later you will have to kill your conscience to survive in the corporate world. What would you do then? Something related to compassion. Some other philosophy related things like asking the right questions on the level of the universe.Connecting the dots on a macro level. Something about thinking so much at the age of 20. Also about how maybe my personal goals and professional goals don’t align properly. They said you’ll probably end up in a social organization sooner or later. Yeah also something about materialism and what money meant to me. Why not join IIM Himachal instead of IIM Shillong. What do you know about IIM Shillong? What is CAD? Why was it high last year? (Only question that was even remotely related to acads) Vivekanand’s teachings. Whether I had read any of his books. (By the way I didn’t mention or bring him up either in the form or PI ) Something about three things in the Gita that lead to divinity. (Who knows such things Jesus) Interacting with different kinds of people, people with lives completely different from my own and getting kinds of perspectives from it. They offered a toffee at the end. For some fucking reason I said have a nice day when they said best of luck.(Why, why?!) Way heavier discussions than I expected, P2 at one point was like okay wooh let’s move down to something lighter. But we came back to it pretty soon anyway. Lol. As atypical an interview as possible. Don’t know what to make of it. Don’t care that much anyway. Only advice is to go through your form properly and see what they can bring up. Oh and arrange your certificates properly. Best of luck to everyone Do well! ————————————————- Done with my Interview. Interview Date and Location : 7th Feb , Mumbai (In a Hotel Management Institute) Around 25 aspirants turned up and as per the Sir, who was doing the registration Part, It was a good attendance. Things to take positively: Call Letter, Print-out of Filled in Form, ID Proof, a Photograph At registration, they were informally interacting with us and they asked everyone what other calls do we have. My Experience: Traveled in the morning from Pune to Mumbai for the Interview, reached at 11 a.m for 1.30 p.m interview. Nice that they had a fully air-conditioned waiting room, relaxed there for 2 hours I was the 1st one to be interviewed , was called for registration. Realizing I’m a bong, the Sir at registration desk started chatting with me in Bengali and also asked what would be your preference of Institute for Joining ( had multiple calls). Interview: 3 panelists (p1- Current Affairs Guy(Middle aged, tough to understand what he was saying, different accent), p2- Acads Guy(Smart Stud, No-nonsense guy), p3- Work-ex Guy(Very very old professor, he must be in his 80s) Moment I entered, p3: Hi XXXX, How many times have you wrote cat before? Me: 2 Sir, this is my third attempt p3: Didn’t you get through before? Me: Answered (Seemed convinced) p3: Engineering in Chemical, working in analytics, mis-match, why? Me: Answered p1: Obama in news again after India visit. Why? Me; Answered p1: Asked about something- couldn’t understand what me meant(accent and also never heard anything close to that) Me: Don’t know Sir p1: Muslim population in Bengal? Me: Don’t know Sir (What was he thinking?) p1: Should Indian and Bangladesh join together? Me: Answered p1: What are the advantages? Me; Thinking- He comes back with another question p1: Recent Nagaland-Myanmar border issue Me: Never heard about it Sir (Was he serious?) p1: What impact would India have to have friendly relation with Myanmar? Me: Answered(He looked convinced) p1: I’m done, hands over the baton to p2 p2: Heat Transfer and mass transfer related questions Me; Sir, long time, not in touch (I’m having 20 Months work-ex) p2: Smiling, atleast what are the modes of heat transfer? Me; Answred p2: write the equations Me; Wrote for 2 out of 3 of them p2: Y Victoria memorial is turning yellow? Me; After some thought, tried to answer p2: tell from a chemical engineers point of view Me: Answered (Seemed satisfied) p2: Draws a graph, asks to write the equation of the same Me : Done p2: I’m done, passes the baton to p3 p3: Compared to 10, 12, graduation marks less Me: Explained p3: I see a Subject called statistics in your grade card, Can you tell me what you studied? Me: Hypothesis testing……. p3: Directly? Me: No Sir, initially types of variable p3: What is that study called? Me: thinking p3: Scale of measurement, he explained y. How many types are there? Me: 4, but could name only 2 (Damn me) and also couldn’t explain the exact definition (Felt very very bad here, was in my domain, should have answered it smartly) p3: What work you do? Me: Explained (Talked a lot here) p3: tried to grill, asking why and how in between. Me: Answered (He seemed convinced initially but at the end, looked exhausted) p3: List 3 things you learnt from your work-ex? Me: Answered with example They were having a casual reply to every learning Okay XXX, we are done. P1: take a candy About to leave, p2: Do you know any of your college senior in IIM-S? Me: after some thought, No Sir! p2: Okay, Thank you My Take: Being the first one, the interview went for quite a good amount of time. The faculties were not that interactive, I was speaking a lot throughout the Interview, they were more/less listening. Once each of their part was done, they were busy going through my Certis. p3 seemed tough to satisfy, p2 stopped him at the end, else it seemed p3 would still go on quizzing me. I felt the overall experience was good except the Stats part, I should have smartly answered that. it made me feel very very bad the moment I left the center. Puys, I don’t know, what to take from it? What do u guys think? —————————————————– Interview date : 5th feb mumbai morning slot. no of panelists=3(p1,p2,p3) most of my interview was on current affairs and i hardly could reply to any !! very few questions on acads and that too very basic as i guess he was not aware with my engg. only one question on job role. current affair questions by p2- reason for dip in oil prices, US-cuba & us-Vietnam relationship( point blank ) , eurozone crisis ( was cut in between because i guess i was leading in a wrong way) , qs from p1 was on hobbies – tell me about yourself, which sports do u play, autobiography of alex ferguson( point blank) , drought regions in gujarat as i was from gujarat( point blank) qs from p3 on tech – describe your job role, drew one figure and told me to explain the process ( very simple) interview length – approx 15 mins ( given the weightage of 70% criteria how do they judge the person in so less time, well anyways as i replied dont know to many of the questions they were done with me ) but seriously no question on acads or work ex was a big let down. my interview current affair based and as i said no to many qs is where i lost iim shillong itself PS: was offered a chocolate in end which implied that “Beta ham terko admission to dene se rahe please ye chocolate rakhlo aur khush raho.” —————————————————– I m third year of banking and insurance. Had my IIM Shillong interview in the morning. Number of interviewers in the panel:3 Length:15-20mins Questions asked PI: Current affairs 50%,Acads 50% They bombard you with questions from right ,center,left. —————————————————– I had my PI today at mumbai morning slot. The process is pretty smooth and there were no issues whatsoever. DO CARRY A PASSPORT SIZE PHOTOGRAPH. They have not asked to bring it but there they ask for it(though it is not compulsory) PI are not first come first basis. They have a list and they go according to that. I was last on the list and so my pi was last. There are 3 panels and each panel has 3 panelists. Things to prepare:- 1) Acads:- They will look at your marksheet and ask anything from any subject on that marksheet 2) Work ex: know your job role, About your company history etc. 3) Current affairs: I was asked about NITI ayog, World’s largest refinery. 4) Standard ques:- Well not much is being asked. Tell me about yourself is the thing which was asked and that to not too many people. others like Why MBA or why should we select you etc. is not being asked that much. My Pi lasted for hardly 10 min. Others pi also ranged from 10-15 min. Other current affairs asked to other people were of US-Cuba, Modi, Environment related opinion, delhi elections. VERY IMP for CA:- Prepare political current affairs and opinions about it. Overall i don’t know what to make of my PI. So fingers crossed. —————————————————– Hi Guys, It has quite a long time since I sat down in front of my system to blog and much long since I read other’s blog posts. I decided to pen down my experience of attending the Group Discussion and Personal Interview for IIM Shillong. After getting a decent CAT score of 95.4 percentile, I thought that no IIMs would call me for the next process. A few days later I received a mail from IIM-S, stating that I have been selected for GD and PI and I was excited. And I was allotted the most special day of the year for GD and PI. It was February 29, a day that comes only once in four years. The venue was Bangalore and it ended up to be my first visit to Bangalore, after two failed attempts during the previous years which were cancelled due to various reasons. I was in the afternoon batch and I reached the venue by 1 pm (we were supposed to be there by 1.45 pm). The venue was Institute of Hotel Management and the place of interview was maintained so well. I was the third person to reach and the whole atmosphere was so nice and fear started creeping inside. Slowly other students started coming and by 1.35 all the students were assembled. There were totally 20 boys and 4 girls. A representative from IIM Shillong introduced himself and took attendance. I prayed silently that my name should come in the beginning and it came up at around 18th position and I was quite upset. He said that professors would come up and call the students for their respective groups. He also said the process may take time and asked us to comfort ourselves and there refreshments were available nearby the waiting place. A professor came out after some time and called Karthick and I was left shell shocked as I never expected this after the attendance list. After that he called seven other guys and took us downstairs. We waited for some 5 minutes before he called us in and arranged us according to the positions. There were 6 boys and 2 girls. I was left in the corner as I was the first. The topic was related to genetically modified crops. There was a half page write up stating its advantages, disadvantages, etc. We had to write a case study for 10 minutes. It took me some 2-3 minutes to read and then I started to write. I started writing neatly and towards the end started scribbling. However I wrote for a page and concluded it properly. Next GD started and the time was 15 minutes. After a good initiation by a boy, another boy and a girl started pouring and they were dominating not allowing the rest to come in. I and some other boys waited and then jumped in. The dominating persons had said all they had and then they were left empty minded. 15 minutes was a huge time for a group of 8 and so all others ended contributing some good points. I chipped in with 4-5 points with some examples. Everything was good except that no one took care of the time. No one summarized the GD and it ended abruptly. After that we were asked to wait outside and we were informed that interview time were 25 plus or minus few minutes for a candidate and the order would be the same. I came out and was speaking with two of the neighbors and it relaxed my mind completely. Some 5 minutes later, a professor came out and called my name. I went in, greeted the professors and they asked me to sit. There were three professors and lets call them P1, P2 and P3. P2: Introduce yourself. Before that pass your file to P3. Me: I started introducing within a minute I was stopped. P2: So, you call yourselves an efficient blogger? Me: yes sir, I have been writing a blog based on …….. for the past 30 months. P2: So, how do you called efficient? Are there any parameters? Me: Said about rankings, communities, hits, comments, etc. P1: you have put you are interested in photography. What type are you interested in? Me: general photography… went on saying few things… later, thought could have given a better answer, after thinking what I really do… P2: farmers using BT Cotton are said to commit more suicides (related to GD)…. But it is not so… even other farmers do commit… what do you think is the reason? Me: explained using government policies, climate change, crop price, etc P2: some farmers commit suicide so that their family will get compensation. What do u think? Me: expressed my thoughts on government policies. P2: asked few questions on the farms… P1: so, do you know about banking? Me: yes sir P1: so, what banks do? Me: explained deposits, loans, etc P1: what do banks do when someone fails to repay the loan? Me: explained about securities they get when giving loan. P1: what is RBI? What do they do? Me: explained they govern all the banks… banks have deposits… can take loans, etc P1: who prints the money? Me: RBI P1: where is money printed? How much money is printed? Me: at Nashik… it depends on lot of parameters such as economy, liquidity… P1: so what is ISRO? What do they do? Me: expanded and said about space research. P1: government spends a lot of money on research… is there any use? Will we make any profits? Me: said some of the possibilities of getting money… P1: what is DRDO? Me: explained… P3: how do you manufacture a pencil? Me: (luckily have seen the video on youtube)… explained… P3: asked few questions on process planning which we haven’t studied… Me: haven’t studied those things P3: so, what did you study in process planning Me: (suddenly everything went blank) P3: so, what did you study in cost estimation? Me: Suddenly remembered process plan and answered for that… P3: so, how to calculate standard time? Me: gave a half satisfying answer P3: what are fixed and variable costs? Me: answered with a good example… P3: how to manufacture a gear cutting tool? Explain me the process Me: (went blank for few secs)… said donot know P3: what are the subjects you study now? Me: said P3: what is preventive and breakdown maintenance? Me: (was in confused mood) answer idiotically for this easy question. P1: gave a case study on products, maintenance, costs… Me: didn’t understand and asked again… P1: repeated more clearly Me: answered quite well P2: (was looking at clock… think it was 25 minutes)… Thank you Karthick. You may leave. P3 (P1 & P2): please take some candies. Me: thanked them, took an Alpenliebe and stood up. P2: please close the door behind you. I came out and everyone asked me how it was. I sat down in an empty seat and was speaking with the mates with whom I spoke before the interview. After ten minutes, I wished them good luck and came out. I was quite tired and ate a few biscuits, drank water and came out. Overall it was a good experience. —————————————————–

Category :

gdpi

Share This :

Join us MBA CET 2025