I had My VGSOM interview yesterday and here is the gist of it.
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My Interview was scheduled for 2 pm on 13/03/2005 at IISc Bangalore. Reporting time was 1 pm
My preparation
Last week before Interview: None
Day before: 1 hour - Read through my form, and thought about answers for standard questions.
On the day: Was watching a movie in the morning. 'How to lose a guy in 10 days' great movie. Very Romantic. Also helped me take my mind of the interview.
My attitude/Approach
If you have read my previous post, you'd know that I wasn't very keen on joining VGSOM but still wanted to clear the GD/PI. Way I figured it "They needed me more than I needed them"
Appearance
Neat. Formal Attire with tie. Well ironed clothes. Nice trimmed hair and shining black shoes. Appearances are important!
P.S. Formal means light shirt with dark pants generally. I am saying this cos many ppl have a habit of wearing dark shirts to Interviews. For girls try wearing western formals, Alternatively sarees also appear formal.
Venue and time before Interview
I reached the venue at 12:30 and we had to wait till about 2:15 when a first year student took us through a presentation about the school and the interview process.
We were then escorted to another building for our Group discussion and Interview process. We were divided into 3 groups of 9-10 members each.
Group Discussion
This was a case study as follows:
Your company manufactures Water pumps for cars and presently has 3 big car manufacturers in India as customers. However you are overdependent on them and also your presence is restricted to certain locations in India. You need to come out with an advertising Strategy(TV/Sponsorship etc)
Format: 1 minute for opening comments, 10 mintues for discussions, then write down 3 salient points of the discussion.
Opening comments, I went first, it was based on seating arrangement.
The discussion went well and lot of good ideas came about. Everyone got a chance to speak and we had few different ideas to work with. However I felt everone was focussed on presenting his point and there was very little argument or contradiction on each other points. The GD went well and each of us felt satisfied with the oppurtunity we got to get our point across.
Interview
I was the first for the interview and was quite happy with that.
There was only one panelist for the interview, Associate Dean (same person who was in the GD). He was very nice and friendly guy and I felt really comfortable from the start.
He began by inquiring about my background. I spoke for about one minute about myself and he did ask me to elaborate on couple of points.
After that the focus shifted to co-curricular activities and he inquired about my exploits in cricket. This continued for another 2 minutes.
Now we were discussing my hobbies and somewhere in between I did mention about my interest in reading about finance and investing in stock markets. He posed me a hypothetical question which I was able to answer easily. This part went smoothely as I am well versed in Finance and I consult for about 20 guys at work about investing in stock markets!!
Rest of the discussion went like this -
Prof: What do you find challenging at work
Me : told him about the numerous challenges and also mentioned that I enjoy dealing with them.
Prof: Why do you have such a low rank? Do you know the only reason that we have called you is because of your profile and work ex??
Me: (I resisted a smile cos I knew he was bluffing. There were enough guys outside with lower rank and no work ex. Also I knew that my rank was at the higher end of the spectrum for this B-school. Anyways, I played along)
I know. I could have done much better(Truth) I wasn't able to focus on preparation due to work pressure(Truth)
Prof: Your form looks good, Your profile has everything. Are you Interested?
Me: Yes definetly.
Prof: Thats all from me. Anything you want to ask?
Me: I had a question about consulting placements. Geniune one. He replied with a generic answer.
Prof: How do you think your interview went?
Me: Good. I was satisfied.
Prof: What about GD?
Me: Good, but I thought most of us were focussing on presenting our ideas rather than discussing. It doesn't happen that way in real life.
Prof: Agree. You all were in presentation mode rather than critical mode. Thanks. Best of luck
Me: Thank you Sir.
Shook Hands and left
End of interview
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I left with a feeling that I should get a call in all probability.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
VGSOM (IITKGP) Interview
Posted by Anand at 7:42 PM
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8 Comments:
Good.
Your cricket and finance did it.
Should definitely get through. Only thing you could have initiated a discussion in GD by countering any of the points.
Join it unless you are keen on IIMs, that too leave IIM K out. Otherwise all colleges except IIMs are at par when it comes to top rankers...you will definitely be one...
The way this competition is rising every year.. no one can ever be sure of getting thro IIMs... if u get thro SPJain or VGSOM, dont loose the opportunity in belief that u will crack IIM next year.. (Unless u r not sure enough that u want to go for MBA)
Actually in the end it all boils down on your own capabilities to leverage on your MBA degree.. And am sure these instittes will give u enough opportunities to leverage upon...
thanks for the advice, i'll think about it. I agree that there is intense competition and i might not get what I am looking for. I am thinking of applying for US b-schools next year. Only argument I have is that maybe i'd like to try for something difficult and risky than settle for something I know I can achieve. Would love to hear everyone's comment on this.
dude..u seem to be floating in the air..boasting abt yourself without giving facts and figures about yourself..which company are you working for ?? wat is your rank in JMET ? If its infy or wipro or anyother big firms then its their brand building which has given you the call and not your rank,,
Am one of the chaps who got a call from vgsom and now secured a seat too..i didnt have great work ex but some outstanding work in the area of research and paper presentation..and this is wat profile is all abt..not jus work ex..
views from pagalguy.com..
Also,
Here is some research that I've been doing on VGSoM recently
They have the largest campus after IIT Guwahati (which incidentally
does not offer MBA)
They have rechristened the course from MBM to MBA for wider global
acceptability, their Dean Prof. Kalyan Chakraborty had been wanting
this change since long now ! (On a personal note I was quite impressed
with him in my Interview, not because he is a Harvard graduate, but
because his acumen and sharpness were reflected in his dialect.)
The brand new hostel which accomodates 250 students is due to be
inagurated next month, as far as I knw it is a co-ed hostel, with
single occupancy rooms and two rooms sharing one restroom.
The motto of this extremely influential b-school is "dedicated to the
service of the nation", and hence the foreign offices of top notch
MNC's are not invited, it is then your prerogative to work in an
Indian office of these MNC's and then move on.
The Union Ministry for HRD has given a grant of Rs.10 Crore to VGSoM ,
yes only to the B-school, to upgrade its course and give stiff
competition to IIM cal.
The course of this MBA at VGSoM is designed on MIT's Alfred Sloan
School of Management, (yes this is the same MIT, and sloan is a top 10
business school in the US)
This course has been widely accepted as the best MBA course in the
country, the only lack was a new campus, which is now up and running,
with a new hostel coming up.
VGSoM offers its students unique 6 month dissertation or a semester
abroad with internship at InfoUSA (founding chairman -- vinod gupta),
at the 3 universities that have partnership with VGSoM
Coming to placements, companies like caterpillar and ITC that only go
to IIM-A and nowhere else have hired summer interns this year.
Another point would be to consider the proximity between mean and
median, which reflects the integrity of the salary figures.
Any queries/comments will definitely be put on high regard
hey ppl, thanks for the comments. my intention was not to boast at all, i put it as i remmembere it and put my thoughts and emotions at the time of interview as well.
Just so you know, I didnt make it to IITKGP....
but I wouldn't have joined anyway.
sometimes thats the way things work out....i tell myself - everythings for the best
This is a good description :-)
good luck !
Really interesting description indeed,was impressed....to bad that you could not impress the judges..so when they enquired about your rank..they probably meant it..you know that in india the legislation allows entry to people with lower ranks.
i dont think "they need me more than i need them".....was proved right after all!!!
All the best for the next time.
-Nachiket ,VGSoM,Batch 2006
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