DoMS Madras / IIT-Madras GDPI - 1

Department of Management Studies (DoMS) Madras or IIT-Madras GDPI (1/2)

Candidate: S.Satish Kumar

Location: IIT Madras
Date: 20th March, 2011
Time: 11am

It was a well organized process and was completed in a jiffy (compared to a few other colleges). Kudos to the DoMS Madras seniors. I reached IIT-Madras @ 10.15am for the 11am process. Sharp at 11am, a video about DoMS Madras was played. After which, our questions were answered.

Group task:
8 of us (my group) were given tags and we were taken to the 3rd floor. There were two panelists (1F and 1M). They specifically stressed on not creating a fish market.

Topic/case study: A salesperson is using unethical means (bribe,...) and has actually exceeded his sales target. 50% of the company's sales are through him. A task force of managers from various dept are formed to take a decision about this person.

A serene discussion, everyone listened when others spoke . I managed to make the introduction and sort of gave a direction for the discussion. I managed to enter 4-5 times and ensured the group agreed on at least one action point  (the panelists had asked us to reach a consensus by the end of the discussion). One person was asked to summarize at the end.

After this, all of us were asked to summarize the discussion's points in 2 minutes (I couldn't complete the concluding point ).

GD completed in 20 minutes including the waiting time of 5 minutes.

Document verification:

Chilled out process..took barely 10 minutes...the senior checked the originals and calculated the marks/percentages that I had mentioned in the form.

Completed in 10 minutes.

Personal Interview:
Two sirs...heard from the PI co-ordinator that one person was a prof of Operations (mamma mia my fav ) and the other person had just joined the panel.

S2: (glancing through my file) So Satish, you are from Selaiyur (40 min drive from IIT-Madras).
Me: Yes sir, Tambaram.
S1: So Satish, tell us about yourself..your job profile..your family...
Me: told (mentioned bro being in USA)
S2: So why didn't you go to USA?
Me: told
S2: What did you do during xyz time in 2007?
Me: Sir I was waiting for TCS to call me...so I joined and worked in a BPO. etc...
S1: So, what is the nature of your job (at TCS)?
Me: explained
S2: So it is primarily a BPO kind of work, right?
Me:  Sir, it is support and this is the work i do..(explained)
S2: But it is not development or maintenance right?
Me: Yes Sir, but Support also comes under ITES.
S1: How has your engineering knowledge explained you at work?
Me: (Explained about working on Oracle DBMS, pl/sql which I had learnt a bit during BE)
S1: Why do you want to do MBA?
Me: (explained)
S1: So which field/specialization are you interested in?
Me: (explained about my dilemma between Operations and Marketing. But mentioned strongly that I would choose only these two. Also mentioned about my interaction with seniors about choosing electives from different specializations)
S2: Okay, then what is the difference between a service and product?
Me: explained
S1: Okay, could you give us some more points? (smiling)
(I looked for support from S2)
S2: What you said was correct (smiling )..but just tell us something more.

Me: (my brain somehow went into hibernate mode and I was blank for a second) Sir I can't recollect exactly, but I would say in terms of essentiality..
S1: He explained my point with an example for both service and product WRT essentiality.
Me: (could only manage a sheepish smile)
S2: You mentioned photography as your hobby...what kind of photography are you talking about?
Me: (explained about PAS & SLR cameras and my photoblog   )
S1: So what kind of photos do you take?
Me: Sir I always go for unconventionals shots...
S2: Unconventional as in...what kind of subjects??
Me: (I pointed to the tubelight and said) Sir the tubelight for example..I go for different angles....(proceeded to show my photoblog's picture)
S1: How do you say unconventional??
Me: (explained my way of taking photographs....explained with the help of some of my photos)
S2: So did you take a photo of the moon yesterday? (smiling)
Me: (grinning) No Sir.
S1: Oh, that is a surprise!! 
Me: (smiling) Sir, with my camera, the picture will be terrible at night.
S2: What camera do you have?
Me: told

S2: Have you won any photography competitions? Have you tried exhibiting your photographs?

Me: Sir, I have just started. Earlier I was randomly clicking pictures..and now I am working on this photoblog. Once I get my SLR camera, I will move out to competitions and maybe in the future, have my own exhibition  .

S1: What was so special about yesterday?

Me: Sir yesterday, it was the supermoon phenomena, when the moon is closest to Earth...'explained about apogee and perigee' (Thanks to dad for telling me about the phenomena and to my memory which remember the 'gees' )

S1: (looked satisfied)

S2: Okay, say TCS turns around and says "enough of MBA...we will send you abroad"..what would you say?
Me: Sir, a BIG NO.
S2: Why so??
Me: (explained)
S1: A BIG NO is it?? (smiling)
Me: Yes sir, we should say things strongly when needed .
S1: So what other calls do you have?
Me: Sir, IIT-Delhi, Mumbai and Kharagpur.
S2: How would you rank them? Tell us your choice?
Me: (smiling) Sir that is a tough question.
S2: Just tell us how you would choose? It will have no bearing on this selection process.
S1: Please don't tell IIT-M is your first choice..though we did have some people who said IIT-M is their 1st choice...and some who did not.
Me: (told)
--I think they were done with it--
S1: So do you have any questions for us?
Me: (ouch..couldn't recollect) Sir, reg my choice between Operations and Marketing...what would you suggest? (sounded stupid...still does )
S1: Well you have to think back as to why you want to do MBA and find out which specialization suits your career more...and then decide accordingly.
Me: Okay sir.
S2: Any more questions?
Me: No Sir .
S1,S2: Okay, thank you very much.
Me: Thank you sir.

PI lasted around 15 minutes and was very general...with some questions on my work profile, my hobby, general awareness (difference between service and product) and a bit of GK (the super moon phenomena)!!

Just like that:

There is a CCD right next to the DoMS building..I had lunch in the canteen on the first floor (don't recollect the name) and the food was good. Overall, a very satisfactory experience!! 

Verdict: Converted

Ch33rs,
Satish