Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM) or IIT-Bombay GDPI experience (1/2)
Candidate: S.Satish Kumar 
Location: SJMSOM / IIT-Bombay
Date: 26th March, 2011
Time: 2pm
First was the video and Q&A session on SJMSOM...the video was good and there were a few questions thrown at the seniors by the aspirants.
Group Discussion:
I had my GD before the document verification...Based on the interaction with my group prior to the GD, I came to know that it is an inter-category GD. There were supposed to be 14 members, but we were only 10 (Thank God!!) and I was #12 and the last present member.
There were 4 panelists (incuding one Sir who was from a Foreign university) and the GD was case-study based.
Group Discussion:
I had my GD before the document verification...Based on the interaction with my group prior to the GD, I came to know that it is an inter-category GD. There were supposed to be 14 members, but we were only 10 (Thank God!!) and I was #12 and the last present member.
There were 4 panelists (incuding one Sir who was from a Foreign university) and the GD was case-study based.
It was about Mr.Sharma who started a m/f firm which rose on to become a multi-million dollar enterprise, spawning 10 plants and n-number of employees...he had started feeling that there was a huge communication gap and that knowledge sharing was NOT being done properly.
Questions:
1. What is the problem Mr.Sharma is facing?
2. What do you think is the actual problem?
3. What are your solutions for the problem(s)?
After being snubbed during many GDs..I had gathered enough courage to make the opening statement (I did so at NITIE and IIT-Madras). I later chipped in 4-5 times and was satisfied with my points, as I emphasised a lot on communication between and across the corporate's level..finding out what the company expects from the workers and what the workers expect from the company...
At the end, everyone was asked to summarize (inidvidually). I messed this up and during my turn, could quote only 3/4th of the points discussed.
1. What is the problem Mr.Sharma is facing?
2. What do you think is the actual problem?
3. What are your solutions for the problem(s)?
After being snubbed during many GDs..I had gathered enough courage to make the opening statement (I did so at NITIE and IIT-Madras). I later chipped in 4-5 times and was satisfied with my points, as I emphasised a lot on communication between and across the corporate's level..finding out what the company expects from the workers and what the workers expect from the company...
At the end, everyone was asked to summarize (inidvidually). I messed this up and during my turn, could quote only 3/4th of the points discussed.
Overall: Satisfied
Document verification:
It was a chilled out process. Candidates who needed to take new photocopies had the option here. My verification was completed in 10 minutes flat. Every senior I bumped into had this million dollar smile, and that kept me moving along sans much tension.
Personal Interview:
The biggie..and I must admit I was massacred at the altar. The person prior to me had got questions only on hobies and a bit of current affairs. My PI mentor had also mentioned that the panel was very chilled out..I enquired further and learnt that the panel was: 1 madam (finance
), 1 Sir from a foreign univertsity (who was too good in Lean Manufacturing), 1 more prof and an alumni from the industry (learnt later to my horror that he works for TCS!! 
Yikess!! 
)I classify the questions as, the ones I could answer, the ones I could not even understand and the ones I messed up royally!!
The ones I could answer:
1st ques: Tell me about yourself...was in the middle of my answer when a Sir came in and the panel's concentration moved away from my answer (awesome opening for me I would say..was thrown off completely).
Then a lot of questions on my work experience:
- what work I do
- what my role is
- why MBA after 3 years and despite company giving you lot of challenges (had mentioned this when explaining my role)
- how is quality measured in my project
- number of defective claims I encounter (I was a Global Nokia claims administrator)
- use of ipms, iqms (TCS-specific proccess to maintain timesheet & quality)
- Revenue of TCS
- What are the different sources of revenue
- Difference between revenue and profit
- Say some one donates $1M to my company, what would that be called?..I think I said revenue (holy cow!!)
- What is carbon trading? (could not recollect the word emissions almost till end of my answer, which was very embarrasing)
- And then this question about shelf-space optimization (whoa!!!)...explained to the best of my poor brain's capability
- What software is used for shelf-space optmiziation.. I had and still have no idea. Mentioned ERP and SAP (ouch!!)
- Have you heard of this ..that...and that... (Sorry Sir I don't know)..I have been unable to recall those terms since that day
- Do you know about Federal System of India?...I said I don't know, he asked me to guess, I said it deals with law making..could not tell anything more
- Do you know about the economy of Bhutan?? .... say what??
I had to suppress myself from giving a WTF reaction..managed to smile and say IDK 
.
The question I screwed up:
My father always says, whatever you read, try to understand it...do NOT mug it up just for heaven's sake. Maybe because I mugged it up or because the panel had totally disoreiented me by now, I messed up this question:
Sir: Do you know GDP? What it is...?
Me: Yes Sir.
Sir: Okay, what is the rate of growth of India's GDP?
Me: (bamboozled
- So far, I have always been asked "what is India's GDP"...and here I somehow could not think!! I thought GDP and rate of growth of GDP is different) Sir, 2%...??Sir: 2%? (smiling)
Me: (I give up..just let me go..already messed up enough) Sorry Sir, I am unable to recollect it.
--I feel like ^%$# since that day for messing this question up...!!--
The Sir (Lean Manufacturing) saw my form and started asking about my 1st prize in a Painting competition...(maybe he realized it wasn't worth it
)...then stopped and said Thank you. Everyone then said Thank you as well. 
Though I was able to answer most of the questions..and could not fathom a few (Fed sys of India, Bhutan's economy, and more such things)...I always had my smile on whether I knew the answer or not. I thanked all the panelists and left the room a damaged candidate
.Overall: very average
Very less hopes for a convert despite a good GD...very well managed process. I requested to be sent in early for the PI as I had an early flight. Maybe my PI got screwed because of this...I'll never know
..a humbling closing to my 2011 GDPI season..feels good even though it didn't go as I expected.Verdict: Converted
Ch33rs,
Satish
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