My IIM-A Interview experience

At the outset, I would like to give you all a caveat that I was not smart enough to note down my
experience right after the interview, so I was not able to mention details like which panelist asked which
question. Although, I want to ensure you, you’ll get to understand my experience of the interviews and
my learning from them

In case you don't want to go through the entire transcripts, I would share in advance my learning from this
experience and what I think are most important things during such Interviews:
1. Honesty (A bluff is caught and you lose your entire reliability and maybe the interview with it.
Also, the Panelists are smarter than you think)
2. Confidence (No-one gets convinced by an under - confident person)
3. Patience (Think before speaking, I need to learn this too, you'll know why)
4. Positivity (Don't let one part of your interview impact the other parts, you'll observe this in my
case. At any given point in an interview, all you need to think about is to give your best for the
remaining interview)

IIM - Ahmedabad Interview

Venue - The orchid, Mumbai
Date - Feb 23, 2020

So, Panel-wise names and the order for the interview was announced and guess what, I was the first one
to be interviewed by the first panel. Each Panel had 2 panelists (1 professor and 1 alumnus).So; we were
accompanied by one of the panelists to a separate room where we had to give our AWT (Analytical
Writing Test). The topic was somewhat that “Some Non-resident investors are looking to invest in
infrastructural projects in India. Such projects result in land acquisitions from the poor at meager
compensation and this is unfair to them promoting capitalism". There is actually an entire paragraph
given and you just need to logically evaluate each line and give the complete picture. So, this AWT was
not a problem, I suppose. We were done with the AWT and now it was the time for interviews:

I: Interviewer, M: Me
So, I entered the room.

I: So, Mukund, you're from?

M: Sir, I am originally from Bhilwara, Rajasthan but I've been living in Mumbai since last 5 years.

I: Where do you work currently and what do you do?

M: I work at o3 capital in a front-end Investment Banking role

I (interrupts): So, Why do you want to do an MBA, then?

M: Sir, Firstly, I think till now, with my academic journey and work experience, I have developed a good
financial perspective of business, I would want to understand other functions like Operations, Marketing,
HR, to be able to understand the holistic perspective and to be in a better position to take up managerial
roles in the future
Also, Sir, I believe it'll be a great learning experience for me, given the prestigious faculty members and
the diverse group of students

I: Where did you do your CA articleship from?

M: I did my articleship from PwC in the assurance line of service
I: I am sure; PwC has thousands of engineers working with it. Why didn't you utilize the advantage of
diversity there?
M: Sir, We work in separate departments there and have negligible interaction with them. Also, I think
the environment that IIM-A provides is altogether different.

I: So, you mentioned you want to understand other functions of business. Why don't you keep working
for another 2-3 years, you'll automatically start understanding them.
M: Sir, Till now, I haven't studied subjects like Operations, marketing, HR properly. I think studying
them first will help me to understand things better

I: Tell me one thing, Do you not know someone who has only done CA and not MBA working at a senior
position in the Investment Banking Industry.
M: Yes sir, there are people who've done that. But, I am not saying MBA is necessary for one to succeed.
It is a personal choice, someone may decide not to do it and still do well. But in my case, what I believe is
that going for an MBA will improve my prospects and help me to be better equipped to take up
managerial roles in the future.

I: Ok, What do you have the say about the rural decline. Why is that happening?
M: Sir, This is happening because of the decline in rural demand. The reason for that is:
1. The Growth rate of Agricultural output has only been 2% whereas; it was around 5-6% 3 years back
2. The wage Increment rate for farm labors has only been 1%, whereas it was around 5% in 2015
3. Even, The allocations to MNERGA, which ensures livelihood for millions of rural people by providing
them assured wages of around 150 per day, have reduced considerably in the last years

I: OK, How do you think, we can improve the situation?

M: Sir, firstly, the government has taken a really good initiative with "e-nam" app which removes the
need of middlemen for farmers and ensures better prices for their crops
Secondly sir, Researches have shown that 1 kg rice production in India uses 5,000 liters of water which is
more than what is actually required. If, things are rightly implemented, water-based yields can improve
leading to better output
Thirdly, Researches have also shown that farmers are overusing pesticides which not only increase their
cost but also reduce the quality of soil and crops
(They didn't want me to stop, so I continued)
Lastly Sir, I think India can simply adopt the capital intensive techniques of production used by China to
become more competitive in the export market

I: How will copying those techniques from China help?

M: Sir, China has a real cost advantage because of its scale of production of things. I was talking to a
friend who has his textile business and he told me that they put all their efforts to produce cloth and are
able to do it at a cost of INR 155/meter only to realize that China is exporting the same cloth for
152/meter. That is precisely the situation in agriculture also. Research for new techniques should be
continued but may not always be feasible. I think India should simply adopt the capital intensive
production techniques followed by China and US

I: In the AWT given to you, suppose there's enough evidence given to you to prove that such projects are
unfair to poor people, then should the Non-residents invest?
M: Sir, It depends upon whether they are even considering the benefit of poor as a factor while investing.
If they're solely looking for profits, I think, they’ll proceed to invest no matter how it is impacting the
poor

I: So, Mukund, while working, you would be using Excel?

M: Yes, sir

I: Have you ever used the "COUNTA" function?

M: No sir, I have not used the "COUNTA" function but I have used the "COUNTIF" and "COUNTIFS"
function.

I: What is the difference between those two?

M: (Seriously!! He asked this question?) Sir, COUNTIF returns the count of cells satisfying a criterion,
COUNTIFS can be used for inputting multiple criteria.

I: So, Do you think you are good at Math? Are you still in touch with it?
M: Sir, I used to think that I was good at it. But, I am not in touch. I studied math last in 12th standard

I: writes an equation - "(x-a)(x-b)(x-c).....(x-z)". What would be the maximum exponent of x in it?

M: (Without thinking much, just seeing that there are 26 terms) 26 (Immediately realizes that one term
will be (x-x))

M: (About to reach another level of stupidity) Sir, it would be 25, because one term is (x-x)

I: Are you sure?

M: (realizes that 0 multiplied by any number is 0) *laughingly* Sorry, Sir, I think I made a blunder there.
It would be 0

I: What is the difference between World Bank and IMF?

M: Sir, IMF was originally set up to ensure monetary stability. But, over the period of time, because
countries have shifted to floating exchange rate regime for currency, IMF is involved now into short-term
lending to countries. World Bank, on the other hand, was set up with the objective of helping developing
and under-developed countries, so it finances infrastructural and developmental projects in such countries

I: OK, so do you follow geo-political news across the world?

M: (Expecting something about US-Iran/US-China/India-US/Indo-China/Hong-Kong/Brexit, etc.) Sure,
sir

I: What do you think about the situation in Congo right now?

M: (Whattt!!!!) Sir, I am not aware about that, I have not been following the African countries that well

I: Ok, so what about "--" (some country name that I'd never heard of and don't remember)
M: Sir, I am not aware about this as well

I: What is apartheid?
M: (Confused that whether it was the racial discrimination thing that happened in Africa or was it the
slavery in US)* goes for a safe answer* Sir, it is the racial discrimination or slavery practiced against
certain races

I: Which country was it practiced in?

M: (No!!! What should I go for...South Africa or US) USA (I immediately realized that it was the wrong
answer seeing the reactions of the panelists)

*Embarrassed smiling* No, sir, I think, I confused it with Lincoln's abolishment of slavery, It is South
Africa where apartheid was practiced
I: Who was the person who led the movement against it?
M: Nelson Mandela, Sir

I: Ok, you may leave now, wait, Which other calls do you have?
M: Sir, I have calls from IIM Bangalore, Kozhikode and Indore

I: Why not from Calcutta and Lucknow?

M: Sir, My percentile didn't meet the cut-off criteria. The other institutes promote diversity and therefore,
there's an advantage for CA Rank holders

I: Alright, Thank you, you may leave, Do take a Candy.

M: Thank you, sir *Takes a much needed Mentos and leaves*

The most unexpected thing about this interview was that I was not even asked a single question related to
my work-ex or academics (Mostly, because I don't think the panelists specialized in them). The entire
interview was somewhat about current affairs and GK, which I believe not to be one of my strengths.
Somehow, I managed to survive through it.

The Interviews for IIM, Bangalore and Kozhikode went much smoother, as they revolved more around
my work-ex and CA Technicals (which I think I was able to handle pretty well).

Results:
Shortlisted for - A, B,K,I
Appeared for - A, B, K
Converted - A, B, K

Thanks for reading. Hope you found it helpful.