Sp Jain Group.Interview Experience

...It's been almost 10 days since my Grp Interview in SP Jain ,and i thought why not put it in words (serialize),before i forget. I had a fantastic Group Interview (IMHO ! ) . It was worth the pains of travelling all the way to mumbai.

Feb 5 ,friend and myself landed in mumbai airport,had to convince him to take the flight or we would be going on a day long trip from chennai ,and not to mention extra leave ,as had already taken a day leave for the monday .Basically we arrived by jet flight and we returned by chennai mail sleeper class (ironic !).Got into the hostel by afternoon had a long sleep till 7 PM ,woke up met other hopefuls , one guy came from infy ,i met him first when i took the CAT exam and now again for the jain GI on the same day(what are the odds !! ) , finished dinner at the nearby veggie restauarant and back to sleep.

Getting back into college campus was bit weird feeling for me , i imagined myslef spending two years at one place compared to my last 4+ years of nomadic life .I must admit mumbai girls are ho....t ,or am i spending too much time in chennai ?

Anyway, My GI exp pretty much in q&a went on a bit like this:

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GI1: (two faculty members and a student on panel) 6 candidates-> marketing fresher female ,IM (2 of us) 1 from infy bangalore ,Finance (1 from infy again ! ),marketing another 2-3 years exp gy (pune ,swedish MNC) and another ops exp guy
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Kicked off with intros:

My intro was good (i guess ) - Am blah blah working for TATA's for the last 4 + 1/2 yearsI worked in geographies of south ,east,west africa,south east asia,mid-east and south asia,domains,technologies,roles,projects,education ,parents,hobbies etc..

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about your present project ?

explained about project and implementation,actvities ,standard chartered bank and client

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clients of the project and how they use?

.i practically gave them a qwiky intro to our project

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does the bank make money on this project ?

one of the most profitable projects of the bank,major portion of the bank's transactions come thruugh this project

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competitors for the bank's product ?

gave few names like abn amro,deutshe bank

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who does this kind of software for deutshe bank ?

initially in singapore inhoused ,now bangalored i guess

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what after mba ?

in medium to long term want to do research focussing on areas of info mgmt + emerging markets(i.e bottom of pyramid)

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what is BOP?

CK prahlad's famous book "The profit at the bottom of the pyramid"
Did you finish reading the book ?

I read it and am re-reading it

are you reading the cases or the content of the book ?

mine was unconventional ,sir, i started off with the cases and then moved to the rest of the text ITC e-chaupal took me there and then i covered rest of the book

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hobbies ?

travelling ,thanks to my job and personally ,adventure sports like rafting and bungi jumping,volunteering,contributing articles,travelogues to magazine

why do crazy(or some other word ! ) things like adventure sports?

i do actvities which are absolutely safe ; to me it's more about conquering your own fears than any real concerns for safetyi was afraid of water when i was in priamry ,parents pushed me to swimming etc ,and now am doing rafting etc

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Any questions to us ?
How do you encourage / Do you encourage students to take up assignments in Non- Profit organizations post MBA?We have DOCC and students do socially relevant projects.
I mean post MBA?We had 1 student who worked for NGO and now applied to LSE,and we will be happy if students choose this path may not be rewarding financially but has other career advantages

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(in brief about others : infy IM had to sing a rafi song as his hobby was singing,fresher female said she was reading Da Vinci code but could'nt expalin convincingly the story or plot , marketing fellow said somethign about importing goods to be sold at premium in India ,and use india as export base to produce same products here in pune !!!,IT guy applying for finance was asked about coimbatore )

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GI2: (Brigadier and faculty)This time 4 candidates - 4 months infant from infy for mkting ,finance guy from prev GI again from infy,IM from CSC Indore and me !
Intros as usual

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My q&a:
Brigadier - you mentioned about adventure sports ,what was the most recent one?I went on white water rafting trip on the zambezi river in sep 2004,considered grade 5 by the british rafting association,i.e extremely dangerous and high waves,day long rafting trip takes you from zambia to zimbabwe

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(faculty) How does it help you in your life /career?

Rafting is all about team work,working in unision and following your leader any silly mistake and everyone's in water and possible danger.

but life and career are different?

When you have responsibilites and family depending on you ,career becomes equally importantand you don't want to lose it beacuse of someone else's mistake

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Future Plans ?

Research based career in medium-long term in IM + Emerging markets
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Any event in life when someone you know betrayed your trust?

Once on a hiking trip in naivasha in kenya,3 of us got lost ,a friend of mine was supposed to be guide who assured us that he knew the routeand took the hike before ,and we got lost to realise that he never took the trip and we were lost somewhere in the rift valley

lessons learnt ?

Building trust takes years and breaking it takes just one stupid deed
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What you don't like about TCS? ( 2 things)

Need for Hi performance work culture ,similar to GE vitality curve

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Removing bottom 10 is too drastic?

Bottom 10 % can be counselled first and their objectives and role clearly definded and removal only in worst case scenario
If you are offered a role in TCS post MBA,would you consider it?

Yes,love to

(brig)What if there is another offer 75 % higher ?

I'll prefer TCS, i already have similar offers from others based on my present work-ex
Even if 100% higher?

If a company pays such high pay for similar revenue streams ....( interrupted here but wanted to say this ---> and similar work ,it is probably not sustainable in the long run)
One word Yes /No?No
(Faculty) say any MNC offers?

Sir, TCS pays me well

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Whims/Fancy?

I want to be known as the greatest management thinker and business philosopher of this century
(others fancies ranged from playing cricket for India ....etc)
Like who?

Drucker and Prahlad
So Drucker has some competition!

Possibly

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Animal you would identify yourself?

Elephant ,for it's intelligence and team work

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Team work as in TCS?

And am sure , other companies too

I wonder why there were so many fellas from infy in GI and GD's this time around Is something wrong in infy or something right ?( almost like the mongol invasion ) Overall am optimistic about the interviews, a lot depends on the weightage they give for CAT exam score !