2022
MENTORSHIP
PROGRAM
Dear Aspirants,
Congratulations on making it to the Personal Interview stage at
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. The journey to your
dream B-School has just began, and CAT was only the first step;
the next target is to ace this procedure smoothly, and we look
forward to seeing you at the building of your dream!
Along with the feelings of excitement and pleasure, there must
be a sense of doubt and fear in your mind. You're probably
asking yourself a series of questions regarding the next step.
What you should do to prepare for it and what it expects from
you. We'll be happy to help you in any way we can.
Therefore, IIM Calcutta brings Mentorship Program 2022. A
mentor will be assigned to you who will address all your concerns
and assist you in preparing for the journey ahead. We believe
that this mentorship program will help you get to know IIM
Calcutta better.
Hoping that this initiative will not only help you sail through the
next rounds but the MBA journey, you are aspiring for.
Best Wishes,
External Relations Cell
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
Published in 2022: This document is a collection of the interview
experiences of current and previous students. The opinions provided here
are those of individual students and not of the college.
It’s advice from your potential seniors! ~Joka! Joka!!
DISCLAIMER
.
Kindly note that the interview experiences listed below are the
experiences of people with diverse backgrounds. The aim of this
document is to provide you with a basic understanding of how
chaotic yet predictable an interview can be. Most questions will
be related to you, your background, your academic interests,
your job or some current affairs. This might sounds like
everything but they don’t expect you to know everything, they
just want you to have a basic awareness of the things you are
involved in. That being said, go through the experiences listed
below to get a glimpse of the next step in your journey. Each
point corresponds to the experience of different students. We
have decided not to include student details unless necessary. So,
most experiences don’t reflect questions verbatim and these
experiences give a generic view of the interview.
(In case of any confusion reach out to your mentors allotted)
INTERVIEW EXPERIENCES
A. ENGINEER
Cat percentile
: 99.91%
College
: NIT Jamshedpur
Degree
: B. Tech, Metallurgy
Work Experience : 23 months, Analytics
2 Male Professors
M1: Tell me about yourself.
M1: What's your role in EXL
M1: some more grilling around it on model development.(Not having slightest idea about
it)
Me: Fumbled a bit but responded to his questions.
M1: So you won some metal quiz. Tell me where lithium is found and How do we extract
it.
Me: Told about Lithium being found in South American countries tried to link up with
Recent agreements India is focusing on.
M1: Tell me the process of extraction.
Me: Sir I don't know the exact process but it being a metal will be similar to others told
about various metallurgical processes.
M1: ok next question tell me the alloy used in Jet engines.
Me: (Literally thinking about how this is going) Duralium is used to build bodies told
about some other alloys. He was expecting Nickel alloys (Wasn't able to tell this)
M1: tell me despite of all the minerals why is Jharkhand poor?
Me: Told something about unequal distribution of resources mentioned Tata steel.
M1: Who is MD of Tata group.
Over to M2:
M2: Draw graphs of |x^2+1| and |x^2-1|
Took some time but was able to draw it.
Ask about differentiability of |x|^3.
Told
M1:What percentile ?
M1: What calls ?
You can log off.
Overall 15-20 mins PI
Brush up your academics+ work ex + maths till class 12th for non engineers, some major
topics like Fourier transformation for engineers
Cat percentile
College
Degree
Work Experience
: 99.95%
: HBTU Kanpur
: B. Tech , Computer Science
:23 months, Software Development
My IIM C interview started in a conventional manner.
My 70% interview revolved around the stock market and my investments as I had
mentioned them in the last part of my introduction deliberately.
Questions asked are below:
Introduction?
Tell us about your job?
What do you do in it? How did you end up there?
You talked about the stock market, how do you pick a stock?
What is the P/e ratio? What does it tell?
Recommend stock for the next 2 years?
Then grilling started, why, what are the factors?
Why would you recommend it?
How are HM, AM, and GM related?
Told one related, asked any other relation? Can you try to find it?
How do you access risk in an investment in stock?
Asked about NPV and IRR(as i mentioned, don’t know why :( )
How are they calculated? What do they tell?
What is momentum and Buy and Hold investors?
What does the price of a share indicate?
How do trading volumes affect the stock?
Any other hobbies?
Todays' headlines from The Hindu? (as I mentioned about reading the newspaper in my
intro).
Thank you, you can leave the meeting.
Time- 20 mins
Try to write down your Introduction, even if it seems that you need not learn it. This will
help you to stay confident and focused during your interview. Remember, 80% of the
interviews are driven by the introduction
To go the extra mile, you must go through the college website that you are interviewing
with so that you can give some insights into any courses that you are really interested in
Cat percentile : 99.87%
College
: IIT Delhi
Degree
: B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience :23 months, Business Analytics
Interview was very stressful. I think they wanted to see how I keep my composure in
stressful situations. P is the professor and M for
P – You are a mechanical engineer. So tell me the 4th law of Newton?
M – I don’t think there is any 4th law
P – You have completed 4 years of engineering and you don’t know Newton’s laws. What
is V8?
M – Not sure. Never heard of it
P – Never heard of V8 engine?!!
M – Oh yes! It has 8 valves and 4 cylinders.
P – Where are you from?
M – From Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh
P – What is Bareilly popular for?
M – Jhumka
P – Calculate the Moment of Inertia of a Jhumka
M – Created a drawing of jhumka on paper and told the rudimentary steps of going about
the process. (Some more questions on Moment of Inertia and the process)
P – (Not looking satisfied) Why are your scores so low in class 12th?
M – I was preparing for JEE so never focused on board exams
P – If you cleared JEE, board exams must have been easy for you
M – Not really. Methods are usually a bit different. Moreover I got very low scores in
Physical education and English due to which the overall percentage is so low
P – Give us 3 reasons why we should not accept you in IIMC?
M – I can be lazy at times…
P – (interrupting) You can’t clear term 1 here if you’re lazy. I don’t think you should be
joining. Give us 1 reason why we should accept you?
M – I’m hard working.
P – Do you think other interviewees are not hard working?
M – No! I never said so. They must be equally hard working
P – You should have said something which differentiates you from others. I have nothing
more to ask you. Have you any questions for us?
M – No, sir.
I think 4 things are very important. Personals, high level knowledge of what you studied at
your undergrad, you should be clear about your projects in work experience and current
affairs.
Cat percentile
College
Degree
Work Experience
:
99.73%
: IIT Kharagpur
: B.Tech, Manufacturing Science and Engineering
:35 months, Operation / Business Analytics / Development
It was a short interview (approx. 10 minutes) with 2 interviewers. First interviewer asked
questions around politics whereas the other interviewer asked Mathematical questions.
Questions:
1. How has your day been?
Wasn't expecting this as the first question. Was ready to answer on "Introduce yourself".
Answered stating that this day has been exciting as well as stressful since it would decide
admission into my dream college
2. Who is Rakesh Tikait? (Farmer protest was an ongoing affair then)
3. What is the farmer protest about?
4.Assume that you are a consultant hired by a firm to guide if farm bills would be
implemented? What would be your suggestion
5. Do you think the ongoing protests are rightful?
6. Why is government not doing anything about the protests? It has already been months
7. *Some question around Bengal elections*
8. Which is the major opposition party?
9. Do you think Rahul Gandhi is actually an opponent?
Questions were not random, interviewer was asking questions based on the answer of
previous question. Interviewer also tried to nudge me to speak something unethical or
contradict my views
1. What is a Poisson distribution?
Don't remember the equation. Can quote examples where this is used
2. *Some question around basic probability*
3. What is a step function?
4. Any example of step function?
5. What is a parabola? Any equation that forms a parabola?
6. What is a hyperbola? Any equation that forms a hyperbola?
7. Which other IIMs do you have a call from?
Prepare around
Personals (Everything that you associate with your personal life including hobbies, family,
your city, Why MBA, etc.), Current Affairs, Basics of UG, Industry, company and sector
knowledge, Probability Statistics/Puzzles/Riddles ,Detailed research on the topic that
interests you
Cat percentile
: 99.7%
College
: IIT Madras
Degree
: Dual Degree - BTech + MTech Engineering Design
Work Experience :34 months, Product Management - IT
IIMC Panel 2 (10th Feb)
1 female, 1 male panelists
P1 :
1)Wrote about me being top 1% in country in JEE and choosing Engineering Design at IITM
in SOP, so questions on that.
2) Questions on what i have learnt in graduation.
3) Questions on what I do currently in my job
4) Questions on how do i use my grad in work
5)Moved to Questions on hobbies ( mentioned chess and cricket) - Fav player in cricket and
why
Spoke about Virat, how he is passionate and ever improving, mentioned he is best batsman .
6) So questions on statistical basis for me calling him the best batsman
Spoke about his records in tests odis and overall cricket
7) So people perceive him having anger issues, what is your take on this
Explained how his aggression never came out negatively in decision making, so shouldn't be a
problem. And backed it with his captaincy records
8)Who are 2 Indian business leaders you look up to, i mentioned Ratan Tata and Mukesh
Ambani, and they smiled that they are contrasting personalities.
Gave explanation for both of them
P2;
1)What does your day look like wrt current role
Explained, few cross questions - explained
2)Asked whether my grad is thermo heavy, I denied it and explained there was only one
course, in first year. But he continued with a question saying its a general question.
Temperature is very low here and I want to take bath after an hour. I have a bucket of very hot
water now, and I would like to mix some cool water before taking a bath. Shall I mix cool
water now or after an hour to have warmer water.
Explained and answered that he should add cool water now, because otherwise higher temp
difference causes faster rate of temp drop.
3)So you follow world news , what are the 5 trending topics? i mentioned
1) Trump Impeachment
2) Farmer protests and international attention
3) Uttarakhand disaster and how unfortunate it is
4) Myanmar Coup
5) Budget
4)Asked to elaborate on Myanmar coup, explained in detail and he asked on generals name. I
told I couldn't recall since it is a tough name to remember
5) Asked if I know what is happening with Nepal and its PM , I said I couldn't recollect
I thanked them, exchanged wishes and dropped off.
Interview was pleasant conversation, nothing stressing.
Personal Questions - Be clear about yourself, create complete profile map of yourself and
prepare for any question that can be asked, Current Affairs, General Idea on economics,
Math (12th), if from Engg background, Basics of Undergrad topics
Cat percentile
College
Degree
Work Experience
: 99.7%
: NIT Durgapur
: BTech , Civil Engineering
:23 months, Banking and Finance
Q1- Why a sudden shift from Civil Engineering to banking?
Ans- I have learned technical and analytical skills from engineering that are required in
banking. I need to perform cash remittance and predict the prior demand in cash to maintain it
within the retention limit. This helps me in preventing any penalties from RBI in case of
excess cash beyond retention.
Q2- What is concrete? What are aggregates?
Q3- Why only cement is not used instead of concrete for construction purposes?
Q4- Why is concrete preferred instead of cement-lime putting?
Q5- In the past financial year banking sector was hit majorly due to mergers. Name the public
sector banks (PSBs) that got merged. How many PSBs were there before mergers and how
many are there now?
Ans- (Named all the bank mergers that took place except for Union Bank which I said that I
couldn't recall).
Previous PSBs- 27; Present PSBs- 12
Q6- How has these mergers affected?
Ans- Govt has ensured that due to mergers, banks will have large capitals that will allow them
to provide more loans and help the struggling sectors. Indian Bank made huge profit in the
last quarter but, percentage of NPAs have not been resolved. This can only be resolved with
extensive recoveries and write-offs. But the effects of mergers are still too early to predict as
the previous year was mostly affected due to Covid-19.
Q7- NPAs have even affected Private Sector Banks. Can you name the recent e.g. of a private
sector bank being affected?
Ans- Yes Bank
Q8- Why did it occur? Did you follow it?
Ans- I haven't followed it thoroughly but as much as I can recall, The CEO of Yes Bank was
involved in frauds.
Q9- What is the name of the CEO?
Ans- I can't recall
Q10- Was it frauds he was involved with?
Ans- Yes
Q11- You've written that you love reading manga. What is it? (Mentioned reading manga as a
hobby in my form)
Q12- Don't you think mangas are for children and kids?
Q13- How are they different from comics in general?
Q14- You've done CE, then moved to banking and you've written in the form that you want to
pursue marketing. Do you actually know what you want?
Ans- In my job I've to interact with a lot of customers. I need to perform cross-selling of
various banking products for which communication with customers to serve and satisfy them
is very important. (Interrupted in between by the panelist)
Q15- So you mean to say that communication is the only important thing in marketing?
Ans- Ma'am, I would say communication plays a key role in public interaction which helps in
marketing.
Q16- Give me an e.g. of how it helps in marketing.
Ans- (Gave a scenario related to my job where I mentioned identifying customer segments,
targeting specific segments, the pricing of the products that I try to sell and how my way
communication with the public has driven me to pursue a career in marketing)
Candidates with workex be thorough with your current position/role, the domain of your
work, the sector you work in and the performance of that industry in general. Brush up the
current affairs in the past few months. Also, make an effort to recollect you learnings from
your undergraduation courses. Candidates with gap years must have justifiable reasons
with proper explanations for the gap. Candidates should also prepare questions from 12th
standard mathematics mostly in Probability, Algebra, PnC, Calculus, Graphs.
B. NON-ENGINEER
Cat percentile
: 99.82%
College
: Punjab University
Degree
: B.Com
Work Experience :NA
IIM C interview was the first one that I appeared for. I wasn't as well prepared as I should
have, but the direction in which the interview went was certainly in my favour.
IIM C INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
P1 : Tell me about yourself.
P1 : Subjects in current sem.
P1: Favourite subject.
P2: Explain Indian economy.(Mentioned it as my favourite subject.)
P2: Changes in secondary sector, current situation. Secondary sector of Punjab and
Ludhiana.(Ludhiana being my hometown.)
P2: Cost involved in running a business with labour, borrowed cap and self owned land.
P2: Opinion about farm law.
P1: What is castling?(mentioned chess as one of my hobbies)
P1: Name few FMCG
P1: Name some CFOs.
P1: Do you have any questions for us?
Time: 15 minutes
Personals and know thyself should be given a priority. Freshers can brush up a few subjects
from UG. Candidates should also follow news and try to form an objective opinion on major
happens around the world.
Cat percentile
: 99.5%
College
: Lady Shree Ram college of Commerce (Delhi University)
Degree
: B.Com Hon. / PGDM in Advertising and Public Relations from Indian
Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi
Work Experience :22 Months, General Management
P11. Tell me about yourself.
2. Would you like to share if you enjoy any extracurricular activities?
3. What's the difference between commerce and e-commerce
4. What's the difference between Accounting and Accounting Principles
5. What is TDS and where does it go in the balance sheet?
6.|x| + |y| = 1, draw its graph.
P2Since you are from Delhi, what are your views on farmer's protests and how do you think
that these protests are disrupting the lives of people in Delhi?
P11. What all calls do you have?
2. Any questions for us?
Atleast one subject should be thoroughly prepared from their undergrad course. If he/she is
a b.com graduate, then basics of accounting, marketing and economics is a must.
Candidate should follow up on current affairs on a regular basis. If the candidate has work
ex, then he/she should be prepared with the questions that can be asked related to their
work domain. Must have basic knowledge of calculus. And most importantly, should we
well prepared with their personnel's.
Cat percentile
: 99.86%
College
: St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
Degree
: B.Com Hons
Work Experience :NA
Panel - 1 male (P2) and 1 female (P1) professor
Started with them verifying my ID proof.
PI & P2: Good morning!
P1: So you're pursuing your undergrad in commerce?
Me: Yes ma'am.
P1: So what subjects do you have this semester?
Me: told, also mentioned that classes for this semester just began 2 days back
P1: And what about last semester?
Me: told
P1: So we can ask you about these subjects since you've just studied them recently?
Me: Sure!
P1: So you've done accounts. What is fixed and variable cost?
Me: Explained with example
P1: So you've also done marketing right? You know what marketing and selling are, the 2
major functions?
Me: Yes ma'am.
P1: So how would you relate fixed and variable cost to selling and marketing?
Me: Explained about marketing and how it varies with the stage in the life cycle of a
product etc. Selling is more of a certain and constant thing.
(Cross questioned about the same and whether sales and marketing are measured per unit,
explained as rationally as possible)
P2: So what is the difference between fixed cost and sunk cost?
Me: Explained each, with an example.
P2: So the expenses incurred in R&D, how can we monetize the same?
Me: Answered, with a hypothetical scenario where we can sell the data for a monetary
amount to another company who needs it.
P2: Okay. So you've recently written an article on "The Emergence of a New Era:
Analysing the impact of artificial intelligence". What is this new era?
Me: Explained how technology is changing the world as we know it etc.
P2: That's the introduction. What is in the article?
Me: Explained the major aspects briefly.
P2: So which revolution is this? This whole technology thing?
Me: The fifth industrial revolution.
P2: And what about the rest?
Me: Knew about the 1st and 2nd one, couldn't recall the 3rd and 4th. I said I'll definitely
look it up after the interview. (P2 smiled and said alright)
P1: So you have a blog called "Inked Musings" right? Is it on Facebook? (Had mentioned it
in my form as a hobby)
Me: No ma'am. It's a website on blogspot.
P1: Alright.
(Asked each other if they want to ask me anything else)
P1: So that'll be it. Thank you Anushka! All the best!
Overall duration: 12-15 mins approximately
Personal and Form Related Questions Academic / Technical Knowledge General and
Current Affairs Know how of the city and State (where the candidate belonged)
Cat percentile
College
Degree
Work Experience
: 99.87%
: Hansraj College , (Delhi University)
: B.Com Hons
:NA
2 panelists, both male
Panelist1
1.What are you doing after graduation
Told (working in audit firm)
2. Why are audit firms involved in controversies
3. What's Big4, why are they called big4, what all services do they provide
4. Are auditors allowed to provide other services too?
5.Can audits be computerized completely?
Panelist2
6. Gdp, GNP
7. Cross price elasticity of demand
8. Measures of inflation- CPI, WPI
9. NPV
10.Family background
11.Role model
Personals (goals, interests etc) Current affairs (major events in last 4-5 months) Technical
prep (UG/PG/Profesional course related subjects + work experience related)
Cat percentile
College
Degree
Work Experience
: 99.21%
: IPCW, Delhi University
: B.Com Hons
: 9 Months, Audit
A female prof (F) and a Male prof (M)
General Hi hello
F: it’s been a pretty long wait for you right?
F: oh great you were being productive
So tell me Which college did you go to for your bcom?
PM: IP college
F: oohhh IP... IP, it’s sort of away from the campus right? (Made faces)
F: okay great. why didn’t you go for CA? Did you never try or think of it?
F: MBA is also sort of a quick return thing right
F: okay, so at IP you don’t have a lot of extra-curricular, how did you manage then?
F: you were a treasurer you have an aptitude for accounts then why MBA
F: Audit is very boring right, how do you manage your job
F: so then you’ll get the learnings at deloitte only, why go for mba
F: what’s the diff between accounting and fin
F: do you know about the company that shut down because of not auditing well
M: i have a very different question for you, is that fine?
M: do you know about mahabharat And Ramayan?
M: what are the differences in sita and draupadi?
F: give us contrast between mahabharat and ramayan
M: ( interrupts) Do you think Ram was right in asking sita to go for Agni pariksha because of
his praja?
M: so do you think ram was right in taking Sugriva's help? He could’ve asked Bali for help?
F: then you mean to say ramayan teaches us that everything is fair in love and war?
F: you said Mahabharat teaches what not to do but all through Krishna was helping arjuna, that
is good
M: you said good wins so all of us should just relax because good will win
M: okay good. Deviating from the topic again. Can i give you a different sort of question now?
M: gave a couple of maths puzzles
M: what do you think about sachin’s tweet after rihanna tweeted?
M&F: no tell just right or wrong ( pressurised alot) sachin never in his life tweeted anything of
that sort then why now
M: okay great
F: do you know what company is google in trouble!
M: don’t you think Twitter should be banned?
ALL THE BEST!
KEEP CALM
&
PREPARE WELL