PI PREPARATION Work-Ex MBA related related Academics Situation related based Self-based Questions Abstract Questions TYPES OF QUESTIONS ASKED IN PERSONAL INTERVIEW SELF-BASED QUESTIONS This category includes questions based on yourself. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is • • • • To check your communication and presentation skills. To check how you portray yourself in front of someone. To know how well you know yourself To verify how exactly your description matches your delivery in those 15-20 minutes – a check of your attitude and honesty. QUESTIONS 1. Tell me something about yourself. This might be the first question the interviewer asks you. The answer to this question should be very structured and precise. In general, try to finish the answer within 60 – 90 seconds, keeping the most important and significant part in first 60 seconds. Also, sometimes, it happens that the interviewer wants to hear more about yourself but you might have already exhausted your answer. In that case, it is always beneficial to have around 30 seconds buffer answer ready (just-in-case). There are multiple structures which you can follow to answer this question. However, we recommend the following. Basic Introduction Work experience Your Graduation Buffer answer Hobbies or Interests Achievements • Your basic introduction should include 1-2 lines about yourself, which • • • • might include your name, the place you belong to or just about yourself as a person. This could be followed by either your work-ex details or college of graduation (for freshers). Instead of telling just the employer name or the college name along with the marks, try to describe exactly what you did – for example, your roles and responsibilities or the projects you worked on. This could even be followed by your schooling details, only if the answer to the former part is very less or you want to explicitly mention your school name and marks. Achievements – There are two formats which you can follow. Either you mention about achievements after telling about your work-ex and graduation/school details or you mention it along with them (The latter is a better option than the former – in terms of creating impression and saving time). Hobbies – Mention 2-3 hobbies that you may have and how exactly you pursue them. Buffer – This part could include – • Your recent work/activity – something that you have recently started and is very interesting. • Your strengths and weaknesses. Try to end your answer with something that might become the next question. It is you who can drive your interview in your comfort zone by doing so. Sample Answer: I am Aayush and I come from one of the most beautiful places of north India – Nainital. As a person, I would describe myself as an optimistic and inquisitive person, always looking out for opportunities to learn something new. I am currently working with Amazon as a Systems Engineer for the past 6 months, wherein I am responsible for the information authentication between various hubs across the globe which are a part of our network. I completed my B. Tech in Computer Science from BITS Pilani last year. In college, I had a keen interest in coding and won various Hackathons – HackBenchers and Brainwaves, just to name a few. Both in college and in school, I have been an active participant in various cocurricular activities, such as sports, debate etc. Under my leadership, our college football team won various fests across the nation. I have always had a keen interest in Maths and got AIR-10 in National Maths Olympiad when I was in class X. I am very passionate about both music and literature. My hobbies include singing, playing guitar and reading novels. I am a big fan of Sydney Sheldon. Recently, I have started sparing time for college students and take coding workshops in the evening for 1 hour on Python and Machine Learning. Try to write all your answers in a file at least 7 days before the interview and read it more than three times in a day. That will improve your flow of delivery. 2. Tell me something about yourself that is not present in your resume/profile. This part of the answer might include – • Your passion • Your strengths or weaknesses • Your philosophy of life (keep this as a last option) 3. Describe yourself in one word. Try not to pick one word from the dictionary and then work on how you could relate yourself to that word. Instead, try to explore and understand yourself and then look for a word which best justifies that description. This is not a test of how heavy the word is, but how relevant the link is between the word and your personality. 4. Tell me something about your family. How do you believe the culture and education of your family played a role in your upbringing? This question is not frequently asked, but you must be able to talk and post a good impression about your family and culture. You know it better than any other person. The real check of analytical skills isn’t your 99 percentile in CAT, but how exactly have you analysed yourself. More than anything and anyone else, know yourself. 5. Where do you belong to? Tell me few unique things about that city/town/village. The interviewer might be less interested in knowing about your native place and more about how much do you know about the place you call ‘home’. Students who mention travelling as a hobby or interest might expect this question. 6. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Mention three of each relating it to any of your past experiences or instances. Every one of us has some strengths and weaknesses. None of us is perfect. From the MBA perspective, you are going to be the future managers. The company expects you to manage your team and provide fruitful results. In order to be a successful manager, you need to assign tasks to people by identifying their strengths and weaknesses. But, have you identified yours? Explore yourself and you will definitely find few strengths and weaknesses. Try not just memorizing key words (Strength – Hard working, multitasking etc, Weakness – Lazy, one-thing-at-a-time etc). Instead, relate your strengths or weaknesses to how exactly you found them by either linking them to your past experiences or justifying them by an instance with past achievements or failures. What’s the USP of cracking self-based questions? Is it your grades, achievements or an MNC you work for? NO It’s you being who you are. 7. What are your hobbies? Why are they your hobbies? Since when? First, don’t tell something as your hobby if it’s not. Don’t include anything only because you couldn’t find a lot of things to include here. It’s okay if you mention just one. Even going to the roof top and staring at stars is a hobby. The point is – why do you like doing it, or since when. 8. What is the aim of your life? In the long run, many of us might want to be an entrepreneur. Some of us might even want to be a stand-up comedian, singer etc. But in the short run, you want to pursue MBA from an IIM. Relate your goals to how pursuing MBA can help you achieve them. 9. What are the things you are really passionate about? Have you done anything for that? If yes, what? If no, why not? Everyone of us is crazy about something – the thing that we call our passion. Talk about what have you done so far for it. If not, explain it with proper reasoning why you haven’t been able to do anything about it. ACADEMICS RELATED This category includes questions related to your academic life – school and college. Questions related to your college subjects, if asked, will be basic and check your practical understanding of the subject rather than your memorizing skills. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • To check how seriously have you taken your studies so far – a check of your sincerity towards your academics. What have you learned from your past academic experiences – a check of how good you are as a learner. QUESTIONS 1. Which has been your favourite subject in school/college? Why? (Followed by few general questions from that question). It’s not always compulsory to have the toughest subject as your favourite one. You might have liked Microeconomics based on your interest in market demand and supply, or Computer Networks based on your interest in knowing how internet and other networks actually work. Don’t just tell that ‘X’ is your favourite because you found it easy. Rather, connect one of your curiosities to what the subject delivers. 2. Which has been the most difficult subject in your school/college? Why? Make sure you have thoroughly studied at least 2 subjects, as most interviewers give you a choice of the subjects. The same goes for this. It’s not just about what subject did you find the toughest but why. Also, will you do something in future to resolve the problems you faced while studying that subject? If you were to teach it, how could you have made it better? 3. Tell me something about your school/college. Focus on some unique things about your school/college. If possible, try to tell about the things you have learned (non-academic). 4. What are the few take-aways you have got from your previous education? These takeaways are nothing but the lessons you learned as a student. For example, if you have studied in a boarding school, one lesson could be that you learned to take decisions from very early stage. Similarly, if you have been a coordinator of various events in your college, event management could be another. 5. Have you participated in any non-academic co-curricular activities? How important do you think these activities are in general? Any co-curricular activity contributes to the development of overall personality. If you have participated in some, don’t just mention the Never say I did not have any option or someone forced me. In this case, try to say you went with your parent’s or friend’s suggestion because you were not really aware. activities but also how doing that helped in shaping your personality. If not, you can always tell them the other things you are better at. 6. Why did you choose this (your branch of engineering or any other selection of course/degree/stream)? Try to relate one of your interests to the stream or line of career that you had chosen. For example, a student might have chosen Automobile Engineering because he was driven by movies like ‘Fast and Furious’, or Eco(H) because of interest towards understanding the economy. 7. Why are your grades low or have decreased/not improved significantly? There could be any particular incident or just normal inconsistency, whatever the reason might be, do not try to make it seem like its someone else’s fault. Try to be honest and also tell what you are planning to rectify the same. WORK-EX RELATED This category includes questions related to your work experience. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • To check how seriously have you taken work so far – a check of your sincerity towards your work and your organization. To check how well you understand the work culture of corporates. QUESTIONS 1. Tell me something about your previous company. Your answer should include not just what someone can tell by ‘googling’ about your company but what different information you could offer that is unique and interesting. 2. Tell me something about your role at your previous company. Try to tell about what exactly you have worked on (project, problem etc) and how exactly has your work benefited a particular set of people (your client, customers etc). For example, suppose you have worked as a Systems Engineer in an IT company on a mainframe project. Your answer should reflect your contribution to the project and how it helped the client in multiple situations. Never talk bad about your previous company. Tell about your individual goals. Connect your experiences with the specialization you want to go, if any. 3. Why did you decide to pursue MBA and not establish yourself in the same organization or industry? In other words, why do you want to leave your job? Indirectly, this is the question on the vision and mission of your life. So, try to first decide on what is the vision and mission of your life (professionally). Once that is done, relate how the vision and mission of the company is different from that of yours and how pursuing an MBA can help you achieve that. 4. What are three key learning you have got from your experience in corporates? These takeaways are nothing but the lessons that you have learnt as an employee. For example, if you have worked in an IT company, you might have learnt about the importance of data and how technology is enlightening the future. If you have worked in sales profile, you know the importance of understanding the need of the customers and dynamically modifying your sales pitch in accordance with that. 5. Mention any instances where you have made your team or company proud of yourself. Mention few where you haven’t worked at the level expected from you. For the first one, try to relate or showcase your strength by mentioning Don’t say something too illogical or unachievable. Always be precise, straight forward and as structured as possible. one of the instances. For the second, be honest to accept and describe such instances (only if it exists). 6. Where do you see your company/industry five years down the line? If you have worked in any company/industry for some time, then by the rate at which you have seen the things getting changed in your company (observation skills) and the way things are overall changing in the industry as a whole (awareness), you should be able to analyse where the company or industry might change few years ahead in the future so that you can work accordingly to fit into the domain (analytical and decision making skills). 7. Tell me how the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors (PESTLE) can have an impact on your company/industry? There are few models using which you can give an analysis of your company/industry. You are advised to study at least these three models and try to frame the answer for your company and industry, accordingly. 1. SWOT Analysis 2. PESTLE 3. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis MBA RELATED This category includes questions based on your understanding of MBA. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • To understand your objective behind pursuing MBA. To know how well you understand the management aspects of an organization. QUESTIONS 1. Why do you want to pursue MBA? Let’s take an example. Suppose you had Mi A1 Phone and you were comfortable with it. But later, you wanted to get a phone which is faster, can click better quality pictures, or in which you can play PUBG in HD mode without any hassle. Hence, you switched to One Plus 6. The point here is, you identified a gap in your phone and hence purchased a new one. The same case goes with this question. Try to relate what exactly were the gaps in your life (gap of opportunity, learning, vision etc.,) to MBA and how pursuing it can help fill those gaps. 2. Why do you think you are a right candidate to be a part of an IIM? If this question is asked, be humble. A lot of aspirants take this opportunity to boast about themselves and how they are the best candidate. Don’t. Try to tell how you could be a great manager, either by telling about your managerial strengths or few previous instances Always try to take the interviews towards your interests. Don’t miss any chance where you can present a link to your interests. which depicts your leadership. IIMs look for leader. A leader should be knowledgeable, visionary and humble. 3. Tell me few instances from your past experience where you have shown your management skills. Try to frame your answer around a problem which was persisting back then and how your managerial skills helped in solving or easing that problem. It doesn’t matter how easy or tough that problem was, what matter is how efficient, effective yet simple your solution is. 4. Which specialization do you want to choose? Why? If you are sure about one, answer that with a proper reason. For example, someone might want to do majors in Marketing, attracted by the way advertisements hit the customers and having the same level of creativity. Some other might want to choose Finance because of a high level of interests in stocks, investments and is passionate to understand the math/logic behind it. The point is, whatever answer you give, relate it to your strengths, past instances or passion. Also, if you don’t have any preference as of now, it’s totally okay. You can always say that you have not decided and would want to take a decision based on your real-life experience in first year of MBA rather than getting influenced by various posts on the internet. One of the most important quality of an MBA aspirant is awareness about the outside world. Make sure you are aware about the happenings around the globe. 5. Why do you want to pursue MBA instead of pursuing masters in your own domain (doesn’t apply to BBA graduates)? This is just another way of asking one of the funniest yet relatable dialogues of the movie ‘3 idiots’, “Jab MBA hi karna tha to engineering kyu ki?”. Well, there could be multiple reasons. You might have had a start-up idea and would be willing to understand the management side in order to execute it in a better way, or you might have gained a lot of experience in the technical side and would be willing to shift to management side in order to not just climb the corporate ladder but be a manager who can help the team with technical part too, and a lot more. There is nothing wrong in switching your domain. The only requirement is - you should be able to justify it. 6. Which department do you think (amongst Sales and Marketing, Operations, Finance, IT, HR and Strategy) is the most important one for an organization? Every department is almost equally important in most of the industries. However, there would be a little more inclination towards a particular department based on the type of industry or company. For example, an IT company ‘might’ consider IT department as the most important one. A consultancy firm ‘might’ think that ‘Strategy’ is the most important. That might be true in the short-run. But in the long run, all are equally important (or almost). Never say placement or package as your primary criteria. IIMs are much more than placements. For more, read - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-most-important-departmentbusiness-david-r-frick/ 7. What are your short term (3-5 years) and long term (8-10 years) goals? How do you think pursuing MBA can help you achieve those? It is pretty obvious to say that many of you might have dreamt of a life after MBA - a reputed job in an MNC or your own start-up funded by angel investors. That is more or less a short-term goal (not necessarily though). Similarly, your long-term goal could be working in a firm at top management, your start-up having its offices across the country (or even worldwide), you following your passion or anything else. Whatever that is, try to relate it to your decision of pursuing MBA and how doing that can help you achieve your goals and be what you want to be in future. 8. Rank the CAP IIMs in order of your preference. Justify the order too. Do your research before coming to any conclusion. Remember, the one who is interviewing you belongs to one of these institutes. Don’t rely on unreliable sources. Whatever information you want to get, get it from the official websites of these colleges or official reports or rankings (such as MHRD, NIRF etc). Define the parameters - faculty, placement, infrastructure etc, give your own importance to these parameters and then rate them. SITUATION – BASED Past situations: This category includes questions based on the situations of your past experience. These situations could be related to your student life or work. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • • • • To check how you have acted in different situations of your life. To check your decision making or negotiating skills. To check the analytical skills of a candidate based on his/her previous decisions. To check the leadership skills of a candidate. To check other soft skills of the candidate – critical reasoning, detail oriented, flexibility etc. QUESTIONS 1. Give an instance where you stepped in, took charge, mustered support & influenced the outcome of a project by taking on a leadership role. This instance could be either related to your work experience or any previous position of responsibility held by you in college or school. Try to tell what the problem/project was and how you contributed to the outcome, focusing more on your strengths and managerial skills. 2. What has been the best decision of your life? How? This could be anything, from choosing a school to a company, and so on. If asked, you should be able to justify the impact of that decision on your present and future. Focus on the opportunities you got after taking that decision, which makes it the best of all. If you don’t have an answer to a situation based question, don’t frame one. The result might not be good. 3. What has been the most difficult decision you made in your life? How? If asked, focus on why it was the difficult (may be because of a dilemma of what to choose when multiple options seem equally good) and, most importantly, based on what parameters did you come to a conclusion. 4. What are the decisions you regret about in your life? Why? Similar to the previous question, this too could be anything, from selecting a stream (Science, Commerce etc) to taking a year drop, and so on. Even if you have taken some decisions in your life which you regret about, feel free to share it with a smile. Most importantly, try to mention what have you done (or tried to do) to counter this. 5. Tell me about any ethical dilemma you have faced in your organization. How did you resolve it? If such instances have occurred, tell briefly about the strategy you implemented in order to resolve the dilemma. Focus more on presenting the data rather than the story-line. 6. Have you ever been in conflicting relations or disagreed with your manager or team-head? How have you reacted to such situations? Situation-based questions are the best way to check the interpersonal skills of a candidate. Make sure you are well prepared. It’s not a bad thing to disagree with your manager. Disagreeing promotes diverse viewpoints and ultimately helps in taking a better decision. If any such instances have occurred, focus on how your viewpoints were different from those of your manager, what were the pros and cons of both and how you reacted to the situation. 7. What has been the biggest challenge of your life? How did you overcome it? What did you learn? The biggest challenge of your life could be related to academics, personal life, any activity or even a challenge of taking a decision. Whatever it is, you call it the biggest challenge because of various hurdles you faced. Focus on what the hurdles were, how you applied your strengths or managerial skills in order to overcome it and eventually, what learning did you get out of it. 8. What has been the biggest failure of your life? What did you learn from it? Similar to the previous question, the answer could be anything. However, remember that the way you judge your challenges and failures depicts the vision and mission of your life, or in other words, your attitude. Therefore, try not to make any small disappointment If you are asked a question which you haven’t prepared for, ask them for some time to answer instead of answering without any thought structure. (say, decrease in marks) as your biggest failure because it signifies how easily you consider small things as a failure. Instead, come up with something which had a significant importance in your life and what learning you got out of it. 9. Tell me about an interesting experience or incident you’ve had recently. Your recent experience could range from a get together with an old friend to a small 5-minute conversation with your Ola/Uber driver while you are going for the CAP interview. Focus on what made it interesting enough to be told in that interview room, also talking a bit about the learning associated, if any. 10. Describe a situation where you have completed a project on a very short deadline or under a time constraint. How did you solve the problem? What did you learn from it? This is a check of your time management skills. Your answer should start with what the project was, why did the problem of time arise and how you contributed to the solution, managing the resource constraints simultaneously. Hypothetical scenarios: This category includes questions where a situation is presented in front of the candidate. Remember, there’s no right or wrong answer to most of these questions. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • • • To check the decision-making skills of a candidate To check the problem-solving skills – the way you approach a problem To check the multi-tasking skills of a candidate To check how good you are as a team player or as a people's representative QUESTIONS 1. Suppose you have an important work to do in office which, if delayed, might result into a huge loss for the company. At the very same time, you have got a call from your home asking you to be there because of some emergency. There’s only you who could handle the tasks, both at home and at the office. What would you do? 2. You’re working on a project with a tight deadline but you find that you’re unable to complete your section because your co-workers and your supervisor are unavailable to answer a few key questions. How do you deal with the situation? 3. You’re a team leader. What would you do if the work of one of your subordinate team members was not up to expectations? ABSTRACT TOPICS This category includes random questions. The objective, in general, behind asking these questions is – • • To check the thought process of a candidate. To check the presence of mind – how a candidate answers to random unprepared questions. QUESTIONS 1. Money or fame. Why? 2. Money or power. Why? 3. If you could go back and change one thing related to your life, what would it be and why? 4. Define success. 5. What is the probability of you cracking this interview? 6. Luck or hard work. Why? 7. Do you believe in God? Justify your answer. Students are advised to Google to get answers to these and other abstract questions. However, try to present your own opinion, because the question in this category could be anything. WAT PREPARATION WAT (Written Ability Test) would be the first process of your WAT-PI day. In this, you would be a given a topic on which you would have to write in around 250-300 words (the word limit would be given) in 15-20 minutes of time. When the topic is given, spend at least 2-3 minutes to collect your thoughts and then pen it down. Why WAT is conducted: WAT is conducted to check the following strengths of a candidate: 1. Ability for logical thinking. 2. Ability to make decisions in a short time. 3. Ability to generate ideas. 4. Ability to connect/support your ideas with facts. 5. Proficiency of language. Few misconceptions about WAT: • WAT is conducted to check your vocabulary (not really, an average command on vocabulary is good). • WAT is all about using jargons or technical terms. Writing is an art. This means only way to get better at it is by practicing. Steps: In general, there are two ways to write a WAT topic: • Gather the facts, and come to a conclusion. • Decide on the conclusion and support it with facts/evidences. Please follow the following steps: 1. Read the topic carefully. 2. Understand what exactly they are asking for. 3. Gather your thoughts and make up your mind about the topic- do you agree with the statement or not / how would you like to conclude. 4. Organize your thoughts and structure your writing in your mind. 5. Pen-down the words. 6. Try to avoid any grammatical or spelling mistakes. 7. No need to get fancy, keep it simple. 8. Recheck. Do’s: 1. Stick to the word limit, if any. 2. Make sure you write your opinion and conclude. It is highly recommended that you practice at least 3-4 articles a day for 10 days within a time frame of 15-20 minutes. 3. 4. 5. 6. Specify the fact and figures if any, and mention their sources. If no word limit is specified write a max of 2 pages. Legible handwriting. Use correct spellings, punctuations and grammar. Don’ts: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Be vague. Beat around the bush. Exceed word limit (if any). Don’t take any extreme stand. Cook up figures. Misuse/Overuse of quotes. Mention any facts which you have assumed and is not sure of while writing. 8. Cluttered handwriting. 9. Use unnecessarily complex words. 10. Do not get emotional if the topic given is controversial/different form your beliefs. 11. Do not use casual language / abbreviations - e.g.: “whn, tbh, ttyl etc”, WAT STRUCTURE In general, try to break your entire content in three parts: 1. Introduction 2. Description 3. Conclusion Introduction: The introduction of any topic should tell the relevance of the topic or how it connects to everyday life. Generally, it revolves around the six keywords: • • • • • • What When Where Why How Who For example, if the topic is ‘Impact of GST on the Indian Economy’, your introduction could include answers to – • What is GST all about? • When was GST implemented? • Why was GST implemented? Go through newspaper daily. Read and research about your areas of interest. Practice…Practice and Practice. Description: The description of the topic could contain one or more of the following aspects: • Advantages and Disadvantages • The impact of the particular topic on environment, community, society, technology or anything else. • The impact on the particular topic by environment, community, society, technology or anything else. • Facts and arguments. Conclusion: The conclusion could consist of – • Your opinion • The futuristic analysis of the topic • Recommendations on how things can be improved/action plan/how we can apply in daily life. SAMPLE TOPICS 1. State Elections -MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh 2. 2019 General Elections 3. One Country One elections / Should state elections be held along with General elections 4. 2019 Union Budget, its expectations 5. Demonetization: Political move or Economic Move? 6. Electric Vehicles in India: Dream or Reality 7. GST: Success or Failure? 8. IIM Bill 2017 9. Rafael Deal: Justified? 10. Trump and his policies, and their implications on India 11. Trade War 12. Public Private Partnerships 13. Aadhaar: India’s Fintech Revolution 14. Industry 4.0 15. Government vs CBI 16. Government vs RBI 17. Constitution Bill 2019 18. Lynching: Face of new India? 19. Jet Airways and Air India: What’s the future? 20. US Sanctions – on India/Russia/Iran? 21. Brexit Apart from these, try to stay abreast about the latest happening and discussions going around, and go through abstract topics. 22. Insolvency and bankruptcy code 23. IL & FS issue 24. EQ or IQ? 25. Make in India: Protectionism 26. MNREGA 27. Virat Kohli: The captain of right attitude at this point of time for Team India. Share your views 28. Hardik Pandya row: Should personal opinions of cricketers be linked with their sport? 29. Sabrimala Temple Row 30. International Cricket Vs Franchise Cricket (IPL Vs World Cup) 31. US – China Trade war 32. Virtual purchases: Right or Wrong (Purchases in games like PUBG, Fortnite etc) 33. France riots (future of Emmanuel Macron/ analysis of his public policies) 34. North Korea and South Korea’s future: bright or doomed 35. India: solar capital or just a myth 36. Mainstream media vs Online media 37. Flipkart Walmart deal: Indian start-ups for India? 38. India: Premier League Capital 39. Statue politics 40. Surgical Strike IMPORTANT LINKS IIM Kashipur Official Facebook Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/IndianInstituteOfManagementK ashipur INSITE Official Facebook Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/IIMKashipurInsite CAP Converts Official Facebook Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2256322564623229