MDI GD / PI Experience

From : Krishna Kiran

FOR INTERVIEW :

1) INTERVIEW WAS FOR : MDI-HR
2) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/List of calls) : B.E./2 years work-ex/MDI-HR
3) No. OF PEOPLE AT THE PANEL : 2
4) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE INTERVIEW : Interview was mainly to test the confidence levels and it was on area of my choice, the subjects i had. They were asking a lot of HR questions too. Interview I would say was not too good, not too bad. Interview panel was cool. They were not showing too many emotions.
5) KIND OF QUESTIONS ASKED : Some general questions on cricket, some questions on Operations Research, the nature of my work and related questions. Quite a few questions on role HR.
6) DURATION OF THE INTERVIEW : Should have been around 15-20 minutes.
7) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE : Not too good, not too bad.
8) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER : Knew quite a few things about HR but did not give out many points.
9) 3 QUESTIONS THAT YOU FOUND DIFFICULT TO ANSWERS : Questions on OR.
10) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR INTERVIEW : Prepare well in acads and areas of interest or say hobbies. If its an interview for any one specalisation, like HR, read some material on it.

FOR GD :

1) GD WAS FOR : MDI-HR
2) NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE GD : 12
3) NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVALUATING : 2
4) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/Calls etc) : B.E./2 years work-ex/MDI-HR
5) ABOUT THE REMAINING MEMBERS IN THE GD : People were good and had decent points.
6) GD TOPIC : Retention of employees
7) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE GD : It went on for 15 mins. People had good points but it was mainly software centric discussion.
8) DURATION OF THE GD : 15 mins
9) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE : Since people were shouting at each other, i tried maintaining sanity. Came in 2-3 times. Also gave a mid-term summary.
10) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER: I did pretty well in GD. No regrets
11) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR GD : If the GD is cool, try controlling it. If there r too many people trying to control and fighting, stay cool, ackowledge people for good points so that listening skills are displayed.
12) FEEDBACK ON THE WEBSITE URPERCENTILE. COM : Its a very good forum getting people with similar goals together and developing a good remotely located team. Working together always helps.

From : Jay Mehta

PGPM GDPI :

Well, the GD was good. We were 8 people sitting in a semi-circular pattern. Most of them were IIM call holders. We were given a table in which first column showed the percentage population employed in service sector while the other column showed the percentage gross capital generated by service sector of the total gross capital generated. The data was of five years (1965-66, 1969-70, 1979-80, 1989-90 and 1999-2000). No mention of country whose data it was or what was the total population or population growth or what was the total gross capital generated or anything. We were just supposed to discuss the table. In the table the pattern was like the population was fluctuating i.e. the percentage was increasing and decreasing alternately. The gross capital generated was showing a normal curve i.e. it increased till 1979-80 and than decreased.

It was about 25 minutes GD. I made entry some 5-6 times with points like what should be the thought process, what questions can arise from the table. I also brought in points like productivity was decreasing, the possible reasons for such decrease, the importance of service sector in growth of other sectors (with e.g. like ITC e-choupal), what measures can be taken to increase the productivity of service sector. In all it was a good GD for me.

PI was quite OK as I felt I wasn’t sounding that polished in my language and I made some “dhamaal” into it. It lasted for around 20 minutes. They started off with my introduction. Than they asked me about IT Engineering and our work as an IT Engineer. Thereafter they asked me about how IT engineering can help me in improving the processes of MDI? So I told them about digitizing the process of form filling of MDI application and payment system through internet. Than I made a little blunder by telling them that GDPI process can also be made online through video conferencing. Although I pulled off myself from this problem very nicely but still I feel it might have went negative to me. Than the questions were of normal acads (Permutation and combination and question about programming languages which I managed well). Rest of the interview went good as some standard question like why MBA which I made them understand quite well. Rest the interview was good.

PGPIM GD/PI :

The GD was the same as it was in PGPM. Same table and same data. But this time it went pathetic as it was a kind of fish market with 4-5 people speaking simultaneously. And whenever I use to speak other students use to speak simultaneously and my voice was perhaps not that loud. So I spoke just twice in the entire GD. The GD lasted 15 minutes.

The PI was fantastic, primarily because of the pressure to make it good due to pathetic GD. Besides that I felt my speech was also superb and mainly the confidence with which I answered (although I made some blunders in between). The PI was all about GK. No personal questions, no acads nothing. Around 40 questions were asked (that many I was able to recall in the train!!!) mainly in the areas of IT, Brands, Nirma, Europe, Cricket, Bollywood, Education, Finance and about my CAT. I answered only few of them wrongly (of Europe, Brands and Education). So I think it went good. It lasted for around 25 minutes.

So, what I feel after this is that it would be OK if you don’t perform well in GD if it is going fish market. Especially if GD is NOT the elimination than it is OK with a fish market GD that you don’t speak because again you need to maintain your dignity. You can’t just shout in the middle of the GD like others. This is what happened with me. From the 10 people in the PGPIM GD, only two (including me) were the ones who didn’t spoke much and only those two were selected because they maintained their dignity in the GD and secondly they performed very well in PI.

Anyway, hope it was a useful sharing of experience. Take care, ALL THE BEST to all CAT 07 aspirants.