1) INTERVIEW WAS FOR : IT SPJCM Dubai-singapore
2) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/List of calls) : B.E. (Computer science) , 3 yrs @ Bhabha atomic research Center
3) No. OF PEOPLE AT THE PANEL :2
4) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE INTERVIEW : I was asked Q like Why MBA , career goals , why 1yr mba at spjcm The panel had asked stress intw type of Q to me like How is Research and MBA related.Why i want to leave BARC.How can i realte to IT managemnt.I m not much suitable for IT management etc stuff. . I was alsed what I learned as part of work-ex (take away) and how does it feel to be working in BARC, will I go back to BARC (after mba) , what r the career options im looking at. I was asked a lot of questions about AI and robotics coz i was workin in field of Mobile Robots.How can i relate my work experience with management.
5) KIND OF QUESTIONS ASKED : <discussed above> + abstract Q like: What are latest trends in IT and internet. Lot odf questions about Google ...also the novels i read..my hobbies....my idol in IT/Internet.
6) DURATION OF THE INTERVIEW :20 min
7) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE :good
8) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER : same as Q9
9) 3 QUESTIONS THAT YOU FOUND DIFFICULT TO ANSWERS : Values , learnings from work-ex (answer wasn’t very structured but interviewers seemed to be fine with it)
10) FINAL RESULT : cleared it and got an admit for IT
11) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR INTERVIEW : Try answering Q like … describe urself , why MBA , Why this stream , why/how 1 yr wil help you, why spjcm , learnings from work . Be thorogh with work ex and happenings around.Know all what u have written in resume.
12) HOW URPERCENTILE.COM HELPED YOU IN GETTING THIS CALL ? : Read previous years experiences and it was important
FOR GD :
1) GD WAS FOR : GMBA SPJCM
2) NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE GD :8
3) NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVALUATING :2
4) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/Calls etc) : B.E (Comp sc , 3yrs @ BARC
5) ABOUT THE REMAINING MEMBERS IN THE GD : 4 from IT background (ave 2 yrs exp), 1 person with family business and 3 ppl with close to 3 yrs exp
6) GD TOPIC : Beauty peagents are a must comment
7) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE GD : almost everyone got a chance to speak , though only 5 people spoke most of the time , there were a few people who were desperate to talk all the time and there just 2-3 people who were discussing relavant topics.lil bit os mess in the end.
8) DURATION OF THE GD :20 min
9) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE :I was the third to speak.stepped in at 2-3 places where the discussion was digressing from main topic , only 2 other people were contributing meaningfully and the rest were just repeating the oints already discussed.
10) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER: I could have controlled the group in a better manner since we had strayed a lot of time from the main subject and 2-3 people were talking together at a few times. A couple of times I intervened , but towards the end I gave up intervening.
11) FINAL RESULT : 4 ppl out of 8 got admit
12) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR GD : Do make sure you talk , but make sure that you talk sense and remember it is not the quantity , but the quality that counts.
13) FEEDBACK ON THE WEBSITE URPERCENTILE.COM - Its a very good website for MBA gyan. U must folow it regularly n b updated on all fronts. Do participate in online GD's .they help a lot.also the news is relevant and knowlede enhancing.
From : Anush
INTERVIEW :
1) INTERVIEW WAS FOR : IT , SPJCM
2) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/List of calls) : B.Tech (electrical & electronics) , 4 yrs @ Infy
3) No. OF PEOPLE AT THE PANEL : 2
4) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE INTERVIEW : I was asked Q like Why MBA , career goals , why 1yr mba @ spjcm . The panel had asked stress intw type of Q to ppl before me , but it was different for me. I was asked what I learned as part of work-ex (take away) and how does it feel to be working in Infy , will I go back to Infy (after mba) , what r the career options im looking at
5) KIND OF QUESTIONS ASKED : <discussed above> + abstract Q like: What is the difference between graphite n carbon
elaborate ?
6) DURATION OF THE INTERVIEW :15 min
7) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE :good
8) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER : same as Q9
9) 3 QUESTIONS THAT YOU FOUND DIFFICULT TO ANSWERS : Values , learnings from work-ex (answer wasn’t very structured but interviewers seemed to be fine with it)
10) FINAL RESULT : cleared it and got an admit for IT
11) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR INTERVIEW : Try answering Q like … describe urself , why MBA , Why this stream , why/how 1 yr wil help you, why spjcm , learnings from work , what you learnt from the organisation where u work.
GD :
1) GD WAS FOR : GMBA SPJCM
2) NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE GD :10 (irrespective of streams)
3) NUMBER OF PEOPLE EVALUATING :2
4) ABOUT YOURSELF (Education/Work Experience/Calls etc) : B.Tech (electrical & electronics) , 4 yrs @ Infy
5) ABOUT THE REMAINING MEMBERS IN THE GD : 6 from IT background (ave 2 yrs exp), 1 person with family business and 3 ppl with close to 2 yrs exp
6) GD TOPIC : Borderless world a myth or reality(we were given 2 mins to prepare)
7) BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE GD : almost everyone got a chance to speak , though only 4-5 people spoke most of the time , there were a few people who were desperate to talk all the time and there just 2-3 people who were discussing relavant topics.
8) DURATION OF THE GD :10 min
9) HOW WAS YOUR PERFORMANCE : I started the GD and set the tone for discussion , stepped in at lot of places where the discussion was digressing from main topic , only 2 other people were contributing meaningfully and the rest were just repeating what we were saying.Since I had read a book related to the subject (World is Flat by Thomas friedman) I could provide a lot of insight and offer various perspectives.
10) AREAS WHERE YOU COULD HAVE PERFORMED BETTER: I could have controlled the group in a better manner since we had strayed a lot of time from the main subject and 2-3 people were talking together at a few times. A couple of times I intervened , but towards the end I gave up intervening.
11) FINAL RESULT : 2 or 3 ppl out of 10 got admit
12) YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE UrPERCENTILE.COM SUBSCRIBERS PREPARING FOR GD : Do make sure you talk , but make sure that you talk sense and remember it is not the quantity , but the quality that counts. In my group 2 people who were talking nonsense / attetmpting to hog the discussion not making it
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From : Deepak
My Group Interview Session with SPJAIN, Mumbai for the PGDBM (2-year program)
First of all a little about the selection process of SPJAIN :-
1) Initial Admission form filling which apart from your CAT/XAT (or) GMAT scores would ask for specific details such as Social Services, School and College marks along with your relative grading. Also, the chief part of the form is where you have to grade yourself (while they shall be providing specific guidelines: such as “National level players – Excellent” so on and so forth) they also request for specifics which shall be used to prove your rating.
Note: Only SPJAIN asks you to specifically mention your specialization (Finance, Marketing,Information Management, Operations)
2) After the CAT and XAT exam results have been announced, SPJAIN announces the first round of Shortlisting.
Announcing date : Jan Second week
First Round : Feb last week
Usually the first round of short-listing is quite huge; sample : currently their PGDBM program has 120-140 seats (in the approx. ratio of 40:40:20:30 :: FIN:MAR:IM:OP) but they call around 280-400 each for these categories.
Before you are requested to attend the initial round (Group Interview) you are asked to fill out a Questionnaire form; upon which you shall be quizzed during the GI.
3) Final round (Not too sure currently)
This is my experience during the GI for SPAIN (first round)
Location : Bangalore ; Bala Vidya Bhavan
Time :10.30 ("Reporting time" is the actual time at which you are supposed to reach the center.)
Specialization : Information management
Bit about myself : Engg(Computers) and then 2.5 yrs of Work-exp currently with Hewlett Packard ISO
Cat – 90 percentile ; XAT – 98 percentile
A bit about the modalities of the GI (kinda mix between PI and GD)
There were 7 group participants in each Panel and 3 panelists accompanied with a Student(1st Yr SPJAIN); the entire session lasts around 45-50 mins (averaging around 7 mins/person).
A Group Interview is more like a cross-over and we could have anything ranging from a Group Discussion to fielding personal questions thrown across in a round-robin fashion; but the panelists were really cool and there was no stress rounds in that aspect.
Be very thorough with whatever you had filled in the questionnaire form. There will be at least two questions from what you had filled up. Then a GD or your opinion about any relevant issue of this time.
About the rest of the participants of the panel :-
#1 : Myself : IM
#2 : Engg Guy (infy) : Ops
#3 : Elect Guy (Verizon) : Fin
#4 : Engg Guy : Fin
#5 : Engg Guy (Bits pilani, HP, 3.5+ work-exp) : IM
#6 : Bsc Guy (Times of India) : Marketing
#7 : Engg Gal (infy) : Finance
Panelists :-
P1 : Eco Prof
P2 : HR lady Prof.
P3 : No idea(she never asked any questions)
Student : Also just noting down the points.
As ice-breaker, the panelists asked us ourselves to ask a single Q in a round-robin fashion and answer within 1 min. All of us asked the rhetoric question “why finance”, “tell me about ur work-exp” et all. Everyone was answering in a single line or so; and it really didn’t do justice to the 1 minute time period given to us; so when my question came I did a lil elaborate explanation of my work-profile and immediately was questioned; about the time relaxation.. and I answered that I had not still crossed the “1” min period; and finally ended my entire explanation properly without interruption.
It was P1 who was asking everyone questions from then on.
Since, I had kinda elaborated with my previous answer, he first asked #2
“Why operations? ”
#2: Sir, it is more about Engineering subjects, I have an analytical mindset .. Blah Blah…
He was cut short with the simple, “Ok, I still don’t get it why operations ?”
Next question to #3 “You come from a elec Background, into IT and then now Finance?”
#3: He totally confused himself and the panelists saying too many things like, I want to start my own electrical company and also do money games like shares and stuff.. totally arbit answers.
He too was put down, as P2 retorted that somehow it really doesn’t make sense
#4: “What does ur name signify-Saahil” he started to answer in Hindi and then when they started coming to his work-profile, he unfortunately mentioned “Mobile TV”, regretfully so, cause the next question was “Lets take the world-cup match, can you explain the process how Mobile TV shall work from the Caribbeans to India”. No answer !
#5 : His work-experience and BITS did him a good deal, but then suddenly P1 took a U-turn to ask him questions about Data-structures (which he couldn’t answer satisfactorily)
#6: The BSc Grad was grilled in Economics Basics and he too could not relate any of the questions to his work. But somehow he did a good job in turning the attention of the Jury to his work-profile(at Times of India) but after they asked him some questions about sales that also returned a Blank.
#7: “Why Finance? “ … This was seriously the most pathetic answer I have ever heard (No offence personally to the female but it really showed her mettle)
Well Sir, first after 12th I wrote the All india Entrance, and I got good marks so my mom said to take Engineering and after I finished Engineering I got into Infosys but then within my heart it always said Finance, so now I want Finance….
Needless to mention; they did not ask any question again to her.
#1: “Can you explain about ur performance awards at work” ; unfortunately I had to explain the thing in detail… and after a point of time, the panelist interrupted me with a “can you please answer this in a single sentence?” and boy was i dumb-founded.
She said that she shall come back later, but I needed to get my 1 line answer ready. I quickly took down a paper and pen and noted the 1 line immediately, and I didn’t want to interrupt her again.
Once again, they started a bit of random questioning; one of the good questions was to #2
“Your dad is in Army, can you tell me why is the Infy’s structure diff from Army and the rationale behind it all”
Since they were not satisfied with his answer they floated the same to others and I answered with a 1 line approach, “Army depends on Physical Strenght while infy upon Mental Strenght; hence while the hierarchy in Army is rigid the same cannot apply in Infy, as depending upon the individual capacity he can grown in Infy” . They were very impressed with the answer.
Then she heard my 1 line answer to my first question and after I mentioned that P2 smiled with a “that’s good”.
Then the Topic steered towards a G.D with the Topic “The cricket World-cup is a utter waste of money”; #4 started with his own interpretation of World-cup as money-spiners and I waited till he finished; and then countered each and every one of his point;
Firstly, I mentioned if WC were money spinners then naturally Olympics would have been Block-busters, but it has never been the case; citing the case of Munic, Greece, et all which have still been reeling under the debt for Olympics; of course they do bring around tourism revenue but at what expense; here whomever we see as the majority earners would be the BCCI and it kinda reminds me of a capitalistic society wherein a particular company(or) group gains everything but others are lost. And rather we could spend the same amount of money in other avenues such as education or even other games rather than jus pouring everything into a single funnel.
Everyone of the group started to oppose me, and I was putting newer thought points to their arguments, and at one point I clarified to everyone, “Listen, I am not saying that anyone’s point is illegitimate but only that we are all thinking with a Horse blinder and not able to ruminate about the alternatives and there is nothing personal” .
Soon, they asked us to summarize.
Then it was almost 1 hr, they asked us to disperse and then I waited to ask them a general Question, and it was then they realized that they had not introduced themselves and apologized to everyone and called them back.
I asked “This is specifically to understand what is the entry criteria for the 1 yr IM specialization; though I have not applied as I have less than 3 yrs of work-exp”
The Lady (P2) mentioned that they are looking for people with 5+ for that particular course, and only people with amazing credentials and 3+ would be considered and definitely a foreign exposure would be a add-on to them.
Overall I rated myself good among everyone else
LESSONS LEARNT : 1 line answer (to keep handy) for every question.
Yesterday I had my SPJIMR GD/PI. I had a lot of hopes for it. But
all is shattered as of now.I can not asess what went wrong for
me?
As many of you may know. SPJIMR has an elimination round
called group interview. I got screwed up in this round. There was
six of us facing four panelists. I thought there will be something
like GD but it was not like that. As soon as six of us took our seat
one old and cruel looking prof( with all due respect to him)
started asking us general question like "introduce yourself" most
of the group spoke a lot about sports etc As i don't have any
interest in sports I just talked about my other interests like
Philosophy, Impressionists' paintings etc.
Then they asked each of us about our work or project for
freshers. I explained in details what i do for my client.The next
question was of some ethical issues. 'the prof' raised a question
about Glaxo's selling of AIDS drug in Africa for 10K $. Now
everyone spoke randomly. I just spoke once that if someone very
close to me is suffering then I would go for brand value of the
company without thinking their ethics etc. then they asked each
of us to choose someone from the group 'excluding yourself'. I
chose one L&T guy who got two votes and told the reasons.
Then it was over. After fifteen minutes they let us know four from
the group have been selected except another fresher and I.
I felt like dying and the dream of making it in a big league was
overfor me.
Can anybody explain what went wrong.
One word of caution: Don't register your name with some
heavy weight people.
I did the mistake of registering my names with one IITan, one
CSC 6 years exp and the L&T guy. have i been a more fresher
infested group I may have been selected as they were calling
serially.
The S P Jain interviews are over. It was a nice learning
experience. It consists of two rounds of group interviews. First
round is mainly based upon your answers in the questionaire.
Second round is relatively serious. They try to ask you about your
specialisation choice and a bit about the general preview of your
knowledge in that.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From : Prasad
SPJain Dubai Interview process had following:
1. Essay Writing: Asked 4 questions and asked to answer in 100
words.
a. What activities will give you personal satisfaction?
b. There are "defining moments" in everyone's life. Explain about
it and how it changed your behavior/outlook.
c. Explain abt a ethic dilemma and how did u overcome it?
d. Explain your career path till now and how SPJCM would help
you in fulfilling goal.
2. GD Topic: Food comes first, Ethics later. (10 min to think and
25- 30 min for discussion) Moderated GD. So everyone got
chance to speak out their views.
3. Group Interview for 4 member group and 2 interview panelist.
Initially intro for 2 mins each. Got screwed up regarding shift
from IT to Finance(as I applied for Investment banking).
Lot of provoking questions....lot of leading question when I was
answering...even before finishing the answer there was another
question.
Apart from this few personal questions about my schooling and
college.
To my surprise there was no question related to essays (for
SPJain Mumbai there was 8 such essays written and 4 essays
for SPJain Dubai).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From : Saikat
Just wanted to share my GD/PI Experiences with all.
Had 2 rounds of GD/GI, First one was an elimination round.
1st GD/GI:
Topic: Let sleeping dogs lie
All staring at each other about who will start... :) Then somebody
started about motivation and teamwork, and another gave example
of volatile countries like North Korea which are better left alone.
INTERVIEW
Interview questions: Tell abt yourself... Why MBA... Some stuff
about books and movies as they r my hobbies, eg why do old
bengali authors have women
centric themes in their novels, abt satyajit ray, what is the diff
between mainstream bollywood movies and regional movies,
etc...
Cleared this round and moved on to 2nd GD/GI
2nd GD / GI :
Topic: State of Indian Sports, and whether that warrants the use
of drugs if one is not caught. Gave an example of cheating to
support my view, so then the panel took it to that angle and also
talked about joining any coaching institute is cheating or not...
And some more personal questions to each one.
After this had to write a psychometry test which concluded my
day at SP Jain.
We were asked to write essays on the following topics:
1. Apart from your academic what interest you most and why you
feel satisfied doing that JOb?
2. Tell us the situation where you have faced a problem and you
have given a innovative solution to it.
3. Tell us some incident where you have played a role of leader
and how effective it was and what was your learning from it.
4. What is your career growth path till now and how ill SPJCM will
fit into it.
After that we had a GD on "Yesterday the person was of Finance,
today of Marketing, and tomorrow is HRD" we were 12 people in
all, I was the only guy who applied in IT in the first 10 AM batch.
Our group was divided into 3 , with 4 members each , In my
group out of other three two applied for Retail Management ( one
with 10 years of work EX ), and one Applied for IB. All they were
asking was why you have chose to the specialization and some
relevant question on your acads.
They have said that in any case ( rejection /Selection ) results will
be declared in 3 days and waiting list will be declared in 2 weeks
time.
'Also, in the last I got to know that no of applicants in Information
Management and investment banking is the highest.
I hope it helps.
By the way there was a rumor / truth that 13th March was the last
day of the Interview, Plz let us know if some one has GD/GI date
in the coming days.