Yesterday was my last day in Syntel. It has been a long journey of 4 years 9 months and 5 days.
Syntel being the first company will always remain close to my heart...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
My interview experiences
I got Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) calls from two B-schools on last weekend.
On Friday, it was for Great Lakes, Chennai. The venue was Hotel Tunga Paradise, Andheri and timing was 11.30 AM. I reached the venue on time. The whole admission process was conducted by the students only as GL is a student driven institute. The crowd looked impressive. I got a chance to interact with few guys and found most of them had 3-5 years of experience. Some of the guys were dressed in business suits. I was among the very few, who were not even wearing a tie.
After the documents verification, I went in for the interview. There were two guys in the panel. One person was from industry and other one was an alumni. Both were very cool and were smiling all the time. They asked questions about how things work in IT, deadlines, project estimates, day-to-day activities, difference between working in USA and India. The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes, but there was no stress at all as the questions were restricted within my domain only. When I came out I couldn’t believe the PI was already over.
The GD was also cool as everyone got chance to speak and it was followed by a psychometric test of 10 minutes. The whole process was very smooth and overall it took 2.5 hours to complete.
On Sunday, had a GD/PI call for SP Jain Dubai-Singapore programme. The venue was SP Jain Mumbai campus and timing was 2.30 PM. I reached before time and had to wait for one hour for the process to start.
There was no GD. We were given a case-study and were to answer the questions in 45 minutes and had to write two essays in 15 minutes. After the documents verification, it was interview time. People from earlier slots were already waiting, so we had to wait for our turn and it was a long wait.
By the time my turn came, at around 5, I was already tired of waiting. I went in and found two old khadoos professors in the panel (P1 and P2). After the initial greetings, they started firing the questions.
P1: We've gone through your profile. First of all tell us, how come your acads are so poor?
Me: (I know I’ve average acads, but POOR?? Anyway, tried to give some explanation.) Always wanted to do an MBA and was not much focussed in engineering.. blah.. blah..
P1: How do we know that you'll be focussed in MBA?
Me: Sir, this is what I always wanted to do.
P1: You said you were not focussed in your engineering, but why do you have poor scores in school also?
Me: Umm..well..actually..I mean..you know..
P1: How did you get admission in DAVV college? Was there any payment seat?
Me: Sir, it's University's own college. There are no payment seats. I got through pre-engineering test. Actually I had an All India Rank of..
P1: (Cutting me in between) So you got through some test.
Me: (Huh..some test..I took an year's gap to prepare for it) Yes sir.
P1: You've mentioned that you did your schooling from CBSE. Which school was it?
Me: Central School, Mhow.
P1: Mhow?
Me: Mhow is a small town near Indore.
P1: Oh! That Army Headquarter?
Me: Yes sir. I've done most of my schooling from there. I've lived most formative years of my life there and have lived closely with Army people.
P1: Is that the reason for your poor performance?
Me: Sir?
P1: There is a lot of freedom in that society and I guess you misused your freedom.
Me: Umm..(where is it going?)
P1: What is the biggest achievement of your life that you are proud of?
Me: It was when I was titled Best Student of the year in school. Normally, the School Captain gets this title. Even though I was not the School Captain, still I was given this title as an exception.
P1: Do you think you were very popular in your school?
Me: Not exactly popular, but people liked me.
P1: Why?
Me: I'm a likable person. Even in my college and in my organisation people like me.
P1: And you still don't help yourself?
Me: Sir?
P1: You don't help yourself and perform so poorly in your acads.
Me: (Acads again!) Umm..
Later P2 asked me about Satyam fraud, IT best practices, social issues, my hobbies etc, but P1 kept cutting me in between to ensure that I’d not get comfortable at any moment.
I came out, not sure what went inside or how long it went. They’ve a second round of interview with Dean, if the first round is cleared. I was definitely not expecting, but got a call for it immediately after coming out. I was surprised, but was not in a state to feel anything though only a few moments back I'd seen a girl in tears when she got a call for Dean's interview.
The Dean too started with the same question about my decent GMAT score, but my not-so-good acads. It was a short interview and he asked about my career aspirations, why SP Jain and some usual stuff. He kept marking and writing notes on my application form without looking at me, not sure even if he was listening to my responses.
The whole process took around 6-7 hours to complete and included a lot of waiting time. I mentioned this as a scope of improvement in my feedback form also.
It is very difficult to predict how an interviewer judges a candidate. Both the interviews were extreme in nature. The only thing common was that I came out smiling.
And for now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!
On Friday, it was for Great Lakes, Chennai. The venue was Hotel Tunga Paradise, Andheri and timing was 11.30 AM. I reached the venue on time. The whole admission process was conducted by the students only as GL is a student driven institute. The crowd looked impressive. I got a chance to interact with few guys and found most of them had 3-5 years of experience. Some of the guys were dressed in business suits. I was among the very few, who were not even wearing a tie.
After the documents verification, I went in for the interview. There were two guys in the panel. One person was from industry and other one was an alumni. Both were very cool and were smiling all the time. They asked questions about how things work in IT, deadlines, project estimates, day-to-day activities, difference between working in USA and India. The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes, but there was no stress at all as the questions were restricted within my domain only. When I came out I couldn’t believe the PI was already over.
The GD was also cool as everyone got chance to speak and it was followed by a psychometric test of 10 minutes. The whole process was very smooth and overall it took 2.5 hours to complete.
On Sunday, had a GD/PI call for SP Jain Dubai-Singapore programme. The venue was SP Jain Mumbai campus and timing was 2.30 PM. I reached before time and had to wait for one hour for the process to start.
There was no GD. We were given a case-study and were to answer the questions in 45 minutes and had to write two essays in 15 minutes. After the documents verification, it was interview time. People from earlier slots were already waiting, so we had to wait for our turn and it was a long wait.
By the time my turn came, at around 5, I was already tired of waiting. I went in and found two old khadoos professors in the panel (P1 and P2). After the initial greetings, they started firing the questions.
P1: We've gone through your profile. First of all tell us, how come your acads are so poor?
Me: (I know I’ve average acads, but POOR?? Anyway, tried to give some explanation.) Always wanted to do an MBA and was not much focussed in engineering.. blah.. blah..
P1: How do we know that you'll be focussed in MBA?
Me: Sir, this is what I always wanted to do.
P1: You said you were not focussed in your engineering, but why do you have poor scores in school also?
Me: Umm..well..actually..I mean..you know..
P1: How did you get admission in DAVV college? Was there any payment seat?
Me: Sir, it's University's own college. There are no payment seats. I got through pre-engineering test. Actually I had an All India Rank of..
P1: (Cutting me in between) So you got through some test.
Me: (Huh..some test..I took an year's gap to prepare for it) Yes sir.
P1: You've mentioned that you did your schooling from CBSE. Which school was it?
Me: Central School, Mhow.
P1: Mhow?
Me: Mhow is a small town near Indore.
P1: Oh! That Army Headquarter?
Me: Yes sir. I've done most of my schooling from there. I've lived most formative years of my life there and have lived closely with Army people.
P1: Is that the reason for your poor performance?
Me: Sir?
P1: There is a lot of freedom in that society and I guess you misused your freedom.
Me: Umm..(where is it going?)
P1: What is the biggest achievement of your life that you are proud of?
Me: It was when I was titled Best Student of the year in school. Normally, the School Captain gets this title. Even though I was not the School Captain, still I was given this title as an exception.
P1: Do you think you were very popular in your school?
Me: Not exactly popular, but people liked me.
P1: Why?
Me: I'm a likable person. Even in my college and in my organisation people like me.
P1: And you still don't help yourself?
Me: Sir?
P1: You don't help yourself and perform so poorly in your acads.
Me: (Acads again!) Umm..
Later P2 asked me about Satyam fraud, IT best practices, social issues, my hobbies etc, but P1 kept cutting me in between to ensure that I’d not get comfortable at any moment.
I came out, not sure what went inside or how long it went. They’ve a second round of interview with Dean, if the first round is cleared. I was definitely not expecting, but got a call for it immediately after coming out. I was surprised, but was not in a state to feel anything though only a few moments back I'd seen a girl in tears when she got a call for Dean's interview.
The Dean too started with the same question about my decent GMAT score, but my not-so-good acads. It was a short interview and he asked about my career aspirations, why SP Jain and some usual stuff. He kept marking and writing notes on my application form without looking at me, not sure even if he was listening to my responses.
The whole process took around 6-7 hours to complete and included a lot of waiting time. I mentioned this as a scope of improvement in my feedback form also.
It is very difficult to predict how an interviewer judges a candidate. Both the interviews were extreme in nature. The only thing common was that I came out smiling.
And for now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!
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