interview-preparation 5

Prof. Vijay Kumar was kind enough to give us hints on how to prepare for placements. How to prepare for interviews Have a list of intelligent but unoffensive questions for each company. Contact alumni who are working there, and find out what work is like. What should I find out How does the work improve my employability or value? Specifically in terms of the Nature of work The experience that I get Skills acquired What will the salary growth be over time? What are the perks at different levels? What are the promotion and growth opportunities? What industries does the company focus on? How many people are there, and what is the employee growth rate? What do clients feel about you? (Talk to clients themselves – maybe friends in client organisations.) Which is the largest office? Where are most of the projects executed? (It makes a lot of sense to get into this office. Project staffing is usually done with people in the same office.) What should I question ...

LBS’ placement cell publishes a magazine called Target, some of whose pages I’ve scanned. It gives an idea about what consulting and finance is, what companies look for, how to prepare for interviews, alumni feedback, etc. Sorry about the small size of scanning, but I had to conserve disk space. I’ll bring the book to IIM-B when I come back.

There were 22 vacancies, and 45 were shortlisted (out of less than 70 applicants). We were interviewed by 5 panels, each with 2 professors. We had submitted our resumes, a writeup on why we were applying for the programme, various declarations and our grade sheet. Though it was rumoured that grades played a 50% part in shortlisting, it was not so. Each panel ranked their candidates independently (in which grades played only an implicit part) – so it was the interview that really counted. After ranking, they pooled the rankings across panels (this is probably where grades might come in) and allocated the first available preference by rank. If the universities you opted for are not available, you would not be considered for other universities even if your ranking is high. So it makes sense to fill out all the universities of your choice if you’re keen on going. ...

Citibank awards Rs. 50,000 to 2-3 candidates from IIM Bangalore based on leadership traits. We had to submit ‘brief’ writeups on what leardership is, why we’re good leaders, what our social contributions and academic achievements are, etc., along with our resume. We also had to turn in a student and faculty nomination. Since I had lots of time (I was bedridden with a fractured ankle) I prepared quite well for this interview. 11 were shortlisted. The interviews were scheduled for 20 minutes each. ...

Lehman Brothers was recruiting Sales, Trading & Research in Tokyo, and Investment Banking in New York. If that sounds like greek, read Vault’s report on investment banking. They seemed disappointed at the number of questions that came their way during their pre-placement presentation. There were hoping for a lot more, and agressive, questions. The people who came included Alan Cutter, Pamella, Isabella, Sarab Bhutani (all from New York), Dalip Awasthi and Sumant Gupta. They shortlisted 21 people for New York and 9 people for Tokyo. Rajesh Dalmia and I were on both shortlists. ...