Recently I concluded my IIM Calcutta Interview, I don't know how it was, for all I know they have to be enigmatically adept at reading one's abilities, because if i were on the other side of the table I would never be able to assess from this sort of interview...
Three panelists
P1: Smiling professor or alumnus (don’t know), stereotypical Bengali, outspoken and got a bit angry while in the interview
P2: Sahadeb Sarkar, Business Statistics prof at IIMC, he didn’t speak almost anything
P3: Stereotypical bhadra lok old timer, looked and dressed like Jyoti Basu, was alumnus of IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta
P2: Tell us about yourself Ankur? (expression as if it was way too routine and he is bored to take this interview)
Me: I did
P3: I am also from IIT Bombay ankur, in my days, there was a guy who cooked very well and made a career in it, initally we all laughed at him, now he owns a chain of restaurants and is a multi millionaire, why dont you choose that path?
Me: Sir, it is just a hobby and I am learning, plus there are professionals who have a major head start in this field, so it does not make a business sense unless I have some extraordinary culinary skills
P1 (the guy who almost killed me): what do you cook or as you said learn?
Me: (I made a fatal mistake there) Traditional recipes and their subtleties from UP, Bihar and Bengal ( I said this because I thought they would relate to it and would bring interest in the conversation)
they caught it and started what Bengali dishes you know of,
I said few of them and saw P3 smiling at me then
P1: don’t tell me many dishes just tell me one and talk about it
Me: I said brinjal fry, because that is something I knew how to cook
P1: what is so special or novel about it?
P2: I lived in US for 12 yrs and cooked it daily, I don’t think there is anything you can learn from it
Me: Talked about frying as a good way to cook bringal as it soaks water, blah blah blah
P1: but brinjal does not soak water, when I cook it for bharta it releases water,
Me: In a watery medium it would, for bharta you roast it on dry heat.
P1: still, what is the learning? how can you be so judgmental that frying is the best way to cook brinjal, I think it is bharta, it is healthier and tastier
Me: Sir, taste is perspective driven, and when I spoke about best way to cook it, I meant increasing the versatility of its use, etc.
He was not convinced.
P1: Explain your project at work
Me: I did that,
P1: what is elasticity,
Me: Change in commodity by change in price
P1: Mathematically, say R is revenue and P is price
Me: delta(R)/R divide by delta(p) by p
P1: what were the independent variables in your model?
Me: Age, Credit, Number of adults per household, number of cars, cross sell…..
P1: why are you thinking? You made the model, so you should know very well?
Me: Sir there were many models in the system and I made them all one year ago, I am just telling the most important and logical ones.
P1: How can you use credit? Is it for the US market?
Me: Yes sir, however in California law credit can not be used to price insurance, hence there it was not used.
P1: did accident and driver history not come?
Me: We did not have accident information in client's data base however yes, driver citation history was a apart of the model
P1: Thats not possible, in US it is widely available
Me: We tried for 3 months to get it, but it was not available
P1: You played basket ball, is there a correlation between basketball and CAT score? 5 people who came before you were basket ball players.
Me: There could be a correlation sir, but I don’t see a causality (this was technically a very smart statement)
P1: I think there is a strong correlation, but can you explain the rising trend of basketball players in your generation?
Me: Well, I can cite a personal example sir, when I was trying to raise the first basketball team of my school, I did not get a very good response in first 1 yr, however there was a movie called Kucch Kucch Hota Hai released, in which Shahrukh khan played basketball, after that I saw a surge in people interested in playing, perhaps there are triggers who added to the popularity factor of the game (I totally forgot to include the increase in average height of our generation from 5 6 in last gen to 5 8 in ours)
P1: oh, so you belong to that generation
P3: you made cartoons in college, and you won too, do you have the cartoon?
Me: no sir, but i can tell you what I made
P3: go on
Me: Lalloo Yadav was made railway minister then, I made him sitting on a railway engine wherein the engine was horns like a buffalo
P1: Is that funny?
Me: In retrospect I won’t say so, but then given the reputation of him then, none of us could fathom his future managerial feat.
P3: What was the dramatic event you participated in and say a few dialogues
Me: I told him the setting etc, but said I don’t remember the dialogues sir, however there was one line which I vividly remember, and I told him that
P1: It seems you are good at cricket as well and you have played against railways, it is a good team;
Me: yes sir, we lost against them, however we won against Allahabad which had Mohammad kaif playing for them then
P1: What did you do?
Me: I was a strike bowler
P1: What did you bowl?
Me: I bowled in-swing
P1: Show me the grip
I did
P1: Where is the seam pointed,
Me: I said seam acts as a rudder and for a right hand batsman..
P1: (interrupted) what do you mean right hand, it is in-swing for a right hand only, for left hander it would be out-swing, how does your grip and seam depend on that?
Me: I said, I m just putting right hander as a reference for seam position and it is directed towards leg
P1: Which leg
Me: The fielder in the slip first next to wicket keeper on the leg
P1: you don’t know the fielding positions?
Me: (I smiled and said) Sir, I played cricket 8 yrs ago and I don’t watch it or follow it, so it has skipped my mind
P1: So why have you written it on the form (I could see kind of disgust and dejection on his face)
I just smiled politely
ok Ankur, we are done, send in the next guy
