Well, I have been facing a writer’s block for quite sometime now… So finally, I decided to post something about my experience during the selection process of the B-school I’ll be joining in a few days from now… TAPMI 😎
After a long delay due to the technically hampered series of CAT 2009, I was happy that I ended up with a more than decent 96 percentile. I had attended interviews of K J Somaiya and IMT Ghaziabad before the TAPMI interview. The first one was bad, and the second was more than decent. So I felt some kind of momentum flowing as I went for my crucial interview @ TAPMI.
My admission process was scheduled to begin at 8.30 AM on 19th April 2010, at TAPMI’s new Campus in Bangalore. And what made it more interesting was the fact that I reached 40 minutes late at the venue! A couple of professors were discussing whether to allow me for the 8.30 AM slot or shift me to the 11.30 AM slot, but eventually, I was told to go to the exam hall right away, where the Case Analysis had just begun.
The Case Analysis was introduced for the first time in TAPMI’s selection process. Here, we were given a case and told to provide a reasonable solution for the same. The case was about an agency that serviced cabs in a city, and how they could make the cab drivers come by themselves to report defects in cabs before the customers do so, in order to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. Since I was a ‘little’ late, I was given some extra time to finish my analysis 😀
After the Case Analysis, the interviews began. There were 2 rounds of interviews : the first one was a normal interview with a panel of two asking questions along with an Extempore, and the second was the director’s interview. I was in Panel 4 and mine was the third name, so I was relieved that I don’t have to wait for long before my interview.
My panel consisted of a lady, who seemed to be Konkani as well, and a gentleman, both of whom seemed to be faculty from the institute. For clarity sake, I’ll refer to the lady as L, the man as M, and myself as Me.
M : So Nikhil, what does your father do?
Me: He has his business in Peenya that was established almost 30 years ago.
M : So why do you want to do MBA when you have a perfect platform for yourself?! Your dad would not have done an MBA when he started right?
Me : Told my reasons.
L : Why did your marks go down in 3rd year in engineering?
Me : Told my reasons.
L : So what lessons did you learn? And how will you manage if you face similar problems during your MBA? As you know, it is a very rigorous course.
Me : Told how I came out of the problem I was facing and gave the example of my training in Infy which was also very rigorous.
M : What is your definition of a true friend?
Me : Told.
M : What are your hobbies?
Me : Told.
L : Oh so you are a blogger and you are writing a story?! What is it about?
Me : I’m writing a story about a software engineer’s experience as a trainee in Infy, Mysore
L : Oh that’s great! So did this story come out because you are a natural writer, or because you wanted a vent for your feelings?
Me : It was a bit of both.
M : Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Me : Gave a detailed plan of what I see myself doing right after finishing my MBA.
L : That’s good! Ok, tell me something about Object-oriented programming. I’m not an engineer, so explain in layman’s terms.
Me : Most of my answers during college vivas were like a layman talking, so I did decently here 😀
L : Okay, can you tell me some of the features of Object-Oriented programming?
Me : Told whatever I could remember. (I had realized by now that she actually came from an engineering background, or she would never have asked me about the features of OOP 🙂 )
M : Okay, please pick a chit from here. This will be your topic for the Extempore.
Me : My topic was “Not keeping a check on one’s employees will result in a loss of money”. I was given a minute to think about the topic, and after that, I started speaking. I talked about how getting a right system in place will result in bringing a check on many manipulations that go unnoticed, no matter whether it is a small-scale industry, or a big multi-national.
L : Okay, we are done. You can wait outside for the director’s interview. All the best! 🙂
I was given a CD about TAPMI and told to wait for almost an hour for the director’s interview. The interview was a very general one, with the director asking me where I’m working, what my dad is doing, and whether I’ll take up the 60 extra seats under PGDM if they do not get AICTE Approval and have to be started under Manipal University.
Overall, the entire process took around 2.5 hours.
And after another long wait, I got my final confirmation on 11th May, 2010! I was among the Top 120 selected for the PGDM course at TAPMI 🙂 . My first convert in 2 long seasons, and a big one at that! 😎
July 1st is the day when I’ll get to go back to my native, on a long journey of 2 years, filled with a lot of excitement and hard work!
Optimistically Pessimistic :-) 