Maiden Attempt!

Date : 07/02/2013
Time : 12.30 pm

“Glory lies in the attempt to reach one’s goal and not in reaching it.” – Mahatma Gandhi

These were the inspirational words which were resonating in my mind as I was on my way to my maiden GD PI attempt!

The days prior to the GD were quite jittery. It was a reminiscences of the placement season of my graduation days! 🙂

SCIT was a place quite familiar to me as I work at one of the MNCs, which is located in the close vicinity of the campus. And to easy the nerves, the Seniors were present right outside the venue guiding the prospective students and their families!

Once I reached the campus, I was told to wait for awhile. People were called according to their GD PI group numbers. I was in the second group which had 14 members. We were given a SCIT dossier which would had a declaration (That you have cleared the snap cutoff for SCIT). Here I had to show my id Proof.

We were then called group wise and the signed declaration was taken. After all the Groups were in the Conference room, everyone was asked to right an essay (Topic – my job vs my passion ,time limit – 15 minutes). It was a topic that made me introspect myself 🙂

After this the process was different for different groups.

My group was taken to the first GD (Picture GD- Monalisa in a saree and bindi Image-link :  http://goo.gl/mbOSi). Due to the abstract nature of the topic, I knew the group was gonna come up with very diverse and interesting interpretations! But then getting to a conses was tough. At the end we were each asked to describe the picture in one sentence.

Next was a Group task, a small Caselet . Group was divided into 2 smaller groups. We had to find a problem solution (A Poor village boy does a course in agriculture domain, dad is bankrupt after son’s education, what is the best course of action a) go abroad and work for MNC b) set up something in his village). We were given 7 minutes to discuss. The panel was assessing the members of the team on the basis of the body language, participation in the discussion etc.We were asked to choose a leader in the Group and I was selected! My team came to a consensus and chose the second option. Dr Raman (Director SCIT), a member of the panel questioned us on our choice. It was an excellent group task as all the members of the group had a fair amount of participation.

Once we were done with the group task we moved on to the document verification.

After the two group exercises I felt a lot at ease and was eagerly looking forward to the personal interviews!

I was escorted to the interview area by one the seniors at SCIT. My first interview was a subjective one which lasted about 20 minutes. Questions were mostly pertaining to my work. The questions that were asked were as follows.

1) Tell me about your work profile?

– I gave a detailed description of the work flow that I had followed in at my company. There were few counter questions also which I answered.

2) Given a choice which stream would you choose and why?

– I answered “System” 🙂 looking out for a business analyst role.

3) What according to you are the traits of a successful manager?

– I divided this question into 2 parts.
a) High level Management(Basically the policy defining managers).
I described employee centric policy making and employee engagement program development as key attributes to a manager who was involved in higher management and brought out some examples for the same.
b) Lower Level Management(Manager involved with development teams)
I described problem solving nature(technical and non technical) as a core attribute of a manager.

4) Whether I wanted to know something about SCIT?

-I asked about the student committee Eklavya(theater group at SCIT)

Finally I had a HR interview where I was asked the following questions:

1) How do I find Pune?

2) How is it compared to Delhi (my home town)?

3) Where in Delhi do I stay. Which direction is it in (North south east west)

4) My thoughts about UID (ADHAR card) and whether there is a flaw in the system (Info security wise)

It lasted about 20 minutes, and the interviewer seemed convinced with my answers. He wished me all the best for my future endeavors!

This marked the end of the GD PI process. I was provided with a feedback form. I would like to mention here that the admissions committee did a fabulous job as there was hardly any waiting time even though there were 100 odd students going through the GD PI process!

Once I was done with all the formalities I was taken for a campus tour by a senior. And as we went towards the canteen I saw a few familiar faces(current SCIT students) from by graduation days and it brought a smile to my face!
As Helen Keller once said “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light”, my friends provided me valuable insights about SCIT and their MBA experiences 🙂

February 7th, 2013 was definitely a very eventful day to say the least, and i gained some memories that I would cherish forever!

Thank you everyone!

Arun Subhash