Excerpts of my interview with ISB

Excerpts of my interview with ISB (Indian School of Business).

All in all, I think the interview went OK. I found myself a little bit stuck with words at times and couldn't articulate my points as well as I wanted to. However, I did answer all of the questions.

Committee: "Hi this is such and such from the admissions committee." Coincidentally one of the guy's name also happened to be the same as mine and he reminded me of that.

Committee: "Good evening to you"
Self: "Good morning to you"

Committee: "So, how was your day today?"
No problem with the answer.

Committee: "Can you please walk us through a typical day at your job?"
They poked in for details about the projects I was involved in.

Committee: "Do you have the autonomy to make decisions at your current job?"
I am currently managing a large project with three people working under me, so answered yes.
Committee: "If so, why did you write in your essay that a million dollars will give you autonomy when you already have one?"
I chose to go for the million dollars over the knighthood in the second essay. Gave them reasons as to why I wrote what I wrote.

Committee: "So tell us about your experiences gained while working in different international locations. How would you describe the work culture in these countries?"
I had prepared for this question, so was able to answer it quite well I think. I answered by saying that country 'x' has this type of work culture, and country 'y' has that type and mentioned how I overcame these cultural barriers to come out on the winning end.

Committee: "Why did you apply to Indian schools when you have many other options available in the US?"
Responded by saying that I am not limited to career opportunities in the US and am therefore looking at schools outside of the US.

Committee: "What other schools have you applied to?"
I mentioned that I have applied to IIMA PGPX.

Committee: "Did you apply to their 2 year program or their 1 year program?"
The 1 year program, I responded. I wondered why this curiosity. Perhaps I should have mentioned some additional schools just so that I didn't come across as someone who didn't weigh all his options. Oh well.

Committee: "How did you hear about ISB?"
Through peers and then online.

Committee: "Define your view of what effective leadership is."
Gave them some pointers on effective leadership. Wasn't able to articulate my points here as well as I wanted to. I had practiced this question and had listed 6-7 different leadership essentials. However, during crunch time, I could only remember 3 such points.

Committee: "So how did it feel to have climbed Mount Whitney?"
I had mentioned in one of my essays about this feat. Gave them a good response here.

Committee: "Do you have anything else you would like to tell us about you?" Kind of stumped by this question. I said "no" because anything I would've mentioned might have come across as self promotion. Still don't understand the logic to this question. At this point, I asked them if we had come to a point where I could ask a few questions. They said I could ask anything.

Asked them a total of three questions. I had put in decent amount of preparation in the types of questions I wanted to ask and finally listed three questions that I thought were comprehensive.

Committee: "OK, I think we have come towards the end of the interview. If you have no other questions, we will be signing off."
I said I had no further questions.

Committee: "Good night"
Self: "I want to take the opportunity to thank you for spending some time with me today. Have a good day".

The discussion lasted a total of 40 minutes. I would give myself a 6/10 grade. Again, my articulation skills suffered a bit because it was already 9pm here when we started, and I was somewhat tired. The feeling I have is similar to what one goes through when you purchase shares from a certain company. You just have no idea if the shares will do well or drown. At this point, I have no idea as to how the committee rated my performance. Two weeks of wait and shall find out.