My CAT quest

Date : 14th Januray  
Slot : 10 am

10th : 89.2 12th : 86.6 Grad (BTech): 79.0

3.5 years of work experience in Deloitte Consulting

The mail stated to reach atleast 90 minutes before the
scheduled time. Reached the campus at around 8 am. The 9 am slot process was in
progress. A white board  in an assembly area stated all the required
documents we needed to carry for registration. After a wait of around 20
minutes we were all asked to assemble in a lecture hall. For registration we
were required to fill a form stating brief description of the top 5 achievement
certificates and submit the photocopies of our documents. No photocopies required
for the extracurricular certificates. After registration we were led into
another lecture hall where we gave our Psycometric and WAT with a time limit of
30 minutes.

WAT topic : ‘Explain the cultural shock which a foreigner
might experience when he/she visits India’.

I feel that I did not do that well in WAT because of a
general lack of practice, otherwise in general the WAT topics were pretty
straightforward and easy. Even the psycometric test had a  2nd section where we were required to select
3 statements from the test and justify how they might support your selection.

Our slot had a total of about 26 candidates and mostly
groups of 6 were formed. I think our group was one of the few which had 5
candidates. Different groups were led to different panels for their PI.

Now the interviews :

GI1:

My group of 5 : Me…the IT guy (IM), 3 Finance with
experience in the same field, 1 was a fresher from an  Engineering college but a call in Finance.

Panel of 3 professors.

1). Introduce yourself…All of us gave short and crisp
introduction with none of us speaking for more than 2 minutes

2). Just the 4 Finance people..Where do you see yourself
working after an MBA and name 2 areas of specializations you would like to
pursue?…I think they all gave really good answers.

3). Even I was asked the above question…I gave my best
shot but was already feeling a lot of pressure thinking that the other guys did
a much better job.

4). Impress us in 2 minutes…I started speaking first and gave an answer related to the
the social initiatives I’ve been a part of. After that Social concerns became a
general theme of the conversation and all the other guys mainly talked about
the same.

5). I was asked why I do not have anything stated in the
extra-curricular section. I stated the simple justification that I was not able
to arrange certificates for a lot of sports related activities from my school
days. Told them that I was an athlete and participated in long distance races.

6). I had stated in my form that I was an undergraduate
teaching assistant in my college. So, I was asked  why I did not
pursue a career in teaching or research.

Thats it!! Our interview was over in just over 20 minutes.
We were the last group to enter our PI room and first one to come out. Overall
it was a very weird experience as the whole interview was just an extended
version of our introductions.

The results were announced in about 15 minutes and frankly
I was not feeling too hopeful. Voila!! all 5 of us made it to GI2.

GI2:

My group of 5 : Me(IM), 1 Finance,1 Marketing, 2 Operations

Panel of 2 professors.

Questions in no particular order:

An advice you would have given the girl who was molested in
the Uber case which would have helped to prevent the same.

Do you really think Corporate Social Responsibility have a
real meaning and purpose? 

One unique feature you saw in the SPJAIN website.

Name 3 or 4 initiatives started by Narendra Modi for the
underprivileged people.

You are offered an opportunity to work in a social
initiative in India or go for an international internship.Which one would you
choose. We were told to just choose an alternative and not justify your choice.

Comfortable life vs challenging life. Which one would you
choose?

Overall we all nice discussions and each one of us got ample
opportunity to express ourselves. Thats it..Good luck and Thank You

Interview over in maybe 30-35 minutes.

After GI2 we were required to give another psycometric test
with 70 questions to be filled in 20 minutes. After completing the 2nd test we
were given what seemed to be plastic card with SPJAIN pics and logo. It occured
to me quite late that it was pen- drive ? :). Could be the only take away I
have from SP this year. :P.

Overall the whole interview process for me was smooth but
what made it difficult for me were the excellent profiles and communication
skills which the other group members had in both rounds.

(The article has been written by a PaGaLGuY user and has been largely unedited to retain the flavour)

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