Here is my Interview exp.
Firstly, my background- commerce stream, graduate from DU (2012) and 1 year work exp with a pvt. co. (finance vertical)
Date- 11th Mar, Delhi.
Panel: 4 members (Sardarji, 1 F & 2 M)
Upon entering the room & wishing all, they asked me to sit.
Chairman welcomed me with a yorker, straight away asked about my role in the co. I worked with & 1-2 cross ques. I answered them fairly.
C- Wat u like to read? (nothing related was mentioned in my bio data)
Me-non fiction books.
C- Which book you read recently?
Luckily then, I was reading a book on Kashmir by AS Dulat (former chief, RAW)
Sardarji asked 2-3 ques about author's view on Kashmir separatists & my view on his views. I answered them to his satisfaction.
C-Any other buk u recently read? Me- No sir.
M1- asked abt Gyan Sangam,what was it about, who gave gyaan to whom?
me- Rbi & Fin. Ministry officials to psu bankers. (they looked uncovinced)
Then they told me McKinsey was a knowledge partner of that Sangam.
Me- I have no info about it sir.
M1 again- who gave gyaan, finmin or Rbi?
Me- both shared their inputs. (he wasn't satisfied I guess)
M1- At Sangam, what 5 major areas were discussed? Me- major area was bank consolidation.
M1 (in between)- It got the headlines, what were the others?
Me- sir, I haven't read it completely, but, they were on autonomy, appointment in PSBs.
M1- no, no.
Me- Sorry sir, I didn't read it extensively.
M1-( because of my similar work exp) Suppose you are a banker, what major fin. ratios of a company you would look at?
Me- Leverage ratios like Debt- equity ratio.
C (in between)- what else?
Me- others like Interest Coverage ratio, DSCR. And also its profitability.
C- what's the diff b/w ICR & DSCR.
Me- ICR shows ability of the company to pay its interest, while, DSCR indicates its ability to pay interest as well as annual principal amount.
M1-what are Solvency ratios?
Me- took a pause, I recollected & said, these ratios are called solvency ratios also.
M1- is DSCR also a solvency ratio?
Me- No sir, Debt-equity ratio & leverage ratios are solvency ratios.
M1- what is Twin Balance Sheet challenge? What are those twins?
Me- I am sorry sir, I haven't heard this term before.
M1-ok, why Private Investment is not happening in India?
Me- Main reason would be the risk averseness of the promoters, they are not finding enough profitable opportunities to invest in market. Another is shortage of funds they are facing. Corporates already have so much of debt on their Bal. Sheet. Hence they can't access funds even if wants to invest. Also the banks are unable to lend them more funds because of their NPAs problems.
M1- India's projected GDP growth rate in the budget?
Me- around 7.5%.
M1- challenges which can hurt this projection?
Me- Two fronts are there. Domestic & International challenges. On domestic front, one is poor monsoon. Govt has assumed a Normal monsoon, but if it doesn't happen, there will be severe stress in our economy.
C- Any other reason?
Me- (after a pause) no pick up in manufacturing sector.
C- that's a symptom, what's the cause?
Me- was thinking again (kind of brain freeze)
Chairman asked to move on to external sector.
Me- Crude oil prices movement.
C- what's the assumption in Budget/Survey about oil prices? If oil prices goes up, will it increase or decrease the projected growth rate?
Me- Since we are a major importer of oil, if prices goes up, our growth rate will go down.
C - why?
Me- Because it will cause more trade deficit, affecting our forex reserves and case of imported inflation which will erode real growth rate.
C-any positive impact of hike in oil prices on India? Me- one is rise in exports as we export petroleum goods.
C- right, & not just petro goods but other goods too, what else?
Me- remittances from gulf will be higher.
C- any other?
Me- (after a pause) more investment in domestic oil & gas fields.
M2- do you see any trend of increase in oil prices? Me- Recently oil price has gone up to around $40. (luckily, had read that news 1-2 days before the D-day)
M2- Reason for going up?
Me- because recently OPEC nations have agreed for a production freeze.
M2- why Saudi Arabia is raising a fund from abroad even if oil prices going up?
Me- sorry sir, I didn't get you.
M2- ok, what is India's forex reserves. I answered.
M2- reserves of Saudi Arabia? Me- sorry sir, no idea.
(M2 told me- its around $600bn, still they want to raise a fund from abroad.) I nodded.
M2- so why they want to cut the oil production despite being a major commodity for them?
Me- so that oil prices goes up, they earn more revenues & increase their forex reserves.
M2 (insisting again) - if they can raise their reserves by increasing prices, why they are raising funds?
Me- Saudi doesn't hold monopoly, if they try to hike prices by cutting supply, other oil producing nations may not follow it.
(It seems I could not answer what he was expecting. I guess he was stuck on as to why Saudi was raising fund despite oil revenues; I had no info about Saudi raising such fund)
C- (somewhat in the middle) said thanks & signalled me to leave. I wished them again & left the room.
P.S. panel didn't give me any hint/clue, like, many others got & Ma'am didn't ask any ques.
Give your feedback puys & suggest improvements. Many thanks 😃