My Interview with IMS

I am an enigma of duality...
A simple guy with a complex mind…
I like to learn new things and know more about whatever interests me…
But cannot hold on to them for long and move on to explore again…
I am a thinker, sometimes a philosopher…
And yet very impulsive by heart wanting to enjoy life to fullest…
I play and fight with kids with as ease as I converse with elders...
I inspire and motivate others with as ease as I get inspired by others…
I follow the rules and am disciplined…
Yet I can think out of box and am the greatest proponent of free will...
I want to attain peace and stability, but I still look out for challenges and difficulties…
I am an extremely friendly guy, but I still make friends very slowly and steadily...
I have got all my life planned up, but I still love getting surprises from life...
….recites Shankhadeep Banerjee about himself in conversation with Reshma Majithia, IMS Correspondent for Advanc'edge Magazine


My blueprint
I was raised in a middle class Bengali family and was educated at a well-respected school in Kolkata. Both my family & school gave great emphasis on all-round education, culture and values, and this strengthened my fundamentals. I have done well not only in academics but have also achieved in the fields of arts, music, sports, etc.

As I have a passion for computers I decided to pursue my B.Tech in CSE from NIT Durgapur. After completing my studies, I worked for Computer Sciences Corporation for 3 years for their client eBay Inc at Chennai. I joined IIM Calcutta last year.
I wanted to be a part of the booming IT industry and a B.Tech in CSE allowed me to do just that. But it had its limitations as after a couple of years in the roles of technical lead, engineer and subject matter expert, I felt that my learning curve got stagnated. The time was ripe to shift gears and pursue a challenging management career in the IT industry, and this required an MBA. But this was not just a reactive decision but also an inevitable step towards a long-term career blueprint i.e. ‘To gain enough technical experience, go for higher studies to learn the management aspects, work for 8-10 years in executive roles for IT companies, further studies and research for 7-8 years and at the age of around 42-45, with hopefully enough maturity, knowledge, connections, funding and experience, put into action my entrepreneurial plans to start a fairly large business enterprise. By the time of retirement, the company should be one of the global leaders in its domain.’

My work experience
I was deputed from Computer Sciences Corporation to work as a consultant for their client eBay Inc in the Billing Quality Assurance team at their India Development Centre from Aug’07 to May’10.

My job was to lead teams for various projects to test, certify & improve the quality of the billing related products before they went live on eBay sites across 30 countries. I also worked in training, automating, mentoring, technical support & SME roles.
Impressed by my knowledge and ability to deliver quickly without compromising quality, eBay-US team chose me to be the first person to work on the projects of massive Turnaround-08/09 initiative taken by eBay Inc. I had worked in more than 20 projects, which was by far the highest in my team. I was also the first Billing-QA Shadow TC (Train Conductor) & also eBay-QA Shadow-TC to manage release of build-trains for entire eBay.

My achievements
My achievements range from school to national level in computer programming, football, chess, social service, quizzing, singing, reporting, business ideas, NCC, etc, I was also a good tabla player and a painter. My current interests lie in spirituality, photography, trading in stocks and I am also learning guitar and French. I am a big believer in extracurricular activities. And it does help in selections too. After all that’s why all the forms have a mandatory section on this. Some institutes like SPJIMR even have a minimum cutoff score in extracurricular to get a call. Interview questions from extracurricular section are common and it helps to be prepared beforehand. I would like to add that extracurricular is just one of the many facets that is tested in selection, and I personally know some friends who did not have any big extracurricular achievements in their applications but still made through to IIMs.

My CAT preparations
I took no classroom coaching or test series and tried to do it my way. My work pressure was not very high and I was able to squeeze in 1-2 hours daily and 5-6 hours in weekends. Initially I focused on basic areas like speed reading, vocabulary, grammar, mental math, basic formulas etc. I read a lot of books during that period from a variety of topics, watched grammar lessons in YouTube and memorized Word Power Made Easy for vocabulary building. For the quantitative section, it was mostly from Arun Sharma’s book.
Later on, when I felt my basics were good enough, I started solving previous years’ CAT papers and some mock question papers from T.I.M.E and IMS on a regular basis. When the final day came, I went to the exam centre 2 hours early and sat silently in meditation for an hour, so as to have a calm & confident state of mind. After the results were out, I started preparing for GD/PI mostly on personal questions. I also attended a 2-day GD/PI workshop by IMS, which helped me gain more confidence, and brought awareness to the areas I needed to work on (like knowing more about the institutes and the courses they offer) to finally make it through.
All in all, I would say that one could crack CAT through a mandatory combination of intellectual skills, persistent effort, self-confidence and luck.

My GD-PI experience
I appeared for interviews of IIM L, I, K and SPJIMR. I cracked all except L. The GDs were almost always the same – a generic topic, many candidates and very limited time. The trick for the candidates is to make the best out of whatever little time is available by bringing in some new creative and relevant points and explaining them in the briefest way possible. A good thing about IIMC GD is that at the end, they give a minute to each of the candidates to put forth their final opinion.
Interviews were mostly on personal questions which are aimed to find out what kind of person you are, what motivates you, what are your goals in career and life, etc. Since I had work experience, I got a lot of questions about my work at all the interviews. At IIMK & IIMI, I also faced academic questions from engineering studies. Sometimes questions were also asked on life situations like team effort, failures, ethical dilemmas, etc. In my experience, though the content of the answers are important, what matters more is the way you answer them. It helps to be smiling, cheerful and confident. Since the interviewers are sitting from the morning listening to same kind of answers, it is better if you can provide something fresh which can get them interested. Another tip would be to give real life examples to back up the claims and statements that you make.
There is an incident that I remember from the SPJIMR group interviews. They asked us a question on the biggest challenge that we recently faced. All the other guys in our group answered the almost the same thing - either a work related issue or some college event related stuff. I was the last person in the line and could see the interviewers were getting thoroughly bored. I too had a work related challenge ready for answer but when my turn came I changed track and instead replied, “My biggest recent challenge was to convince my orthodox parents to accept my girlfriend.” There was silence for a couple of seconds and then everyone burst out laughing. For next 5-6 minutes they just asked about my love life. Even before the group interview was over, the interviewers told me that they are taking me in.

Life at IIMC
It is usually said that C stands for “Chill” and that life at IIMC is very easy and relaxed. Well, I definitely found it otherwise! Life is pretty challenging here, especially till the summer placements. There are 12-14 classes a week, 1.5 hours each starting from morning 8am to 4pm with a mandatory attendance requirement of 75-80 percent. There are surprise quizzes, long case studies, project assignments, presentations and tutorials (or crashers as we call it) that take up a lot of our time.
There are 3 terms in a year covering around 20 subjects, each having both mid-term and end-term exams with relative grading system. Then, from 2-3 months before the summer placements, executives from various companies visit the campus on a daily basis to take 2-3 hours presentations. During summer placements hundreds of GD and interviews are conducted on a span of 4-5 days, which can be nerve wrecking.
Apart from these, there are more than 15 clubs ranging from Finance, Marketing, Consulting, etc to Photography, Entrepreneurship, Movies, Spirituality, etc. which conduct competitions from time to time. Business Ideas and Case Study contests are also organized by many companies at a national level. In short, life at IIMC is challenging, competitive and an exciting learning experience.

My thoughts
From all the competitions that I have been a part of, I have learnt that the most important thing is to enjoy them without thinking about winning or losing. Of course, winning matters and the destination should be clear in mind, but if the path can be walked with interest, the journey becomes fun.
I have seen people sitting for the CAT just because everybody else is doing so and even after getting in and out of IIMs, many are not happy as they find themselves in unsuitable domains. And that is because they are not clear on what it is that would make them happy. So, I would urge all the aspirants to introspect and find out what it is that you actually want from life and whether you are ready for the inevitable tradeoffs of the management career.

Nonsense & Insensibility - Mind It!!

Rajni jokes are all over facebook these days. And they are too stupid to NOT get laughed at! I present here a small collection -

Once upon a time Rajnikanth used a tooth powder to get strong teeth..... . . . . . . . . today that powder is used as AMBUJA CEMENT

Once Rajnikanth was playing Cricket and Rain Stopped due to Heavy Play

Once Rajnikanth gone for a walk and after one hour police arrested him u know why He reached USA and having No Visa with him

Rajnikanth was practicing for spelling test. The rough sheet he used is today known as the oxford dictionary!!

Hrithik tried to participate in a dance competition with Rajnikanth. Result: He is in a wheel chair in Gujarish.

Rajnikanth was once told to choose 3 subjects when he got admission in jr.college................ He chose science,arts and commerce!!!!!!!

Rajnikanth can make calls from his iPod to his iPad...!!!

One nite, while asleep, Rajnikanth was mumbling some random numbrs... Thats how the Log table was invented.

One day Rajnikanth bunked school. Since then it is known as Sunday

Once Rajnikanth was on the hot seat of KBC....
And the computer needed lifeline to choose the question. Mind it!

Micheal Jordan to Rajini: I can spin a ball on my finger for over two hours. Can you?
Rajini: Rascala, how do you think the earth spins!?

Roger Federer: I know everything about tennis. You can ask me anything.
Rajnikanth: Ok. Tell me, how many holes are there in the NET??

All scientists failed to answer this but rajnikanth did...
Ques: Which liquid turns solid on heating?
Ans: Dosa... mind it!!!