SDM-IMD, THE DESPERATE TIMES

Venue: South India Club, Hindustan Park
Kolkata.
Date: 27th February ‘08
Time: 9:00 A.M.
Things change, a month ago I was comfortably placed with around 9-10 confirmed ‘GD/PI’ calls and a complacent hope that I’d convert at least one of the calls. I was quite confident too when I started out, in myself and my chances. Things were looking good.
Post 3 interviews, 2 back to back rejects, add to that a disastrous third interview and a battering of my confidence – I was understandably feeling, quite small. Back then SDM-IMD had been a purely back up college, well not anymore. I’d suffered a rude wake up call and I was feeling the heat. I was desperate for at least one convert.
The venue was close to the place from where I stay in Kolkata. It was slightly better than the one where Amrita GD/PI was held, but still not even close to SCMHRD’s venue. The process here comprised of a GD, apart from the customary Interview. We were divided into two groups of at least 12 people each, I was in the second group. Before the actual process, the Admission Co-ordinator of SDM-IMD spoke a little bit about the college, its placements, etc. The average package for the last batch they said was 6-7 lakh’s which I felt was highly exaggerated. The topic for our discussion was "Should Income Tax be exempted." The Group Discussion was slightly on the louder side but not exactly a fish market too. My performance was Average or slightly above average but definitely not poor. I put in some decent points and entered the GD 3-4 times. After the GD we were made to wait for our turn with the Interviews. The process was refreshingly efficient and my turn came up rather quickly.
THE INTERVIEW…
As I went inside (the same room where I’d had my GD) I was asked to take a seat and hand over my papers. There were two people in the panel and one of started scanning my papers.
P1: A Finance Professor.
P2: The Admission Co-ordinator.
M: Me (on the chopping board…again)
P1: What actually did you take in your graduation?
M: (Not there Please…) Arts Sir…Philosophy.
P2: What is your CAT percentile?
M: (#$%ck) 80.54 %ile.
P2: So, an 80 percentiler.
P1: Why do want to study Management Education?
M: Blah ! Blah ! (was quite well prepared).
P2: What were the other subjects you studied during your Graduation?
M: Sir, European History, Social Work, Environmental History…(Damn)…hmm…Tribes of India, Physical Education.
P1: So, you haven’t done any Math related courses.
M: (There goes another College). No.
P1: Can you cope up with a Management Curriculum which deal’s with a lot of Mathematical concepts.
M: Yes. (Desperate Yes).
P1: But you haven’t got much exposure to Maths?
M: Actually I did a lot of brushing up while preparing for the CAT.
P1: Ok. Tell me a Mathematical theory that’s applied practically?
M: (Wishing the ground below would swallow me) Err… Percentages, Statistics (regretted the moment I told it).
P1: (With a devious smirk on his face) What is Median and Mode?
M: (Seeing some ray of light at the far end of the tunnel) Answered the Median one correctly but I’m not very sure about the mode.
P2: Why would you think a company should hire someone like you?
M: (Gave a desperate attempt to sell myself…whatever that means.)
P2: How would you address the attrition rate of a company?
M: (The light at the end of the tunnel just about became a beam) I scored a six in this question…thanks to Economic Times and Avinash Da who had enlightened me about attrition rates (God bless him).
P2: Give us one reason why we should take you and two reasons why we should not take you?
M: A whole lot of boasting of my qualities for the first part of the question. For the second part "Sir, if there are others who are better than me and I do not make the merit list. And secondly if you feel that I’m not competent enough to complete the course. (I felt something as soon as I said that…and it was not a good feeling.)
P2: What other calls have you got?
M: Sir, GIM, IISWBM, SCMHRD, Amrita.
P2: Which one of these is your first priority?
M: Sir, at this moment, definitely GIM but apart from that SDM-IMD without a doubt because it’s got a great faculty, campus and placements too. (That was my disgusting attempt at being DIPLOMATIC, I know I totally blew it…)
P2: Ok Akhilesh, You seem to be pretty intelligent, can you explain the low marks in your Graduation?
M: (There we go again) Lame duck excuses, but added that it was quite tough to score in Philosophy and also showed them my improvement in my final year.
P2: Would you like to ask us something?
M: (Will I get a seat…Had to be obvious). Sir can you describe what a normal day would be like in your campus?
P2: Blah.Blah. Anything else. Thank You.
The Interview was pretty intense, I thought it could have gone awry but I think I proved my mettle today. I was really challenged and I felt I did well.
Just as I was about to leave the venue, P2 was coming after me calling my name. Before he told me I realized that I’d left my original papers out there in the room. "You’ll be miserable without them" he told me which just about summed up how I felt at that moment. What an anti-climax?