IIM Indore GD/PI

IIM Indore has a very elaborate inteview form to be filled. Dreaded questions like "strengths & weakness in acads" & "failures at work place" can give many sleepless nights. Some say they try hard to copy IIM Ahmedabad's interview form. I'm not sure how important these forms are; from what I saw, these forms are mainly used by the interviewers to know more about what to ask. But I'm not sure if an articulately filled form has any edge.

Group Discussion
Each GD group has 7 aspirants in them, so it wasn't over-crowded. We were given a case-study which was about a family. Austen was working with a nationalized bank in Bhopal after doing his MBA. He married Dr.Sneha, who is now earning about 5 times more than him after setting up nice practice in Bhopal. Austen met his batchmates who are working with MNCs and earning much more than him. Without discussing it with Sneha, he takes up the job with an MNC in Mumbai and asks her to come along. In the end, she stayed in Bhopal when he left for Mumbai. Now when their son has done well in CAT, he is retrospecting upon his decision.

Fourteen minutes were a bit too much on this topic. Most of us were done in about 10 minutes. It wasn't a fish-market GD and everyone got ample chances to speak. The points were repeated quite often.

Personal Interview
They had told us that they will call us in random order. My number came after four others. It was a long wait since they were taking about 25-30 minutes per interview. Two professors, P1 & P2, were there for the interview.

P1: Tell me something about yourself in 3 sentances. Ok, 1 minute.
Me: {bak, bak, bak}
P1: You already have two and a half years' experience. In another 2.5 years where do you see yourself?
Me: {Managing a team}
P1: Very typical answer.
(Oh ok.. what about this one - "I see myself at Mars along with five handpicked female specimen, trying to populate the human coloney at Mars")
Me: {Want to open a firm later}
P1: I'm not convinced.
P2: Okay, what's your business model?
Me: Try to do stuff cheaper and maintain the quality. Just like BPO industry.
P2: Don't talk about BPO. We expect more from an IITian.
Me: I feel mobile communication hold immense potential in India. The penetration rose by 30% last year and as the connectivity grows, the businesses around it are likely to grow. Location based services are one example. They can be used effectively in transport industry to track their orders.
P2: But that is already being done in US.
Me: RFID is the upcoming thing. It can be done more effectively using RFID.
P2: What are the limitations with RFID?
Me: Range is one.
P2: What else?
Me: Orientation of the chip?
P2: What about the cost?
Me: As of now they are costly, but Walmart is pushing it hard and as the demand grows the prices are bound to come down. They are aiming for 5 cent chips.
P2: Walmart alone can't do anything.
Me: Walmart has initiated the process. Many others are checking out the RFID technology. Even Kingfisher Airlines are trying to leverage on it.
P2: What's Kingfisher doing with it?
Me: For most of the businesses, RFID is just another hot technology. They are searching for ways they can utilize it.
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me what's your business plan? You have written you want to start a company.
Me: I don't have a business plan ready as of now.
(P1 was neck deep into my grade cards by now)
P1: Why did you have course like IEOR and Linear Optimization?
Me: Computer science is all about optimizing stuff.. blah blah
P1: Can you tell me the optimum way to sort an array?
Me: If we consider the average case..
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me the best way, forget about the average case.
Me: Quick Sort.
P1: Are you sure?
Me: Yes sir.
P1: What's the complexity for Quick Sort?
Me: O(n.lgn).
P1: What kind of algorithm is it?
Me: {divide and sort..recursive}
P1: How does lgn comes into picture? What's the base of the log?
Me: e. It comes from summation of a series.
P1: Do you know about Simplex method?
Me: umm..
P1: What is the basic requirement to find the optimum solution using Simplex?
Me: Atleast some solution must exist (? with a silent question-mark :)
P1: What is this condition called?
Me: Solvability? (?)
P2: You have written about Photography. What's the latest technology in Photography? If you were to suggest someone what would you suggest?
Me: Today the best option is a digital SLR, if you can afford it.
P2: Don't tell me about DSLR. Whats the latest technology?
Me: {Tried telling about this mother of present cameras technology, got cut}
P2: What about signal processing?
Me: (Struggled with the name of charged plate in digital camera which captures the light) That's where this signal processing can be used?
P2: What about histograms?
Me: Yeah. ok, there.
P2: How does an LCD work?
Me: {Pixels}
P2: You are an engineer, I'm an engineer. Explain properly.
P1: You are a recent engineer!
Me: Don't know exactly.
P1: You said you've schooled in 9 different cities. Can you name all 9?
Me: Udaipur, Hanumangarh, Nohar, Anoopgarh, Bikaner, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Karuali, Kota.
P1: What was the difference when you went to Bikaner again?
Me: {First tried to babble about the change in perspective and stuff, got cut} Traffic.
P1: What the GDP of Bikaner? Of Rajasthan? Which state has the highest GDP?
Me: Punjab (?)
P1: Lowest?
Me: I'm not sure could be some state from the seven sister states in North east.
P1: What about Bihar?
Me: Though Bihar has been hit by the political scene in the state, but the area is more so I'm not sure. It could be Bihar.
P2: Do you know about Bimaru States? Which are the Bimaru States?
Me: Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh...umm.
P1: Did you take any coaching for this interview?
Me: I took some mock interviews.
P1: Did they help?
Me: I've taken 2 IIM interviews by now. The pattern is different from what I had practiced.
P1: So it didn't help.
(Both of them laughed at this point)
P2: How did you prepare for this?
Me: I try to keep myself updated with current affairs (was hoping to yak a bit about Mittal-Arcelor stuff).
P2: What did Laloo Prasad Yadav announce lately?
Me: A new shatabdi expresses between Delhi & Agra, fastest in India.
P2: That is already done.
P2: What about online ticketing?
Me: That is functioning for sometime now.
P2: What else?
Me: He abolished cold-drinks and introduced kulhars.
P1: That was long time back.
(Not older than online tickeing!)
P2: What about upgradation of tickets?
Me: Yeah, that.

They offered me chips in the end. People try to read into this giving chips, wishing good-luck, etc. omens. But I'm not sure how hopeful should I be after such a show.

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI