My Hyderabd Interview

I was invited for an interview on the fateful day of 28th December, 2008... I was happy like hell as this was my first Interview call for the season and probably the only one.... Ok.. leaving the Prologue behind... My Interview Story...


I entered the room size (10X15X15 ... note it down its important :D ) The panel was of 3 people... One student, one Alumni and Prof. Menon I believe.... A mild handshake and then started the sawal jawaab sawal jawaab....


Student: Explain ur Professional experience and ur long term goals...

Me: Talked a lot about Infy and my accomplishments, Green Corridor and my long term interest in Agricultural Supply Chain


Alumni: I cant help asking... U said u want to re-engineer Agriculture Supply Chain... What do u mean by this......

Me: I started to explain the losses in Indian Agriculture (10%) and all other facts and figures. About Insurance about Credit Rating... about how I am planning to integrate them to make a good supply base...


Alumni: The last time someone tried it was Reliance and they had to close their shop in UP.

Me: Their issue was opposition from Retailers... I am not talking to remove them... I am talking about making good quality substance available to them at low cost... I will remove intermediatories not the retailers...


Alumni: In a condition if we are not able to place u to a Agriculture Supply Chain Company what will u do?

Me: I have other qualification like APICS Certifications which shall help me to get a job myself if Icant get placed during Campus Interviews. However, I am sure such a scenario wont arise....

Alumni: We also don’t think that will arise


Prof: How many TT Balls can u accommodate in this room.

Me: Started calculation... Stupidity 1... Pen wasn’t working [:(] borrowed a pencil from him.... answered 316,000. [Stupidity 2.... Per my calculation it should have been 60 cube that is 216000 i said 316000 [:(]

Prof: How?

Me: Explained that I assumed room to 10 ft high 10 ft wide and 10 ft long... and TT ball 2 inch dia.... (Maha TT Ball) so total number of balls each side can be (10*12/2 = 60) so total number of balls will be 60 cube... He refused to understand... He asked me to calculate volume of each ball i.e. (4/3)* pi * 1 * 1 * 1 ~4 inch cube.. Total volume of the room = 1000 ft cube... so to calculate accordingly.. i said in that case we will ignore the void spaces... he refused to understand... then I drew him a figure of 1 ft * 1ft * 1 ft block and showed how there wud be 316 [:(] balls in it... so 316000 balls overall... he seemed to say ok then.. not sure if he got frustrated by then...


Prof: What you are talking about.. Is it thr somewhere implemented....

Me: ITC eChaupal..


Prof. : Ok, can u explain an agriculture Supply Chain for me....
I drew one for MP Soyabean.


Prof. : OK. Can u pls. explain what u want to do here...
I was able to explain but he didnt look much convinced... (its difficult to get idea thru old veterans u know...)

Prof.: ITC and Reliance all came up with Retail chain with an idea of making huge profit. But they are making loss. Any idea why?
Me: (I was not sure of answer... But no one except Mukesh Ambani and YC Deveshwar would be sure.. I initially blabbered something to buy time to think...) The reason is 98% of Indian Retail is Unorganized and they have not been able to wean away the chunk of Unorganized retail.. This is one of the reason why I am targetting mom and pop store as my target customer.

Student: U have mentioned about Saharanpur Campus. What is it?
Me: Its fully independent campus of IIT Roorkee at Saharanpur vicinity of which there are lots of Paper Industries so it was located there. I was there for all the 4 years of education except couple of courses which we studied at IIT Roorkee Main Campus.

Alumni: You hav mentioned U received Best Project Award at IIT Roorkee (This is the only undeserving Award I ever got and this was the one they questioned)
Me: Yes, we developed a DashBoard for the Mill Personnel to monitor and there can be customized reports which anyone can generate. This is what we did. Earlier process was they used to log the data in Manual Log Books.

Alumni: What do you think why Paper Industry is the most polluted Industry in India and is doig nothing about it..
Me: Paper Industry is facing challenge to survive so environment is not on its priority.

Alumni: What are the challenges
Me : Lack of Raw Material, Cheap Imports from China and Malpractices where good Paper is imported in India duty-free by saying waste paper. This is the reason why most paper mills are facing challenges and environment is not in its priority. They are just meeting the standards. ITC and BILT have grown beyond these challenges and you will see they are doing good in environmental front as well.

Prof: That is all we wanted to ask u... Any question u wud like to ask
Me.: In this economic crisis, when both Finance and Consulting are affected, what do you plan to do so that Placement figures are not affected.

Prof: We dont expect any crunch from Consulting. In Finance only I-Banking is affected. So that shud be minor impact
Me: But our study says. Though Outsourcing and Cost Saving will go on.. But major growth consultancy will halt.

Prof: Yes, in a way what you are saying is correct, but consultancy market that we cater to is mostlt cost cutting one or increasing operational efficiency ones. So, that way we expect no cut. yes, the top salary may get affected, but this will lead to more focus to Manufacturing.

Me: My second question is do you plan to have any collaboration with IIMs. Mostly in India u dont participate in any B-School ratings inspite of being global best.
Prof: Why shud we have backward integration??
Me: Because most freshers go there even the creme of the lot... That will help u in one way... Moreover, IIMs also have their strengths.
Prof: We dont cater that market. We are looking at people with more than 2 yrs of exp. Our model is different from IIMs and we dont look forward to have any collaboration with them as we think that wont add any value to us. We also for that reason dont participate in the ratings as u cant compare an apple with an orange.
Me: Thats fine...

My total interview lasted about 25 mins. It was OK but I did some blunders... Did a terrible mistake in the essay u needto write.. Had lots of cuts... Shud have planned it better...

Anyway keeping my finger crossed.... Anyway self feedback is out... Net to improve verbal communication