SPJIMR WAT-PI Experiences

By Anisha Mukhija MBA, MBA colleges in Mumbai, Personal Interview, S P Jain, Written Ability Test & Statement of Purpose Personal Interview, spjimr, WAT 0 Comments

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 54

Background: BTech Mechanical Engineer. 28 months Work Ex

Time- 10th Feb, 10:45 AM

Stream – Operations and Supply Chain

Panelists: 1(M) 1(F)

Students: 1 Mkt, 1 Ops, 1 Fin, 1 IM

I hardly remember my qsns, so can’t recall any qsns to other candidates

Questions:

Pan 1 –

Tell us something about you (something that’s in your application/CV and also something that’s not in your application/CV).

(I was the last one to do TMAY and so started the qsns with me)

So, you are an F1 fan, when is Audi joining F1?
Which other company is in the news of joining F1?
What do you like the most in F1, and how can you relate it to operations?
So, you said Ferrari did wrong in strategy, where did they go wrong, and in which area they could have focused?
Tell me about your work ex. What was your role?
Tell me an incident or area where you had to use operations-related strategy regularly.

No qsns to me after that and went on to others

Pan 2 didn’t ask me any qsn

Overall interview time -55-60 mins

SPJIMR Interview Experience 55

Bcom(h) 8/9/8 92.7
Work ex – Family business
P1 – F ( 35s) , P2- F (50s)

P2:
-What did you learn from family business?
-Specific skill? (Grilled me on this one)
-Hobbies ?
Ans -reading etc
-Recent book?
-What does the book say?
-Do you know about Adani, what does SEBI is expected to do?
-Started to answer but was interrupted to only mention what is SEBI and its duties.

P1:
-Why self help books?
-But we already know where we lack hence the books are a waste of money?
-Why not M.Com?
-Still the self help books are a waste of money ?
-What are different types of partnership?
-What is limited liability partnership?
-Difference between a leader and manager
-Can manager make bad decisions?
-Why MBA?

Okay you can log off, lasted for 25min

SPJIMR Interview Experience 56

(PGDM Marketing)
7th Feb, 10:45 AM
2 Panelists- 1M, 1F
4 Candidates- 2M for IM, 1F for Finance and 1F for Marketing

The panelists introduced themselves and then asked for our introductions.

Questions to IM candidates by the male panelist. It was related to their job profile.

Then the female panelist asked questions to me.
Brief description of my internships.
Application based questions relating to internship.

Then the female panelist asked questions to the finance candidate. It was about her role in Zomato.

The male panelist took over, and asked me a case study. It was related to scope of marketing in relation to Augmented reality.
I wasn’t sure of what it meant, so asked for clarification. And he gave examples like Lenskart, IKEA and Alexa.
I extended on to the example of Alexa. No cross questioning. (I searched for it after the interview and realized that my example was not right for this case)

Current affairs related to Finance that she is aware of to the finance candidate. (Budget, Adani Group Case)

Ended with a question to all on brief detail about extracurricular activities and the biggest achievement there.

(The questions were mostly application based. But the panelists were giving chance to think and put our points.)

SPJIMR Interview Experience 57

Specialization: Marketing
1. Introduction in 3 mins
2. Questions on startup and how to curate GTM for my startup differently ? In which stage did we go wrong?
3. Questions on research and Elsevier
4. Why MBA and not PhD?
5. DNS related GK and ethical question (to everyone in the panel)
6. Mentioned a book in an answer so asked me to summarise that book in a minute?(Zero to One)
7. Who is the author of that book?
8. What did he do?
9. What are the different types of investors and differences?
10. What do you do to relax?
Cross questioning on them as well

BM
1. Introduction and tell something not on your form?
2. Asked a few questions on my startup?
3. What is blockchain?
4. Disadvantages of blockchain
5. Ethereum 2.0 merge
6. What is DBMS?
7. Types of DBMS
8. Types of RDBMS?
9. Is data a double edged sword?
10. Asked me to talk about my most interesting research? Impact? Citations number and in which field?
11. Do you have any questions for me? Explicitly mentioned no points will be given here

My Marketing interview went better as I was able to answer all but one question. BM was also good but I had to think and recall some things so I was not that confident on some answers.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 58

WAT (20 MINS) : technology is making people alone. What are your thoughts on that?

Panelists: 2 female professors (in their 40s I guess)

They were very warm and welcoming

1. Why do you think we are conducting this second round of interview?
2. Okay here’s a situation: in my previous organisation one high potential manager, who was in direct contact with the director . And this manager started inflating the bills he would put for reimbursement. The director left the company after a while and later HR got to know that this person was doing this . When confronted he said the director told him that he can do it.what will you do in this case if you were the Hr

3. Adding to that if you get to know that he is the sole bread winner in his house , and if you terminate him he won’t get job anywhere else . What will you do in that case

4. If then you know from the ex director that he never told the manager that he can inflate the bills . He said he never checked the bills and just used to approve them for everyone . And he can give it in writing that he never did this . With this added context what will you do ?

5. If another company Hr calls you to ask about his character , will you hide about this incident

6 . They asked one guy about his interest in eSports

7. They asked me about digital marketing ( because of my work ex ) . Don’t you think it is unethical to collect data like that and show ads . I feel uncomfortable if I know that someone had my data. Then everyone was asked to put their opinion .

8. They asked another girl what will she do if her team isn’t satisfied with the project they are getting and demand for another project. Mereko ye kaam nahi woh kaam do . Aisa bolenge toh kya karoge?

9 . They asked another guy. You say you want to retire by 40. What do you want to do after that. And why do you want to retire.

10. They asked me about why I think there is no concept of hell and heaven . What do I think about karma . ( I wrote in my form that there is no hell and heaven according to me , but I appreciate the idea)

The interview went on 45-50 mins

It was more like a discussion.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 1

Process at SP Jain this year: WAT followed by Group Interview-1. If selected then Group Interview- 2. No Psyshometric Test. Total process: 2-3 hours.

WAT: What is the biggest cultural shock you have faced in India or Abroad?

Group Interview I:

1. Tell me something about yourself, also mention something that is not in your form.
2. Picked up on my hobby, and asked what did you read last. Summarize the plot for me.
3. Picked from my intro and asked why was I promoted at work. Follow up questions on that.
4. Asked about what I have done in my current project.
5. What role are you expecting post-MBA
6. Which company will recruit you for this PM role.
7. How will whatever you’ve learned at work will help you at Microsoft. (I answered Microsoft for the previous question)
8. What are the phases in Product Management
9. How is it different from SDLC and what is SDLC
10. What SDLC model do you work on. Describe it.

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Group Interview II:

1.Give your opinion on women in the workforce
2. Why SPJIMR
3. Tell me how covid has impacted you personally and professionally in one line.
4. Gave a situation, where you’re the team lead, and have a critical task to deliver within a deadline, but one team member is not delivering as expected. How would you handle this situation?
5. If you’ve tried everything and still there’s no change in his performance, will you escalate him to your supervisor, and he’s a close friend of yours, so if you escalate, you’ll tarnish your relationship with him. What will you do?
6. Considering the current situation in India, one thing that you want to pick up and improve which will help the country.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 2

WAT: In a country like India, do you think jury trail would work? Why or Why not? (20 mins max 500 words)

Interview:
Panel was from Marketing (P1) and Finance (P2). There was 1 candidate apart from me.

P1: We read about your form, Tell us few highlights about yourself mentioned in or out of the form for 1-2 mins?
We answered.

C1 mentioned economics, history, and current affairs as his interests. C1 has an IT background (I think C1 applied for Finance as an interest) and recently joined a working professional.

P1 to C1: What do you like in economics?
Some follow up questions on what C1 mentioned w.r.t stocks
P1 to C1: What is history of Pune? (Pune is C1’s home town)
P1 to C1: What do you think about MSP?
P2 to C1: Do you know about pigeon hole principle? They asked few other algorithms from DAA subject
P2 to me: Do you know about pigeon hole principle? (Asked few more algorithm questions)
P2 to me: Tell us any 2 excel functions which we don’t use commonly? What is what if? (as I mentioned in certification section)
P2 to me:Tell us what is emotional intelligence? (as I mentioned in certification section)
P2 to me: Tell me about a recent air strip which came in news from Ladakh? What is the heighest peak and the height in Ladakh? What lake is there? (Since I mentioned nature as my interest)
P2 to me: Tell about your work exp role?
P2 to me: What is Agile methodology? How is it different from traditional methodology?
P2 to me: what is spiral methodology

Also Read: Welingkar GDPI Experiences

SPJIMR Interview Experience 3

WAT topic: If complete work from home were to be put in practice, what’s your take on it? (20 mins- 500 word limit)

Group 1 interview – (4 candidates and 2 panelists)

1 min introduction followed by the reason for choosing the specialization? (common question to everyone)
Then technical/academic questions in the respective specialization.
Overall a short interview.. Just 30 mins for 4 people.

Group 2 interview- ( Again 4 candidates with 2 panelists)

Started by picking a few lines from the form B and asked reasons or further explanations for whatever was written.
Questions around compassion and as to how you showed compassion in your life were asked.
The questioning in this round was very subjective and differed from person to person based on what was written in the form B.

Final question – are there any qualities of yours that we missed out on or didn’t discuss or not mentioned in the form and that you think would make us select you for SPJIMR?

SPJIMR Interview Experience 4

My slot was 1st one at 8AM. They checked the identity card 1st and gave us the instructions for further process. The WAT timing was from 8:40 to 9AM. 20mins and 500words limit. The WAT link will appear on your dashboard at the exact time.

WAT Topic : What is your take on complete work from home?

Then we were allotted to our respective panels in sometime for GI1.

We were four students (Applied for 4 different specializations ) and 2 panelists.

1st qn was to tell something about yourself in 1min that is not mentioned in the forms. This qn was common for all. Then they started interviewing candidate by candidate of each specialisation. Nothing was asked in between to other candidates.

IM : Describe about your work. What is Data Analytics? Tell about 2 projects you have done regards to that. What is big data? How is it related to Data Analytics? What is the future in IT and what are the new technologies?

Ops: Projects you are taking care of? Any conflicts that you have faced at site? What is effective and efficient operations?

Finance: Advice for someone new to stock market and why? How will you evaluate a company which is new?

Marketing: Describe about your role. How do you find your potential customers? How do you meet the demand and evaluate it? What made you interested in Marketing? Which company’s sales strategy did you like and why? Which advertisement did you like? How do you connect 7Ps of marketing in your role? Who all are your competitors and what are your strengths and weaknesses compared to them?

These are the qns I remember.There were other qns too. It takes around 1-1.5 hours to announce the results of 1st round. I (Marketing Profile) didn’t get selected for the next round. 2 out of 4 (IM and Finance) got selected for next round.

Also Read: KJ Somaiya GDPI Experiences

SPJIMR Interview Experience 5

Round 1 –
1.Tell me about yourself
2. What did you work on at nomura
3. How can you use RPA in Ashok Leyland
4. How can you use RPA in warehouse
5. They asked questions related to drama and acting as I had mentioned it in my form.

Round 2 –
1. Why is the need for 2nd interview
2. You cannot understand your spouse in years how will we judge you in 45 mins
3. They asked me some questions related to answers on my form.
4. What is negative marketing
5. How will you strike out balance between the balance between negative marketing.
6. Should reservations be gender based – why and why not (Discussion around the same)
7. Should vernacular languages options be considered in exams
8. What makes you laugh alot?
9. Any questions for us

SPJIMR Interview Experience 6

WAT topic : With whom you would have a dinner with and why if given an opportunity? (Renowned person dead or alive)
Specialization : Finance
B.Tech Chemical Engineering Fresher

GI 1 : Tell me about yourself?
What is EGS?
Stock Market advice for risk averse and risk taker ?
Mutual funds for short term long term?
How have you placed your portfolio?
What is a balance sheet ?
Difference in P&L and balance sheet?
What is written on 1 rupee note? Is it an asset or liability to the govt. Of India?
What is liability?
What is PE ratio ?
Telecom merger in indian industry?
Penny stocks? Value stocks? Growth stocks ? Equity?
What are plastics ? Future prospects of chemical industry in india ?
What are Thermoplastics?
Difference between injection and extrusion?
What is downstream product ?
Is plastic a downstream product?
GI1 results awaited

Also Read: Jindal Global GDPI Experiences

SPJIMR Interview Experience 7

GI1 –
Judges panel : One Finance professor and one ma’am ( not sure what she teaches )
Candidates: 3 girls and 1 boy – 1 CA, 2 experienced IM candidates ( myself and another guy ) and one Marketing fresher.

They went sequentially, one by one, asking specific questions on our chosen specialisations –
Some of the questions I remember are –

Candidate 1 ( Fresher, Marketing)

Can you mention some job profiles you’re interested in post MBA?
Name one strong marketing campain and one that failed and why do you think they did so.
Why marketing
Can you name a few tools that are used for Marketing these days?

Candidate 2 ( CA)

Mostly technical questions.
She had transferred jobs. Why the transfer ?
What is a balance sheet?
Something to do with assets and liabilities..
If you were stuck in a lift with the RBI governor, what tips would you give him?

Candidate 3 (me)

Lots of finance questions so far, you must be bored!
What kind of work did you do in your company ?
Have you talked to some people who are currently working at your desired job profiles?
What were some of your learnings from managing an event at college ? ( Form A )
Can you talk more about your academics? ( Form A )
Why are engineers obsessed with the e ( natural log or ln ) – why such an inconvenient number ? What is its significance?

Can you solve x ^4 = -1? ( I answered but Sir asked me to take some more time and get back, so I missed some of the follow up questions which were asked to the other IM candidate. )
A common question for both the IM guys –
Why are big tech companies not willing to set up their offices in India?

Some common questions that were asked to everyone:
If you were stuck in a lift with Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman, what would you suggest to include in the upcoming budget?

GI2 –
Some Form B questions-
What is passion?
Why did you write a particular statement in your form?

I had mentioned reading, so they asked me what kind of books do you read, and follow up questions based on my answers. My learnings from the books I’ve read, how do I apply the learnings at my current job etc.
Some other common questions for discussion ( this round was more of a discussion and less formal, but I found it trickier than the first round overall ) –

1. What is your take on celebrities taking a strong stand on a public issue? Is it right or wrong?
2. So if I’m an actor, but I have a strong opinion, should I keep quiet thinking of my power over people ?
3. Your friend cheats on an exam and you find out – he apologies and says he will not repeat it and begs you to not report, and reporting will lead to expulsion and will ruin his future basically, what will you do? This is not his/her first time doing something like this as well
4. How has the philosophy behind Indian Cricket changed over the years ?

If I have one tip, it’ll be – Make sure you’re thorough with your forms A and B and can back up any statements in it. 🙂

SPJIMR Interview Experience 8

I had the 9:30 slot…..

Our WAT topic was mountains, forests and beaches what is your ideal vacation and why?

In Round 1 we had 3 panelists and they were pretty sweet…didn’t grill us or anything …initially they asked us about ourselves and then all their questions revolved around that….very few technical questions….I am a CA so they asked me one journal entry and whether a pen will be an asset or an expense and since I said I want to do banking they asked me the difference in investment banking and private banking

In round 2 we had 2 women panelists, 3 women candidates and 1 male candidate so the conversation was more about gender biases in a corporate environment . Then the discussion went to parental support while children take unconventional decisions. We briefly discussed on a few topics like this. It didn’t seem as though the topics were pre planned as they kept changing the direction of the discussion on the basis of the responses we gave.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 9

GI – 2 – 2 panelists, 3 candidates

All the questions were asked to common. Grasping views of everyone.

Questions :

How’s your day ? How’s the process experience ?
What are your family members doing ?
One candidate was asked about the story about his pet and ask us to give our learnings from it.
Views on mental health.
What you like & dislike about your parents ?
What kind of person you would like to live with ?
What you like about SPJIMR apart from Social aspect ?

Overall experience : It was more like conversation than the interview. Pretty chill and good atmosphere. They just want to know you better and hear your stories.

Also Read: ISBR GDPI Experiences

SPJIMR Interview Experience 10

WAT – is there necessity to address mental health issues at workplace ? Why ?

GI – 1 – 3 panelists, 4 candidates

Candidate 1 ( Finance ) – Lots of finance based questions. topics like Beta value of company and investment banking, work experience related questions.

Candidate 2 ( Finance ) – He was Fresher Engineer. so basic questions on finance. Related to family business. Subjects learned in engineering and sports.

Candidate 3 ( Marketing ) – he had worked with Ford so questions regarding that. Examples of Marketing campaigns. Should SPJIMR do marketing campaign ?

Me ( Operations ) – Questions based on my work experience. How engineering related to your work experience. Questions on electrical engineering. Tell any one incident through which you got interested in operations.

Common Questions to all : Why you want to do this specialization ? What knowledge you have about it ? What role you want after your MBA

Overall Experience : At first you have to wait for around 15-20 min in lobby. Then after instructions you go to write your WAT for 20 min ( 500 word limit ). You have to time yourself & submit manually. Then you will be redirected to meeting room. Interview was like personal interview only. Asking specific questions to each and not jumping Questions among candidates. No stress interview even if you answered something wrong panelists were taking it normally.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 11

Gem fresher
8/9/9
Specialization – marketing

6 panelists – 2 faculties, 4 applicants (2 with work experience, another one I guess was a fresher along side me )

P1: introduce yourself apart from your CV
Answered

P1 : What is marketing according to you?
Answered

P2 : What is a brand? Explain with an example
Answered

P1 : Why MBA in marketing after civil engineering?
Explained

P1 : HUL’s Glow and lovely controversy
Explained

P1 : How ethics works in marketing/role of ethics in marketing
Explained with an example of Ambush marketing

P2 : During lockdown, show fairness cream brands continue promoting their product or not? And how if not?
Talked about reduction in their promotion and inventory due to pandemic and focus on other brands and CSR campaigns

P1 : key takeaways from the interview
Told what new stuffs I learned from other applicants.

40-45 mins. Overall a smooth experience with no grilling on any answer.
Was cross questioned a couple of times on other’s answers.

Verdict : Rejected for GI 2

SPJIMR Interview Experience 12

WAT- how has lockdown affected online and offline retail

GI-1
2 panelists
3 candidates (1 marketing (me), 2 Fin)
All freshers

2 common qns to all
Tell me about yourself not mentioned in your form?
Why this specialization?

To me(fresher, civil engineering)-
P1: so every fresher says that they chose marketing because they worked in college fests, do u have the same reason?
Me: answered

P1: what are your goals?
Me: answered

P1: so consider yourself the brand manager of coca cola. How will you design a marketing campaign to sell cocacola in 3 poor villages of odisha where people can’t afford biscuits also?
Me: took some time but answered in detail and answered few cross questions on it.

P2: what type of bridge is sea-link ?

P2: why are cables there on a bridge?

P2: Can there be a bridge with single column?

P2: Difference between railway bridge and road bridge?

P2: How Japan infrastructure deals with regular earthquakes? From design point of view?

To others, they asked from academics as well as from finance.

GI-2
1. What do you learn from your mothers?

2. Will you do a particular task given by your boss if it is out of the office (personal)

3. What have you done for your mother recently without letting her know not on her bday or mother’s day?

4. Which book have you read and why?

5. Give 1 word for GI-2

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 13

Bcom (H) final year
Specialization – finance
4 candidates all freshers inclusive of 2 marketing

2 panelists both female
1 from fin
1 from marketing

F1 – tell me about yourself to all in 1 min other than the form that you have written.

F1 to me- Fav sub
Told

F1 – types of financial statements

F1 – Why balance sheet is known as balance sheet

F1 – What are long term debts ?

F1 – Types of long term debts

F1 – What is goodwill?

F1 – Top line and bottom line

F1 – What is cash flow and types of activities ?

F1 – How bad debt is shown in cash flow?

F1 – What is working capital and operating cycle?

F1 – How to utilise effectient working capital?

F1 – What type kind of asset goodwill is?

F2 – asked me about my nasa astronaut training programme.

F1 to another finance candidate almost similar question except what is gaap and ifrs . And whose rule we follow in india.

F2 to same girl above asked about our learnt computer languages and how they are related.

F2 to next male marketing guy who was a bba student

F2 – Asked why mba in marketing ,

F2 – Internship ,process and his role, startegy used in company.
Not much remember

F2 – And last guy from mechanical engineering was seriously grilled

F2 – Why mba in marketing

F2 – 4p model

F2 – How tesla is different from reva and why it is famous.
And the answr was hilarious
Because tesla runs on solar and battery power , so panelists told him that we should keep our tesla in our sun then why we should charge.

F2 – Asked about myntra controversy , how govt should market the farm laws and advice to got on marketing startegy,

F2 – Asked about skimming marketing, where he answered as by lowering prices of existing successful product
Which panelists replied as not satisfying answer around 3 to 4 times to him in different cases.

And wat topic was how social media is creating negative or positive persona?

SPJIMR Interview Experience 14

Accounts and Finance fresher
3 candidates
2 Marketing specialization, 1 Finance(me)

1. Tell us about yourself to everyone

2. It’s obvious for you to go to finance and you’re a perfect 10 grad right so tell me about the economy right now… before budget, its effect on sensex

3. I mentioned about expenditure…so explain how this will benefit the economy

4. Give the name of this theory. What is free economy, Keynes theory ….I didn’t know these and I had to clarify that I’m an accounts and finance graduate and not economics major

5. What fo you refer for daily news. Speak something from ET

6. I talked about privatisation so some questions on that

7. Gave a case study to on IRR , NPV and DCF to solve

8. Explain this case study to a layman investor

9. Which field do you want to join

10. Difference between investment banking and commercial banking
Qualified for GI 2

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 15

Interview Experience

WAT- What does creativity means to you?

In G1 interview their were two penalist.

P1- Marketing Background
P2- Finance Background

S1- Marketing guy (having own family buisness of dry fruits)
S2- Marketing guy
S3- working in LIC, Finance Background
S4- (myself, Operation and supply chain) Logistics background

No introduction or any sort was asked.
Direct discussion started with a question asked from S1 about his family buisness of dry fruits that they operate from Kathmandu. Around 10 min discussion went on ways in which they should work to improve there sales.

Everyone was asked to give there inputs turn by turn.

Second discussion revolved around LIC IPO. Where LIC is laging then it’s competitors. Any add-ons to improve. S2 suggested involvement of AI. Further questions were asked on AI.

From me a single questions asked to give two major reason of how COVID have effected supply chain.
At last asked about respective hobbies.

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the second round.

Best of luck for all others.

My advice- Do develop some views from other fields too. Read about marketting, finance, operation

Also Read: IMT WAT-PI Experiences

SPJIMR Interview Experience 16

Profile : software engineer (18 months)
Specialization : finance.

1. Tell me about yourself. I was last to go. Added a little bit of humor at the end.
2. You profile seems to be more inclined: ( basically it was ” why finance”)
3. There will be ca and cfa competing / studying with you, so tell me as client if I give you some money , where would you invest?
4. What’s your take on crypto.
5. Balance sheet, p&l, cash flows.
6. More on crypto assets.
7. Explain what product you build and how it’s connected to finance.
8. More about patym.
9. valuations

The panel was nice. Even if you are not interested to answer they try to derive answer out of you. Engineers just don’t go too technical. Explain with abstractions. If they want technical details they will ask you more on it.
Format you answer properly and try adding examples wherever possible .

Converted round 1!

Must Read: KJ Somaiya GD-PI Experinces

SPJIMR Interview Experience 17

WAT: What are your thoughts on the privatisation of nationalised banks?
9:15 slot
GI1: Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi and Prof. Sapna Malaya
2 Males, C1 C2 1 Female C3 (Myself)
C1 CA CFA L2 with Work Ex Fin Spec
C2 Engineer with Work Ex some startup story Mrkt Spec
C3 Fresher BSc Statistics Fin Spec

1) Brief Round of intros ..they look for some hooks some interest points other than what you have already mentioned in the form
2) Prof. Sapna to C1 who worked at Adani Energy some back and forth with respect to his work ex and fin based questions related to his organisation
3) Prof Sapna to C2 his work ex (related to tech) some back and forth about his work ex in tech
Why MBA in marketing? Why the shift from tech to marketing ..some questions about startup he was trying to build around EV
4) Prof Sapna to C3: Why MBA..what motivates you to choose fin specialization..what relevant background would you have in Fin….spoke about my interests some course I had pursued and my internship stint at EY..some details and back and forth on that
5) Prof Vineeta to C2 C1 …cross questioning them on their answers..see if their stance changes.. addressed some loopholes
6) Prof Vineeta to C3 ..asked if I was aware of jobs post MBA according to my interests
Some cross questioning on details regarding my course..budget popped in about what metrics are considered before deciding on budget…some more detailing on finances and my motivation in general
7) Prof Vineeta to C1 C2 C3 ..about other hobbies and interests… generic stuff
8) Asked if we would like to ask any questions and then it ended

Tips:
*NOT A STRESS INTERVIEW BUT BE CLEAR IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND VISION
*I couldn’t flesh out all things i wanted to say so try including things beforehand

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 18

WAT – If you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Your viewpoint.
GI1 – 2 panelists(Dr Milind Kamath(IM), Dr Subir Rao(Quantitative Methods)
3 candidates – 2IM(me), 1Fin

1. Introduce yourself other than CV for 3-4min
2. Work ex based questions to me (RPA related, Digitisation Projects related, Data science certification related)
3. Work ex questions for other candidates as well (future stocks related, RBI policy related, etc. I did not understand the terms)
4. Why information management? Since you are from mech background and supply chain industry work ex
5. What is IoT and it’s applications?
6. Amazon dash – is it beneficial to customers or to Amazon?
7. Amazon dash – Why didn’t they release it in India? Your views.

Surprisingly, all 3 of us got selected for GI2!!

SPJIMR Interview Experience 19

GI2 Experience
2 male panelists
4 candidates – 2Fin, 1Ops, 1IM(me)

Question is asked and all our opinions are asked not in a particular order. We could pitch in anytime.
1. Do you enjoy sleeping?
2. Situation based – One fine day, all of your memories and the records of your education or career are erased. Only your parents can recognise you. What is your next step?
3. Situation based – For a male (female), you are in a relationship with a very beautiful girl(boy). One day you come across a boy(girl) and start developing feelings for that person? Would you go after him(her)?
4. Continuation to the previous question – Would you approach about your new feelings to your parents?
5. Continuing – let’s say your parents have not approved it. What would you do?
6. State 3 qualities that would affect you as a leader or a manager.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 20

WAT – any taglines or punchlines by brands that impacted you and why
G1 – 3 candidates -2 marketing 1 IM
2 profs – 1 marketing 1 IM

Started with the intro for everybody. 1-2 mins
Started asking from IM guy, asked about his role which was something related to cloud migration. So he explained that.
Then asked about data anamolies while migration.
Any new tech that he likes he mentioned web 3.0. asked about difference between crypto and blockchain. Then probed a little more on the same.
Then asked what tech news excited him – he mentioned something related to mark zuckerberg about metaverse. Then asked how are metaverse and blockchain linked. Probed more. Asked about if he codes he mentioned something.
If there are any learning from his engineering ( he was a production engineer) that helps him at his work he told.

Then onto second guy asked about his work profile. He had mentioned advanced statistical analysis. Probed more on this. Asked details about AB testint , T tail test something, email analysis he mentioned he said that he does for his client, so asked how he analysis emails. Probed about tech terms he mentioned.

Then came onto me (marketing) asked about an app i developed and marketed for. i had mentioned some growth number, he asked how did i achieve them. Basically the marketing strategy. Then he asked if we monitised the app. I told him no and the reason. Then he asked the other marketing guy as a consultant what do you suggest to him to monitise and grow retention.

Then there were some discussion back and forth between me and that guy. Finally he interjected and asked you both have IT background so why not IM so we both explained

SPJIMR Interview Experience 21

WAT-WAT(500 word limit, 20 mins) -What was your favourite game as a child? Why?

GI1 GI1 -> 2 panelitsts, 4 candidates. 1 Fin, 3 IM. (I was one of the IM) We were first asked to give a brief introduction of ourselves.

Fin guy worked for E&Y in a risk management role. His conversation with the panelists revolved around justification for Fin. Also asked him some financial terms questions.
IM 1 worked as a tester for software products. His conversation revolved around justification for IM. He was also asked some stats questions around normal equation and confidence interval.
IM 2 mentioned his interest in product managment, and coversation revolved around that.
IM 3 (me) was asked aboout Data analytics and some techniques as I had previously mentioned an interest in that. Was then asked some stats based questions relaating to covariance and correlation. Answered conceptually but didnt remember the exact formulas.

Fin, IM 1 and IM 3 (me) qualified for GI 2.

GI 2 -> 2 panelists and 4 candidates again (not the same set of candidates). Was asked situation based questions in a round robin manner to all candidates. An example of one of the situations asked was – “Suppose you finished watching a movie in a cinema at late night. The parking lot you parked your car is in extrememly vast and has no markings. Visibility is low due to fog. You also do not remember at all where you parked your car. The alarm on the remote doesnt work either. how will you find your car?”.
All the questions asked in GI2 were similarly situation based and there were no correct asnwers as such.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 22

Sharing my experience from 1st slot :
Panel : 2 members
Applicants : 4 – 1(IM) 1(FIN) 2(MKT)

Panel was very chill.
We were asked to introduce ourselves.
Then there were following questions :
IM : web 3.0 and cyber security(workex), why mba, what roles, career goals,

Fin : about budget and bond yields, and accounting( based on the fav topic) and few questions related to workex, why mba

MKTNG : Workex realted questions, a few questions on hobbies and interests, why mba , career goals

Then again, there was a brief discussion on streaming platforms and their marketing strategies.

Me (IM) and 1 MKTNG guy got through to second round.

Thanks !

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 23

GI 1- Four Guys (M1 (Me) 32 years work ex, Marketing, M2 (BCOM Fresher, Marketing), M3 (Software testing work ex, IM), M4 (Bcom Fresher, Finance).

Interview duration – 50 mins.

I was first.

Questions asked:

Introduce yourself
explain your day to day job with every step involved in it
What is A/B testing? How do you do it for emails?
A real world example of an email campaign where you did it
Metrics tracked to check email performance
tools used
Difference between Click Rate and Click Through Rate
of the two which is a better metric and why?

Then they asked questions to the fresher candidate for Marketing

They first dived deep into his finance topics, asked 4-5 questions based on his favourite subject (he could answer some, others he couldn’t)

Asked questions about his Marketing Internship
Role
Social Media Marketing Metrics to track
how do you know what works and what doesn’t work on SM?
Post MBA aspirations

third came the IM Guy
He was grilled on his work ex by P1- he did a great job
P2 started asking questions from academics-

Array vs Linked list, when to use what, what is dynamic allocation
What is SQL
What are joints
Software Development Life Cycle
(He struggled with many questions here)

For the finance fresher, he was asked a lot of question
How will you decide what companies to invest in?
He talked about top down and bottom up approach and there was a lot of cross questioning
P&L statements
Balance sheet
cash flow statement
what are they and of the three which two are more important
P/E ratio of a company
(He was askee the most no. of questions, and hw answered most of them)

Verdict: I and last guy (Fin fresher) made it to GI2

GI2:

1. introduce yourself in under a minute
2. Case study: SHOULD COCA COLA sponsor the Beijing winter Olympics- four details were added and we were constantly asked to share our opinion on the same
3. me, based on form B- I was asked, would you be okay to move to China ( I had talked about living abroad in form B)
4. Group discussion on Should social media companies be allowed to lock accounts
5. Who is responsible for the stuff put on social media- people or the company
6. One thing that you have liked and not liked about SPJIMR so far
7. Why is GI2 important

(top few questions, round 2 was really long for us)

Hope this helps!

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 24

2nd Feb 2022, 10:30 pm
WAT: How do you deal with stress? Do you handle easily? What’s your stress buster?
GI1 3 candidates (All Operations 2M(oil and gas) 1F(IT operations))
2 Interviewers ( 2M P1 Operations+ P2 Economics)

P1: Operations-
1) Describe yourself with something that is not in the form. Be very particular don’t mention anything in the form. You will be interrupted and stopped if you do
2) What is inventory management?
3) What is stock and ullage?
4) What is preventive vs breakdown maintenance
5) What is “PROCESS”
6) Difference bet NDT vs DT

P2: Economics-
1) What us crude price? Why it changes?
2) IS the petroleum sector regulated in India
3) What do you understand by “Oil sector is under recovery”
4) Supply and demand curve
5) IOCL,HPCL,BPCL market share? Reliance share?
6) Diff between oil inventory management vs non oil inventory management
7) What is excise duty on petrol?
8) How can IT AI/ML help in ogistics and operations

All selected

GI2 ( 4 candidates (2 Opns 1 Fin 1 IM) , 2 Prof (don’t know credentials)

1) Discussion on sudoku. A girl wrote about this
2) You are instructor of a project and one team is found to have copied from internet. What will you do? (45 mins)
Multiple scenarios and case/s

3) You are a hostel supervisor. You are asked to make guidelines. What are those?(17ish mins)
4) Anything you want to ask and then detailed discussion happened (5 mins)

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 25

WAT- Did pandemic reduced increased dependency on online store & reduced dependency on Brick-Mortar stores
Panelist: Lijo John Sir, Ranjit Patnaik Sir
Candidates: C1-Ops (Eng, Wx 2.5 yrs automobile), C2-Fin (Comm, Fresher), C3-Marketing(Post Grad Engg with a start-up product), C4-Fin (BBA, National level Badminton, 1yr Wx in Fin)

The interviewer went one by one & one by one on candidates as well in alphabetical order of candidates name, first half by younger panelist followed by experienced one
Started TMAY not in the form
C1) ops- What I do at work, Since I was a Production Engineer as well, asked me about fav subject during Undergrad. To which I told Total Quality Management. Questioned me then on
P1:Toyota production system went deep and asked about JIT, then how JIT is implemented, then how 3M & Kanban, lean Mfg
P2: Product life cycle, Maximization, Optimization, Inflection, Capacity Utilization
C2) Asked about fav topic and questions on that
C3) Why not start up with your idea straight away & hire some MBAs along the way
C4) questions about work and basic fin concepts, such PE ratio etc.
Takeaways: 2 candidates were giving good answers but beating around the bush and talked a lot, Experienced panelist called them out on multiple occasions
Keep your ans accurate & precise & speak more only when probed
Production Engineers: Prepare TQM, OR (just basic concepts) even though you have Wx.
Verdict: All passed!

GI2: Panelist-1 Male, 1 Female
Asked us about personality traits picking it from Form B, One MMBS girl was asked why she was making a switch, overall healthy & good discussion, No grilling, no worldly affairs questions, no question about market place or business, no why SPJIMR, no direct why MBA. Some personality trait might be picked from your form and asked how you will act in a given work place scenario with that attitude.

Overall Experience: Encountered candidates with strong profile & very well prepared.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 26

GI 1 experience
WAT: what steps do you take to remain calm under pressure?
(Personal note: don’t just talk about work related pressure)

GI1: 2 panelists 1 male (marketing prof) 1 female (finance prof)
Interviewees: 2 marketing me and another engineer
2 finance 1 engineer and 1 BSc economics

Go around and introduce yourself and why you chose that specialisation

Marketing people and panelist discussion
-asked me about work ex and why switch from tech to marketing?
– why not learn from job and earn simultaneously why waste money and 2 years. Justify that
– questions on STP analysis for camera feature (related to my work ex)
– how would you price that feature ( also pulled in the other marketing guy)
– how would you justify that price
– brand vs product (give examples wherever possible)
– what do you see first while buying something? Brand or product
– situations for both

Moves to finance panelist and finance interviewees
– why finance from engineering ( answer includes stocks)
– what are stocks and what are the micro indicators in stock market
– what are indices
– why BSE and NSE both are present
– differences between them
– what are financial statements and the 3 types that are there
– explain each
– which one to choose to see the financial health of a company
– can a company be net income positive but still be bankrupt (answer is yes)
– explain how to layman
– what are financial derivatives (his answer included the words option trading)
– what is option trading
– what are future options
– call and put operation in options

Closed the interview with a basic short and long term goals from each person

Stay tuned for GI2 experience 😛

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 27

G1 Experience (IM with 15 month workex in Consulting)

WAT: What is your proudest non-work achievement?

GI:
Panel: 2 male prof (IM, Fin)
Candidates: 1F (Fin) 1M (Fin) 2M (IM)

Introduce yourself.
Why MBA?
About Work ex. Technologies used.
Why are you leaving you job?
Do you not like it?
Isn’t work experience too little? Why not work for some more time and decide your path?
What’s the difference between Information Technology and Information Management?
What is management?
What is Information?
How is information different from data?
Give examples.
What is Data Analytics?
What is knowledge?
Why mba If knowledge and learning available freely on the internet?

Questions to other IM dude:
Blockchain?
NFT?
Digital currency by indian gov?
Difference between digital currency and paytm money?

Ques to Fin:
Budget
Taxes on dividend
Taxes on crypto
Wealth Management
Something on balance sheets and income statement.
Portfolio Management

Unfortunately didn’t make it to GI2, only the female fin candidate made it.

Best of luck everyone

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 28

3rd Feb 2022, Slot 2

WAT: What steps do you take to remain calm during pressure?

GI 1:
4 Candidates(1F(Me), 1M, 2 OP)
Panel : 2F(1 OP, unknown)

Started out with intro. About 1 min

Then asked the OP guys about their previous work ex and details about it
Also asked about concepts like through put, cycle time, operational efficiency, etc

Asked some engineering questions to marketing guy as he was from engineering background, his role in cognizant, and digital marketing firm he currently works at
Concepts like click through rate, email marketing, important aspects to consider while designing an email, how to survey the response of how well the campaign worked, etc.

Then i was asked about my favourite subject – I replied with M&A and Business Valuation
So asked the diff between them
Then asked about the current valuations of startups in India
Where would i put in my money
I answered Nykaa
Explain why
Then she brought in policybazzar to counter me saying it also has all the qualities that you mentioned for nykaa so why not policybazaar and intead of Nykaa
I little bit of back and forth on it
Then asked me if I were the CFO of Nykaa and the marketing guy would come up with an 10cr marketing proposal, on what factors would you evaluate it
Then the conversation went to ROI and brand building expense.

End of G1
Only I made it to the G2

G2 – 2:00 PM

2 male panelists

Introduce yourself with something that is not on your form (pushed us to delve deeper in who we think we are)

What is the one impact/ learning for you in the last 20 months of covid
How would you apply this learning in your future life

Do you think luck plays an important role in bringing you where you’re today?
Strict yes or no (no explanation or diplomatic answers)

If yes what percentage?
Again strictly one number and no explanations

Then gave us a scenario of the airline industry which is into deep lossses and said that there’s a situation where you have only 2 options –
You are the team leader and have 5 people under you
1. Sack the 5th employee (at par performance, not 5th in terms of performance, just 5th numerically )
2. The whole team takes a 25% pay cut

Again choose one, no explanations

Any questions you have for us?
(Jokingly said don’t ask the ones we just asked you ?)

End.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 29

WAT: If your manager asked you to complete a task that you thought was impossible at first, how would you go about it ?

GI-1
2 panelists (1M, 1F)
4 candidates (2 Ops, 1 Fin, 1 IM)

Interview went on for ~50 minutes
– Tell us about yourself in 1 minute, either from within your form or something else outside your form.
To Ops:
– Why Operations. What interests you in operations (probed a lot on it)
– Why not IM or Marketing as your profile is more suited for it (to me)
– Some technical questions. Like:
– What is inventory management
– What is planning and scheduling (they’ll first ask which topics you’re comfortable with and ask questions based on it)
– Talk about supply chain in the perishables segment
– What are some elements of supply chain in your current role (I was asked this because I am from tech domain)
– Why MBA
– What is your dream role
To Fin:
– Why finance. What interests you in finance
– How has banking sector been impacted by pandemic
– Some technical questions about his engineering major — aeronautical
– Asked to explain some finance concepts based on a book by Nicholas Taleb (he mentioned he had read it)
– He mentioned he was interested in drama. So they asked why not take up drama as a career
To IM:
– Difference between IM and IT. Some other technical questions
– What exactly do you do in your current role
– Which role do you want to get into after MBA. (He mentioned product mgmt — so they asked him basic questions around it)
Result: None of us made it to GI-2!

Must Read: KJ Somaiya GD-PI Experinces

SPJIMR Interview Experience 30

WAT- Do you prefer working in a team or alone? Why?

G1
2 panelists (1M, 1F)
3 candidates (2 O&SCM, 1 IM)

-Tell us something about yourself in 1 minute that is not mentioned in the form

All three of us were asked about our jobs and job roles and and why have we selected our respective choices in MBA. How do we think we can bring and improvement after completing this course. How did the pandemic affect the respective organisations where we’ve have worked/ are working.
All three of us were properly grilled and most of the questions were related to our workex.

All three cleared round 1!

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 31

Same Panel

I was the Finance Candidate (8 month work ex in TCS, CAT 96.06)

Q: What attracted you towards finance specialization
Q: What are different sheets/statements in accounting (coz I mentioned some of these terms in last answer )
Q: More questions based on these, what do they signify
Q: What are Investment Banks
Q: Then the panelist gave me situation, he has 2 options HDFC or ICICI what should he invest in for long-term

Q: What is Net Present Value

I mentioned DCF in this how it based on “time value of money”

Q: Explain what is time value of money…..give example
Q: I used to pay 700 for recharge 5 years back, then I switched to Jio and now I pay 200, does this mean value of money has increased over this time period

Overall: A very smooth interview, panel were very friendly

Made it to GI2

GI 2 Experience :

4 participants (2 male 2 female)
Panel ( 2 female professors)

P1: What do you guys expect from this interview. What have you heard happens in this interview
Then she took a point from one of the candidate’s Form B where he said he wanted to be born 10 years ago

Then the entire discussion was about how was life better/worse for people in past or for people now and then some discussion on +ves and -ves of technology

P2: I am part of Executive edecution program, less female candidates are applying, companies are also sponsoring less female candidates for this. Team has decided to give discount(or scholarship) on fees for female candidates, what do you think about this decision and why is there a less participation by females in these programs

Overall: A very smooth discussion, ever candidate given a chance to put forward their points and opinions, panel were very friendly

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 32

8th feb 2022, GI 1
Panel(1 fin(female) , 1(prob) IM(male))
2 Mkt(1 Ece eng female 1 mech eng male) 2 Fin(1 maths grad male(me) 1 bba grad female) all freshers

Introduce yourself in 1-1.5 minute

Then fin prof

To male candidate
You have been chosen for 2nd specialization, why do you think is that and what do you plan to do
What are roles of a finance guy in a company
3 types of financial statements
Their use
Which one would you look at to analyze a company performance
Is rent expense or revenue(answered can be both)
How can a company get rent as revenue
3 components of cash flow statement (didnt answer)
What is all this sensex nifty bse
How top stocks on sensex and nifty are selected

To female candidate

Why fin
Same qs of 3 components of cash flow statement
Difference between coroporate finance and accounting
How would a cashflow statement of a startup will differ from same of a well established company
How will cashflow statement of zomato/swiggy will look(which of 3 components will be highest)
Who is a promoter
Difference between revenue and profit
2 3 more question on finance

Then to
Marketing male candidate
He had something related to a startup in his form
Discussion regarding that
What is idea , how will you market , how is it different from things already available in market
He said something around youtube so
How does youtube algorithm works , how does facebook algorithm works
(Also how marketing is different from sales)
Taking insights from other mkt candidate also

Then to other panelist
This was primarily acad based

To ece
Why AM radio voice quali is not as much clear as FM radio(couldn’t answer for 2 3 minutes going here and there then asked she is more into software)
What is OOPS
Why do we need C++ if we already have C
What is database
How database is different from cloud
Is cloud safe

To mech guy
What is zeroth law of thermodynamics
What is Entropy
Fav subject, 1 qs regarding that

To maths guy
Will maths background will help you in finance, if yes how
What is standard deviation
Where it is used

To bba candidate
Fav subject
What is inflation
Scanario If inflation last year was 6 percent and this year it is 3 percent and government is claiming that we have reduced the prices , is government claim valid(she tried not to go anti government stance for a minute )
Same qs to other fin candidate

Bba fin , and mech mkt guy made it to GI2

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 33

GI1 – Feb 9 2022, 10:30 am slot

WAT – If you want to live in one country forever, where would it be and why? (11:05 to 11:25, 20 min)

Two panel – One from Supply chain
All male students
P1 ——- Me (fresher, Marketing)
P2 ——- Workex In big data analytics, Operation Spec
P3 ——- Workex in startup, Finance spec

First there was a chilled per interview conversation. Just an informal introduction with panel member 1. Then panel member 2 joined.

Interview begins at 11:47

1. Introduction of all three students. P1 to P2 to P3
2. After intros, P3 was asked the questions first then P2 then P1.

1. What is big data ?
2. Why operations after engineering?
3. He mentioned about research paper and big data analysis and how it is useful for operations.
4. Some more questions on research paper and some technologies
5. Question on extracting highlights from a cricket match. How is the software extracting the highlights of 15 min from a 50 over match.
6. Why not joining family business
7. He mentioned about plans of joining MBB consultancy and then moving to a startup. So does a startup really need you was asked.

P2 —— fin spec

1. Mention any 5 financial ratios and how are they useful in picking a stock.

2. Some more questions on those ratios that he mentioned.

3. Sensex Vs Nifty 50. The person mentioned investing as a hobby.

4. How will your Workex and acads useful when it comes to pursuing finance spec.

5. Inventory ratio meaning

6. If I have 1.5 million INR, where would you invest and why?

P1 —— marketing spec

1. Why marketing?
2. What is meant by value to the customers since I had mentioned it in my previous answer?
3. If there are two people, a father and a son, son wants to buy a coffee mug of 1800 rupees, what is the value of it ?
4. What should the father do?
5. Does it makes sense to buy it?
6. One question on Indian railways. – didn’t answer
7. Fair and lovely to glow and lovely issue. What is the perspective of a marketing manager on that?
8. Asked other two persons on their views.
9. Finally asked me what would you do now as a marketer based on retail perspective of lowering sales due to the new name.

That’s it overall a chilled interview. Made us all comfortable and questioned on each specialisation and few current trends. Some follow up questions on the answers.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 34

9th Feb 2022
2: Marketing
1: Fin
WAT:Best childhood memory
Specialization:Marketing

GI 1:
P1: Introduce yourself
P1: Why Marketing
P1: What after MBA
P2: Advertisement of these days not following value or ethics. Tell one such advertisement
P2: what does a brand manager do.
P2: how will you brand your state.
then pannelists moved to other two candidates.
P2: which organisation would you like to work? Expalin about a person who influenced you to become a brand manager?
P1: Which calls do you all have and which is your pref. list for them?

All 3 got selected into GI2

GI 2:
Discussion oriented
P1: Introduce yourself with out mentioning the stuff in form
Some questions were asked about the info provided in the form
P1: if you find your roommate taking drugs would you complain to the authority or not . Discussed the issue for twenty minutes
P2: if you are a instructor and find a group of two people who have submitted their project did plagiarism what will you do now. Discussed for 20 to 25 minutes.

Both GI1 & GI2 pannelists were very sweet and overall both interviews were chill and not a stress one.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 35

GI1
(2 Finance Male, 1 Marketing Male Engg(Me))
P1: Rajesh Bhat(ex-SPJIMR)
P2: Dr. Suresh Lalwani
P3: Dr. Tanvi Mankodi
Brief intro-was asked a bit about my poetic style.
Questions for finance1
Accounting vs financehe fumbled
Asked him about meditation and graphic designing (which he mentioned in intro).
Questions for finance 2
Asked him about football club he likes and why he chose finance.
A bit of back and forth on that
Given a hypothetical situation where he has been given 1000 crores to invest…industries he would invest….asked him to choose futuristic industries instead of banking, steel industry
He said he wouldn’t invest in crypto assets…some back and forth on that
Questions for Marketing(me)
Mentioned that in my appln form I mentioned that I am a good manager so P1 asked why Marketing and not HR from XLRI.
Asked about if I have any marketing background.
P2 asks me as an engineer where do I see numbers in a Marketing course….then asked me to explain my understanding of courses I’ll do if I am selected under marketing.
P2 asked me to talk about marketing strategy of a company I liked … spoke about Amul’s strategy and post covid steps it took. Then he asked about any other companies I can speak about… spoke about Zomato and Cred.
P3 asked about my travelling experiences (I mentioned in intro)…. I spoke about liking for mountain regions ( like Darjeeling, Kumaon region of Uttarakhand)…was asked to give a elevator pitch for Darjeeling to under-30 person…some back and forth on that
GI 2
P1: Preoborto Ganguly
P2: Abbasali Gabula
Intro in 1 minute. –> was asked about engineers who are script writers and comedian like Varun Grover, Biswa Kalyan Rath
3 learnings after pandemic came in?(P1)
Discussion on reservation on the backdrop of Neet PG issue.(P1)
P2
Tell about wow moments in last 2-3 years
1 good and bad thing about SPJIMR
(Note: Please justify your answers well a candidate used rather strong words while criticizing reservation and interviewers weren’t very happy with him)

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 36

Hello Guys, I am sharing my GI1 and GI2 experiences. I am a third year student of Hansraj College, pursing Economics( H) and specialization I applied for was Finance. I was expecting a lot of questions based on Finance and Economics, but it didn’t happened due to god’s grace ?. So some questions were introduce yourself, why finance, Balance sheet, dream company, economic survey, opportunity cost.

The other 2 interviewees were from engineering background and one has work ex. The one having work ex applied for Ops specialisation. He was asked questions related to his job only. SAP Analyst something like that. How pandemic has impacted the industry, how supply chain disrupted etc. The other person was for marketing. She was asked about any brand she like the most, any change she is observing in advertisements these days, why marketing etc.

We all three made it to GI 2

GI2 Experience- Learnings from pandemic, how corporate, Govt., public responded to pandemic in these 2 years. What we as an individuals learnt from pandemic. If we are made the Prime Minister of the country and we have all the powers, what could have been done in the last 2 years, which the present Govt. hadn’t done

Suggestions- My both the interviews were quite chill. The second one went for an hour and I didn’t even realised that. Read about pandemic effects on your company, industry. What went good in pandemic, what wrong etc.

All the Best to the people who are yet to give interviews

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 37

WAT topic : if time travel was possible what one thing in your life would you do differently

GI1 :
4 candidates
C1 – Marketing , had some workex
C2 – finance , Bcom fresher
C3 – ops , worked in family business in operations team
C4 – Me , for marketing , mechanical engineer fresher

2panelist – 1male 1female
Both professors

GI 1 started with a small introduction in 1 to 1.5min
Then the ops guy was asked some basic questions in ops
And also about 6sigma as he mentioned that in the intro

Finance guy was grilled on a topic which I could not understand, he fumbled alot

C1 was asked some basic questions from electronics engineering and how he would apply marketing strategy for nokia 4G as he said something about that in the intro

I was asked basic mechanical and project related questions
1 of which I could not ans
They asked me why marketing and what was my fav marketing Campaign
Then I was asked about metaverse and how would I develop and marketing strategy for metaverse

Me, ops guy and finance guy cleared GI1

GI2 :
Intro about who you are and not about what have you done
What does courage means to you ?
Imagine you are alone and walking on a deserted road and you see a leopard 50ft away from you what would you do ?
They then twisted the question and asked instead of a leopard if there was a person standing with a knife in his/her hand what would you do ?
Tell me one thing which your friends or your family members are telling you not to do but you still continue to do that thing .

Overall a smooth discussion
I’ll say be yourself and be honest.

For more GD Topics for GD/WAT

SPJIMR Interview Experience 38

WAT topic : If time travel was possible what one thing in your life would you do differently ?

G1: 2 finance candidates, 2 Information management candidates (including me)
1 faculty each of finance and Information Management

Both the finance candidates were grilled. They were asked about several technical terms, formulae. One question I remember was how will you identify financial health of the company? (they told that there are three methods for that), candidate chose balance sheet and they had a long conversation of the parameters involved in a balance sheet.
They were also asked about their job profile.

For IM candidates, as me and the other candidate both were engineers, we were asked about new technologies, Focused on blockchain technology, NFT, cryptocurrency. Also asked about metaverse.
Then some questions were asked based on our job profile.

3 out of 4 candidates were selected for GI2. One finance candidate was not selected.

GI2 is completely different from GI1. It is more of a general conversation. They will give you a scenario, may be hypothetical or real world. They just want to know about your thinking, your views and opinion about the topic. They will not ask anything technical, but will ask for a brief intro, and you need to mention the things not written in your application form. Both the faculties will give you a different topic where discussions will take place.

Topics discussed here were: 1. About surrogacy birth. 2. Restrictions on social media due to trolls, and should these sites be government regulated?

All the best!

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 39

4 panelists, 2 interviewers
2 marketing shortlist
1 finance, 1 can’t remember
1. Questions related to workex- what is your job role, how does it relate to marketing.
Campaigns that you followed.
Question about internship in college.
2. Finance guy was asked about cashflows, how to analyse health of a company?
Diff between private equity and asset management because he talked about it.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 40

WAT- What’s one thing that you would like to improve this year?

Profile- engineer (IM)
Exp in TCS in Automotive

Group – 2 IM, 1 Fin

G1-
Introduce & why mba.
Explain your day to day work.
Questions on work related to types of testing
Latest trends in technology
Answered- blockchain
Another IM guy had an experience in MMT. So, I was asked how will blockchain impact travel management industry.( Explained it through web3.0)
Curriculum of IM and which subject you found most interesting.
Answered product management and was asked why PM.

G2
Question on Karn taking the adharma side by choosing loyalty. Was he right or wrong and why.
If wrong, then wouldn’t it be betraying and selfish attitude, had he not supported duryodhan.

Asked related to FORM B
Mentioned about defence and SSB
So, I was asked questions on that.

How covid had been beneficial for mankind

One thing that you don’t like about SPJIMR.

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 41

Background: Eng Male with 2 yrs work ex in Ops

Panelists: F1 (Age ~45) & (M1 ~55, completely fed up due to headache & cold)

5 interviewees: 1M Information Management, 1F Finance, 2M Ops, 1F don’t recall the specialization

Started with everyone’s intro, they told the order in advance and told to keep it below 2min (They specifically noted everyone’s hobbies, and I didn’t have one in my intro)

First finance girl (commerce bg):
F1 : you mentioned you have done 2 businesses, please explain. You mentioned Van Gogh, tell me 5 paintings by him. Take one painting and analyse what it portrays
M1: asked favourite subject, couple of questions about Cash flow & inflation, asked if she likes economics and a couple of questions on that

Second finance guy (commerse last yr, mentioned politics and astronomy as hobbies)

M1: you said politics, so how politics affect the business of a steel company, then astrology, how can you relate the expansion rate of universe with the profits of a company, (grilled a lot about it), couple of finance questions
F1: name the institutions where you can learn about astrology, same indian personalities in astrology, indian nobel prize winners in astrology

Third girl (don’t recall the specialization) (civil eng, work ex L&T)
M1: asked about work area, site/corporate priority, how to determine a project is successful or not, covid effect in it and couple more questions, don’t remember
F1: 1-2 questions about work ex

Fourth myself
M1: explain your work area in last organisation (I explained MIS & costing)
M1: how do you calculate costing, role of other departments , RM price, Manpower rate control, then asked a couple of questions on Transportation cost
(No questions from F1)

Last guy for IM worked in Infosys , don’t recall anything as I was processing why my interview was so short and why F1 didn’t ask any question, but there was something related to why IM, which roles are you looking for, why not product management, and his work related questions

Result: Second finance guy & myself got through, others rejected

SPJIMR Interview Experience 42

GEM with 30 months workex

Interviewers – 2 interviewers, both female(35+)

Panel- 4 people: 1 for finance, 1 for Ops, 2 for Info Systems

1.Introduction including why mba and that too in Ops and SC
2. What are your hobbies and probed on it
2. Work related questions on how my application helps the client.
3. Potential improvements in supply chain for a hotel
4. Potential improvements in hotel operations
5. Where do you see yourself after doing the PGDM in OSCM from SPJIMR?
6. If you have a startup, then which person from the panel would you choose to work with you?
7. What is the current status of dollar is it appreciating or depreciating?(This was asked to the finance guy, but was rolled over to me)

Status – 3 Selected out of 4, one Info Sytems guy could not make it.

Overall the environment was chill.
A great experience!

Also read: SPJIMR workbook

SPJIMR Interview Experience 43

G NE F
Profile (9/8/8)

2 panelists, both male, both in around 30’s

4 candidates – 2 marketing (me) 2 finance

Starting with a brief introduction

Questions for marketing
1. Why shift from journalism to marketing
2. One example of a digital marketing campaign you like
3. How would you market water?
4. What is brand?
5. More questions on branding ( situation based ) I don’t remember
6. What sets a brand apart?
7. How would you market water? This created a discussion and inputs from everyone.

For finance i don’t remember.. wasn’t able to understand anything… But there were a lot of questions… About sensex, stock market, how and where would you invest 50 lakh rupees, etc etc. They grilled the finance candidates.

Results awaited!

SPJIMR Interview Experience 44

Just got done with my Sp Jain interview for pgdm marketing
My profile : 9.7/93.7/9.05
Cat – 98.64 percentile

Work ex – Amazon customer service ( during graduation) – 22 months
Regalix – Google ads strategist -(post graduation) – 3 months
Other 3 interviewees – 2 freshers and doing bba and other doing engineering , 1 guy with 27 months experience in It consulting in EY

Interviewers : two males both in late their late 40s

1. Tell me something about yourself which is not in the form or something you want to give more importance if it’s on the form.
2. How will you explain the difference between digital marketing and conventional marketing to a businessperson who has been doing conventional marketing?
3. You did BBA in HR , why do you want to do marketing ?
4. What is branding ? Types of branding
5. Do you know about nft ? How can you do branding through NFT?
6. What is your favourite subject
(I said marketing )
7. You know the 4 P’s of marketing right? Can you explain how Air india can use the 4 P’s of marketing ?

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SPJIMR Interview Experience 45

Non Engineer male
BSc Computer Science graduate

Greetings
Extempore for Greed – Good or Bad (70% talking 30% stammering)
Docs verification
Both asked what work you did in capgemini and why you left.
Male – Questions about grad subj
-What is linked list
-What sorting algorithm you know
-Tell us execution of Quick sort and Bubble sort
-If there are 10 ppl how many unique hands can shake
If there are 5 girls and 5 boys how many ways we can arrange them so no girl and boy sit together ❌
Female – Questions on GK
-Tell me 3 national news you heard today – told about the gold rate, 0 covid patients in Mumbai after 34 months(although its not national news) , told that today is World Education Day (they got impressed)
– Mention 3 centre governing states
-Tell which mountain range is there in Maharashtra
– can you tell me 2 hill stations
– Can you tell the tallest point of Sahyadri
Ask me to leave.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 46

Two interviewers – F1 and F2
4 candidates – 3 for finance and 1 for marketing

Common question – Give a 1min introduction

Questions for me –
(I had mentioned about stock trading in introduction)
1. Are you into investments or trading
2. Is trading a gambling or logical
3. So what do you look for before executing a trade
4. How much have you earned
5. Is it always profit or have you got losses? If yes then why
6. How will mba help you if you are already doing good in trading
7. You are already in IT field so why will you shift to finance
8. If you want to learn something about finance you could have googled it so why mba
9. (I had mentioned i like working with numbers) so why not do msc in mathematics instead of mba
10. Dream role and company
11. What is investment banking
12. Still not satisfied why you want to do mba in finance only and why not other streams
13. What different types of roles can you get after mba finance

Questions for candidate 2 – CA

Similar as above except the questions were more in deep
And lots of questions related to investment and stuff

Questions for candidate 3 – Fresher, finance stream

1. How will btech in agriculture help you in mba
2. What made you interested in finance mba (he spoke about some internship experience and college event)
3. So how will someone raise funds if starting a company
4. Some more cross questioning wrt the internship that he did

Questions for candidate 4 – Fresher, Marketing stream

1. After B.Pharm why mba
2. How will your stream bring diversity to the batch
3. What type of company and role you want to work for
4. Some questions wrt his marketing internship

Result – All 4 qualified

The interview was more of like a conversation and based on whatever you say in the interview.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 47

Profile + Score Based call
Operations and Supply Chain Management
Profile: 10/9/8
3 months Worked
98.93 %ile

Starts with ID Verification

Panel of 4: 2 ops (including me), 2 finance

3 people from SPJIMR

Started with introduction. 1.5 minutes to everyone

Questions to Finance candidate:
Asked about work ex, business model etc ( don’t remember much. )

Questions to Finance candidate 2: Why this course, tell about your background

Question to Ops Candidate: Tell us about your work ex. Tell us something that is not mentioned in this form.

Question to me: How will you improve the logistics for the candidate of Ops. Tell us how these new 10 minute delivery apps work, their structure. Government schemes for logistics. A little more about work ex.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 48

Cat 96.84%ile
3+ years experience in Sales.

Penalists- Both Male
P1- Marketing
P2- Finance

Interview started with introduction.( This is the most important part as the whole interview will revolve around this)

P1- started asking one by one regarding the workex.
To me he asked Why Mba despite having a good job and satisfactory role.
He said according to my profile I should be going for Marketing Specialization then why BM.

Moreover a discussion about workex.

Then P2 started asking questions.
It was more around the things from what we have mentioned in the form.

Geopolitics ( most recent news, digital currency, de-dolarization)

I was asked more about my role at Byjus as it is in news recently for the mis-selling thing. Asked me how much mis-selling have I done.

Then again P1 asked everyone about their extra curricular activities.

It was pretty much a one on one conversation without question floating around here and there.
Be prepared with your Introduction well because that is what it is going to revolve around.

Result – All 4 got shortlisted

SPJIMR Interview Experience 49

Background: Engineer from NIT Jalandhar. 32 month experience in SDE.
Stream: Information Management

Panelists: 1(F) 2(F): I think one was IM other was Marketing. Not sure.

Students: 3 IM, 1 Marketing

Questions:
1. Tell us something about you in 1-1.5 mins.
2. What is the type of responses you analyse from your Chatbots? (I mentioned Chatbot analysis in my intro)
3. ChatGPT? What is it?
4. Difference between ChatGPT and Search Engine
5. What is the no-code solutions project you talked about? (mentioned in Intro)
6. What are the challenges you faced in this project?
7. What is your take on Metaverse?
8. Give me one example of a practical use case of metaverse.
9. Considering all these technological advances, what do you think the challenges we will face in the future?

More or less, it was around my work ex and what I said in the Intro. Very smooth overall.

My suggestions:

1. Keep your intro interesting.
2. Know at least till Level 3 questions about everything you’re saying in your intro.
3. Smile.
4. Think of the work ex and examples you’re using such that you’re explaining them to a 12 yr old. It doesn’t matter how great work you’ve done, if they don’t understand it, it’s of no use.
5. Be yourself. Keep calm.

All the very best.

4/4 selected from my Panel

Also read: IMP tips for GDPI

Written Ability Test-
What would you write in a letter to your future self? You cannot use the word “future” or you will be penalised. (150-180 words)
Group Exercise
How would you strengthen Education System?
We had six points: Better testing standards, increase parents involvement, quick curriculum updation, tech driven teaching, skill based learning and promoting unconventional career paths.
Across three filters: Technology, Social and Economic
Interview
I had written about gaining knowledge through youtube videos in my snap-c form so their first question was
-why dont you study finance from youtube only?
-duration of work experience and why did you leave the job
– which is better IRR or NPV?
-Why SIBM Pune?
-Why finance specialisation?
-Any recent scandal in finance?
-How many months did you prepare for this?
-What other calls have you got?

SPJIMR Interview Experience 50

Background: Eng Male with 2 yrs work ex in Ops

Panelists: F1 (Age ~45) & (M1 ~55, completely fed up due to headache & cold)

5 interviewees: 1M Information Management, 1F Finance, 2M Ops, 1F don’t recall the specialization

Started with everyone’s intro, they told the order in advance and told to keep it below 2min (They specifically noted everyone’s hobbies, and I didn’t have one in my intro)

Second finance guy (commerse last yr, mentioned politics and astronomy as hobbies)

Result: Second finance guy & myself got through, others rejected.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 51

BBA Fresher
3 interviewees

1 Marketing F & M, information management

Give your introduction

Talk about applications of technological developments of today
(first girl talked about chatgpt, I talked about 3d printing)

How would you increase the clientele of a small business (this was regarding the family business of the other interviewee that she had talked about)

How will you do digital marketing of this business to increase reach

What comes under marketing other than communication

Explain pricing strategies

Give example of skimming pricing strategy

Where do you want to work once you graduate from SPJIMR

Suppose you graduate from SPJIMR, and you have a team of 40+ year-old salespersons under you, how will you work with them, considering they don’t like the fact that a fresh MBA graduate has become their boss.

P/E ratios of companies (this question was for the other girl since she had an accounting background but she couldn’t answer so it was passed on to me)

How would you make money from music (this is because I had music in my app form as hobby)

Do you have any questions from us?

Verdict: Me selected, other two candidates were rejected.

SPJIMR Interview Experience 52

Slot5, Panel 7

Background:- GNEM, Work Ex of 6 months in Audit
CAT 99.75%ile
Specialization opted:- Finance
Panelists:- 1 finance and 1 was the placement coordinator of SPJIMR

All 3 interviewees were from Commerce Background

Introduction, Questions on favourite subject for eg- what is marginal cost, marginal revenue, perfect competition vs Monopolistic Competition, elasticity of demand, questions on how to analyse the financial health of a company, what are financial statements, financial ratios
Questions on Job Roles to each candidate

In the end asked us if we want to add anything which wasn’t covered in the interview.

Verdict:- All 3 Selected

All in all it was a Very chill interview, just keep your basics strong and you’re good to go

SPJIMR Interview Experience 53

Time- 10th Feb, 3:45 PM

Stream: Business Management

Panelists: 2 (M)

Pan 1 –

Is dressing well necessary for an interview? (Asked everyone’s opinion on it)
Tell us something about you (something that’s in your application/CV and also something that’s not in your application/CV).
So what did you do in your Work ex? Explain
Why did you leave your job? What did you do since then?
What help did Six Sigma certification provide you?
Why are you doing FMVA certification now?
Tell me your goal, short and long-term.
What role will you be eying after you complete your PGDM?
Do you know what was the Avg salary of SPJIMR last year?
Are you sure you will be ready to give up that much annual money after 2-3 years of working?

Pan 2 –

What are Kaizen and Poka-Yoke you have mentioned in your application? How did you utilize it during your work ex?
Can you give an example of Poka-Yoke that you or people in general use on an everyday basis?

Moved to other students then

Pan 1 –

What is happening in Turkey now? What is India doing? How is India’s relationship with the country? (Asked everyone’s opinion on this)
Should India provide similar humanitarian help to Pakistan as it is also struggling? (Asked everyone’s opinion on this)

Overall Interview time- 50-55 mins.

Verdict- Selected for GI2 in both PGDM and PGDM(BM).

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SPJIMR WAT-PI Experiences