A Few Tips

1. Before anything else, this year, infact this week itself, the 34th National Games are being held in Jharkhand
in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. Please look up the web for more information about that.

Now on to regular business:

2. Please read one general newspaper and one business newspaper regularly especially the editorial. Do
watch news channel talk shows like Big Fight. The point is to gather as much information as you can to
speak.

3. Now it’s obvious that you cannot learn everything about everything. The good news is, the panellists don’t
expect you to. However, if you something that is even remotely connected to the topic of discussion, they
will be more interested in knowing how you connect the two. E.g. If the topic is “Black v/s White”, the
panellists want to see what all can you relate to this. E.g. Good v/s bad, corruption, food hoarding, if one car
is sold in black and white, which one would sell more and why, day v/s night, may be about life of a star
(white when alive, black hole when dead), black money v/s white money and the recent controversy to bring
black money back to India. The possibilities are many. Let your creative juices flow

4. Know your hobbies thoroughly well. For example, if you like reading (please mention the genre if you say
reading), remember the last 3 books you read, your favourite characters, your general opinion on modern
writing, famous authors of the genre etc. For instance, if you like philosophy, know what objectivism is and
so on and so forth.

5. Mathematics of UG and 12th level, especially probability and distributions, Matrices, functions, little
calculus, especially if you are an engineer. Our interviews were conducted by IIM Calcutta professors last
year and we were asked Maths. We don’t know however about this year. It’s better to be on the safe side.

6. Read up your undergraduate academic subjects. Since going through the entire syllabus is not possible, at
least do 2-3 of your favourite subjects thoroughly.
GATE guide can be very handy in doing this for engineers. This is critical for freshers especially if you don’t
have many activities to show in your resume.

7. Sometimes, the panellists can even ask people with work-ex, questions from academics. This is especially
true for people with work-ex in IT since there are many people with the same work-ex and panelists need
something to differentiate. Please don’t take it personally, it’s a personal experience..;)

8. Be well aware about your native place and your current city of residence. Eg. If you are from Mumbai,
know who the mayor is, what the local governing bodies are, the lakes in Mumbai, the historic monuments,
how it derives its name etc. Search Wikipedia and other sources.
Also, what is happening in your state? One thing that we have experienced is that the panellists are basically
a minefield of information with knowledge about all and sundry. So you usually cannot bluff.

9. Be thoroughly prepared with the personals-based HR questions. Don’t underestimate this job. The
interviewers might just want to see how well prepared you are

a) Tell me something about yourself?

b) Why do you want to do an MBA?

c) What are your short term and long term goals?

d) Tell me 3/5 of your strengths and weaknesses

e) I have interviewed 9 guys and they have very similar background to you and in fact they were better
than you in academics and work-ex, tell me why should we select you? OR

f) I have interviewed 9 guys and they have very similar background to you and in fact you are in fact a
more suitable candidate than them, tell me why should we reject you?

Take time and ponder over these questions but be crystal clear when about your answers when you enter
the interview room. Be as honest as you can without being naive.

If you are not honest, it will be difficult to put up a great show without self-contradiction. Eg. My strength is
my teaching ability and my weakness is that I easily lose temper. Good enough to be grilled thoroughly!

10. General awareness about WTO, World Bank, IMF, UN, RBI, SEBI etc. Some basic economics – law of
supply and demand, inflation rates, interest rates and how they are related, PPP etc.

11. Be aware about the Indian political system, political parties, leaders, regional and national issues. You
need to have opinions on issues like Naxalism all the more because you will be coming to study here if
selected etc. The telecom scandal is also a hot burning issue or the Radia tapes.

12. General awareness of the economic slowdown and the financial turmoil. It’s still relevant, especially after
what has been happening in Europe with the PIGS countries.
 A FEW GOOD RESOURCES
ECONOMICS:

1. http://www.rbi.org.in/home.aspx
2. http://business.in.com/
3. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com
4. http://blogs.hbr.org/
5. www.moneycontrol.com
6. www.investopedia.com
7. http://epw.in/epw/user/userindex.jsp

POLTICS & CURRENT AFFAIRS:

8. http://www.wikipedia.org/
9. http://www.ibef.org/
10. http://www.economist.com/
11. http://www.khanacademy.org/#Khan Academy-Related Talks and Interviews
12. http://www.india-inc.in/index.html
13. http://epw.in/epw/user/userindex.jsp

GENERAL:

1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
2. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/0050/index.htm

ACADEMIC RELATED:

1. http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/ - Videos by IIT Profs teaching various subjects of engineering

IMPORTANT BLOGS:

1. http://wef.typepad.com/blog/
2. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/
3. http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/

IMPORTANT MAGAZINES:

1. Manorama Year book (Relevant areas)

2. Hindu Tidbits
3. Regular Business Magazines

AREAS TO BE COVERED:
Basic Economics, Finance, higher secondary statistics, important people in the news, critical
decisions.
13. Know about your company and ofcourse, know the processes in your organization well. For example, if
you are a software engineer, you might be asked on testing methods, boundary testing, regression testing
etc.

14. Know about the Indian telecom sector and emerging technologies like 3G, WiMax, Voip etc...Basic
knowledge needed.

It might be good to read up interview experiences in Pagalguy and other sites, but overdoing it might just
end up confusing.A small tip: In the whole process of GD/PI never take any stand that is unethical whatever
the kind of case/question.