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CoolAvenue's Interview with:
Deepak Chembath
Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad

1. General Questions
2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation
3. Questions related to Group Discussion / Group Exercise
4. Interview-related Questions
5. After Joining MBA

1. General Questions

Background

Q. Can you tell something about yourself and your pre-MBA qualifications?
A. I’m basically an engineer with degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai. After passing out in 2001, I joined Infosys Technologies Ltd. at their Bangalore office. In six years, I worked across a variety of technologies, primarily in the transportation and logistics space. Also worked in USA and Canada for almost 3 years.

Q. So when did you decide to go for MBA?
A. Immediately after college, I gave CAT in December 2001 and even made interview calls from two lesser ranked IIMs, but somehow could not clear the interview. Then I put my MBA plans on the back-burner. Finally, around June 2006, while chatting with a close friend of mine, I realized that I should re-kindle my passion and I decided to go for my MBA.

Q. What was your first step to start preparation for getting into the school of your choice?
A. I knew I was not going to appear in CAT because I was mentally not prepared for IIMs' 2-year PGP, and was actually a year younger for PGPX (I was 26 last year). So I decided on ISB and some European B-schools and took my first GMAT diagnostic test in July 2006. Contrary to my expectations, I did reasonably well, the very first time.

Q. Which MBA institutes and programs you identified for your MBA?
A. I basically narrowed down on three institutes in the following order of preference: -
i) INSEAD, Paris (Ding )
ii) ISB, Hyderabad (Accepted )
iii) Rotterdam School of Management, Rotterdam, Netherlands (Accepted )

Contd.   2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation