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CoolAvenue's Interview with:
Prasanth Narayanan
Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay.

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

4. Interview-related Questions

Q. Date and location of Interview. Were you given the option to choose? Was the interview date fixed or re-scheduled couple of times?
A. The date was sometime in mid-March. The location was SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. There was only one center. The interview was on time, in fact, dot on time.

Q. Can you tell us about the panel that interviewed you?
A. There were 2 people in the panel. An academician and an industrialist. So there was a good cover of both academic and industry knowledge.

Q. How long was your interview?
A. 20 minutes.

Q. What was the first question? The most interesting question? The most difficult question?
A. The first question was, "Tell us about yourself."
The most interesting question was to point out three things great and bad about my home state Kerala.
The most difficult question was, "Who is the President of Sri Lanka?" I had to say, "I don't have a clue, Sir." Pretty embarrassing.

Q. How did you prepare for the interview? While facing the panel, were you confident, did you feel prepared?
A. Preparation was mostly practicing for the various questions that they could ask me and having answers ready. Then there was the usual surfing through sites and newspapers. Did feel a tad bit underprepared on the academics part.

Q. Was any feedback given to you? What feedback did you receive from the panel at the end of session?
A. There was no feedback.

Q. Did work experience help in getting the choice of your school and also in dealing with the curriculum?
A. Yes. SJMSOM, IIT Bombay does place a slightly higher importance on work experience.

Q. Getting into and sailing through a B-school is easier for a Science Graduate than for someone from Humanities background. Your comments please.
A. As far as SJMSOM is concerned, that's the only way. You have to be from Science background.

Q. Will an MBA degree add on to your existing career plan or did you decide to switch/start a career in management?
A. It will add to my career plan of starting off an entrepreneurial venture. It will also involve a switch from IT into reality sector where I have my focus on.

Q. Why did you decide to do MBA from this school?
A. SJMSOM, IIT Bombay is unarguably the best B-school to join if you have entrepreneurship on your mind. The business incubator here is one of the best in the country and provides an excellent platform. Add to it the strong SJMSOM pedagogy and the huge brand value of IIT Bombay, joining this school was a no brainer.

Q. Were you able to get the school of your choice or did you compromise and opted for the best option that was open/available for you?
A. I must admit that I had IIM Calcutta in my mind as finance was my focus area. But after that, SJMSOM was my next choice.

Contd.   5. After Joining MBA