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Top Expected Interview Questions for IIMs and B-Schools

by IBNS 14 Feb 2018, 10:40 am

Congratulations! Now that you have cracked your CAT exams, give yourself a pat on the back and move on. Get your game face on and get wired for the upcoming personal interview rounds. Personal interview round is the final stagewhich helps you step in any of your desired IIMs or B-schools. It is one of most final and pivotal rounds in the complete admission process. A good interview can either make or break ones chances to gain admission into their desired institution.

Often MBA aspirants believe that scoring a decent percentile can gain them admissions into India’s most coveted institutions. Sadly, this concept is redundant. A personal interview is equally important as a good percentile score in CAT. A personal interview gives the interviewer helpful insights into the interviewee’s mental and physiological health.

Get Detailed Information on CAT 2018

Based on the selection process of the IIM’s and top B-schools in India, the selection process for the year 2018-2020 will be based on the following criteria:

1. 50%  Normalised PI score
2. 10 % Normalised AWT score
3. 40 % Composite score calculated for the first stage shortlist

These will be a few of the requisites for all of the leading IIM’s and B-schools to make a final admission offer.

From all of the above information, it must have been clear that cracking a Personal Interview is a vital requisite. Without further ado, let us unearth a few of the top expected interview questions one must prepare to gain admission into IIMs and other great B-schools. To make it hassle-free for the MBA aspirants let us divide the expected questions into different sections and cover all of the frequently asked questions for an MBA aspirant to land a spot in their desired B-school.

1. Academics

This series of questions will be asked to gauge your academic concepts. These questions will be posed to ascertain your educational foundation. The most effective way to prepare for this wave of questions is to be completely in sync with your undergraduate syllabus. Choose about three to five subjects which may interest you and prepare them inside out. It is a must for freshers as well as MBA aspirants with work experience.

A good knowledge in academics can depict your level of interest in studies. A failure to answer questions in this section may impact the interviewee negatively.A series of typical questions asked in this section include:

• Favourite and least favourite subjects
• Projects related to under-graduation course
• Try to revise your mathematics syllabus

2.Work experience

For MBA aspirants who have a decent work experience, this is a highly vital genre. Always be prepared with questions related to your job role. Accumulate industry knowledge related to your job role.A few questions which may be posed in this section of the interview may be:

• Role of the job
• Details of your company
• Overview of the industry you have worked in
• Latest trends in the industry you were a part of

While MBA aspirants with no job experience can gain a sizeable amount of favour in their personal interviews if they have an internship with a relevant company and can substantiate their internship experience with proper validation.

Key point: MBA aspirants with proper job experience have more chances of getting selected for their personal interviews.

3. Human Resources

The section with HR questions is often deemed easy, but they are to be regarded with the utmost importance. HR rounds’questions can provide a deep insight into the interviewee’s real-life workings and their wants and wishes in life.Here are a few of the most asked questions in top-rated B-schools and IIM’s:

• Tell us something about yourself
• Why an MBA? Why now?
• Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
• Why should we select you over others?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Why do you want to join this school?
• Questions based on your past
• Do you have any questions for them?
• Hobbies and interests
• What is your career progression and how can an MBA effect it?
• The opportunity cost for an MBA?
• In case you are an engineer, Why this career path?

Prepare well-versed answers to all of these questions. Do not shy away from focussing on your negatives, treat them as a learning curve and form well-rounded answers.

4. Others

This section can comprehend any number of random questions and can vary from any topic the interviewer might find interesting. The safest way to walk through these questions can be to be prepared with a few topics as stated below:

• Current affairs
• Economic status of the country
• The social and political status of the country and world
• Questions may be related to your state and hometown
• Historical places and tourist places in your hometown

Key point: Another interesting trend has been seen in the IIM’s and top-rated B-schools personal interviews. The panellists ask very weird and sometimes very vague questions such as:

• Sing the National anthem (IIM Lucknow)
• The coins versus note debate (IIM Bengaluru)
• Play Dumb charades (IIM Kolkata)
• Tell us the author of any random book (IIM Kozhikode)
• How much tax should I pay? (IIM Ranchi)

These questions may be asked to study the presence of mind of the interviewee.Once the interview is over, place a smile on your face and greet the panellist’s goodbye with a thank you. Walk out of there proud and easy without any emotion on your face.

Key point: The interview may last for 10 minutes or an hour. Try not to get very emotional and do not let your face betray your emotions.It is always better to be completely prepared and be yourself in a personal interview, which will make you stand tall and different amongst the crowd.