An interview with an MBA candidate for Top B-School
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Sakshi Agarwal, a CA final student, got calls from prestigious B-schools like IMT and IIM-Ranchi after appearing for MBA entrance exams like CAT and XAT. She shares her interview experiences, including a friendly interview at IMT where her unconventional hobbies of tarot card reading and Reiki practice raised concerns from interviewers about being detached from the real world. She plans to prepare for the IIM-Ranchi interview and written test by brushing up on current affairs and working to improve her response about her hobbies. The interviews taught her that interviewers want to see how serious candidates are about their career goals.
An interview with an MBA candidate for Top B-School
- 1. Sakshi Agarwal is a CA final student. She appeared for the MBA entrances for this year and got calls from a few prestigious B-schools of India. Here is her exclusive interview with MBAclubindia, sharing her interview experiences and some advises for the MBA aspirants. 1. How did you fare in your CAT exams? Which other exams did you write? I got a decent 94.57 percentile overall in CAT. In sectionals, I scored 99.94 percentile in verbal/logical and 40.89 in quant/DI. The other exam that I gave was XAT in which in scored 81.67 percentile. 2. So you got calls from which Colleges? I got calls from IMT and IIM-Ranchi. 3. Please share your experiences of the interview with IMT Gaziadabad. At IMT, there were two panel members who were conducting the interview- A man and a woman. They were the same people who had conducted our GD. Both were very friendly, relaxed and smiling all the time. Their first question to me was 'Say something about Yourself'. After that they asked me about my hobbies, why was I doing MBA though I am a CA Final student, why MBA in Finance. They asked me a general question on finance and other GK questions like Capitals of Australia, Chhattisgarh, 5 women entrepreneurs, and 5 women in Corporate field. I answered them all quite satisfactorily except for my hobbies part. My hobbies are tarot card reading n practicing Reiki. So they felt that I'm detached from the real world. They questioned me on the same thing quite a few times but I couldn't convince them. Lastly, the woman advised me to work for a year in a corporate body so that I could get the feel of it and so that I was ready for a B-school the next year. 4. How do you plan to prepare yourself for the next interview and written analysis test with IIM-Ranchi? For WAT, I am not practicing anything. I'm confident that if I know even a little about the topic, I can write well. So, for WAT, I'm brushing up on my current affairs knowledge. For the interview, I realize that I have to work on my hobbies part, given the experience at IMT and I'm doing the same. 5. What did these rounds of interviews teach you? One thing that I know after the IMT interview is that the interviewers are not hard task masters. They try to bring the best out of the interviewee and the interviewee has to help the interviewer in that. They want to know how serious you are about your career and how far are you willing to go to achieve your dreams
- 2. 6. In which stream do you wish to do your MBA and why? I wish to do my MBA in Finance. That's because I'm a CA student and I already am in d field of Finance. An MBA in finance will augment my CA degree n will give me better career opportunities. 7. What will be your advice for MBA aspirants on MBAclubindia? Just one advice. Don't panic in the interviews. Be calm, relaxed and confident. Prepare well. Have good knowledge about everything that you say in the interview. The interviewers can ask topics on anything to test your knowledge and understanding. And its fine to say 'I don't know'. Beating about the bush creates negative image in the mind of interviewer