Sunday 15 April 2018

XLRI-BM GD-PI experience



GD Topic: “The government is solely responsible the growing unemployment in the country.”
Wasn’t great. Spoke 2 times. Made some different points from the rest.
XLRI

PI:

3 Male Professors. All 50+. I was 8th to go in.

P2: Are tum yahi ho is photo wale (indicating to my photo on the form that I had filled while applying for XAT. They had a printout of it) 
Me: Yes Sir. I look completely different with a beard

P2: Why did you shave? We would have liked to see you this way. You are looking good in this
P1: When did you cut your beard?
Me: Just yesterday.

P1: Oh, you cut it just for the interview.
Me: Yes Sir, I had a month-old beard until yesterday.

P1: How many people in your batch keep beard?
Me: In ZS, where I work, around 70-80% people keep beard. But most of them don’t grow it too much.

P1: So they keep it trimmed.
Me: Yes Sir. Though one or two keep longish beard (indicating with my hands how long)

P1: Many youngsters want to keep beard nowadays.
Me: Yes Sir, just yesterday I was reading how keeping a beard help people with a bad jawline in looking good.

P1: In our times, most people preferred to be clean shaven. Now people keep all sorts of beards. Why do you think this shift is happening?
Me: Youngsters are increasingly seeing beard as a fashion statement. Also, some famous personalities who have beard, like Ranveer Kapoor and Virat Kohali, have made it famous recently.

P1: If you have to list five Indian states having highest HDI, how would you do it?
Me: I would start with finding the factors that are used to calculate HDI

P2 hands me over a pen and notepad.
P1: List down the component factors:
Listed Literacy, income level, life expectancy, and infant mortality.
[Blunder]

P1: Why do you think infant mortality is a factor in finding HDI?
Me: Sir I think infant mortality indicates the ability of our society as a whole in providing adequate nutrition to the new born, also it indicates the health and economic status of the generation higher than the newly born babies. The less the infant mortality, the more prosperous a society is.

P1: Who calculates the HDI for different countries?
Me: I don’t know exactly, but it’s a UN body.

P1: A UN body…
Me: I think UNESCO.. No, what am I saying, UNESCO is related to culture and heritage. It might be WHO.

P1: Did you study economics in your course?
Me: Yes Sir, there was a course on Managerial Economics in our 2nd year.

P1: Managerial Economics..What did you study in it?
Me: We learned the basics of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. We learned what is fiscal policy, what is monetary policy, and things like what’s the effect of change in interest rates or inflation on an economy.

P1 keeps looking at me.

Me: And there was a concept of Labour and Capital as well. For example, we learned that as a country transitions from a developing country to a developed country, it cannot continue to grow at the same pace as it was growing before. It would require much more innovation and intensive capital to continue growing at the same rate.

P1: What was your stream in B.Tech?
Me: Electronics and Communication Engineering.

P1: Where did you do your training from?
Me: BSNL Dhanbad.

P1: What did you do there?
Me: We were given an overview of how telephonic and mobile communication work. For example, when we place a phone call, it’s first connected to the BTS, after that it’s transferred to the receiver.

P1 is done. P3 puts my form in front of P2, after circling something.
P2: So you worked in a training firm for some time, opened a training firm of your own, then left it within a month, and started working in this ZS Associates.
I explained that I didn’t leave what I started. The website was not letting me input the experience in ZS without entering a closing date for it.

P2: But still you left it and joined ZS.
P2: But what is this platform about (the one I started)?
P2: Who is managing it right now?
P2: But it requires full time effort, how can you handle it with another job?
There were 2-3 more questions on the same line.

P2 is done.

P3: What was your stream?
(He was looking into my file throughout, so maybe he didn’t hear earlier)
Me: Sir, Electronics and Communication.

P3: And you are currently working at ZS. What do you do?
Me: I work as a Decision Analyst.

P3: No, I don’t the specifics of it. Explain your work to me.
Me: Sir ZS is primarily involved in three sectors: Pharma, MPS – that is Medical Products and Services, and the third one they have named Priority Industries – it contains everything except Pharma and Medical Products, like airlines and technology companies. I work in the MPS division. Our clients are manufacturers of Medical Products like syringes, gloves, facial masks etc. They approach us for salesforce structure, sizing, better territory alignment etc. So we take their data and the other market data, analyse it and provide solutions to their problems.

P3: What kind of data do you need?
Me: So, for example, we recently rolled out a survey for the salesforce of a client. It was a long survey having around 100 questions. We asked them ***. Then we analyse the…

P3: How do you analyse it, what’s the process?
Me: Sir there are various ways. In USA, there are IHNs – Integrated Hospital Networks, and GPOs – Group Purchasing Organizations. So we identify which ***

P3: How do you calculate the market potential?
Answered with an example.

P3: If you have to improve the primary education in the country, what kind of data would you need, how would you go on?
Me: Sir, from the ZS way..

P3: No, not from the ZS way, explain from an analyst’s viewpoint.
Me: Sir, first I would like to gather data about students and schools. I would like to know things like how the students are spending their time, how many classes are conducted daily, what are the subjects having high failure rate, how many hours are spent on extracurricular activities, are the students feeling demotivated or stressed when exams approach. Then I would like to analyse the data of better performing schools or students and see what they are doing differently.

P3: Okay, that will be all. You can collect your file.
Me: Thankyou Sirs.

P1: Thankyou Nitesh. What does Nitesh mean by the way?

Me: Sir, it’s a synonym of Lord Shiva. It’s made from Nit+Ish – the God of everyday.

Verdict: Converted. Maybe the percentile (99.91) helped.  




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Tuesday 10 April 2018

IIM Calcutta WAT-PI experience



WAT topic: A lot of scientists think that artificial intelligence has the potential to take over humans. Do you voice the same concern? What are your views?

Started with the fact that the most distinguishing characteristic of Homo Neanderthals, and later us – the Homo Sapiens has been the brain size and the energy consumed by it. We are not the physically strongest species on Earth. What allowed our hunter-gatherer ancestors to tame nature and other animals was the ability to make strategic decisions. Only recently we have started getting competition from the machines we made ourselves.

*Defined artificial intelligence, mentioned how a machine defeated the world champion in Go, also wrote about how AI is replacing even trading jobs, how it has already replaced a large chunk of the manual labour*

Wrote that thinking alone doesn’t set us apart. Even dolphins and elephants can think. What distinguishes us the most is our ability to imagine and talk about things that don’t even exist. This has enable humans to do all innovation. Then explained how AI is taking even that uniqueness from us. Most music experts in USA couldn’t distinguish the original symphonies of Mozart from the one produced by AI.

Concluded that AI is definitely going to take over humans. But instead of being apprehensive about that, we should be eager to experience the new world created synchronously by us and our artificial partners.

Panel:

2 males, 1 female. (M1 in his late forties or early fifties, M2 in his thirties.) F1 had a face that only someone bored of existence can have. M2 looked like someone who was bored of the bullshit interviewees had been telling him.

M1 opened the door and called me in, I went in without saying anything to him. Wished the other panellists good afternoon and took the seat after handing over the documents.

F1 (before I sit properly): Tell me a bad habit of yours.

Me: I am not intuitive at times...

F1: Then how do you make decisions?

Me: This is not something that happens every time. I am not intuitive only in some cases. For example, a friend recently remarked that people in Delhi have very different dressing sense from people of Mumbai. I have stayed in Mumbai for some time. But I never observed this myself before.

Another thing, until recently I used to pronounce the z sound as the j sound. I never got to know that I am pronouncing it differently. It would be but I would speak it as ज.

M1: Zebra right?

Me: Yes, so I would pronounce Zee News as Jee news. I didn’t even know that these were two different sounds.

F1: I don’t think there is anything bad in it.

M1: I don’t think it’s bad at all. Even Pranab Mukherjee used to pronounce like that.

Me: Sir, maybe not a bad thing but when I found out that during my 22 years of life, I had never even noticed it, I was surpris…

M2 (Going through my certificates of Coursera) to M1: This seems to be an increasing trend.

M1: Do they give proper assignments?

Me: They have assignments, but most of the times they are not necessary. They have quizzes as well at the end of each lecture.

F1: You have taken a pay cut from your previous job. Why is that?

Me: Mam I wanted to have some corporate exposure…

M2: 4 mahine me pata chal gaya corporate me jana h?

Me: I had an ed-tech venture of my own, I took up this job because I wanted to understand the students’ behavior and expectations from a teacher’s perspective. I wanted to understand the ground reality myself. When I felt like I had learned enough I switched to have some corporate exp…

F1: Which specialization do you want to major in?
Me: I haven’t decided on it, I am open towards all, but I am inclined towards Finance due to my Mathematical background.

M2 (hands me over a rough sheet): Write me a formula related to Finance and Mathematics.

Me: [Wrote a formula for present value of money from periodic constant future cash flows, explained the terms]

M2: Draw the curve of Present Value vs the r.

Me: [Drew and explained how]

M2: What if the amount of the constant future cashflows is higher, how will that impact this graph?

Me: [Drew]

M2: How can I find the area under this curve?

Me: Integration. Aise-vaise..

M2: Okay, integrate 1/(1+r)^n
[Done]

M2: For the same future cash flow, will the present value be more for India or for Japan?

Me: Sir Japan has a lower interest rate compared to India, so the rate used for discounting will be less and the present value would be higher.

M2: Why is that? Why is the rate lower for Japan?
Me: Sir Japan is a developed country, so their growth rate is less. That’s why the rate is lower. Japan even had a negative interest rate some times back. So if the rate is around 10 percent for India, it hovers around 2-3% for a developed economy.

M2: Why does this happen? Why does a developed country have 
lower growth rate?

Me: Sir, as a country is developing, after a stage there is a saturation point. They will need intensive capital and much more innovation to continue growing at the same rate.

M2: Is the graph of this saturation concave or convex?

Me: Sir it will be concave downwards like this [Drew]

M2: You are working as a Decision Analyst…F1: What does a decision analyst mean? M2: Kuchh stats vats karte ho?

Me: I haven’t done it till now, but other in ZS do.

F1: You have worked here for only one month.

Me: I am currently working here.

M2: Oh, achha

M2: What is the capital of Cambodia?

Me: I can’t recall.

M2: Where does Cambodia lie?

Me: Sir I can’t recall its geographical location right now. Cambodia has a lot of Hindu temples, it’s famous for this.

F2: You started Edurik Learning Solutions, who is handling it right now?

Me: Spoke for about 2 minutes on it. The idea, my role, market etc..

M1: So it’s your own company?

Me: Yes Sir, I even got it registered as an LLP a while back. (Some more on it)
(M1 and M2 look towards each other)

M2: You didn’t a job from campus?

Me: It was through campus.

M1: Besides it helped him in CAT.

Me: Told him how CAT and JEE are largely unrelated.

M1: Something about Edurik

Me: It was not for CAT. There are already huge players there. I wanted to enter a market which had low competition and low entry barriers.

M2: How many Vedas do we have?

Me: 4

M2: Name all of them.

Me: Rigveda – the name Edurik is actually derived from Rigveda. I took rik from it…

M2: I know, that’s why I asked you.

F1: Continue with the names.

Me: Yajurveda, Samveda, Atharav Veda

M2: What about Ayurveda?
.
.
F1: What kind of books do you like to read?

Me: I like reading things which are mind stimulating and challenge conventional wisdom…

F1: Write the names of five books you have read.
Me: Thinking Fast and Slow..

M2: Who wrote it?
Me: Daniel Kahnmen

M2: Okay, continue
Me: I read 100 years of Solitude some months ago

M2: Who is its author?
Me: I can’t recall the name, it’s Gabriel something. He is Spanish, and the book was also originally written in Spanish. He is a famous author.

M2: He is a famous author.. what is he doing now?
Me: Sir, he died long ago.

M2: Continue with the next book.
Me: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

M2: Where is it set in?
Me: Afganistan

M2: What’s the capital of Afganistan?
Me: Kabul

M2: Continue with the next book.
Me: I have read Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill

M2: Where was Napolean from?
Me: USA

M2: No, the original Napolean.
Me: Can’t recall.

M2: What was his last name?
Me: Bonaparte, and Napolean was from France

Wrote and Spoke “Atlas Shrugged”
F1: Who wrote Atlas Shrugged?
Me: Ayn Rand

F1: What is the philosophy of Ayn Rand called?
Me: Objectivism.

F1: Explain Objectivism to me in one line.
Me: I can’t explain it in…
F1: Okay, take two.
Me: [Explained. Also told something thing my takeaways from Atlas Shrugged, the character of Hank Rearden and rational-egoism of Ayn Rand]

M2: Is it a he or a she [for Ayn]?
Me: It’s a she.

M2: Are you sure?
Me: Yes.

M2: When was the book Atlas Shrugged written?
Me: In the 1960s

M2: Tell me some events that happened in the 60s
Me: Jawahar Lal Nehru was no longer the Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi took over. India was having war with China, and Pakistan. Lal Bahadur Shastri died while returning from Tashkand

M2: Okay, that will be all.

M1: Just one thing. Does Rao Edusolutions visit your campus?
Me: Yes Sir.

M1: They recruit engineers, and people take up the job?
M2: Better than digging coal in mines.


I smiled and got out as fast as I could.





Monday 3 April 2017

A glimpse into the future


“Alternating Current is useless:” Thomas Edison. “There is a world market for maximum five computers:” Thomas Watson, IBM founder. “People will soon become tired of watching television:” Daryl Zanuck. “The iPhone will not capture any market share:” Steve Balmer. “The internet will soon collapse:” Robert Metcafe, Ethernet inventor.
You know the other part of the story…

Sunday 2 April 2017

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Love Story



Stage 1 (The beginning):
मेरे रश्क-ए-कमर तूने पहली नज़र, जब नज़र से मिलाई मजा आ गया
...आग ऎसी लगाई मज़ा आ गया
...उसने शरमा के मेरे सवालात पे, ऐसे गर्दन झुकाई मजा आ गया


Saturday 1 April 2017

IIFT WAT-GD-PI Experience


Copied from my earlier Pagalguy article. 
Profile:  10th, 12th, B.Tech (IIT(ISM) Dhanbad): 93, 91, 7.58 (70.8 after conversion), IIFT: 99.96 percentile. 

Sunday 26 March 2017

One Year Without Sugar



I was an addict. Sugar was my drug.

Most of my energy came from sugar. I would mix it in everything. Rice, milk, curd… even water.

Exactly one year ago, I stopped. Completely.



The beginning:

I used to read a lot of self-help books and articles. I probably read a thousand self-improvement posts on Quora and Medium. It was like porn. I would get excited for half an hour, then forget all about it.

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Advice for future CAT aspirants

A friend (NIT, 2016 pass out) resigned from his job in Nov. 2016. His passion was in management. And being a brilliant student, he was dead sure of getting into an old IIM. As expected, he got 99.95 percentile in CAT.
Here comes the twist: A, B, L, and I have not even shortlisted him for the interview. Out of the old IIMS, only IIM-C has called him. Another twist here: C has given calls up to 99.6 percentile, they have distorted the selection criteria in such a way that he is ahead of the last person called by only 1.47 marks. Now the fun thing: IIM-C awards 2 marks for academic diversity and 4 marks for work experience. So, he will have to give an extraordinary GD-PI performance to have any realistic chance of being selected.
===

The purpose of this article is not to frighten or dishearten you but to provide a realistic view of the admission process of IIMs. It is written only for GEMs. If you don’t belong to General Engineer Male, no need to read further.
Most people think that getting into IIMs (old ones) is all about securing more than 99.5 percentile in CAT. Sorry for shattering your dreams, but that isn’t even 10% the battle. Your whole life counts. From the chromosomes that determined your sex to your graduation stream, everything is considered. If you happen to be a General Engineer Male, things over which you have no control, you are screwed. A girl having 92 percentile and a GEM having 99.5 percentile have equal chances of getting into an IIM. Gender is not the only thing going against you, they consider work experience, academic diversity, your marks in 10th, 12th & graduation and the quality of the work experience. If you somehow manage to get a call, your selection depends entirely on the interview. Engineers are seen with contempt there. They have so many to choose from.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on reservations.
If you are a GEM having less than 90 percent in 10th or 12th and below 7.5 CGPA in B.Tech, think twice before putting your time and effort in preparing for CAT. You might regret it later. Life is unfair and the Indian education system is even more so. Unless a revolution happens, don’t expect the end of reservation or such diversity bullshit in a hundred years. However, there is no point in fretting about things over which we have no control. Here is a plan of action you can follow if you like.
If you are a fresher:
1. Before starting your preparation, read the selection criteria of all the IIMs. Every IIM has a different criterion. Indore gives 76% weightage to your 10th and 12th marks. Others have similar weird process. Prepare yourself mentally for what you are getting into. Here are some threads (to depress you) https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-score-99-5+-percent…https://www.pagalguy.com/…/all-i-want-to-speak-about-gem-ge… . Know the worst that can happen. It’s time you start practising stoicism.
2. If you are still in B.Tech, focus only on building your GPA. Forget about CAT (or at least don’t neglect your GPA for CAT preparation). You will have 4-5 years to go for an MBA after B.Tech. Remember that even half an extra mark in your mid semester will count. Bargain, beg, plead with the prof as much as you can.
I know that you hate the rat race for marks. I hated it too. But the MBA world is all about rat race. During my 2nd and 3rd year of B.Tech, I had some rules: I never sat in the examination hall for more than 45 minutes in mid sem and more than 1.5 hours in end sem. I regret it now. Make sure that you don’t have any regrets.
3. Try to gain as much expertise in your stream/area of interest as you can. If you can publish a research paper, do it. If you can organize/attend any conference, do it. Get yourself enrolled in as many clubs as you can. Get published in reputed newspapers/magazines. Try to get good internships. You have to show that you are different from the herd.
4. Consider other exams. If they don’t want you, why do you want them so desperately? Depending on your ambitions, there are good colleges other than IIMS. XLRI, IIFT, NMIMS, to name a few. Though I don’t suggest going for GRE/GMAT in this era of rising protectionism; if you are rich enough, you may consider MS/MBA from a foreign university.
If you are a working professional: DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB. CAT is capricious.
Will add more things later.
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