The ISB interview experience...

So folks, as promised, I bring to you my ISB interview episode...
(WARNING: The post is insanely long... I seriously can't understand how I could keep typing to get such a long post!!!)
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My interview was scheduled for the 10th of November and I was intimated by ISB about this a week before. Certainly, I was quite excited and this time I wanted to make sure that I get my best out to them - articulate my work and personal experiences with a lot of zeal so that they can see the passion, the drive and the ability to take risks... Usually, I would not be too happy about my preparation. This time I was...

And then the day arrived. My interview was scheduled to take place at 2:45 PM IST (Indian Time) which meant me giving the interview at 8:15 PM Melbourne Time! The only disadvantage of this time was that it meant me being anxious throughout the day. However, a busy day at work helped. After a good day at work I returned home and got myself ready for the interview.

At sharp 8:15 I called on the required number and also started video on skype. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a bit awkward to hold the telephone and also broadcast yourself to the interviewers on skype. Anyway, I had no choice.

Word of the interview -
The interview panel consisted of the Director of Admissions and female alum. The conversation began after they introduced themselves to me. I was then given the word 'Ecotel' and was asked to speak on it for a couple of minutes. This was for me a wonderful start since I am involved in the family hospitality business and could therefore mention about the same in my speech. The first few questions were therefore directed towards understanding my involvement in the business. I had also mentioned how the occupancy had increased due to a few marketing changes. I was asked in more detail about this and managed to put my points across.

The AdCom Director and the Alum were juggling between themselves while asking the questions, which made things all the more exciting - on one hand the questions asked by the Director were more close-ended and very fact based while the alum switched between fact based and soft skills/talent based questions.

Challenging situations -
After this the focus shifted on my work experience and I was asked to mention two challenging situations faced by me at workplace. I mentioned two of my most challenging situations each coincidentally had a woman as the protagonist. The alum specifically therefore asked whether it was just a coincidence or was there any other reason and I mentioned the truth that it was just a coincidence. I am not sure if this had any negative impact...

Extra-curricular (Passion) -
My passion for music and singing was also quite evident in my application where the focus later shifted. I was given a case where I was asked to find out how much music CD sale for an upcoming Telugu movie could take place if I owned a music recording company. I went through the various selling points and the probable customers ran through the extent of music piracy, the selling of music to radio stations etc. etc. and came up with a probable figure. I was then asked what I thought the population of Andhra Pradesh could be and I totally goofed up here citing a quite low figure around (2/5th of the actual population)! Not sure how negatively they took it! After that I was asked to sing a song (Yes! I was!) and I sang one of my recent favourites - title song from the movie Tum Mile! (Btw, please ignore one of the crappiest choreography ever seen in Hindi movies!)

The last leg -
In the final leg of the interview, I was asked how I felt about working in multiple geographies and what the differences were among the work cultures. The interview ended with me asking them a question about the alumni involvement.
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I was quite happy with my interview - I was asked the questions that allowed me to speak about my experience, to showcase my talent and to put my analytical skills to work.

A few points about the ISB interview:
> The interview is based totally on what you have mentioned in the essay. In short, be ready to elaborate and explain what you have written in your essays!
> It certainly is not a - 'Tell me all about yourself' interview. Be ready for close-ended questions and also a case study. The case might be based on some of the passion points you have mentioned in your essays
> Be cool, take few breathes before your interview - You need to bring your heartbeat down, reduce your anxiety and light up your braincells! It is pretty easy to do this and you will float through the interview
> For a telephonic interview - Make sure you have a very good handset! I didn't have a great landline handset and had to ask them to repeat their question a couple of times. Frankly, I seriously didn't understand the reason why whole interview wasn't conducted on skype
> Lastly, be yourself!

So... that was my ISB interview experience.
I received the results a couple of days before the final date and err... was not admitted! How do I feel? Well, I would say I am surprised! I am sure there are reasons for not admitting me . I am infact dying to know the reasons so I take extra care during my future interviews.

One thing for sure - I have bid tata (bye) to ISB... And hey, isn't it as much their loss as is it mine!?!?! :)

~

Thought provoking...

I am getting my ISB interview writeup ready for you folks... And while doing that I stumbled upon this particular extract -

Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?
It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices."

"Don't be serious, be sincere."

This supposedly is an except from a speech by Chetan Bhagat at one Indian MBA school functions.

As for me, I am yet to hit a balance... How about you??!

Done with R1... R2 apps full-on!

I had decided to be off blogosphere till I get my R1 apps done (with the intention that I concentrate on the apps during the little time that I get after work!!! Yes, a bit funny!). So now, R1 is done and I am back...

A lot has been done during the period since my last post. I completed 3 apps, became a proud uncle to 2 nieces and 1 nephew (phew!), (my team) completed the solution blueprint at work, gave speeches and handled roles at toastmasters, did more photography, saw many movies, made many new friends and finally, gave one interview and had one reject!

I will leave the rest of the things and jump directly onto my applications, interview and updates. I submitted 3 apps in R1 - ISB, Darden and Ross. The apps, I feel, have shaped up well and I have been able to highlight my strong points. This was proved for my ISB app when I received my ISB interview. With a lot of excitement and after much more practicing, I was ready for taking on the interview. Now, since I am in Australia I had to opt for the telephonic interview and frankly, I hate telephonic interviews simply because you cannot even see if the interviewer(s) are interested in listening to you or bored about you ranting on without making any sense. This makes it much more difficult to dynamically change your approach while speaking about a particular thing asked during the interview. Thankfully, it wasn't just the audio this time since ISB asked me to log onto Skype and also have video enabled. Now one thing that really really confused me - why didn't ISB the whole interview on skype? Why the video on skype and the audio on telephone. The video of me holding the phone and looking into the webcam while trying to think would have been definitely really funny! Hoping that they don't leak out!!! :)

Anyway, I thought the interview went well, except for a few things that I'll mention in my next post. But ISB wasn't too impressed with what they saw (or maybe they were just too impressed to think I am a right fit for the school - I like to think both ways!) and I received the 'Not-admitted' email a few days before the results deadline.

So now here I am, working on Tuck and Columbia and waiting to hear from dearest Darden and Ross. Btw, I really want to thank S&Y who helped me immensely during all my apps. Thanks to SG for getting the recos on time even in her insanely busy schedule and special thanks to RB for giving me tips for the app and the interview...

So... whats coming next?! My ISB interview experience!

~

Mind, body and creativity

Got my ISB draft essays done and sent them to a friend over the weekend. I am still to send them out to a couple more reviewers. As I have already mentioned in my post here, reviewing is a very important activity and I should say that I had a great set of reviewers last year.
I have taken up Darden essays. Now, I am applying to Darden for the third year (yes, you read it right). I have had discussions with a couple of MBA students and they have given their views about my applying for the third time. It is not usual to apply thrice to the same school, however, there are a few reasons why I really would like to be at Darden. To mention a few, they are -
1. I have seen myself perform better in situations where I am challenging myself each moment. Darden is a really rigorous program and needs you to give in a lot. I am sure this pushing the limit will bring the best out of me and I will live upto and even exceed what is required of me!
2. Darden's stress on ethics is something which brings me back to Darden each year. An environment built on ethics, strengthened by knowledge and brought to life by an amazing crowd is always going to be my first choice
3. Darden is a high ranked program and boasts a wonderful faculty. Additionally, the highly collaborative culture makes it more appealing to me

There are a few more reasons... but wouldn't want to mention all of them here. Well, just to end it, I heard a lot about Charlottesville and also one of my very close friend stays very near to C'ville... All the more reason for me to the there!?!? :)

Another update - I have started training for quarter marathon. To tell you frankly, I SUCK at running. I have never been into cardio. The last time when I used to really run everyday was for the warm-up before playing table tennis which was around 10 years ago! Yesterday, I ran 5 Kms in around 40 mins... and today (just a couple of hours back) I completed 5.10 Kms in 29.49 minutes! I am pleased at myself. The marathon is in October (The Melbourne Marathon) and I hope to be diligent at training and am building my confidence at getting the 10 Kms run completed. Will keep you guys posted on that.

Finally, I have uploaded the photos taken during my maiden studio photography session... You will find them here. I will leave you at that and get back to my Darden essays...

Welcome to fellow applicants... Let our final journey begin!

A Fresh start, yet again with lot more energy and the will to do it!
To give you a bit of the background, I am in this place for the 3rd year consecutive. Some people are surprised, some are annoyed and me especially, I am just... well, trying to be me! I think that is the best thing to do (advice anyone!?).
I was on the Darden waitlist till June end and finally decided to opt out so that I could take up new assignment at workplace and commit to them. I was really looking forward to getting back to school with the Darden class of 2011 and also meeting those wonderful set of people who helped me immensely during my application journey. Sadly, it wasn't this time.
However, I am now on this new assignment, in this new country (read: Australia) and it has been a wonderful learning experience till now. I am sure this has helped make my profile stronger and I hope that I can get this across to the schools where I apply.
So, fellow applicants, lets begin our journey... (hopefully) our final journey to get into a B-school!

best.

P.S.: I was contemplating starting a new blog and therefore rebrand myself and my journey... But doing a bit of studying revealed that it was wiser to continue in here... That is one of the reasons why I have been away for these couple of months...

Predicament

I chose to get out of the current assignment at workplace anticipating to hear back from Darden by mid-April. Moving to India was going to make it easy for me to finish with work and gear up for the MBA expedition. Moreover, it would also have made sure that I get to spend a few months in India with family and friends. Of course, all was again with the assumption that I am admitted at Darden. In case of a negative response I was to take up this new and really exciting assignment by mid-May (already I pushed getting into it from April end to Mid-May).
As it turns out, I haven't yet heard back from the school. And I have now been able to postpone my taking up of the new assignment to the end of May-beginning of June. Now, the predicament is that if I dont get to hear from Darden till the end of the month, I will have to take up the assignment and once I commit it will be quite impossible for me to get out of it and go to Darden in case I am admitted. Also, it seems highly unlikely I will be able to postpone the date again... Given this situation, I am planning to speak to my admission's manager and keep her updated. I totally understand that the school might not go out of the way to pick up my application and make sure that I get a response on priority but atleast I would have let the school know about my situation. I somehow did not see this situation when I applied in the first round!!! Well, life's challenging and I love challenges but I wish this one was a bit smooth. One good news is that Darden now has come out with a loan program for international applicants and I am waiting to know the details...
On a completely different note, I have really got into drinking coffee (cappuccino to be specific). Till about 6 months back I hardly used to drink coffee but now I am totally into it... Have I really got myself ready for Darden (the first coffee tradition)!!?! I guess I caught the habit during my recent travelling spree... Hey that reminds me to post the link of some of the moments that I captured during my trip to Bratislava, Munich and Barcelona. I'll do it really really soon...

Of the waitlist, movement to India, IPL and BoB awards

It is definitely worth mentioning how one teeny-tiny ray of hope (read: still waitlisted at Darden) keeps me cheerful and optimistic of being a part of the MBA 2011 wagon. After almost 3 years working at client's location in the UK, I have another good opportunity lined up. However considering my aspiration to be a Darden, I preferred to move back to India and work here for a while. I was hoping to hear from Darden by the beginning of April but that hasn't been the case. Now my only chance is during the results of the round 3 after which I will need to make a decision...
Day before I was speaking to a friend who has been helping me since the time I took up my Darden application and I just thought how bored she must be feeling to keep on talking to me about the same admission stuff! Waitlists are not bad... but they tend to be annoying sometimes (isn't it?!).
Yes, and I decided to move back to India. So currently I am trying to get myself updated on some of the stuff I couldn't pursue when I was in the UK. I am quite excited about all this and oh how could I forget, I do get to eat alphonso mangoes!!! (chuckle)
IPL2 kickstarted last weekend and Mumbai Indians won the opening match in style. What more could I have asked for!?! I wish the IPL was being played in India. You would then have had a chance to see me on TV (well, I had plans to watch the IPL live in the stadium). A bit unlucky there I must say...
And finally... the nomination list for the BoB awards is now out and the excitement begins again! There has been a lot of really amazing blogging during the last season and it will be really interesting to see who gets the awards... All the best to everyone who's been nominated and a gentle reminder that even I am one among the nominees :) ~~

Excess liquidity and something more...

This week's Economist mentions about a survey which shows the amount of water needed to produce some everyday goods and beverages. And the facts are just astonishing... Never thought that the cup of coffee in the morning would consume that much of water for its preparation! Kinda interesting and a bit scary... check the article here.
The Darden interviews for round two are still on and the decisions will be released by end of March. I am hoping to send some helpful information across to Darden and wish that I make it this time. Fingers crossed... I am also waiting for Darden to give more information about the financing options for international students. The current economic situation makes me wonder how good/bad the options will be but I am sure (more so after listening to Sara Neher's video blog) that there will be a good option made available to students.
There are are also a few changes scheduled to happen at workplace. A very interesting opportunity has come up and I will have to base my decision after getting to know from Darden. Of course, Darden is my FIRST choice and a logical next step for me towards my goals.
Also, this month I visited Bratislava (Slovakia) and Munich (Germany)... Amazing trip! I was surely sad to be back. Both are really beautiful places and the local beers at both these places are amazing! I am also planning another quick trip next month to a new destination but I am not yet sure if it will indeed happen...

ISB interview results out...

... and I have not been offered an admission this year.
"The Admissions Committee has completed its review of your application for admission to the ISB. Despite your many merits as a candidate, I regret to inform you that we are not able to offer a place in the class beginning April 13, 2009.
Several members of our Committee carefully evaluated your application in the following areas: work experience, career plans, academic, extra curricular and community involvement, leadership and interpersonal skills. Decisions are based upon an evaluation of your individual strengths and weaknesses, as well as your qualifications relative to those of our applicants.
Please note that this decision is not a reflection of your personal qualities and achievements or your potential for success in management, but merely a reflection of the limited number of seats in the class."

Darden... we are left alone...

...and I am waitlisted

Yes... Darden released its decisions on 30th Jan and I have been waitlisted. Somehow, I had completely missed out this option during my planning (I so hate myself!!!).
Oren has some nice piece of advice here for waitlisted candidates. I am hoping to send across more information about myself to the school to aid their decision making (preferably in my favor).
Life's actually a bit messy right now. But hey, I am still very much in the race~~