IIM Lucknow GD/PI
GD topic:
"Politicians are wonderful people, if they stay away from the things they don’t understand, such as, working for a living."
Initial 10 minutes were given for writing a 150 words write-up on the topic. Then, with a pause of 15 seconds, we are asked to start. No one was willing to start on the topic. I had already decided not to go to IIM Lucknow, even if they offered me a seat right away. Both panelists were male. One was from South India, second was from north. Second one seemed to belong to either Haryana or Punjab. Chairs were arranged in a semi-circular fashion. Discussion was given 15 minutes but what do you think can be discussed here for 15 minutes? I divided the topic in 3 parts. Politicians are also people, and can’t be expected to do super-natural things. Every person is inherently wonderful. And lastly, policy-makers must be able to understand the issues pertaining to common man, or the stakeholders. I wrote a summary wrapping these 3 points in around 50 words each.
The discussion was not good. People were speaking irrelevant things, not listening to anyone else. Many were talking in groups of two without caring for the other groups of two-two each, while one person in a very loud voice was speaking for his own sake. After this thing continued for starting 3-4 minutes, I thought I should have say there and I started saying, “Please, let him complete and then you can say whatever you want.” These things were appreciated sometimes but not by everyone. Some were just not able to listen this or rather were only interested in speaking their crap. One person shouted, “Don’t act like a traffic policeman.” (I think I should have said, “Traffic Policemen are also needed to control the traffic.” But I didn’t assuming safely that it was his loss for sure. I wasn’t losing anything since I wasn’t interested in Lucknow anyways.) Discussion went on till its completion without any smoothness with people talking about SEZ’s, Maharashtra power being used in Northern states and all non-sense which they related to this topic and made sense only to themselves. I asked one person when he completed, “What has this to do with the topic?” Few agreed but the person kept on murmuring his thoughts like a crow on your house in the morning 4 am. In all cases, it has disturbed your sleep. Finally, it was over to the relief of everybody.
Now, after waiting for some time, cracking few jokes with friends from IIT Bombay who were also present for their GD/PI, my turn for PI came (again fourth), and I moved in. Let’s call interviewer M1 and M2 and candidate C. Time was around 3:40 pm.
C: Good Afternoon, Sir.
M1: Hmm.. Give me the certificates….
M2: Relax… Why are you shivering? Come’on, You are from IIT Bombay.
(Now, What should I have told them? This is a problem with me that whenever I am a bit nervous, or not exactly nervous but something important is there, hands start shivering and controlling them takes time. Anyways, a long breath helped me.)
C: Yes, Sir.
(I gave them certificates after removing resumes from the top of my file. M1 was almost about to cry.)
M1: Why didn’t you put all of them at the top?
C: Sir, They are already on the top. I was just removing resumes.
M1: Give me the whole file.
C: Sir, there are other certificates also in the file of extra-curricular activities.
M1: Why didn’t you take them out earlier, when I said so? (I wonder when did he say so?) I know you wanted us to see only those things which you wanted to show us.
C: (a small smile.. ) No Sir, they are on the top only. I thought I’ll have to give resumes also.
M1: I am seeing you have taken philosophy courses in the last semester. These are filler courses you have taken to increase your CPI.
(If this person was not an interviewer, I would have given him a long lecture on philosophy. I got irritated with the person’s behavior. One, he assumed that philosophy is easy and getting good marks there is easy. Second, I am not interested in Philosophy. Third, even after telling him that I am auditing two courses of Philosophy this time which don’t have any credits for me, he didn’t seem to agree. I told him that I have taken 5 philosophy courses, out of which 2 are PhD courses. Only 3 person are doing the course of Buddhist Mahayana Philosophy. But M1 wouldn’t agree. I thought in my mind, “Go to Hell. Why should I convince you for my interest in Philosophy? Anyways, I am not going to come to your college.” I was there just for fun :D.)
M2: Have you read modern philosophy also?
C:Yes sir, but not in as much details as Indian philosophy.
M2: What courses have you done and what do you know about Indian Philosophy?
C(I told him all the courses): Introduction to Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Vedanta Philosophy, Buddhist Mahayana Philosophy and Professional Ethics
M1: What’s the difference between Indian philosophy and Vedanta philosophy?
C: Vedanta school of thought is the gist of Vedas. There are other school of thoughts also in Indian philosophy like Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika. (I talked about Vedanta a bit then, and it’s six parts.)
M1: Tell us in brief about Vedanta, which your professor gave you as an overview of the course.
C(I told him about Shankaracharya’s Advaita Vedanta and Ramanujam’s vishishadvaita Vedanta in some detail. M1 seemed jealous while M2 seemed content from my answer.)
M2: What did you prepare for the interview?
C: Not much can be prepared for the interview because I am here to present myself. I read newspapers daily to know what’s happening in the world. Revised some technical concepts and that’s all.
M2: You are in electrical engineering.. What do you know about power sector of India?
C: Power Sector… hmm.. Sir, there is 12.5% shortage in power supply than demand. Last year it was 12%.
M2: no no.. not this.. ok.. What do you mean by unbundling of power sector?
C: I don’t know the term but it may mean giving license to private players to enter in power sector, which was not allowed earlier.
M1: Have you had any management course?
C: No, sir.
M1: Any economics course?
C: Yes, I had one in my first semester.
M2: What was the name of the course?
C: I don’t exactly remember. It was something like “Economics and something..”
M1: Economics is the basic thing for Management and you don’t know the name of single course you did in economics. Some more statements like this.
M2: What did you study in the course?
C (though it was tough to recall, but I could recall a few concepts): Marginal utility, Law of diminishing returns (explained to them what does that mean?)
M2: Apply these concepts to power bills?
(I explained to them how first some electricity units are charged at around Rs. 3/unit and later on, charges start increasing. Because marginal utility of that extra unit is less for a person who’s consuming more and since it was more useful for some other person, higher usage should attract higher charges.)
M1: What are other options for you?
C: I have got job offers from Capital One and Inductis.
M1: What are they paying you?
(I told them both the packages.)
M1: Oh, this is an international package.
C:Yes sir.
(M1 looks towards M2): Ok, Thank you.
C: Thank You, Sir.
Overall, quality of professors, GD, PI and students appearing for Lucknow was exponentially down than IIM B.
Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and no one should feel offended.
"Politicians are wonderful people, if they stay away from the things they don’t understand, such as, working for a living."
Initial 10 minutes were given for writing a 150 words write-up on the topic. Then, with a pause of 15 seconds, we are asked to start. No one was willing to start on the topic. I had already decided not to go to IIM Lucknow, even if they offered me a seat right away. Both panelists were male. One was from South India, second was from north. Second one seemed to belong to either Haryana or Punjab. Chairs were arranged in a semi-circular fashion. Discussion was given 15 minutes but what do you think can be discussed here for 15 minutes? I divided the topic in 3 parts. Politicians are also people, and can’t be expected to do super-natural things. Every person is inherently wonderful. And lastly, policy-makers must be able to understand the issues pertaining to common man, or the stakeholders. I wrote a summary wrapping these 3 points in around 50 words each.
The discussion was not good. People were speaking irrelevant things, not listening to anyone else. Many were talking in groups of two without caring for the other groups of two-two each, while one person in a very loud voice was speaking for his own sake. After this thing continued for starting 3-4 minutes, I thought I should have say there and I started saying, “Please, let him complete and then you can say whatever you want.” These things were appreciated sometimes but not by everyone. Some were just not able to listen this or rather were only interested in speaking their crap. One person shouted, “Don’t act like a traffic policeman.” (I think I should have said, “Traffic Policemen are also needed to control the traffic.” But I didn’t assuming safely that it was his loss for sure. I wasn’t losing anything since I wasn’t interested in Lucknow anyways.) Discussion went on till its completion without any smoothness with people talking about SEZ’s, Maharashtra power being used in Northern states and all non-sense which they related to this topic and made sense only to themselves. I asked one person when he completed, “What has this to do with the topic?” Few agreed but the person kept on murmuring his thoughts like a crow on your house in the morning 4 am. In all cases, it has disturbed your sleep. Finally, it was over to the relief of everybody.
Now, after waiting for some time, cracking few jokes with friends from IIT Bombay who were also present for their GD/PI, my turn for PI came (again fourth), and I moved in. Let’s call interviewer M1 and M2 and candidate C. Time was around 3:40 pm.
C: Good Afternoon, Sir.
M1: Hmm.. Give me the certificates….
M2: Relax… Why are you shivering? Come’on, You are from IIT Bombay.
(Now, What should I have told them? This is a problem with me that whenever I am a bit nervous, or not exactly nervous but something important is there, hands start shivering and controlling them takes time. Anyways, a long breath helped me.)
C: Yes, Sir.
(I gave them certificates after removing resumes from the top of my file. M1 was almost about to cry.)
M1: Why didn’t you put all of them at the top?
C: Sir, They are already on the top. I was just removing resumes.
M1: Give me the whole file.
C: Sir, there are other certificates also in the file of extra-curricular activities.
M1: Why didn’t you take them out earlier, when I said so? (I wonder when did he say so?) I know you wanted us to see only those things which you wanted to show us.
C: (a small smile.. ) No Sir, they are on the top only. I thought I’ll have to give resumes also.
M1: I am seeing you have taken philosophy courses in the last semester. These are filler courses you have taken to increase your CPI.
(If this person was not an interviewer, I would have given him a long lecture on philosophy. I got irritated with the person’s behavior. One, he assumed that philosophy is easy and getting good marks there is easy. Second, I am not interested in Philosophy. Third, even after telling him that I am auditing two courses of Philosophy this time which don’t have any credits for me, he didn’t seem to agree. I told him that I have taken 5 philosophy courses, out of which 2 are PhD courses. Only 3 person are doing the course of Buddhist Mahayana Philosophy. But M1 wouldn’t agree. I thought in my mind, “Go to Hell. Why should I convince you for my interest in Philosophy? Anyways, I am not going to come to your college.” I was there just for fun :D.)
M2: Have you read modern philosophy also?
C:Yes sir, but not in as much details as Indian philosophy.
M2: What courses have you done and what do you know about Indian Philosophy?
C(I told him all the courses): Introduction to Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Vedanta Philosophy, Buddhist Mahayana Philosophy and Professional Ethics
M1: What’s the difference between Indian philosophy and Vedanta philosophy?
C: Vedanta school of thought is the gist of Vedas. There are other school of thoughts also in Indian philosophy like Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika. (I talked about Vedanta a bit then, and it’s six parts.)
M1: Tell us in brief about Vedanta, which your professor gave you as an overview of the course.
C(I told him about Shankaracharya’s Advaita Vedanta and Ramanujam’s vishishadvaita Vedanta in some detail. M1 seemed jealous while M2 seemed content from my answer.)
M2: What did you prepare for the interview?
C: Not much can be prepared for the interview because I am here to present myself. I read newspapers daily to know what’s happening in the world. Revised some technical concepts and that’s all.
M2: You are in electrical engineering.. What do you know about power sector of India?
C: Power Sector… hmm.. Sir, there is 12.5% shortage in power supply than demand. Last year it was 12%.
M2: no no.. not this.. ok.. What do you mean by unbundling of power sector?
C: I don’t know the term but it may mean giving license to private players to enter in power sector, which was not allowed earlier.
M1: Have you had any management course?
C: No, sir.
M1: Any economics course?
C: Yes, I had one in my first semester.
M2: What was the name of the course?
C: I don’t exactly remember. It was something like “Economics and something..”
M1: Economics is the basic thing for Management and you don’t know the name of single course you did in economics. Some more statements like this.
M2: What did you study in the course?
C (though it was tough to recall, but I could recall a few concepts): Marginal utility, Law of diminishing returns (explained to them what does that mean?)
M2: Apply these concepts to power bills?
(I explained to them how first some electricity units are charged at around Rs. 3/unit and later on, charges start increasing. Because marginal utility of that extra unit is less for a person who’s consuming more and since it was more useful for some other person, higher usage should attract higher charges.)
M1: What are other options for you?
C: I have got job offers from Capital One and Inductis.
M1: What are they paying you?
(I told them both the packages.)
M1: Oh, this is an international package.
C:Yes sir.
(M1 looks towards M2): Ok, Thank you.
C: Thank You, Sir.
Overall, quality of professors, GD, PI and students appearing for Lucknow was exponentially down than IIM B.
Disclaimer: These are my personal opinions and no one should feel offended.
posted by Udham Singh at
2:12 PM
2 Comments:
best of luck for your results. i think ur answers were spot on.
Thanks Sushant, Yes almost all of them were handled on the spot.
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