GD PI experience: How I cracked FMS interview?

Cracking the entrance test is not enough to secure a seat in an MBA college. Aspirants also have to crack Stage Two of admissions which mostly consist of written tests, group discussions and personal interviews.

We decided to talk to Anish Kumar, current student at Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi. Ask anything about FMS here.

Anish is also an Associate Member of the Media Relations Cell at the institute and is currently interning with Youth Connect Magazine. He pursued engineering at IIIT Delhi. Anish is also a Campus Representative at Shiksha.com Campus Connect. You can connect to Anish here and ask him about the institute.

Here’s Anish discussing his admission interview with Shiksha.com:

FMS Delhi There was no Group Discussion (GD) in the admission process of FMS Delhi 2014. There was only Extempore + Personal interview (PI).

The first shortlist of candidates was done on the basis of CAT percentile. For years, it’s always been the same. Any person with a graduation degree with at least 50% marks can apply for admission.

Aspirants have to separately apply at FMS Delhi over their website. FMS Delhi uses CAT score/percentile for shortlisting purpose and for calling candidates for further rounds of evaluation.

There were three people in my interview panel – P1, P2 were male and P3 was female. All of them are faculty members at FMS Delhi.

Extempore & Personal Interview

I entered the room and greeted them.

P1: Have a seat Anish. How are you?

Anish: I am fine Sir. Thank You.

P1: Okay Anish. Tell me something about yourself.

Anish: I spoke about myself, my background and academics etc.

P1: That’s good. So as you know the procedure, we will firstly have your extempore where we will give you a topic and you have to speak for 1 (one) minute. After that, we will have a short chit chat. Shall we begin Anish?

Anish: Yes Sir.

P1: Your topic is “Life is a Puzzle”

Anish: (I thought for three-five seconds and spoke about why life is beautiful the way it is.) The beauty of life lies in its puzzled stage. We all work hard to solve that puzzle so that we can achieve true happiness. But when we achieve something then we realise that the process of solving this puzzle was much more fun. (Then I related the topic from an incident in my life. I also spoke about people like Steve Jobs and Shah Rukh Khan, who started with nothing but attained everything.

I spoke about 50 seconds but then P2 stopped me in between and straight away started with my PI.)

P2: Why do you want to do MBA?

Anish: I talked about my interest in Marketing and increased opportunities post a MBA. I also said that my previous activities such as organising festivals for IIIT Delhi for two years consecutively and promoting it has helped develop an interest towards marketing and business. I also mentioned my interest in advertisement and that I make short films and publish them on Youtube. So while promoting the films, I learned about social media marketing. All these reasons contributed towards my interest in MBA Marketing specialisation.

P2: What are recent advertisements of Coca Cola?

Anish: I mentioned about the latest Coke advertisements.

P2: What are recent advertisements of Pepsi?

Anish: Gave example of the recent example.

P1: Who are the celebrities endorsing these brands?

Anish: Ranbir Kapoor is endorsing Pepsi (Around FIFA World Cup).

P1: Why do they use them?

Anish: Because the brand image matches to the celebrity. Also the target audience are youth and Ranbir is a youth icon.

P2: But going by your logic, superstar like Amitabh Bachchan promotes Maggi and he says, ‘bus 5 rupees ki Maggi’. So that means Amitabh image is of Rs 5?

Anish: No sir, by using that tagline they are attracting people who are price conscious. Amitabh Bachchan is a big superstar. He is considered to be the biggest superstar of the millennium. He has become part and parcel of our life. So an advice coming from him would look like an advice coming from a friend who has credibility. So people will relate to it and buy Maggi.

P1: Name some advertising agencies.

Anish: Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, McCann Erikson, etc. (Also told their prominent work and few of their clients in past)

P2: Name some stock exchanges.

Anish: NSE, BSE, NASDAQ … Sir I don’t know any other.

P1: (laughing) Arey sir ji, ye marketing focused ladka hai, isse kaha pata hoga inn sab ka. (This guy is a market-focused guy. He won’t know all this)

Anish: (I smiled)

P1: Okay Anish. We are done. All the very best.

Anish: While leaving the room, P3 called me. She was silent in whole interview.

P3: Do one more task, Anish. Convince me to drink Kinley water rather than a Pulpy orange.

Anish: (I spoke about a doctor suggesting that one should consume atleast eight glasses of water daily.) Not only it is healthy, but it actually gives your skin a glow. Whereas Pulpy orange is high in sugar content that would increase sugar level in the blood and add inches to your waist.

(She smiled after that and put pulpy orange bottle aside.)

P3: What all other converts do you have Anish?

Anish: RGIPT, MDI, DU-MBE.

P3: Okay, Anish. All the very best.

After the interview, I got coupons for free snacks at canteen of FMS Delhi. I had samosa and soft drinks.

Result

Extempore: 4/5

PI: 8/10

Verdict: Converted

Tips to Crack GD

• Read newspaper
• Have an opinion on everything
• Practice. Practice. Practice. Give lots of Mock GDs as possible.
• If you have no idea on a particular GD topic, then listen to other people and build over it. In such situations your communication skills can be an asset.

Tips to Crack PI

• Know your surrounding (current affairs), Know your past (at least two courses of your graduation discipline), know your future (why do you want to do MBA).
• Prepare basic HR questions.
• Practice. Practice. Practice. Give as many Mock PIs as possible.
• Have an opinion on everything.
• If your communication skills are below average, then read books or watch BBC or TV Series like GOT, Sherlock, etc. Trust me, it helps. Practice speaking in front of mirror.
• For extempore preparation, give yourself random topics (Can be current affairs, history, abstract, etc) and try to speak for one minute. What matters is how fast you can generate ideas and how confident you are and obviously your communication skills are tested. Remember: Clarity of thoughts, Flow of ideas, Communication skills are important for cracking extempore. Practice a lot. Read a lot. Read anything. You never know what idea pops up at that time.

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