IIM Admission 2023: Eshwar Naik Shares His IIM Ahmedabad PI Experience

Eshwar Naik, a Mechanical Engineer from Hyderabad who converted the IIM Ahmedabad PI call, says the key is to understand where you are and prepare a strategy for where you want to be. Check out his interview with Shiksha where he shares his IIM Ahmedabad PI experience.

Eshwar Naik shares his IIM A PI experience

Eshwar Naik, a Mechanical Engineer from Hyderabad is pleased to have converted the IIM Ahmedabad Interview call for the full-time MBA programme. He credits the success to not only his confidence and knowledge but also his overall profile. Having a 9/9/9 in academics and 17 months of work experience at the time of PI put him in a better position than his peers.

Eshwar has pursued Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from CVR College of Engineering. During the degree programme, he worked as an Editor and writer for the college magazine.

He has worked for TCS, as a Test Engineer for 20 months and was a volunteer with TCS YEP (youth employment program) as an Aptitude trainer, which provides placement training to students from Socioeconomically marginalized background. Eshwar shared his IIM Ahmedabad WAT-PI experience with Shiksha. Read below.

Q: Was IIM Ahmedabad your first choice? Why?

Yes! Reason being the case-based method of teaching, brand, industry recognition, huge alumni network, peer group and the exposure I would get at IIM Ahmedabad. I think I don’t need to elaborate here.

Q: What was your WAT topic and how did you present your argument?

My WAT topic was very puzzling and one of the hardest I found across all the WATs I appeared for. I vaguely remember it, but let me give you a gist of what it looked like, it was a cartoon, with human figures with each titled sociologist, psychologist, biologist, chemist, physicist and mathematician in order and above them was an arrow which goes from sociologist towards mathematician and says that the arrow represents the fields arranged by the purity and each character was stating how it is superior over others.

We were supposed to present our arguments on the cartoon.

My Strategy for all WAT’s has been the same, it is simply,

1. I make a mind map of all that I know w.r.t the topic given.
2. I make sure I have covered all angles to the topic by following PESTEL (Political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal factors)
3. I decide my stand on the topic
4. I decide how to present my arguments and the logical structure of the WAT.

Q: How was your PI experience? Tell us about your high points or low points during the interview.

In all of my PI’s I did really well. I answered all the questions I knew and when I didn’t know an answer, I admitted that I don’t know. I am proud of the fact that I didn’t panic and was able to handle pressure very well.

High points were when I was asked a question about my academics. It was one of the questions from the questionnaire I prepared for myself for the PI’s. I could answer the question really well and all the subsequent questions arising from it.

The low point was when I told the interviewer that I like to read books on stock markets, which prompted him to ask me about my portfolio and kept digging deeper. I felt like he wasn’t convinced enough with my answer but I kept going.

My IIM Ahmedabad PI Experience

A detailed transcript may not be possible, but I can tell what my interview has been around.

Two male Panelists | Afternoon Slot

P1: The questions were around academics and Work experience.

He asked me what I do at TCS. (Explained what I do as a Test Engineer)

He asked me if I agree that my job is a boring one. (Agreed)

He asked me if given a chance which role in software development would I choose? (Choose UX designing)

His next immediate question was a case on how I would apply my testing experience in Testing UX (Completely unaware of how UX testing is done, I made few Hypotheses and explained how I would judge a good UX)

There were a few subsequent questions on the same.

Then, he switched to academics and asked me the difference between torque and horsepower.

And there were a few subsequent questions on the same like use cases etc.,

P2: The questions were around Interests and GK.

He asked me what I do in my free time. (Told, I like to read books on finances and stock markets)

He asked me if I apply my learnings (Said yes)

He asked me about my portfolio and then there were a few questions on how I make my investment decisions (answered)

Then, he switched to General knowledge, where we talked about the Adani-Hindenburg issue. There were a few subsequent questions on it, which ended up with a discussion on a newspaper editorial I cited to support my arguments.

Then, he named a personality and asked me if I knew why he was on news (admitted, I don’t know)

P2 said he made a decision and P1 concurred

Also Read:

• 14 Parameters on which you are judged in WAT-GD-PI
• IIM Shortlist 2023: Check institute-wise dates and process
• IIM selection and admission criteria 2023-25 for MBA/PGDM
• What is IIM CAP? Know selection criteria, cut offs, participating IIMs

Q: At what point of time during the interview you thought you’ve made it?

To be honest, I had no clue. And having given around ten interviews, I can only be sure about 2 interviews where the interviewers were really impressed with my answers and it was apparently visible. For the rest of them, I cannot really guess as the interviewers are very much experienced with PIs, so they don’t really leave any clues for us to guess. The same goes for the interview experience with IIM A.

Also, the interview is not the standalone factor for final selection, there are other factors too which are considered to calculate the Final score based on which selection happens.

Q: Was there a trick question in PI? How did you handle it?

Well! At one point in the interview, P2 asked me If I make my investment decisions by googling “Which stocks to buy?”, which came out of nowhere, I simply smiled at him and politely said “No”.

Back then I didn’t understand what to make out of it but now I feel it was a trick question to check If I might lose my composure during the interview. Thankfully, I didn’t.

Q: How much credit will you give to your academics and professional experience for IIM Ahmedabad selection?

A lot!!! Academic and professional experience was a topic of discussion in many of my interviews.

Not only that, you get marks added for academic scores and the number of months of work experience while making shortlists for PI and for the final selection too.

In that context having a 9/9/9 in academics and 17 months of work experience at the time of PI gave me an edge over many others.

Q: Any tips for future aspirants?

Well! I would say play it cool. Make a good SWOT analysis of yourself. Understand where you are and prepare a strategy for where you want to be. Execute the same with discipline as consistency is the key here.

Q: What is your future plan?

Well! For the time being, I want to make the most out of my IIM Ahmedabad journey. I wish to form great friendships along the way. For the long term, it’s still a plan in making.

Read More Interview Experiences

The table below mentions the links for more interview experiences for MBA Admissions 2023:

Read More:

• IIM Shortlist 2023 - 2025 OUT: Check PI Status, Final Result, Wait List, CAP, Cut Off, WAT-PI Dates
• Top 32 Questions to Prepare for Personal Interview (PI)
• 80 Group Discussion (GD) Topics for MBA
• Understand GD-PIWAT Process for MBA Admission
• MBA Interview Preparation Guide 2023
• 5 MBA PI Situations that may Stump You
• IIM Admission & Selection Criteria
• How to prepare for GD-PI