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.
To apply for admission to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad MBA program, you need to have appeared and scored the minimum required grade in CAT 2025. Candidates are shortlisted for the Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) from among the candidates with a sound CAT score who have applied to IIM Ahmedabad. Once the AWT & PI round is completed, admission decisions are made based on a diverse set of attributes such as academic performance, work experience, extracurricular activities, and diversity.
For admission to MBA (or PGP) 2024 batch at IIM Ahmedabad, the CAT test will be conducted on November 26, 2023. Aspirants of IIM Ahmedabad are required to appear for the exam in Computer Based Testing mode at the allotted test centres. CAT exam 2023 will be held in three slots:
- Morning slot: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM
- Afternoon slot: 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM
- Evening slot: 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Earlier, the CAT exam used to be of 180 minutes with 100 questions but in 2020, both exam duration and number of questions were reduced due to COVID-19 pandemic. Now, starting CAT 2022, the total number of questions stands at 66 as part of CAT pattern.
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,
- I make a mind map of all that I know w.r.t the topic given.
- I make sure I have covered all angles to the topic by following PESTEL (Political, economic, social, technical, environmental, and legal factors)
- I decide my stand on the topic
- 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.
Meant for working professionals, candidates seeking admission must have a bachelor’s degree and at least four years of experience. On successful completion of this course students are given a Master of Business Administration degree. For admission, it is mandatory for all eligible candidates to take a GMAT/ GRE test. In the final selection process, candidates are also required to appear for a PI round and submit an essay.
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:
| Name of Candidate |
College Name |
Link for Interview Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Aditya Singh |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Bharat Karena |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Yash Kaviya |
XLRI, Jamshedpur |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Pratyush Adhikary |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Avi Shrivastava |
XLRI, Jamshedpur |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Sujit Kumar |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Siddharth Lilani |
XLRI jamshedpur |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Saurabh Wani |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Lavisha Taneja |
XLRI, Jamshedpur |
Click here to read the full interview |
| Kushagra Dash |
IIM Ahmedabad |
Click here to read the full interview |
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
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 3 weeks ago
There are plenty of statistics that cadidates canuse to judge which institute is best for them for pursing an MBA course. In terms of reputation, IIM, Ahmedabad has one of the highest reputations of any MBA institute. However, this results in a significantly higher MBA fees at IIM, Ahmedabad which i
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
IIM Ahmedabad's selection criteria is entrance-based for the offered courses. Students need to meet both the basic eligibility and clear the selection rounds as well. Check out the table below to know about the selection criteria for IIM Ahmedabad:
| Courses | Selection Criteria |
|---|---|
| PGP | CAT + Analytical Writing Test (AWT) + Personal Interview (PI) |
| PGP-FABM | CAT + Analytical Writing Test (AWT) + Personal Interview (PI) |
| e-PGP | CAT/ GMAT/ GRE/ IIMA Admission Test (IAT) + Personal Interview (PI) |
| MBA-PGPX | Valid GMAT/ GRE score + Essay submission + PI round |
M
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
For admission to the MBA programme at IIM Ahmedabad, the required CAT score varies by category. Based on the previous year's cutoff (2024), candidates need an overall percentile rank of 80 for General and EWS categories, 75 for NC-OBC and transgender candidates, and 70 for SC category candidates. I
H
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
Yes, IIM Ahmedabad does have a reservation policy for MBA/ PGP programmes. As per the Government of India requirement, 27% of the seats are reserved for NC-OBC, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST candidates, 5% for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD), and up to 10% for Economically Weaker Sections (E
A
Contributor-Level 9
Answered a month ago
To apply for MBA courses at IIM Ahmedabad, candidates are required to follow certain eligibility requirements. Firstly, applicants must ensure that they have completed a bachelor's degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (in the case of the candidate belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC)/
K
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 months ago
No, you cannot pursue and online CMLT course from IIM Ahmedabad because it does not offers that course. You can opt for Manipal academy or IGNOU for CMLT course.
K
Contributor-Level 9
Answered 6 months ago
The University College London institution bases its operations in London, United Kingdom not United States. UCL MBA shares its reputation with the IIM Ahmedabad MBA but serves diverse types of career aspirations. The Indian market-oriented candidates benefit most from IIM Ahmedabad's programs becaus
K
Contributor-Level 8
Answered 7 months ago
IIM Ahmedabad is a top-ranked business school in India with global recognition, strong industry connections, and high placement rates. Aston University in UK is well-regarded, especially for international exposure, but it does not match IIM Ahmedabad's prestige in management education. If your goal
M
Beginner-Level 5
Candidates (General category) seeking admission to IIM-A for MBA must have a bachelor's degree with a minimum of 50% aggregate. For final selection, a student is required to have a valid score in the CAT exam (both sectional and overall) and is required to go through the AWT and PI rounds conducted by the institute. Additionally, for the final selection of candidates, everything right from their scores in Class 10, Class 12 and graduation are considered along with their CAT percentile, PI and WAT scores, stream in Class 12 and work experience.