Know how Aditya Chandrayan converted his MDI call

For an MBA aspirant, only acquiring a great score in CAT exam is not a celebratory moment. The celebrations are complete only when the aspirant converts the invite for the WAT- GD/PI round of his/her respective dream B-School. 

Aditya Chandrayan, one of the CAT aspirants received a call from Management Development Institute, and was determined to convert the same. The interview took place at Hotel Pai Viceroy in Bangalore. Here is Aditya’s detailed WAT-GD/PI encounter: 

Written Ability Test

The WAT topic on which the candidates had to write was:

Nuclear war cannot be won and should not be fought.

I wrote a decent essay but I knew that it was definitely not my best performance.

Group Discussion

The next round to start was the Group Discussion. Since I knew I had not performed to the best of my ability in the WAT, I decided to remain more focused during the GD round. 

The GD started and I pitched in twice and also participated in the conclusion. Again I knew that it was not my best performance, but I thought that it was still better than my past GD performances. 

Finally, it was time to face the Personal Interview round. The panelist consisted of 2 people, a female (P1), and a male (P2). 

I entered, greeted and sat down. 

P1: So what happened in GD? You started but then you went into hibernation and then came back after 5 minutes.

Me: Mam, I started the GD and gave direction to it. Since it was a group discussion, I believe that it was important to listen to the views of other as well. I even concluded the GD. 

P1: You mentioned something about Chernobyl, was that a nuclear war?

Me: During the GD, at one point of time, one of the candidates mentioned something about how nuclear war can affect the population. I talked about Chernobyl to drive home that point by showing how a small incident led to that city being unoccupied for decades. Just imagine what a full-fledged war could do. 

P1: What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?

Me: Efficiency is how we get the biggest pie from the limited resources.

I blabbered something about effectiveness, and I clearly knew that they were NOT CONVINCED

Me: I tried again and told that effectiveness is when the original purpose is fulfilled. 

P1: Why are they building Nuclear reactor in Japan even though it is in seismic zone?

Me: (Duck faced) Because it is the need of the hour to meet energy requirements and move away from conventional energy sources. 

P1: What will you do if you were director of the plant?

Me: I will start with risk analysis. 

P1: All that is done, now what will you do, what’s your priority? Plant or people?

Me: The nuclear reactor is there to fulfill energy needs. If people would not be there what will we do with the energy? So my priority will be the people. 

The baton passed to panelist 2. 

P2: So what is ASCI?

Me: Once again dumb faced. Sir, I do not know. 

P2: You are an engineer and you do not know ASCI? (He made a note of it)

Me: Sir are you talking about ASCII? 

P2: Yes

Me: Told him the full form and what it is. 

P2: Any other standard?

Me: Unicode. 

P2: Some EBCDIC?

Me: I do not know. 

P2: Which organisation looks after IT companies?

Me: NASSCOM 

P2: Full form?

Me: Told 

P2: Head?

Me: Here I made a blunder! I told him that I read about Narayan Murthy (which is as wrong as it gets). 

P2: Who is he?

Me: Founder of Infosys. 

P2: Name of any other founders?

Me: Sorry sir, can’t recall. 

P2: Where do you work?

Me: Tesco 

P2: Is it the operation center for Tesco the retailer?

Me: Yes 

P2: What do you do?

Me: Tesco is as of now a legacy, and we are working for bringing it up to date. We are moving to React and SPA's which is the latest in technology (some minor discussion followed)

Also, there was some discussion about E-commerce and Tesco's strategy. 

P2: Is Tesco operational in India?

Me: Yes sir, in association with Tata. Under 51% FDI in multi brand retail. Eg. Star Bazaars. 

P2: Is Walmart present in India?

Me: Sir, I am sure about Walmart labs. I also recalled reading about Walmart's investment in fruit markets in North India, so yes. 

P1: So which college are you from?

Me: MVIT 

P1: Is it NIT?

Me: No ma’am, it’s regional. 

P1: You took a drop?

Me: Yes Ma’am. 

P1: Who is Visvesvaraya?

Me: I told everything I knew about him covering points like: Engineer, Bharat Ratna, KSR dam, Hyderabad drainage system, engineer’s day, Dewan of Mysore. 

P1: Any other famous scientists who know about?

Me: CV Raman, Ramanujan. Sorry Ma’am, I can’t recall more names. 

Thank you!  

Verdict: Converted!

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