From May 2015

May 19, 2015

JBIMS GA WAT PI – How to prepare

We had organized a JBIMS call getters meet last Sunday and this post is a brief of what got discussed and some key takeaways for those who could not make it. This post is also on how one can prepare for JBIMS GA WAT and PI. We discussed the following points:

1. Why JBIMS?
2. Faculty information and institute activities
3. MMS v/s M.Sc. Finance
4. Group Activity
5. WAT
6. Personal Interview preparation

We had kept some time for queries towards the end. Coming to the individual points:

1. Why JBIMS?

A lot of people want to get into JBIMS. Why? The answer shouldn’t really be ‘placement’ or ‘money’ (panelists don’t really appreciate students bringing in these topics during the interview. They know the underlying motive. But try to avoid talking about these things). Instead, focus on the following points. There might be additional reasons and you should include them in your answer somewhere.

- Return on investment. For around 2 lac fee structure, you definitely get more than what you spend. Doesn’t make sense to call it ROI but the value that you get far exceeds the cost you incur. Put it in subtle words.
– Brand value. JBIMS has been there since 1965. For quite some time, it was the only institute offering management education in Mumbai.
– Exclusive professors. Fortunately, there are professors who teach only at JBIMS (occasionally, they also teach in other institutes but have been associated with JBIMS for a really long time). Learning from them is not just learning but learning from 30+ years of experience which is a hell of a lot of value addition.
– Quality of students. Till last year, through CET and other exams (and during my time as a student at JBIMS), only 99.9+ percentilers have made it to JBIMS. Students have diverse backgrounds and experiences adding to the batch quality.
– Location – Being in Mumbai, it’s always easy for corporates to visit JBIMS for industry interaction and placements.
– Alumni network. A lot of companies started visiting the campus because of the work that JBIMS alumni did in the industry. (Read why McKinsey comes to JBIMS)
– Student driven. Considering 8-9 odd student committees and clubs, 50-60% of the batch is involved in some or the other activity. Students drive most of the activities on campus.

2. Faculty information and student activities

A lot of people have been speculating as to who will be there on the panel. In our view, core and visiting faculty will be called to conduct the process. One can find the list of core and visiting faculty on JBIMS website. Coming to student activities, there are three clubs in the institute (Consulting, Finance, Marketing) and nine student committees (Alumni, Corporate, Student, E-cell, Catalyst, Infrastructure, Placement, Strategym, Web). One aspect that most of the candidates miss out on is talking about what they would like to do once they are a part of the institute. Someone who is keen on marketing can definitely talk about joining the marketing club if one gets through

3. MMS v/s M.Sc. Finance

MMS being the flagship program, the value that MMS offers is definitely greater than M.Sc. Finance. Having said that, it’s a good option for those who are focused on Finance and for some reason, not able to get through the MMS program. Far better than doing MMS from some tier 2 institute, IMHO. It will take some time to get recognition from the industry the way JBIMS flagship MMS program gets, but it will happen for sure. Plus, the student intake is only 30 for M.Sc. Finance and it’s easier to compete in 30 students than in 120 students (depending on your preference for competition). Also, it’s half as hectic as the MMS program which gives you ample time to do additional certificate courses related to Finance (CFA, FRM, etc.). For placements of MMS program, click here. For M.Sc. Finance placements, click here.

4. Group Activity

In two days from now, we will come to know what kind of Group Activities are being given to the candidates. We conducted a case based GA for the students who were present at the session with 5 minute reading and 15 minute discussion time. Total closure in 30 minutes flat. You can try this group activity here (The objective of this activity is to individually rank the list of culprits and then as a group arrive at the final ranking of culprits. It’s quite obvious that in such cases, there are no right or wrong answers but what ultimately matters is how the group works out a solution considering the points raised by the group members).

5. WAT

WAT topics will mostly be generic topics/current affairs. Reading what has happened in India and the world will help. Topics which people can read about (indicative) are:

Greece and the Eurozone Crisis, Section 66A, Opposition to the Land Acquisition Act, ISIS, Jan DhanYojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, The National River Linking Project, Mangalyaan and the Poverty Conundrum, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, Maharashtra Beef Ban, Make in India, Railway Budget, Union Budget, Air India, euthanasia, Uber Cabs incident, Disaster preparedness and Cyclone Hudhud, Air Travel Safety, Mumbai SEZ, Cricket: No more gentleman’s game, The BBC Documentary Ban, IIT/IIM Subsidies, Barack Obama’s visit to India, Delhi Elections and Victory of the Common Man, Black Money and the impact on India’s economy, India’s Defense Budget, Judicial Activism in India.

They say every story has three parts. The beginning, the conflict and the end or the resolution. Similarly, WAT submission should have a structure. Write it as an article and make sure that you stick to the word limit. Keep it to the points. Use relevant quotes and figures, only if you are sure.

6. Personal Interview

Based on our experience of mentoring more than thousand students over the last few years, we know what it takes to crack a PI. A commonly asked question is if one can prepare for PI which in reality should be an ongoing process. One can definitely prepare for PI and the starting point is your CV/resume. One must know everything that’s there on one’s profile. Ask ‘Wh’ questions. For example: Why did you take up engineering? What was your exact role in the organization? Where did you do a particular project. These questions will help you gather scattered pieces of information about your own life and will be easy to recollect during the interview stage. Find things that you think are trivial and see if they are relevant or significant. For example, one might think that winning a debate competition in a random college fest is not relevant. but it brings out a lot of qualities in you and should be mentioned somewhere.

Talk to your parents, colleagues, and friends and ask them if they remember the course of your life. Ask them your strengths and areas of improvements. External feedback is extremely useful at this stage. During the interview, bring out what’s unique to you and why you are different from others. Highlight your achievements. The interviewer will trust what you say if he/she thinks that you are saying it with conviction and confidence. Don’t lost hope if you find interview is not going in the right direction. Ask for more time if you can’t recollect an answer. Don’t go rehearsed. Attend mock interview(s) one or two days before the final interview. It will definitely help you become better.

We also suggest reading our article on GA WAT and PI here.

Shashank Prabhu (L) and Prasad Sawant (R)

JBIMS call getters. Shashank in action.

Group Activity

All the best for the process. In case you want to have your profile reviewed or simply want any assistance with regards to personal answers/interviews, you can drop a mail to learningroots42 [at] gmail [dot] com.

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May 14, 2015

JBIMS Call getters workshop

•   Have a JBIMS call?
•   Want to maximize your chances of converting it?
•   Want to know what to expect from the panelists when it comes to the interview and GA/WAT?
•   Want to know what an MBA from JBIMS translates to in the corporate world?
•   Want to know the goings on in the institute and what it means and takes to be a part of JBIMS?
•   Unsure of whether to go for JBIMS or take up another college or wait for a year?
•   Want to get out of the rut of getting rejects from top b-schools in spite of ‘good’ interviews?
•   Want to put in your best effort to convert the final call of the season? Read more

May 13, 2015

Strategies to convert your JBIMS call

The suspense regarding the final biggie of the season has finally ended. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) has come out with its shortlist of candidates for the next round to be conducted in the final week of May. We at Learningroots, attempt to identify a few aspects with regards to the process, and touch upon the DOs and DON’Ts of the GA, PI and WAT.

Weightage to written score:

Till last year, when students used to get into JBIMS post the Centralized Admission Process (CAP), there used to be a significant weight given to the written score. Till 2013 when the GD/PI processes were conducted, the weightage used to be as high as 83%. So, it cannot be completely ruled out this year too irrespective of the autonomy of the process. However, as is seen across campuses that give a high weightage to written scores, people bordering on the cutoffs do make it into these institutes. The conversion rate would be lower but the chances of making it through a solid performance in the coming stages cannot be undermined. So, if you are right on the edge, instead of wondering what the weightage would be, we would urge you to use this period to the fullest and make a strong case with regards to your candidature.

How to crack the WAT?

The Written Assessment Test/Written Ability Test is a tool that is usually used to understand your personality and your thought process. It is particularly useful to negate the shortcomings of a Group Discussion. Considering that the admission process would ideally want you to showcase your ability to think deep and express yourself, the topics are generally broad and open to perspective. Of course this does not mean that a well read and aware candidate has no advantage.

A few things that can be done to improve your skill would be:

Brush up on current affairs topics: The panelists who set topics for the WAT would look for something that is relevant and recent and so, it would be a nice idea to go through a few current topics from the last few months.

Write a one page summary of a few topics to make sure you get the flow right: Typically any written assignment will have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. In the introduction part, you will have to give an insight into the topic and an overview of what would be covered in the subsequent paragraphs. In the main body, you can split the content into smaller fragments either as positive or negative impact or on the basis of the event’s social, political, economic, legal, technological and environmental impact and so on. The conclusion can be a summary of your views or a stand that you intend to take in case the topic demands you to do so.

If the topic is in the form of a question, you would have to take a stand on the basis of your arguments: After the body of your essay is written, you would have to conclude your thoughts on the topics and come up with a final stand or ‘solution’ to the main statement/question. While it is understandable that deep issues cannot be answered through a 15-20 minute writing assignment, the reason for it is to understand what steps you take while dealing with ambiguity. Is it a data driven approach or a practical approach or a radical one or if you have overlooked certain important factors while forming your conclusion and so on.

Use as few cliches as possible and keep the language as uncomplicated as possible: It is a misconception that flowery language and poetic rendition of the topic gets brownie points. At the end of the day, the objective is not to understand if your vocabulary is up to the mark. So, it is better to break down your ideas into smaller, grammatically correct sentences instead of using too many ands, ors, whiles, sinces, semicolons and commas and the like. Let your essay be as crisp as possible so that it makes the maximum impact.

How to crack the GD/GA?

The basic idea of a GD/GA is to understand if you can function in a group or not. Content and communication are two aspects of a GD/GA that are important from a panelist’s point of view. For content, you can follow the same steps as you would for WAT. When it comes to communication, it would be helpful if a Group Activity can be thought of as a role play to determine whether an individual understands his/her role and if s/he does justice to the role that is being played. Broadly, the role play would be as follows:

The moderator: Moderates the group, brings the group back to the main discussion if the members deviate by a bit, allows other individuals who haven’t participated to participate in the discussion, keeps a track of time, notes down the points and keeps summarizing from time to time, etc.

The idea generator: Ideally someone who has a lot of handy facts pertaining to the discussion, generates an argument to be discussed by the group, probably the most glamorous role in a GD which a majority strive to don although it could negatively impact one’s candidature big time if not played well

The antagonist: Someone who differs from the general consensus and puts forth strong arguments for the same, allows a discussion to happen so that multiple aspects of a topic are covered, can get carried away and get into an argument mode which can impact the individual’s candidature negatively

The supporting cast: Side with either the idea generator or the antagonist and come with supplementary points, most of the time there is significant repetition though and so, it is very difficult for someone to top the GA by being in this bracket

The martyr: The silent spectator, oppressed by the group, not allowed to speak or does not have any points to contribute or is too shy to enter a GA, every GD/GA looks like a fish market to this individual and would end up, in all probability at the bottom of the points table

There would be multiple characters in every GA and to gain from the exercise, one has to understand which bracket one falls in and then, improve accordingly. While building content is difficult at this point in time, one can easily enter the moderator’s group and showcase a bit of content as well to at least stay safe during the process.

How to crack the interview?

Most of the candidates lose out on a final admit in the first two minutes of their interviews. The two most common questions, which every aspirant prepares for ironically eliminate quite a few candidates from the process. The two questions are “Tell us something about yourself” and “Why MBA?” While the answers seem pretty straightforward, there are quite a few undertones one might miss on if one does not get the answers reviewed to get an external perspective. One might feel that the answers are perfect but there are certain things that might unintentionally be conveyed through the answers that are prepared. Also, many a time, over preparedness and rehearsed answers are frowned upon which might tempt the interviewer to throw you out of your comfort zone and turn the interview into a stress based one. So, the bottom-line is, get your answers reviewed from a few, competent people. And practice the tone, pitch, expressions, gestures, etc. in front of a mirror on in a mock interview to get rid of the butterflies. In addition to these questions, you should prepare for the important personal questions including your strengths and weaknesses, examples of leadership, biggest success and failure, an achievement you are proud of, something you did that you regret, example of conflict resolution and so on.

To start with the rest of the interview prep, you can draft a 2-3 page CV highlighting your academic/extracurricular/professional achievements. Include as many of your achievements as possible and try grilling yourself to at least two levels of questioning. For example: if you have mentioned a project that you had done, make sure that you structure the same in a linear format to avoid getting jumbled up during the interview. You can start with the decision behind picking up the project (make sure that you come across as someone who has enthusiastically picked the project and it was not imposed on you, even if that is indeed the truth), the manner in which you proceeded, the outcome and the follow up. Then, be ready to answer any questions related to the core content of the project and so on. This will bring a structure to your answers and you would be able to put forth your achievements in a better manner. Again, it would be a good idea to ask some experienced hand to run through your answers and modify them accordingly to avoid any unforeseen circumstances during your interview.

Given the time frame and the stakes involved, it is extremely crucial to make sure that you start your preparation as soon as possible and improve significantly with each coming day.