"After the strenuous task of completing the application form with a unmitigated Statement of Purpose , now comes the final milestone of selection procedure-The interview"
It was a stress Interview in operations management area at IIM Raipur
Actors: Chetna (Me), Three Panelists P1, P2 & P3
Me: May I come in Sir?
P1: Chetna are you carrying your mobile phone?
Me: Yes sir, but it is switched off.
P1: Please keep it outside, you shouldn't have carried it (I keep the phone outside, and come back).
P2: Please tell us something about yourself which is not there in application form.
Me (stressed as I had mentioned everything in application form): I worked in shop-floor for two years....
P2: This is already mentioned.
Me: Let me complete Sir. .....I had not-so-good decision making skills, but in factory I was answerable for too many stakeholders including my subordinates who looked upto me for solutions. So my decision making skills have improved eventually.
P1: Tell me will you join IIM Raipur (I had already told them the fact that I had call from other IIMs as well) and if yes why?
Me: Probably I will. I interacted with seniors here and liked everything about it.
P3: You can't assess a institute in two days.
Me: Probably I will join (Pause for some seconds)
P1& P2: See we have proved that your decision making skills haven't improved yet.
Me: (Pause for sometime)
P3: Why did you go for a job after engineering. If you were really interested in further studies, you could have tried joining FPM after Graduation. You have never applied for any master's program. Looks like you came here just like that.
Me: Sir My area is operations management , I worked in the same area for 2+ years. While working I worked on some projects in operations area which were research based. From there I fell in love with OM(Operations Management), and this is the reason I left job and came here. I want to deep dive into this area with a good research work.
P2: It is evident from your resume that you resigned already. You could have resigned after selection. There are other candidates from Infosys etc. who haven't resigned and came for interviews.
Me: Sir working in a manufacturing setup is far different from working in IT services. I had to be there in factory for 12 hours , responsible for each operation, answerable to all stake holders. Unlike offices factories are into 24X7 operations. I was finding it difficult to cope up with my studies while working.
(I committed a grammatical error while framing the above sentence, and to my utter embarrassment, the panelist corrected it with a pinch of sarcasm)
P1: So tell me what are the inputs for good operations in a factory.
Me:Overall equipment efficiency (OEE)
P1 & P2: Think again. This is not the answer.
Me: we take the efficiency of complete line including setup, logistics and end of line operations in OEE.
P3: Think again. What to do you do to maintain it?
Me: maintenance (pause for few seconds)
P3: Yes so the answer is....
Me: Planned maintenance and other pillars of TPM as well.
P1: Tell all the steps of TPM and Japanese nomenclature of 5 S
Me: I answer it (with some correction by P1)
P2: Tell me how do you maintain Quality?
Me: We do it by Quality assurance
P1: How is Quality assurance different from quality control.
Me: QA includes complete assurance of quality in every task , from design of the process, procurement of raw materials to delivery final customer.............." (completed the answer)
P3: How is operations management different from operations research?
Me: OR is a part of OM. OM includes HR & OB as well. OR is purely operations......
P1: What is supply chain management?
(I answer, they accept it after many corrections & cross questions)
P2: I am still not convinced that you want to join this course.
Me: I have a orientation towards research, which is also evident from my B.Tech 2nd year & Final year projects (Meanwhile they go through my folder and 2nd year project details. It includes my photo with the vehicle we fabricated for SAE INDIA Efficycle 2010.
P1 & P2: this is not you in the pic
Me: Sir , It's me but a four year old pic
P1: tell me frankly if you genuinely want to join FPM. I am still not convinced.
Me: Sir I applied for it only because I wanted to join. And that is all I want to say.
(P1 & P2 look at each other) : I think we are done.
*I leave with a heavy heart.*
Final Result : Selected
Nice, thank you 🙂
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