PGDBA Interview Experiences – Part 1

Madhur Modi takes up the onus of compiling interview experiences of students currently enrolled in PGDBA 2015-17 batch. The aim is to provide a general idea about the profile of the students and their respective interview experiences to help aspirants prepare better for the big day.

PS – The interview panel consisted of three members.

Bharathi Ramaraj – B.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering; International Chess Player

“I introduced myself as a chess player. And the first thing that followed was why I wanted to pursue Analytics, being a chess player. I said, I wanted to make an impact, also decision making plays a big role in analytics thus being a chess player gives me the apt mindset in the field. I gave real-life examples where I used chess playing skills and also highlighted my enthusiasm towards chess by describing how I view situations as a chessboard and how I involve members as pieces playing the game. The panelists gave me new situations to test my viewpoint by letting me turn the interview into a game of chess where the panelists and I were pieces on the board. I took up the problem and described various strategies that I had at my disposal. I spoke at length about the best strategy that I would deploy to win the game. They also asked about the factors which led me to pursue analytics like my placement in an analytics company and why I wanted to complete postgraduate studies. To this I replied, doing it now would help me save time and gain an early advantage which will be very valuable in the long run. My interview was relatively short compared to other candidates.”

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Shashank Kumar -B.Tech in EEE , 2.5+ years of experience in VLSI design

“I was the first person to be interviewed at my center. The conversation started with current affairs and the morning news. The analytics projects during my engineering were heavily focused upon. Technical questions included topics like probability, regression, various types of regression and analysis of the quality of fit based on residual plots. The interview spanned around 15 minutes. In hindsight, I think it was a pretty short interview”

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Sajal Jain – Class representative (PGDBA 2015-2017),B.Tech in Civil Engineering with 4 years of experience in software industry

“My interview wasn’t strictly a technical one. The few questions included questions on differentiability and continuity and other basic mathematical concepts. My interview majorly focused on how, in my view, my background of civil engineer with more than 4 years of experience in software industry would indulge in a career in analytics and add a different value and perspectives to the batch. The questions were not at all tough so I would advise the candidates to be firm in their basics”

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Ayan Sengupta, a fresher who has done BSc and MSc in mathematics and computing

“Having a background different from most of the other candidates, my interview was naturally quite unique in its own way. I expected a tough line of questioning from the panelists but my interview consisted of aptitude questions such as how I would find a method for the CEO of the company I work in to cross a river given that he doesn’t know swimming. There were also other puzzles such as –  Why manholes are round and simple mathematical questions covering number theory . The interview was around 20-25 minutes long.”

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Shoorvir Gupta, a fresher in mechanical engineering and an IES aspirant

“My interview started with the description of my college and grades. I mentioned my college life and how I became inclined towards gaming, had all A’s in technical subjects, very high CAT score and a 10 pointer in internship. The rest of the interview was focused on IES and related questions to various fields in IES, questions on strength of material and on boilers and its parts (mechanical subjects). Technical questions were mostly around probability and statistics and its applications. Towards the end of the interview they also asked about my background and hometown related questions.”

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Ritwik Prashant, a fresher with B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering and amongst the most meticulous students within the batch  

“I started with my introduction and how I was in touch with analytics (Coursera courses). I also described my interests in fantasy football where one has to apply optimizations and statistics in decision making. Technical questions were based around matrices where they made a deep dive until they touched unfamiliar topics. Being a fresher from IIT Madras, they also questioned me about my college placement and my orientation towards this course rather than taking up a job. Thus my entire interview was based on the initial steer I had provided with my introduction.”

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Pranita Khandelwal, a fresher with dual degree (EEE and Economics)

“The interview started off with the recurring question about my degrees- how I ended up studying both Economics and EEE.  Later, I was tested on my knowledge of econometrics, and the panel asked some conceptual questions on linear regression and decision making using hypothesis testing. This was followed by questions related to my projects and internships .”

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Avinash Kumar, a mechanical engineer with 2.5 years of manufacturing experience

“I steered my interview with my introduction towards my college project at USA and my job profile description. The questions covered as to how I could apply data analytics to these projects and how other projects such as six sigma projects are related to analytics. Among technical questions, most of them were based on geometry and also tested my creativity and open mindedness. I had applied through GATE and was oriented towards aerodynamics so I mentioned why I wanted to pursue an analytics career and implement analytics in aerodynamics sector. I highlighted my orientation with awards (NASA system engineering award-1st prize) and description of college project. Even though most of the other candidates had 15 minute interviews that day, mine was a lengthy 35 minute one.”

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Mukul Kumar, a mechanical engineer with 2.5 years of manufacturing experience and with same background as Avinash Kumar

“Just like Avinash, I steered my interview with my introduction towards why I wanted to pursue analytics. I mentioned how I had researched and gained opinion about analytics from my peers and seniors and felt that the course aligns with my interests in mathematics and thus I can do justice to the course. Technical questions included mathematical ones (hyperbolic functions and their graphs, differentiation,1st differentiation principle and limit) but none on mechanical engineering.  I had also applied through GATE and was asked  the interview calls I had received. There were also questions based on puzzles and a few questions from written test which we had given during the pre-interview process.”

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Sujan Biswas – BSc and MSc in chemistry,  2.75 years of experience in Banking and financial services

“My panelists began with questions about my background and current job profile and drifted over to mathematical questions covering even and odd functions and matrices. Other questions included optimization based questions and decision making problems such as the methods and parameters one would use to determine whether to provide a loan to an individual or not. There were also situational problems such as – Given that Ph.D students have a higher default rate but high profits and MBA students have lower default rate and lower profits, how would you define your business. Overall my interview was nice and the panelists were not grilling.”

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Mohammed Tariq, B.Tech in computer science in engineering, 10 months of experience in Business intelligence

“Prior to joining the course, I described my experience of a 6-month certification course in analytics. I was also asked about statistics. They asked in-depth questions on calculus going to the levels at which I could not solve. Since I have already done a PG course which used R programming language, Tableau tool and projects, I answered what subjects I learned during the course, experience of the course and my development of interest in PGDBA after completing the course. The interview was mainly focused on my interests in analytics.”