Wednesday 20 April 2011

mysteryCAT

                                                                     CAT Mystery
        “IIM’s are the toughest place to get into”, the tag line we are proud of .So are they having a good admission process to make it easy? With the online CAT and complex interview call procedures, getting into IIM’s needs more luck and strength in academics than anything else.
         Now lets start with online CAT.A revolution to handle increasing number of aspirants (paradox); strength of students has decreased from 2008 to 2010! The statistics applied to normalize the scores was published, but you have to be the 99%tiler to understand it, but paradoxical again. The best statistics person goes for a different stream, not MBA. Now, some complained the online exam tried to copy the best standards but it didn’t copy the GMAT procedure completely. So 20 day slot with normalization was complained by those who didn’t fare well in CAT 2010.Those were the students who had consistently scored above 99%tile in any mock MBA tests(examples are many). In fact, I expected two of my friends to score 99.9x%tile but they failed to rise on that day scoring 90%tile.They can’t normalize the score across more than 34 slots so they had to accept the score with humbleness.
        Then was the start of the different criteria of calling of all IIM’s. A great manager has to be excellent throughout his career (that’s what many IIM’s think).This criteria of selection changes every year giving a false hope to the candidates that they stand a fair chance to be selected the next year because they think the criteria may suit their qualifications next year (they forget interview is still their secret weapon).This surprise calling criteria element after CAT is what makes them tough to predict-a characteristic of a great player. Had this criteria been announced before CAT no. of candidates appearing in XAT>CAT (I assume no facts) as many would have known that by scoring even 100%tile only IIM-C and few others would call them for interview.
       I was lucky this year so became a Blackeye(all calls).My interview started after I worked hard for the interviews. In my 1st  interview I was grilled on acads(graduation courses) for my entire interview. Had I answered even 50% questions, definitely PSU’s would be a cake-walk. Some questions are yet to be answered(I think they have given me the time till next year).In the next institute I was grilled on economics. I had prepared the ‘Crisis of Credit’ to impress them but they were not from economics background,it bounced back on me. Sadly for me the next room panel was good at listening skills. Again, the next institute interview was going great but suddenly the interviewer turned hostile and bombarded me with out of scope acad questions because I have only 1 year of work experience (it’s not my fault). The only 2 institutes I was satisfied with the process are ranked in 5th, 6th of IIM’s. They questioned from everywhere (their fixed format) i.e acad, work ex, HR,current happenings ,logical questions , maths, etc.
    So if I hopefully clear CAT next year strategy to clear interview:
1. Prepare for GATE after giving CAT.
2. Start some exceptional hobbies-nobody writes in his form he plays cricket and reads books of Chetan Bhagat but all must have played Lawn-tennis, Polo, Golf, Swimming ;Blogging is a must(I have started late); you must read Satanic Verses,Freakonomics,etc.
3. Career Goal:Its better you tell that you will pass out from xxx college with job profile as I-banker or Consultant. Risky to start your own venture; they doubt MBAians can’t be entrepreneurs or choose to work with NGO’s.
4. Work profile(experienced only) or graduation project has to be path breaking. I know everybody who is reading this will have to work hard on this aspect. You should have controlled 20+ persons under you or project has to be something like 3-idiots movie’s helicopter with camera.
      So either have an exceptional career or pass out from a great college or clear GATE, GRE to get through interviews for the BIG 4.With such risks involved will this time failed candidates try for next time. Risk analysis is taught in MBA so better calculate                                                              P(getting min. cut-off)*P(getting calls)*P(being lucky in interview)=toughest institute to crack .
      But hard work, determination can make difference .But a clear selection process with marks in every stage disclosed to the candidates will help in clearing the dark cloud. So my personal opinions of some better selection process I will come up in my next article. Hope you enjoyed my long but 1st blog.