IIMA Interview

Date: 5th Mar'09

Venue: IIFT, New Delhi

Pre-Interview Details: Interview was at 2. I reached at 1:30. They took roll call. Divided into 3 panels. Motioned us to our halls. To everyone' surprise they started at 1:45.

A little heads up here. I was at my goofiest best.

They ushered us in a room for essay writing. I took the form where essay was to be written and went inside. I didnt carry my certificate file with me inside. Now there was a round table around which we were all seated. Round table had no section from where you could enter the well of round table.

And it was IIMA. Things had to happen. I placed my form on the table. The moment i sat on my seat and laid my heavy arms on the table, a gust of wind blew and carried my form into the well. Now i was looking around..hoping that no one had seen it. But everyone was staring at me and laughing. One of the prof(P1) said, "Anurag i have already deducted 1 mark for this. So how do you intend to retrieve it"

I sat on the table on my ass, spun around, picked the form, sat on the table on my ass, spun around again and the task was done. Everyone was laughing.

It doesnt end here

Prof gave instructions that we had to submit our certificates with the essay form at end of scheduled time. My head went for a toss. Hadn't brought my certs. I got up, told the prof(P2) that i had left my file outside. Prof said,"So Anurag i have deducted another mark, go get your file"...everyone was laughing. I got my file and essay started.

Essay - "Recession is the mother of all innovation"
Wrote some good points. We got 10 minutes for this.

Interview: I was fifth in line. Average interview duration for candidates before me was 20-25 minutes and general reaction after the interview was," Accha nahin hua. Bahut maar rahe hain".

After long wait P1 came out. Looked at me, smiled and said," So Mr. negative 2, why dont you come in for interview"...
I was thinking," I am so gonna pay for my little spinning adventure exhibited earlier"

P2 took my file and started going through it. After around 30-40 seconds
P2: Anurag tell em your work profile
ME: BBY, data analysis, segmentation, factor analysis, etc etc. I packed in a lot of detail as he was not interrupting or asking any question.

P2: Anurag go step by step from start and go a little slow
ME: survey, data to us, value segmentation, need segmentation, cluster analysis, etc

P2: Explain cluster analysis
ME: fastclus procedure. Seed selection, observation addition, iteration, minimization of euclidean distances.

P2: What is euclidean distance. Say a point on this table in front of us and one on the ceiling, then what is euclidean distance?
ME: Take a ruler, measure the distance. That's the euclidean distance.

P2: point X1, Y1 and X2, Y2 then euclidean distance
ME: Explained..

P2: Any other distances you know of?
ME: Mahalanobis distance, but sir dont know how it's calculated

P2: Why do we use euclidean distance?
ME: clusters should be close, minimize the intra cluster distance, etc

P2 hands over to P1. P1 was the one who had given me negative 2.

P1: Smiling....Anurag, i was going through your certs. You have almost all A's in first 5-6 semesters except one C. Can you tell me which subject?
Me: Smiling...Sir Human values and professional ethics

P1: Smiling....Anurag what is the explanation?
ME: Sir theory subject. No numerical. Cut-offs very close. I got C at 72. People had A at 78.

P1: Smiling... But for a C-grade professional ethics guy your company pays you pretty well.
Me: Smiling...Sir C is not a reflective of my ethics. I am a very ethical person.

P1: Smiling..So Anurag you seem a guy who is more interested in quantitative side.
At this point i realised he might move to maths..So i cut him while he has talking

ME: Yes sir, we use a lot of statistics at work

P1: Smiling..what statistics
ME: Logistic regression

P1: Why is it called Logistic regression
ME:Because of use of logistic function.

P2: Why logistic. Why not linear..
ME: Explained

P2: What is intercept?
ME: Indicative of probability even when all independent variables are 0.

P2: What does it mean?
ME: Explains the variation that is not accounted for by independent variables

P2: No Anurag, that is something else. Can you tell me what stat measures the explained variation of target variable
ME: Sir coefficient of determination

P2: So intercept term? Can it be the effect of variables not present as input?
ME: Immediately picking his point...Yes sir, it captures the effect of variables that are not included in the model and that effect the target variable.

P2: Anurag, can we use any other function instead of logistic function
ME: Yes sir, we can

P2: Do you know any function
ME: No sir, but we can use the logistic function by changing x to 2x or something. It will still give between 0 and 1.

P2: Anurag have you of probit, tobit?
ME: Yes sir, have heard but never used them.

P2 looks at P1. Both say that they are done. Offer me a candy. Return my file. I wished good afternoon. Came out.

Total of around 8-10 minutes. Dont know what to make outta this. Was very brief and cool interview. No stress.

This was IIMA. Hoping that dream comes true when the results are declared. Till then fingers crossed.

Next stop IIMB...

P.S: Two good looking chicks were there for interview. Ray of hope........ :)

Results: IIMA here i come......