A Portrait of All-round Excellence -Serena Kallian

Just as Sulagna Dasgupta was about to leave the room after her PGDCM interview at IIM Calcutta, one of the interviewers rose, shook her hands and said, “We wish you all the best...you have a bright future ahead of you...we never say this to any candidate.” Not so surprising when you meet this young lady, brilliant but humble; focussed and confident. Sulagna has always been an exceptional student –she secured 92% in the West Bengal Higher Secondary Examinations and even more notably, stood 4th in the entire state in the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations held for admission to engineering courses. She maintained a 9 plus GPA throughout every semester in college. Of course, this did not stop her from doing a lot of other things too. It is perhaps not surprising that Sulagna aced the MBA entrance process too with converted calls to all 7 IIMs. Now, a first year student of the PGP Class of 2011 at IIM Ahmedabad, she shares her admissions experiences with readers of Advanc’edge MBA:

What is your aim in life and how do you expect the MBA to help you achieve that?
My short term goal is to take up a position of responsibility in any organisation, but the role should be such that it helps me get a wider view of how a business functions. My ultimate goal is to become a part of the decision-making and strategic leadership team of my organisation. I believe that the MBA programme is going to equip me with all the concepts and some of the knowledge that I’ll need to apply in my job to reach that position. Besides, having made it to one of the best institutes for management education globally, I also expect to get specific placement assistance at the very start of my career.

Going back to your CAT preparations, what would you say was your weakest area ? What were your weakest areas when you first started preparing for the test and how did you work on (or around) those?
Doing an MBA after graduation was my goal right from my Higher Secondary (10+2) days. I had studied in the vernacular medium till class 10, and so I thought English, both in the CAT as well as during spoken interactions could be a problem for me. So I read English books regularly and started watching English news and movies (I didn’t do this very regularly though). About a year before the CAT, I joined a good library (Ramakrishna Mission, Golpark, Kolkata.). I would go there everyday after college and would read books on philosophy, history, sociology, art etc. Most of the time, I tried to apply speed reading techniques taught by our teachers at the coaching classes that I attended. I even recorded my reading time. However later, around August 2008 or so, as I got busy with revision and mock tests, I became irregular at the library.

After the mock tests started, I discovered DI as an area of concern. For that I went back to the BRMs, and solved many sets. Also I revised the DI part of the tests thoroughly. I had gathered older material from various training centres through my seniors and friends. I solved some of the DI problems there. But towards the end of my preparation period, I stopped revising the more difficult sets – the ones which I knew I wouldn’t be able to solve in the exam hall anyway.

Can you tell us a little about the GD-PI processes at the Institutes where you got admission?
At IIM A, we had to write an essay (in place of the GD) and were given ten minutes for that. The topic in my case was “The rise of women in economic and political spheres is more of an aberration than a norm.” The PI was quite long and structured. They asked me first about my subject, then about my hobbies, and this was followed by politics. The academic part was pretty detailed and they asked quite a few minute questions from my area, which is electronics. As part of my extra-curricular activities, I had mentioned working with a wildlife NGO; so they asked me detailed and factual questions pertaining to that sector - how many tigers there are in India, poaching rackets, number of endangered species in India, etc. In politics, we discussed a recent event.

At IIM B, the GD was for 20 min which was followed by a written summary of the discussion to be handed over in about 15 minutes. The topic centred around maintaining corporate governance standards and the role of board members. In the interview, they asked me a little about my career goals and quite extensively about my academic achievements. I remember one particular question they had asked, “What parameters would you use to choose an IIM if selected by all?”

At IIM C, the GD lasted for about 10 minutes, as far as I can remember. After the entire discussion, each one was given a minute to either summarize the discussion, or add his own points - whichever he chose to do. The discussion was around the contention that democracy is responsible for the present financial meltdown. The interview panel comprised four members and they were very friendly. It was a completely unstructured interview. They asked me about one of my hobbies - running a website on self-improvement - why I did it, how I motivate myself, what advice would I give to someone who’s feeling afraid and needs to feel confident and such questions.

The interview for the PGDCM at IIM-C was however, much more academics-oriented and they posed questions from a computer course we’d done. I have to admit I couldn’t solve that or the geometry problem that they had set. I do remember one distinctive thing - they asked me to rate my performance in the GD. I gave myself 5 out of 10 – the GD for PGDCM had been a bit of a fish-market affair and I could hardly chip in. But I’d made my points pretty well in the one minute given to us at the end. But I was still surprised when the panel told me that my performance had been very good in the GD. At any rate, I did manage to convert the call.

The processes in most of the other IIMs were more or less similar, with minute changes here and there. But I do remember that I felt a little stressed throughout the interview at IIM K. There were quite a few instances when the panel made comments such “You’re talking like a non-engineer” or, “That’s all you know?”

What do you feel were the strongest factors in your favour that helped you convert all these calls?
I think it was my strong fundamentals in academics combined with the fact that I had strong co-curricular achievements - 4 of my technical papers have been published, one of them has been presented in an international conference sponsored by IEEE, and is now in the IEEE Xplore. They also seemed to be impressed by the unusual extracurricular activities that I pursued. I maintain a website on self-improvement, through which I provide free individual e-counseling to people who write to me and I have also worked in a wildlife NGO, as I said earlier. My PIs went well, but I would not call them extraordinary.

Honestly, how did you manage to balance all this with CAT Preparation?
I used to try to set a routine for each of my days so that I could squeeze in my other activities. Of course, I gave much higher priority to the actual preparation for the CAT exam and interviews than these. But in hindsight, they did help me a lot in my interviews too, because in almost all of them, I was asked about my hobbies and extra-curricular activities. Sadly however, I don’t really find any time for these now.

Did you get any calls which you could not convert through the GD-PI? What went against you there?
I had received a call from XLRI BM. I had a XAT percentile of 99.92 but was wait listed at 48 after the final rounds. The interview at XLRI had been quite a long one. There were 3 panelists who questioned and cross-questioned me on my career goals. Forexample, they asked me which sector I wanted to join after completing the degree. I tried to side-step it, but eventually they made me answer. I mentioned telecommunication, but then they asked me why tariffs were coming down in telecom. I couldn’t answer that question upfront. They did guide me step by step to the answer, though. They also asked what area other than my own I had come prepared for – when I said, economics they asked me why sectors were being selectively bailed out and I could not give a satisfactory answer.

It’s a little difficult to say what went wrong. But first of all, I couldn’t veer the interview towards discussion of my strong points, which were good academics and extracurriculars. Besides, I was nervous from the beginning. I have also heard that XLRI attaches a lot of importance to work experience, but I would not like to use that as my excuse.

Finally, having attended all these sessions, what is the most important advice that you would give prospective candidates?
Most importantly, be yourself. Do not let yourself project even a hint of overconfidence. Be totally honest and humble.
Apart from that, try to be as well prepared (knowledge-wise) as possible. The knowledge itself may or may not come in useful. But it will give you the confidence you badly need in the interview. For example, in the XLRI-BM interview, there was no way I could have known the answers to some of the questions I was asked – not even if I were prepared to the hilt. But I could still have performed better if not for the fact that I was nervous. And I was nervous because at that point of time my preparation was not up to my satisfaction.