My GD/PI Experience: The Profile-based Interview at SPJIMR

-Prashant Tibrewal

Some nights are longer than usual, but the night before my SP Jain interview was the longest I ever had. It held more of excitement than nervousness though. A call even before CAT results were out had to be special. It is something unusual but SP Jain boasts of being one of the few Indian colleges that attachs as much, if not more, importance to candidates’ profiles than the CAT score. So I am off to Mumbai a day before the D-day and all I have to do is to clear the two rounds of group interview – yes, SP Jain does not have a group discussion, nor a personal interview.

On the day of the interview, like a good candidate, I reached there about half an hour early. Talking to other candidates, I realise that I am not the only smart chap there – I must remind you that this is a profile-based call and all the people whose profile looks good on paper, have been called. After the document verification and other formalities, we are divided into groups of six and directed towards the interview panel – two lady professors waiting with a big smile (which may be indicating their success in dismantling the group before us). “Please introduce yourselves one by one,” said the more friendly looking lady. And here we go, each one of us introducing ourselves, and in the process trying to prove that we are the most talented and promising young lot that humankind has ever produced.

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A Primer on Careers in Advertising

- Shivani Chander

Advertising is all around us: at home, on the TV, on the Internet, radio, newspapers, magazines, and even when you step out into the open, you are bombarded with advertisements on hoardings, buses, hand held signages…it does seem that there is no escaping them! We may discard some of them right away without even a second glance but some stay with us for a long time. Who can forget the smart and money-wise house wife Lalitaji urging us to switch to Surf? Or, the very contemporary Thanda Matlab Coca Cola?

Advertising has become an intrinsic part of our every day life and diminishing product and service level differentiation has only added to the increasing importance of advertising over the last decade. The evidence of this can be gauged by the growing advertising budgets of companies. Although advertising is not an end in itself, and more of a means to build a relationship between the product and the end consumer, it is the main arm of marketing which helps to create demand, promote the marketing system and  in turn boost overall financial prosperity.

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The Month in B-schools

-Complied by Serena Kallian

Stanford Graduate School of Business in India

The Stanford Graduate School of Business have announced a one-day course for executives of Indian companies in Mumbai and Delhi in December 2008. The groundbreaking course would be offered for today’s business leaders to help them learn tactics to connect and to inspire their employees and clients as the theme of the one day programme is  focused on the creation of an emotional engagement with customers & employees. The sessions of the day would be conducted by world renowned professors, Hayagreeva Rao an Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational behavior and human resources Stanford Graduate School of Business & Baba Shiv who is the Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of business. The pedagogy utilized at these sessions would be a mix of case studies, practical tools, media materials and neuro scientific research.

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Broadening Horizons

“Grit and enthusiasm coupled with the urge to tread the road less traveled got me where I am today,” believes Dr Ranjan Sharma, a proud student from the 2009 batch of the two year MMS at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. In conversation with Serena Kallian:
Tell us about yourself and your educational background.

I did my HSC from Ruia College, Mumbai after which I took the medical entrance where I stood 59th in the list and procured admission to GS Medical College also known as KEM. I then did my internship at KEM Hospital. At present I am doing the two year MMS course at JBIMS.

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