ISB Hyderabad Interview Experience

Hotel Intercontinental Eros, 3rd November, New Delhi. Result: Rejected after interview.

Looking at my proflie I would say I had a very good chance at ISB, simply because they are looking forward to people joining from different backgrounds, sailors, doctors, defence personnel and the likes.

I reached the venue half an hour before my scheduled time (9:00 am). I met three other candidates there – a DRDO scientist, an Armyman and an IPS.

Before the interview everyone was given a word to write a short essay on. In our case it was the same for everyone, our word was BIAS.

I was ushered in by Mr. Rao. and seeing only one other person in the room, I knew that the alumnus wasn’t coming.

The interview was pretty straight forward, no Why MBA and stuff. The questions were largerly profile based and even the case-in-point question was related to shipping. I answered the questions well and handled the CIP question *very* well. They asked me about my hobbies which I had put on my resume – chess – What is en passant? , photography – which camera did I own, what if I use older film SLR camera lenses on newer digital bodies, what will happen to the focal length. I handled both questions *very* well because I’m really into chess and photography.

At the end I was given an opportunity to ask them questions. I asked What does ISB want to be known for in the future? What is it doing towards AICTE approval? When companies come for campus placements do they have a favourite major amongst students? Mr. Rao remarked that he hadn’t been asked that question before and checked some stats on his mobile. I lastly asked about the fee and whether it could go down or no. All in all they weren’t able to answer a single question comprehensibly.

I had read an interview experience on www.accepted.com and it read “…Not at all impressive, and very poor representation. Changed my opinion of the school to worse. Prepare to be intimidated, dealt with in a tough and upper handed manner.” The student got accepted.

If I were on the adcom of ISB I would want people like me to join. Anyways I later got to know that I hadn’t made it. The worst part is that I don’t know why…

Advice: NONE. Reason: I got dinged.