The selection process at IBS reminds me of my days when I was preparing for cracking one of the good mba colleges. I have cleared the IBSAT exam and received the call for GD and Personal interview at Banzara Hills Hyderabad. I started preparing seriously for the interview as I wanted to crack one of the good colleges  of IBSAT.

In order to crack the interview I started reading the business newspaper and hearing the  business news and brushing  my financial and overall knowledge. The college has also organized the briefing session at different cities, I have also attended one, they have cleared our doubts as well as they shown PPT of their campuses and also explained everything regarding the route map , the hotels , the travelling plans, the fee structure , the placement, faculty and USP of the college.
On the date of selection we have to reach the selection venue at 7.30 am and there being first the college head dean speech.

The students were grouped in batches of 10 and there was a two step process first GD round and then personal interview round.
My batch no was 13 so I got a chance to ask and get a feeler about the topics that are going on.
In my batch there are 4 engineer, one chartered accountant and 5 commerce graduates, we started talking among each other and unanimously decided that we will not fight among each other like people fight in market place and will maintain a good decorum.

Our group no for GD being called and we all entered the room and taken the seat, In the panel there were three people as our judge one is the observer who is noting our behavior, leadership qualities and soft skills, and two faculties who are hearing our GD and deciding the quality points the person making etc.

The topic which we got was in the GD is “India in 2020” I started the topic and taken the lead, I have covered points like India has a great demand pull because of its young population, India can be a good manufacturing hub as our labour are cheap, starting a business in Indian regime is easy compared to other countries, Indian has diverse culture and string tourism potential.

Other people in the group has added points and I always try to add value to the discussion by adding or elaborating the points of others so in a 15 min Discussion I make an entry 3 to 4 times and I kept my pitch at a moderate level and tried to act as a leader in rotating the discussion as there are two people who have not spoken anything so I asked please add your valuable point to the discussion.

The  next round was personal interview – I entered the room and greeted the teachers they ask me to take a seat , I presented my resume in a most polite way as I am sharing the most important document of my life.

The interview began with personal questions like tell us about your family, about your city etc after the easy round and making me comfortable one judge asked why I wanted to do an MBA, though the question simple but answer need to be witty I explained that MBA is not about getting a degree but it creates a new perspective in life, it helps in developing the skill set as well as it trains to cope real life challenges and I wanted to become an entrepreneur so it will be helping me a lot, then the question being asked how you are different from others, in this I explained the key USP I have like good interpersonal skill, good understanding of things, doing things in crisp deadlines, I also explained the things with examples, then they have asked questions from finance like is the cost of equity is higher or cost of debts , difference between IRR and NPV, what is beta value etc.

After my interview I gone to meet the bank stalls which were there in the campus to understand what is the interest rate they are charging for education loan and what is the moratorium period.

At around 4.30 pm we gathered in a tent where the result are announced, I have filled IBS Gurgaon as the first preference as I belong to Allahabad so Gurgaon is a better option for me as travel is easy between Gurgaon and Allahabad and Gurgaon past year placement record was good.

When my number was announced I being allotted Gurgaon my preferred choice, I thank God for giving me my choice center.

Contributed By : Maneesh Srivastava, Class of 2008, IBS Gurgaon