IIM-A PI (Morning) Profile: 9/8/7 (B.A.LL.B. - Law) Work-ex: | MBA PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

IIM-A PI
(Morning)
Profile: 9/8/7 (B.A.LL.B. - Law)
Work-ex: 3 years
Panel 2, Sr. No. 1
Panelists: 2M
Total time taken: 20-25 mins

AWT: Basically Byju’s case study (Kinda successful edtech start-up in India facing allegations in the media for their sales tactics and other misconduct, which they have been constantly denying). A comment made by a person: “Media should not indulge in such baseless allegations because it will deter other such young startups, and that’s no good because this is the only way for our country to compete with the developed countries. There should be measures to protect them against such situations.” (paraphrased)
Writing task: Assumptions, points in favour, points that contradict.

PI Transcript:

1.  Work-experience related discussion: Since you have 3 years of work experience, you must know how does a business function, so tell us how does your organization earn revenue? How does it get clients for the first time? Who are the competitors? Why would a client come to you and not any of the other companies?
2.  Why MBA: Since you already have some experience working in corporate, plus a few months of a managerial position as well, what do you think you’ll get from doing an MBA? What is it that you cannot learn while working only?
3.  What do you plan on pursuing post-MBA? [I mention consulting and HR – former because I was in legal consulting, latter because it’s easier for me to defend being a lawyer + the mandatory open to exploring bit]
4.  You mentioned HR, tell me about the labour laws that exist in India? [mentioned some laws plus the four new codes]
5.  What problems that you feel exist with the new codes? [Mentioned some issue related to formation of labour unions under new industrial relations code]
6.  Labour unions discussion: Why are they required? What do they do? Purpose? Comparison with US and Italy, they don’t have these many unions, why can’t we follow their example?
7.  Are you familiar with anti-trust laws? [I said not really] Why? [I said I didn’t have that as a subject during my ug course and never encountered it during the course of my employment]
8.  Farm laws discussion (around 10 mins): Which year did the protests happen? [I said 2019 here, and they were like are you sure, are you sure repeatedly, think of when the pandemic began, and I said yes, sorry it was in June of 2020 when the ordinances were passed] Duration of the protest? Tell about the laws? What issues did the farmers have? Current status? Do you think it is correct for citizens of a country to take to the streets against government? The government must have passed these laws after deliberation, why did the farmers protest? Are you saying that you support their agitation as a matter of principle or because it is something that they are allowed to do? [I said both, right to protest is a FR, right of every citizen, and I do support it, etc etc]  [also mentioned Agniveer protests as a comparison, even though I personally support the policy but it’s how you protest that matters more, peaceful demonstration vs setting fire to public buses, trains, damage to public property] 
9.  Hobbies: What do you like to do during your free time? [mentioned reading] What was the last book you read? What was the theme? Impact?
10.  Great. (looking around) We’re sorry we don’t have a sweet to offer you. [Mine was the first PI, so probably the toffee bowl had not been arranged by that time. But I took one from the bhaiya who was filling the bowls outside. :D]

Overall, good experience with good discussion that didn’t feel too stressful. A loooot of cross-questioning, though. Follow-up questions to almost every answer that I gave. But it didn’t feel like a stress interview. Some familiar questions asked, which was pretty great. Some of the discussion went too deep into particular topics, but it was a good back and forth, I feel.

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