Admission to a premier B-school in the country is not an easy task as I found out after being called by the S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research  (S.P.J.I.M.R) for the Interview Round. I had applied for admission to their one-year P.G.D.M course. Brimming with joy, at finally having broken the jinx of years of preparation for an MBA with no coveted calls to show for, I plunged head on gearing up for the next level in the admission process – the interviews.

Preparing prospective students for MBA entrance examinations has become a big business thanks to the growing demand for the courses. There are a number of big players in the market, helping tides of aspirants, cross the first hurdle of all, the entrance examination. Prominent among them are the T.I.M.E, I.M.S and the Career Launcher. The major USP of these institutes is the faculty – ex students from some of the premier B-Schools of the country. These faculties share their experiences on wide variety of steps in the admission process – from taking the grueling entrance examination like the C.A.T, to clearing the group discussions and the personal interview levels.                               

An aspirant who has received interview calls from any of the top B-Schools can look forward to specially designed structured mentoring workshops, polishing the basic skills needed to perform well in the GD’s and the interviews. “Achiever’s Workshops” from the I.M.S are quite popular among the aspirants fraternity. Such workshops are also customized to mimic B-School specific requirements as I found out while preparing for my interviews.

The interviews held at SPJIMR are a tad different from those at some of the other premier B-Schools. The format of the interviews is modeled along the lines of a Group Discussion with around 7-8 candidates taking the interview in one go. The panel is comprised usually of a couple of professors of the institutes with a student of the current batch being present occasionally. One can expect people from all walks of life including defense personnel, PhDs and entrepreneurs competing on a common platform in the interview process.  The sessions lasting on an average for 45 minutes are informal, testing the aspirants’ behavior in a competitive group. Prospective students would do well to show a strong focus towards pursuing the managerial course with clear goals for a career in management. A strong emphasis is laid on selecting the students with inherent social values and social awareness. Individuals excelling in extra curricular achievements such as representation in National/Regional level sports meets, contributions to media forums, recognized professional certifications and active participation or affiliations to NGO’s reflect development of all–round personalities and hence stand a better chance than others.

With growing popularity of the management courses and increasing number of applicants, the applicants should look at highlighting the factors that distinguish them from the others. Moreover, as the B-Schools look forward to increasing the diversity of batch, aspirants should endeavor to emphasize the value addition that they could provide to the batch if offered admission. Such efforts would keep the applicants in good stead in the interview process thereby helping them to gain admission to the institutes of their choice.