Who would be an ideal IIM Candidate for an IIM Professor?

I have split the answer into 2 components:

1. The What Component
2. The How Component

The What Component

There is nothing you cannot learn from Interview Experiences. Here are some success stories:

The IIM-A Interview Experience of Aviral Bhatnagar, 99.99 percentiler

New IIMs Interview Experience by Shivam Arora (CAT'16 98.24 percentiler)

Interview with IIM A Grad and 100 Percentiler Deepak Mehta Part I

Interview Tips from IIM A Grad and 100 Percentiler Deepak Mehta Part II

Interview Tips from IIM A Grad and 100 Percentiler Deepak Mehta Part III

The Why Component

Hopefully you have got the What component from the above experiences. Now, let us look at the How. These are my 5 cents I internalized from the above experiences:

• You need to be thorough about your resume
• You CANNOT go unprepared for any interview
• You need to prepare at least 50 model interview questions
• Practise different answers for those 50 questions
• Consult your TIME/CL/IMS faculties about those 50 answers
• Take at least 10 mock interviews and as many mock GDs as possible

How to approach the Tell me about yourself question

• Introspect: This is a very difficult thing to do
• This involves being truthful to yourself
• About what you want
• About what you really want to do
• Then understand what the interviewers want
• Highlight the points that make you standout as a manager
• As an efficient person
• As one with leadership qualities
• Someone who is passionate about his/her hobbies
• To demonstrate that passion, read and know everything about your hobbies

How to approach the Why MBA question

First up, you don’t need to be a 100% honest. You have to sequence the following things in the right sequence so as to provide a convincing answer to the panel:

• Family Background
• Awards
• Achievements
• Extra curricular activities
• Hobbies

If you are a Second Generation Entrepreneur don’t forget to mention that. Also, if you have occupied any position of responsibility, have talking points on that. The idea is to present them evidence that you are a person with leadership qualities and then give them the reason that your long term ambition is to become a CXO of company ABC in an XYZ industry. Add a few lines to tell the interviewer why the company and why the industry, you’re sorted!

‘Accessories’ you need for the interview

You have to now make sure you present all the information in your profile sheet (mostly IIM interviewers don’t look at your resume). The profile sheet is an online template provided by the IIMs. You would be required to fill it and take a printout of the same. If you have press coverage of yours, take a printout. If you have any sketches, poems or short stories, take prints of them. These will be great talking points. If you think you don’t have any Awards and Achievements, read this answer on what to include in that particular column:

Shiva Guru's answer to What should I say in an IIM interview when they ask about absence of 'Awards and Achievement' section in my CV, if I don't have any?

They need to remember you after you finish the interview and in a good way. You need to make sure you take maximum effort but aren’t desperate. This can only happen if you are prepared for the worst yet hope for the best.

As a parting note, i would suggest you Remember Rudyard Kipling:

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All the Best,

Team Gradeup!!