SIBM PI

The interview was on Valentine's Day. The girl who went in for the interview before me came out with 2 roses and a smile. Rahul's Inference: The interviewers were fooling around.

Three panelists(from left to right): Young Guy, Old Man, Tape Recorder Guy and yours truly(Rahul)....

OldMan: So, is there someone who will send YOU roses?
Rahul: (Appropriately answers and jokes)
OldMan & YoungGuy & Rahul laugh for a bit.... TapeRecorder stays silent.
YoungGuy: Ok.. Let's get to business....(interrupted by OldMan)
OldMan: The girl who came in before you also works in TCS and has a similar work-ex... Its like the company runs some coaching for MBA aspirants...
YoungGuy: hmm... can you tell us what's happening here?
Rahul: Actually, the scenario not exactly unique to TCS.... its happening all across the IT industry.
YoungGuy & OldMan: Ok... tell us in general then.
Rahul: Ok... umm.. this is not MY specific reason for an MBA but in general, the market is bad right now. So people expect to spend 2 years in an MBA college and enter the market when its picking up again. It makes sense because they'd be in the right place at the right time.
OldMan: Oh!! So, we should setup stalls here with placards that say MBAs supplied here?!! (YoungGuy & OldMan laugh...)
Rahul: Like I said, that's not my personal opinion. I'm not doing an MBA for this. My goal is something else.
OldMan: Hmm... What is your career goal then?
Rahul: Actually, during my 3rd year industrial training, I worked in assembly plant(Delphi-TVS) and interacted with a lot of managers there. I found their work fascinating. I'd want to do an MBA, specialize in operations and join the manufacturing sector again.
YoungGuy: Do you need an MBA for that? Why do you want to do an MBA?
Rahul: Ultimately, management deals with 4 things... (counting on fingers)... Men, Materials, Money and Time.... I've done this in college before and I realised I'm quite good at it. And I intend to do this for the rest of my life.
(Tape Recorder who had been doodling on his pad, suddenly scribbled furiously... It was then that I noted his existence in the panel. Meanwhile, OM asks Rahul to do him a favour and lock the door behind him coz the wind keeps opening it up..... Rahul does the favour and return to the seat)
OM: What is your engineering stream... (looking at sheet)... ok... mechanical... why did you join TCS?
Rahul: In TCS, my client is Siemens sir, so... I'm associated with Mech....(interrupted by YoungGuy...)
YoungGuy: No... that wasn't your choice right...
Rahul: Not really sir.... I....
YoungGuy contd: You joined and then all this happened... So tell me why you joined TCS in the first place if you wanted to go into manufacturing domain?
Rahul:(thinking...) I'll be frank sir, TCS was the first company that came to campus and "1 student 1 job funda" so.. since I didn't get any good MBA calls that year, I had to go ahead and join TCS.
YoungGuy: Ok... Good luck...
OldMan: Ok.... Best of luck to you then... and send the next person in.