Another important skill they are looking for is the “ability to work with a variety of people”. The student crowd at an IIM is full of diversity, each individual is different from one another. Somebody is a sportsperson, while another is an all-time scholar, or a researcher or a serious goal oriented guy who is socially awkward. The list is long, the idea is that you should be flexible enough so that you can work with all these people. A diversity is maintained in a b-school so that each individual can contribute to the learning process. Learning is not a monologue anymore it is a dialogue between a group of people. At this point, you’ll have to convince the interviewer that you’ll be able to pitch in this learning process and it will help you as well! trust me, this can be a game changer in your interview. This can be linked to the why MBA question as well where the interviewer asks, ‘what’s in it for you in an MBA from IIMx’ this is where you should let them know that you possess this skill!
The third important skill they want in you is “attitude of learning”. I remember I was asked many difficult questions in Economics, just because I had a course on economics during my engineering. I couldn’t answer any of them but I displayed an attitude which reflected that I want to learn, I don’t know the answers simply because it was a long time ago. They won’t judge on how good you remember concepts or facts, but they see how you connect with them and what is your attitude towards it. There are two ways to answer the questions you don’t know, one is by simply saying that you don’t know the answer, another can be bluffing (a big NO) and a better way is by saying that I don’t the answer to this question I read it a long time ago, but I know ‘this’ concept relating to this question and explain the concept. This will reflect that you are enthusiastic and motivated to learn. In both the case you said the same thing, but the later one will win you the battle. However, one important thing to note here is that this doesn’t give you a free pass to skip going through your graduation concepts. You should go through the concepts behind your academic projects or the industry you are working in. If you are not able to answer questions relating to them it reflects bad on you!
The fourth important skill they are looking for is the “ability to solve complex problems” or the ‘attitude to have the ability to solve complex problems’. It doesn’t matter if you are not able to solve some complex problem but if you have a sound approach towards it, it's absolutely fine. The panel will check this trait by asking some puzzle; they always do this. They are never looking for a perfect solution but are looking for your approach to the problem. For instance during one of my interview I was asked the formula for integration by-parts; I wrote the formula, but changed the sign of the second term; the interviewer told it was wrong. I realised that and checked the formula on a simple function and corrected it. They were impressed by my logic and the way I corrected myself. I forget the formula, no big deal; but they saw my logic and that is important. The way you approach a problem and the way you execute it.
The interviewers are looking for red flags, if they’ll pick one of those they will overlook the good skills you possess. So make sure you maintain your cool because they will often trick you into saying things which you don’t want them to know! So take your time before answering anything, have a mental flow in the 2-second pause which you take before answering.
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