Himanshu's story represents utter dedication and perseverance. Faith Career's Co-Founder met and coached Himanshu for interview and was impressed by his grit and determination. In this blog post, our Co-Founder has interviewed Himanshu who has shared useful tips for IIM aspirants. Read on to find out more.
#1) Can you please brief describe your profile?
I have done M.Tech. in Informatics from IIT Bombay and gained exposure to Machine Learning and Data Science there. Leveraging my technical expertise at Tesco Bengaluru, I contributed towards developing various features and prototypes for the Tesco Search and Recommendations platform. I have worked in technical roles (software development and data engineering ) for close to 5.5 years. Recently, I have taken up Product Management tasks to gain a better functional knowledge and depth of the retail and technology industry.
#2) Why did you decide to pursue an MBA?
While working at Tesco, I developed a keen interest in the strategic roadmap and feature definitions that go behind a product. Hence, I started taking up Product Management tasks to gain a better functional knowledge and depth of the retail and technology industry. This interest ties to my immediate post-ISB goal of moving towards technology product management roles in the consumer-oriented sector preferably retail/eCommerce.
#3) Why did you choose Faith Career to be your mentor for ISB application?
I came across Faith Career's blog and found most of their tips useful. I decided to contact him on Facebook for help with my applications and interviews.
#4) What tips you would like to share with an aspirant who is working on their IIM application?
Be honest in your applications and resume. The interview panel is definitely smart enough to recognize whatever you've written in your applications is correct or not. Be clear with your post-MBA goals and why this MBA programme is a good fit for you.
#5) How was Faith Career’s mentorship important while writing down the application?
One word - Outstanding.
I could trust the mentors to help me with the applications well in time. Although I contacted them very late in the application season, they made sure the applications were compelling and there was no compromise on quality.
I could trust them to give me honest feedback during the interviews as well. This helped me to isolate my areas of weakness and improve them.
#6) How did you prepare for the interview after submitting the application? What all steps did you take to make yourself ready for the interview?
I took mocks with Faith Career for interview prep for ISB and IIM-A.
Steps:
1) Became extremely thorough with anything written on my application and resume.
2) Mirror practice for the standard interview questions
3) Read a lot about recent trends in my domain: tech, retail, and e-commerce.
I also practiced some mock Product Management interviews.
#7) What were the questions asked to you during the interview?
Q1) How have the learnings of your master’s degree been helpful in your job?
Q2) What are the recent trends in retail industry in UK and India? How is Tesco dealing with it?
Q3) What have been the biggest challenges for Tesco in the recent past?
Q4) Questions about “Aldi Price Match” - a project that I had taken up at work. Detailed analysis about strategy and outcomes of this project
Q5) How many employees does Tesco Bengaluru have? Would it have been better if it had outsourced its software division to some service-based company?
Q6) What excites you the most about your job?
Q7) Discussion about challenges that UK economy is facing.
Q8) Why do you think this programme is best fitted to your career goals?
Q9) Do you have any questions for us?
#8) How did you think you performed in the interview?
IIM-A interviews are aggressive and intense (unlike ISB). While I was able to convincingly answer most of the questions, there were some moments where the panel tried to put me in stress. Usually there is a lot of cross-questioning in IIM-A extempore.
#9) What are your final ‘To-Dos’ and ‘Not-to-Dos’ for an IIM-A aspirant?
To do: Do a detailed study about your domain and your industry.
Be confident and clear about your career goals.
Don't: Don't fake/lie on your application and resume.
Below are few more inspiring success stories from Faith Career ✨
Smriti’s journey from Ambedkar University to the London School of Economics (LSE) – https://www.faithcareer.org/post/progress-story-smriti-s-mpp-offer-letter-with-35-scholarship
Nikhil’s story of bagging MBA offers from 5 B-Schools in the UK with scholarship, without a GMAT score - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/5-mba-offer-letters-in-4-months-without-gmat
Yashashwat’s MIM journey from IP University to the Schulich School of Business - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/yashashwat-s-mim-journey-to-the-schulich-school-of-business
Mimansha's MIM journey to ESCP Europe (ranked 5th for MIM in the world) - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/escp-mim-mimansha-s-story-of-perseverance-success
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