XLRI HRM GD and PI experiences 2012-2014
==============================================UDDALAK BANERJEE
XLRI needs no introduction . IT was my best call for the season mba 2012-14. The Best part of XLRi was they called in BM as per time slots of interview . The slots were of 20 minutes each and candidates were called exactly on time . That is if someones slot as per allotment came at 1:30 then he was called at 30 minutes before that slot. Hence the process looked a lot well trimmed and quite truely like a All India top 5 college and Asia’s best HR school. My batch in HRM was at 1:30 pm and I went a bit early just to stem the nerves. The process for HRM was to have a GD and followed by the PI in the same order of the GD. I reached the college at 10:00 am sharp . GD process was continuing at that time for the previous batch.People mostly were tense some said that they were asked about hobby,some said they were asked about acads so the reaction was mixed.Most aspirants were very nervous. From the first batch almost all had IIM A B C calls and had a very good xat percentile too. They were saying that BM interview did not go well and that HR in XLRI is Asia s best and they ask strange questions and that PI here had maximum weightage.
IT was hard to wait till 1:30 pm but then somehow time flew by. Soon my time came and we all assembled in the room for GD . i was last in the GD panel and was really feeling apprehensive that i would miss the afternoon train janshatabdi if they took 20 minutes each with all the rest 9 candidates.
The topic was “RTI act and its uses”
Well the topic was a general one and everyone was willing to say. The group soon started to discuss hard on the topic it was increasingly becoming tough to make an entry. But then after 1 minute i realised time was going out and that i have to make an entry. I started on a loud note saying,” RTI act was first enacted in 2005 and it reflected the merit of arvind kejriwal an iit kgp graduate who struggled hard to bring around the government to enact one of the biggest weapons of the civil society.RTI act implementation was best noted now in case of Higher secondary paper checking when students previously used to lose their papers due to some negligence on the part of authorities. But statistically speaking if one looks at the cases solved under RTI , we will see that RTI cases have been filed with 60% cases in urban belt and 40% in rural belt. Out of these cases that were filed about 55% cases in urban origin got results and 45% of the rural cases got results. This shows that awareness of RTI is still not present in the indian civil society.”Well it was purely lucky perhaps to get the topic as i was member of RTI community for long and hence statistics was there to my rescue. I made couple of more entry to the GD but subsequent entries were easier because the group has bought it and none of the other candidates had the statistics and were grilling on mundane general points.That stacked the issue entirely in my favour.
Now I was expected that like BM too they would give 20 minutes to each candidate to prove his worth given that the candidates were all good and each of them had multiple iim calls and had a very heavy XAT percentile too. But even then the first few candidates just came and went because perhaps they did not have the orientation for the hr. The very first question that was asked to most was Why HR? and if the answer was not satisfactory they were eliminating them.
When my turn came i was apparently tensed and was thinking hard on what to do.
My chance came in soon. I was almost frozen in tension. I knew it was the biggest interview for the season and my best interview call by far. I knew i had to make it . I knew that this is Asia s best Business school for HR and it wont be easy at all. I was extremely nervy this time. I never felt so much tension as the clock kept ticking . I was praying to God that what ever happens please please make me through. I will never forget your bunificience all my life.
The first few question just came and went i was completely in a dream in a supreme state of euphoria.
Three Interviewers were present in the panel.
Interviewer 1,” You are uddalak Banerjee..what is the meaning of your name ..it is kind of uncommon”
I said,” it comes from rising light and that it was a samas of urdha( up going )+ alok(light).
Interviewer 1,” you are a blog writer and activist so tell me indias top 3 intricate social issues as evident in current census”
I said,” Female foeticide leading to sex ratio imbalance , high mortality rate at child birth of mothers,low neutrient availability for a majority of the population which is still in the Below Poverty line level calculated as per Suresh Tendulkar s report on BPL”
Interviewer 2,” What are your hobbies?”
I said,” writing instant poems and shortstories. ”
Interviewer 3,” have you got any international publication?”
I said,” yes it was published in international publication of bewildering stories which is US based. I have also got publications in voicesnet.org which is an international forum for poetry writters along with writerslounge .I have got my biography printed in both these sites and have been one of the youngest to do so.”
Interviewer 2,”any other exam that you had taken?how were your other results?”
I said,” yes CAT which i had 99.12, Nmat 99.98 , MAT 99.56, Gmat score of 700,Ibsat rank 1 , Cmat results are awaited .I have also qualified in Snap for Scmhrd and sibm”
Interviewer 3,” You are from National Institute of Technology Raipur. How do you think that places you on a different keel from others from NITs and IIT s. There are quite a few aspirants from these prestigious institutes.”
I said,” Sir it was a pleasure for me to secure 99.4 percentile in AIEEE and get admitted to NIT brand and since have enjoyed string of benefits of NIT brand in placements both oncampus and offcampus. As such Brand wise IIT and NIT are comparable But then IIT is always a step ahead .But like all other people from NIT s I too strive hard for excellence. I have had an extensive view of corporate in Birlasoft mnc which deals mainly with consultancy and software services.So i hope that the software usage part of an hr while dealing with attendence regularisation and checking and then employee module creation using microsoft excel can be readily handled by me . Besides ERP based packages are always used in HR and i will have a better hang of things there too.”
Interviewer 2,” what are the key responsibilities of hr?”
I said,”I think it is mainly to maintain employee satisfaction and organisational satisfaction of the employees. IT involves hiring candidates and also firing them if they dont work or any discipline issue happens,maintaining their attendence, boosting their morale through awards and recognition.”
Interviewer 3,” tell me one thing hr has to deal most in IT company from your experience?”
I said,” it is salary. All It companies employees only want a salary hike. If they get higher salary they want nothing else. Hence retension becomes difficult specially of talented people who get many calls.”
Interviewer 2,” what you as hr could have done to your company ?”
I said,” i would changed shift duration .it was really difficult to handle and as a new entrant u have mostly nightshifts which are arduous . I always felt that the shift should be changed and more offshore support should be provided from 2 pm onwards. Because after 2 pm it becomes physically high demanding from an employee.I would have also laid down a fix and transperant onsite plan that if one guy handles these many cases in this month of given criticality he would be given 10 marks each for months calculated from this date. And final score monthwise would be put up for all to see. The one to score maximum will be given onsite “
Interviewer 1,” what will u do if selected ?”
I said,” raise the salary and benefits of the panel members (smile)”
Interviewer 2,” ha h ha ha ha”
Interviewer 3,” ha ha ha”
Interviewer 1,” but is not that improper ?”
I said,” Sir i would work hard as a student and try to contribute as much as possible to the college.But sir in the course there is one clause named employee motivation. You all are working day in day out to select so many students everyday i believe if selected even though it would be on my own capacity i believe this much should be done on behalf of all that get selected”
Interviewer 1, “ so you have iim calls too,nitie,mdi,fms also, so why xlri?”
I said,”Because as per most ranking systems xlri is at number 4 and iim k sits at around 8 and fms is at 6 ,mdi is around 10 . Rankings are calculated on the basis of infrastructure,faculty,placements. All though many rankings are available this is the trend in majority of rankings. And besides HR in XLRI is Asia s best even ahead of IIM A . While coming here i met a few Foreign students too from indonesia, europe and russia in the morning slot only. So there is no doubt that XLRI is my best call way way ahead of rest 6 iims.”
Interviewer2,” tell me one thing suppose you are an hr and there are many people working in your locality and you dont know how many.So how would u know that how many of these people in your locality are working?”
I said,” From the neighbouring banks i would get the number of salary accounts. From that i could get the approximate number of salaried people . Which would give me the approximate number of employed people”
Interviewer 3,”you are an engineer so you must be good in maths. Tell me what is the number of prime numbers between 8756 and 8967 .”
I said,” It would be somewhere in between 20 to 30. “
Interviewer 3,”tell me how to calculate it?”
I said,” it would be easy through computer program. We can generate the series. It would save time rather than calculating manually. If we do manually there is no formula as such it has only got a 6x+ and -1 form. But then for higher number the number of prime numbers become lesser because number of factors grow higher. So based on pattern of first hundred and that the gap is of 200 at a later stage of number system it would be around 20 to 30.”
Interviewer 2,”one last question.You are a social activist and a poet and an active person . Tell us a poem in 4 lines and tell us ur activism”
I said,” In months nine i have awards five,
editorials in papers prove me alive,
From times of india to hindustan times,
i am one who wins and never dies.”
Interviewer 3,” bravo..!”
Interviewer 2,” it was great talking to you.”
RESULT: CONVERT and JOINING.
====================================================================
==============================================UDDALAK BANERJEE
XLRI needs no introduction . IT was my best call for the season mba 2012-14. The Best part of XLRi was they called in BM as per time slots of interview . The slots were of 20 minutes each and candidates were called exactly on time . That is if someones slot as per allotment came at 1:30 then he was called at 30 minutes before that slot. Hence the process looked a lot well trimmed and quite truely like a All India top 5 college and Asia’s best HR school. My batch in HRM was at 1:30 pm and I went a bit early just to stem the nerves. The process for HRM was to have a GD and followed by the PI in the same order of the GD. I reached the college at 10:00 am sharp . GD process was continuing at that time for the previous batch.People mostly were tense some said that they were asked about hobby,some said they were asked about acads so the reaction was mixed.Most aspirants were very nervous. From the first batch almost all had IIM A B C calls and had a very good xat percentile too. They were saying that BM interview did not go well and that HR in XLRI is Asia s best and they ask strange questions and that PI here had maximum weightage.
IT was hard to wait till 1:30 pm but then somehow time flew by. Soon my time came and we all assembled in the room for GD . i was last in the GD panel and was really feeling apprehensive that i would miss the afternoon train janshatabdi if they took 20 minutes each with all the rest 9 candidates.
The topic was “RTI act and its uses”
Well the topic was a general one and everyone was willing to say. The group soon started to discuss hard on the topic it was increasingly becoming tough to make an entry. But then after 1 minute i realised time was going out and that i have to make an entry. I started on a loud note saying,” RTI act was first enacted in 2005 and it reflected the merit of arvind kejriwal an iit kgp graduate who struggled hard to bring around the government to enact one of the biggest weapons of the civil society.RTI act implementation was best noted now in case of Higher secondary paper checking when students previously used to lose their papers due to some negligence on the part of authorities. But statistically speaking if one looks at the cases solved under RTI , we will see that RTI cases have been filed with 60% cases in urban belt and 40% in rural belt. Out of these cases that were filed about 55% cases in urban origin got results and 45% of the rural cases got results. This shows that awareness of RTI is still not present in the indian civil society.”Well it was purely lucky perhaps to get the topic as i was member of RTI community for long and hence statistics was there to my rescue. I made couple of more entry to the GD but subsequent entries were easier because the group has bought it and none of the other candidates had the statistics and were grilling on mundane general points.That stacked the issue entirely in my favour.
Now I was expected that like BM too they would give 20 minutes to each candidate to prove his worth given that the candidates were all good and each of them had multiple iim calls and had a very heavy XAT percentile too. But even then the first few candidates just came and went because perhaps they did not have the orientation for the hr. The very first question that was asked to most was Why HR? and if the answer was not satisfactory they were eliminating them.
When my turn came i was apparently tensed and was thinking hard on what to do.
My chance came in soon. I was almost frozen in tension. I knew it was the biggest interview for the season and my best interview call by far. I knew i had to make it . I knew that this is Asia s best Business school for HR and it wont be easy at all. I was extremely nervy this time. I never felt so much tension as the clock kept ticking . I was praying to God that what ever happens please please make me through. I will never forget your bunificience all my life.
The first few question just came and went i was completely in a dream in a supreme state of euphoria.
Three Interviewers were present in the panel.
Interviewer 1,” You are uddalak Banerjee..what is the meaning of your name ..it is kind of uncommon”
I said,” it comes from rising light and that it was a samas of urdha( up going )+ alok(light).
Interviewer 1,” you are a blog writer and activist so tell me indias top 3 intricate social issues as evident in current census”
I said,” Female foeticide leading to sex ratio imbalance , high mortality rate at child birth of mothers,low neutrient availability for a majority of the population which is still in the Below Poverty line level calculated as per Suresh Tendulkar s report on BPL”
Interviewer 2,” What are your hobbies?”
I said,” writing instant poems and shortstories. ”
Interviewer 3,” have you got any international publication?”
I said,” yes it was published in international publication of bewildering stories which is US based. I have also got publications in voicesnet.org which is an international forum for poetry writters along with writerslounge .I have got my biography printed in both these sites and have been one of the youngest to do so.”
Interviewer 2,”any other exam that you had taken?how were your other results?”
I said,” yes CAT which i had 99.12, Nmat 99.98 , MAT 99.56, Gmat score of 700,Ibsat rank 1 , Cmat results are awaited .I have also qualified in Snap for Scmhrd and sibm”
Interviewer 3,” You are from National Institute of Technology Raipur. How do you think that places you on a different keel from others from NITs and IIT s. There are quite a few aspirants from these prestigious institutes.”
I said,” Sir it was a pleasure for me to secure 99.4 percentile in AIEEE and get admitted to NIT brand and since have enjoyed string of benefits of NIT brand in placements both oncampus and offcampus. As such Brand wise IIT and NIT are comparable But then IIT is always a step ahead .But like all other people from NIT s I too strive hard for excellence. I have had an extensive view of corporate in Birlasoft mnc which deals mainly with consultancy and software services.So i hope that the software usage part of an hr while dealing with attendence regularisation and checking and then employee module creation using microsoft excel can be readily handled by me . Besides ERP based packages are always used in HR and i will have a better hang of things there too.”
Interviewer 2,” what are the key responsibilities of hr?”
I said,”I think it is mainly to maintain employee satisfaction and organisational satisfaction of the employees. IT involves hiring candidates and also firing them if they dont work or any discipline issue happens,maintaining their attendence, boosting their morale through awards and recognition.”
Interviewer 3,” tell me one thing hr has to deal most in IT company from your experience?”
I said,” it is salary. All It companies employees only want a salary hike. If they get higher salary they want nothing else. Hence retension becomes difficult specially of talented people who get many calls.”
Interviewer 2,” what you as hr could have done to your company ?”
I said,” i would changed shift duration .it was really difficult to handle and as a new entrant u have mostly nightshifts which are arduous . I always felt that the shift should be changed and more offshore support should be provided from 2 pm onwards. Because after 2 pm it becomes physically high demanding from an employee.I would have also laid down a fix and transperant onsite plan that if one guy handles these many cases in this month of given criticality he would be given 10 marks each for months calculated from this date. And final score monthwise would be put up for all to see. The one to score maximum will be given onsite “
Interviewer 1,” what will u do if selected ?”
I said,” raise the salary and benefits of the panel members (smile)”
Interviewer 2,” ha h ha ha ha”
Interviewer 3,” ha ha ha”
Interviewer 1,” but is not that improper ?”
I said,” Sir i would work hard as a student and try to contribute as much as possible to the college.But sir in the course there is one clause named employee motivation. You all are working day in day out to select so many students everyday i believe if selected even though it would be on my own capacity i believe this much should be done on behalf of all that get selected”
Interviewer 1, “ so you have iim calls too,nitie,mdi,fms also, so why xlri?”
I said,”Because as per most ranking systems xlri is at number 4 and iim k sits at around 8 and fms is at 6 ,mdi is around 10 . Rankings are calculated on the basis of infrastructure,faculty,placements. All though many rankings are available this is the trend in majority of rankings. And besides HR in XLRI is Asia s best even ahead of IIM A . While coming here i met a few Foreign students too from indonesia, europe and russia in the morning slot only. So there is no doubt that XLRI is my best call way way ahead of rest 6 iims.”
Interviewer2,” tell me one thing suppose you are an hr and there are many people working in your locality and you dont know how many.So how would u know that how many of these people in your locality are working?”
I said,” From the neighbouring banks i would get the number of salary accounts. From that i could get the approximate number of salaried people . Which would give me the approximate number of employed people”
Interviewer 3,”you are an engineer so you must be good in maths. Tell me what is the number of prime numbers between 8756 and 8967 .”
I said,” It would be somewhere in between 20 to 30. “
Interviewer 3,”tell me how to calculate it?”
I said,” it would be easy through computer program. We can generate the series. It would save time rather than calculating manually. If we do manually there is no formula as such it has only got a 6x+ and -1 form. But then for higher number the number of prime numbers become lesser because number of factors grow higher. So based on pattern of first hundred and that the gap is of 200 at a later stage of number system it would be around 20 to 30.”
Interviewer 2,”one last question.You are a social activist and a poet and an active person . Tell us a poem in 4 lines and tell us ur activism”
I said,” In months nine i have awards five,
editorials in papers prove me alive,
From times of india to hindustan times,
i am one who wins and never dies.”
Interviewer 3,” bravo..!”
Interviewer 2,” it was great talking to you.”
RESULT: CONVERT and JOINING.
====================================================================
