SPJIMR - Feb 15

S P Jain Institute of Management Research

Date: Feb 15, 2013

Location: SPJIMR, Mumbai

Slot: 10am (M21A2 panel)

Group Interview I

Panel of 2: Both females

Participants: 6 (2 Fin, 3 Ops and 1 Marketing)

1)      How do you pronounce your name? Is the K in your name silent? Do everyone call you without pronouncing your name?

Me: Argh. No. And no.  People who know me well pronounce it properly, and for the rest, I correct them.

2)      We shall have a GD on advantages and disadvantages of Group Interview

Me: Last 5-6 minutes. Made about 3 entries. Moderately good in my opinion. There wasn’t much to discuss really!

3)      Tell me about yourself.

Me: The usual – Name, CA in first attempt, Graduation from Commerce with 81.86%, internship in a CA firm for 4 years, CFA L1 and FRM P1 and then the hobbies – reading, writing, Quizzing and sports.

4)      What is your CAT score?

Me: 99.41 in CAT and 99.44 in XAT

5)      You’re from NM. Did you apply for NMIMS? Why not? So you don’t rate the NM brand?

Me: (Argh!). No, I didn’t apply. NMCCE is different from NMIMS. I don’t rate the NMIMS programme on par with the top 10 and I’d want to pursue my MBA only from the top 10.

6)      You became CA in 2011 and this is 2013. You work somewhere? Why the gap?

Again, the usual - Internship, GMCS, Membership of ICAI, CFA & FRM, LLB (3rd year).

7)      Ops and Marketing guys being asked the difference between marking and ops with respect to a sandwich on the table. Asked if anyone else wanted to put in their views.

I started to put in my 2 cents but they asked the Marketing gal another question (Should have let me complete!?!)

8)      Why MBA after CA?

Same ghisa-pita answer.

9)      Are you aware that after becoming an MBA, you’ll lose your authority to sign balance sheet?

Me: (Duh!) I am aware. I’m not interesting in auditing and assurance or else I’d have continued at the firm where I did my internship.

10)   Any other questions that you’d like to ask?

Me: (Point blank) Ma’am, could you tell us about yourself? (:D) What subjects do you teach at SPJIMR?

Verdict: All 6 cleared the GI

Group Interview II

Panel: 2 (One was from the first batch of SPJIMR – Core Banking Guy, as introduced to us, and probably in SBI coz of the visiting in his hand) and other Bengali Professor

Participants: 6 (2 Fin, 2 IM and 2 Ops)

(All the questions directed to me were asked by the Banker)

1)      Tell me about yourself?

2)      Why the gap – 2011 to 2013?

Me: Blah blah blah!

3)      So you did Law? Why are you doing MBA? What does your father do? Where does he work?

Me: I believe it’ll be a good value added to CA. It’s not an academic pursuit.

4)      (This is where it gets weird) Only the two of us Finance guys were asked questions.

What field of specialization in finance would you like to pursue?

Me: Valuation, Derivatives and Alternative Investments

5)      Tell me one. (So mentioned derivatives)

So you think derivatives are going to do good in the next few years?

Me: I believe so. Indian markets don’t trade in enough derivatives as compared to the western countries, especially the USA. (Note: Should have specified OTC derivatives)

6)      I don’t think so.

Me: Sir, we haven’t seen much use for certain different types of derivatives in the markets. We have a lot of room for the growth of Mortgage Backed Securities and Credit Default Swaps.

7)      But you see what they did to the USA. Do you want them to do the same thing in Indian economy?

Me: No sir. I believe we’ve much regulated financial markets as compared to the US. The SEC wasn’t too attentive to the wrong doings in US and it led to the sub-prime crisis. We have SEBI and RBI who are much more stringent and they regulate the markets better.

8)      What is RBI’s stand on derivatives?

Me: I am not sure, Sir.

9)      So you would like to work in Equity-linked Derivatives or OTC ones.

Me: OTC.

10)   So tell me what advantages do derivatives bring in Indian market?

Me: Sir, they bring much higher liquidity to the market. And better liquidity, means higher scope of growth. (Note: Should have said how they help in managing risks by way of hedging)

11)    What do you think is better? Higher inflation or higher growth? Coz liquidity brings inflation too.

Me: If there is a higher growth, then a high inflation is manageable. In 2006-07, we had a very high inflation, but with growth of more than 9%, we managed alright.

12)   So what should we do to ensure we don’t face crisis due to derivatives?

Me: There are two important things. First, the credit ratings companies should be a stakeholder in the derivatives they rate. They should partly be made responsible for the rating they provide. And also, the companies selling the derivatives should be made responsible for the products sold such as guaranteeing a portion or something.

13)   And for foreign investors, what is the main reason that is holding them back?

Me: Political instability. (But we’ve only two parties consistently winning elections. We’re stable). Political stability with respect to the coalition and policies. For example, we’ve Congress wanting FDI in retail and then we’ve other parties not accepting FDI in retail. In fact, we’ve Bharat Bandh for FDI on Feb 20, 21. Comparing it to the US, the Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the bill that will push back the Fiscal Cliff.

14)   Pushed back by how many years?

Me:  Not sure but about 5 years.

15)   Don’t guess if you’re not sure. Since you seem to be following Fiscal Cliff and US, where is the major issue for contention that will arise in March?

Me: I don’t know. (Turns out, it was raising the debt limit)

16)   That’s all. You’ve any questions that you want to ask? Or say something that you didn’t have the chance to?

Me: Sir, I was expecting some questions on my hobbies too.

17)   No, I don’t want to question on your hobbies. It’s all in the form, isn’t it? Thank you. That will be all.

Notes: The 4 non-Fin guys weren’t asked anything later on. Mostly a couple of questions following tell me about yourself. But that’s it. The other Fin Guy (Engineer) was asked about the way he’s following markets and impacts of fiscal policies on market and stuff (excellent work there by the guy – he has IIM-B, IIM-I and IIM-K calls too). He was asked “What in finance?” and he said IB. Wasn’t certain about what in IB but said M&A, I think.

And then the SBI panellist turns on to me. I fumbled quite a bit during my answers and there was a lil’ beating around the bush. Missed out on making some important points in derivatives. I don’t think my answer were to the point and missed out on clarity. Not expecting to convert this call.

Notes of self: Could have done much better. But GIs aren’t my thing. Need to read a lot more on derivatives and the Indian Regulatory Framework. Should have gone on to Risk Management portion. Could have done much better with that as compared to Derivatives.