IIM Admission 2022: Satya Gopal Shares his IIM Kozhikode PI Experience

99.51 percentiler Satya Gopal, converted IIM Kozhikode PI for PGP 2022-24 batch.  He shares his PI experience below. 

• CAT 2021 percentile: 99.51
• VARC: 99.33
• DILR: 99.29
• Quants: 95.22

Having scored 99.51 percentile in CAT exam, Satya Gopal, a BBA graduate from NMIMS Navi Mumbai was comfortably shortlisted for IIM Kozhikode. The next phase of his MBA admission journey was the WAT-PI round. He converted IIM Kozhikode interview call for the two-year MBA programme effortlessly. A few trick questions tested his mettle though. Since Satya is a fresher, his IIM Kozhikode interview revolved around him and his understanding of love and companionship.

Satya shared his IIM Kozhikode experience with Shiksha. Read below.

IIM Kozhikode PI Experience

My interview was scheduled at 3:30 PM on February 8, 2022. It was the first B-school interview, which I was appearing for, and I felt I hadn’t prepared enough for the interview which made me anxious. I got to know about the interview just 10-12 days prior to it so everything seemed to be moving at a fast pace. This year we just had PI round for IIM Kozhikode.

I had brushed up my academic subjects, went through the usual questions regarding why MBA and how would a fresher add value to the group. Was going through the current affairs and economic news to be able to answer the questions. However, not a single one of these helped me sail through the interview.

I was eagerly waiting for the interview to start. We were asked to join 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time slot. I joined the meeting and it was displaying a message on the screen that the meeting host will let you in soon. The wait seemed never ending. I sat there trying to calm down myself.  

What followed was something, which I hadn’t expected at all.

The interview started around 3:35 PM. There were two panellists. I would henceforth refer to them as P1 and P2.

I was looking at them and waiting. Didn’t speak anything till that point.

P1- Good afternoon, Satya. That’s how you wish someone when they meet you.

Me- Sorry, sir. I was just checking if my earphones are working. Am I audible sir?

P1- Yes, you are clearly audible Satya.

Me- Good afternoon, panellists.

P1- Satya, first of all tell me what have you applied to your hair that it is set so properly. Do you apply some hair gel or oil to your hair?

I was preparing myself that the first question would be to introduce myself but this was different. I took a couple of seconds to answer this since I wanted to be clear that I heard it right.

Me- I haven’t applied anything sir. It’s just my hair texture.

P1- Ohh, it means just like Krishna.

Me- Wondering about what he is talking and where the interview is headed.

P1- You know Krishna, right? Lord Krishna?

Me- Yes, sir. I know.

P1- I suppose even his hair is said to be like this. You even share the same name.

Now I knew that this initial discussion is related to my name Gopal.

P1- Do you have any qualities, which are similar to Krishna?

Me- Yes, sir.

P1- So tell me Gopal, how many girlfriends do you have?

I went blank at this point. But managed to say a ‘No’.

P1- Since Krishna is a very charismatic personality, I want to know if even you have the charisma like Krishna.

Me- How can I say that about myself sir, it would be more believable if you get to hear it from others. If I say it would seem like I am praising myself which I don’t want to.

P1- Then what qualities are similar between both of you?

Me- Sir, Krishna is something more than just his love stories. He was a great tactician, a good leader and a true friend. I feel that I have the ability in myself to excel in these roles and to some extent have done fairly well in them.

P1- But Krishna has a lover and it proves that he is charismatic. Why are you not in a relationship?

Me- Sir, in order to be in a relationship, we need to look at a lot of factors and see how the relation would stand a few years down the line.

P1- What factors and why do you have to think so much?

Me- You need to think because it’s a major decision and having the right person for yourself is very important. Factors like what’s their outlook towards life, what is their vision, how do they plan, what are their traits. It takes time to know a person and see how compatible you are. You need to take in calculated risks. I don’t think just doing things as you wish would be good. Every action of ours has repercussions.

P1 and P2 exchanged smiles.

P1- How much time is needed to know each other? I am asking this because by the time you are 27-28, your parents would be behind you to get married.

Me- Sir, the time period isn’t fixed. It’s not the number of years you spend but the amount of quality time and the different scenarios you have been together. Understanding the basic personality traits. The relationship should help both to evolve and grow, they should help each other to become better.

P1- This means you promote child marriage? It is better we get them married as a child itself because then both of them can grow together, spend a lot of time and understand their traits better.

Me- No, sir. I do not promote child marriage. Because we must have our own personality and that we develop as we grow, as we expose ourselves to different scenarios, as we age, we start to form our own opinions, as we explore, we get to know what qualities we like or we don’t in different people and then we would have a better idea about our partner. Till 18 years we are under the shadow of our parents, most of our thoughts and opinions are influenced by theirs, so once we start living on our own, we get to know what kind of personality would complement us.

By this point I had forgotten that I was in an interview. I was speaking whatever I could think of in that moment.

P1- This means we should promote only love marriages?

This was a tricky question for me and I didn’t know what to answer because I had to frame my answer in a way that I do not contradict everything which I had spoken till now.

Me- No, sir. We have cases were both the marriages have failed. I don’t say we should only promote love marriages. Our parent kind of know what type of person we are and given their experience, they may ease the process. Also, even in arrange marriage the decision-making power should be with us and we should see the basic compatibility before making the decision.

Throughout this whole period P2 was just looking at his laptop and observing. While P1 was the person who was doing all the talking.

P1- Okay, now if we take this scenario and apply in the case of a company what would you say? What do you have to say about love in an organisation?

Me- There are a number of types of love in an organisation. Like love for your colleagues, love for your work, love for you company. So which love are we talking about?

P1- This is a nice point you have raised Satya. Love for you work vs love for you company. Let’s take case 1-You love your job but not your company. And case 2- you love your company but not work. What would you do?  

Me-

In case 1- I would address the situation and try to find out the main reason why I don’t love the company. Is it because of its work culture or is it because of lack of recognition or am I being targeted? So, I need to know the why. Then I would try to solve it by talking to the HR or higher authority to solve it. In case even that doesn’t solve or better the scenario, I would have to resign.   In case 2- where I am loving the company, I would talk to the higher officials and try changing my department or job role to be able to understand what would I enjoy doing. If that doesn’t work maybe I need to take a break and start exploring other options.

P1- Okay, Satya. That’s it from me. Over to P2

P2- What’s your plan B?

Me- I would opt for a job and start working.

P2- Okay. What are your hobbies?

Me- Cooking and singing come naturally to me as I grew up emulating my mother doing the same. I am very much fascinated about stories right from my childhood. Actually, when I was in 11^th standard, I along with my brother had made a documentary kind of film. So, we both are invested in the idea of investing in content creation going ahead.

P1- This seems interesting.

P2- Okay, satya. that’s it from me.

P1- Okay, then you can leave the meeting.

Me- Thank you, panelists. 

After the interview got over, I was confused. I couldn’t understand what had happened. Not a single question was asked about my academics or about why MBA. It was a different experience but somewhere I had this feeling that I would convert it.

Verdict: Converted!

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