IIFT GD/PI Experience

Disclaimer : Its going to be long one :)
They said a journey of thousand miles begins with a single step.....
well if that is the case then my journey for IIFT started with a rollicking step...
 I had my GD/PI on 16th feb at 9.30 am and had a train from chandigarh on 15th at 6.15 pm, at around when it was 5 and i was to leave for the station my teammates caught me and we had a cake cutting ceremony adn i was completely pasted with cake inspite of my requests that i need to go... 5:30 got free and left for station on bike..half way through and bike gets punctured..holy god....
it was 5.45 now and by no way i could have reached the station in time..frantically called my friends but all of them were in meeting but was lucky enough that one of my friends was bunking the meeting and got through him,..explained him the situation and he came on his bike to leave me to the station..

time 6.00 pm reached station at almost 6.15 , the shatabdi had started moving and was gaining momentum...ran like mad and finally boarded it ..uff ha ..let me take a breath..sigh :)
normal routine journey ..train reached new delhi half an hour late around 10.40 and again ahd to run to catch the last metro at 11. finally reached home around 12...now took some rest and started my laptop to have some last min prep and all...and here came the biggest shock...charger short circuited and i was "WTH WT****" No No No : ( :( so said ok what can be done ...slept at around 1 , had put the alarm at 6.

6.00am alarm rang...tring tring...it rang tring tring...
6.15 am alarm rang...tring tring...it rang tring tring...
6.30 am alarm rang...tring tring...it rang tring tring...
6.45 alarm rang...tring tring...it rang tring tring...and finally i woke up and saw the time :( :(
some how got ready by wearing the suit at around 7.15 and left , got the metro and reached central secreterat at around 8.15 now IIFT would have taken around 40 min from here on auto so was looking for an auto ..and expectedly yes you guessed it right..couldn't trace any auto... 8.30am got an auto bola bhaiya take it as fast as you can...thank god i had been to IIFT earlier so wasnt involvedin much finding the place..

reached IIFT at 9.00 am there was an auditarioum in which one had to sit for the essay..lovely audi and quite high tech with lcd screens and table mics etc.. 9.30 am a prof came and told the topic "Inclusive growth"
bus thats it kuch jyada nahi he said thats it you have to write around 300 words in 20 min..a sheet was given in which one had to write on both sides.. the paramaters of judging were clarity of thought , content , structre and logical..(some kind of this) wrote something in detail regarding urban and rural divide...services ,manufacturing and agriculture problem..labour reforms , education reforms etc (imagining india was of great help :) ) around 10 it got over and we had to move for our GD's ..
the groups were of around 12-13 size i had the group GIV whose GD was in kanchi ( for others who were there in my group) was number 12 in 13 so immediately was feeling the heat kee when my turn wud come up most of the points would have been covered. a middle aged male prof and a lady came for the GD (the lady's mobile rang 3 times throughout the GD) the male prof told that there will be 2 rounds..in 1st round each one of you will be given around 1-2 mint o give your views..he explicitly said that dont give any examples etc just give overall views and once that is done there will be open round for around 25-30 min..
 topic of GD "Subsidy on petroleum : should it go?"

started thinking about it and had thought by the time my turn would have been there all definitions would have been done so should so lets hear what others have to say..after initial 2 min the prof struck again said we will start in the reverse order :( WHAT :) quickly though of the structure when mu turn came defined subsidy..whats the need of it..the affected parties comapnies and the common man..and we cant let it go as it will raise too much pressure etc..spoke well i believe then eveybody spoke about it and was good and when the last guy spoke prof said ok now we will have round 2 and was saying kee dont make it a fish and all..he was explaining and i think he had finsihed talking and i started the GD ( later 1 guy told that prof was not finished yet :( WHYYYY :( ) spoke about the political factor that we dont have a authoritative govt to abolish subsidy and all..GD went ok for 5 min...and it was quite healty when the prof chipped in and said its not working out we will again have one by one and everybody speak whatever they want to (dont know why he did this as all of us believed GD was ok and no where a fish market) so it was again one by one and this timei was 6th..gave solutions like india-iran gas pipeline should be looked upon ..renewable sources...regulated subsidy dependent on price of crude oil..etc in the end prof asked any volunteer for summary and 3 guys raised their hand ( why didnt i did it :( )and they summarieed

differentg panel for the interview
then had to wait till 2 for the interview and i think the panel was kinda bored or may be tired etc
 three people a smiling lady : L1
a alumni or a visiting prof (he was not from IIFT delhi as he was asking about directions to the washroom :D ) A1
and a strict looking prof S1

Me entered good afternoon madam , good afternoon sir
A1: Sit Sit
A1: so tell us about yourself
Me: told about engineering and infosys and what i am working in infosys
A1: but what do you do in your project
Me: explained him my role and how it had helped in cost savings etc
A1: so basically you do programming Me: yes sir (ab one word answer thodi na dunga)
S1 enters with a strict look
S1: so what have you heard outside about us
Me: i was not outside sir , i was in the canteen.... cuts me
S1: what are you saying just give me a Yes or No answer
Me: no sir i havent heard anything as i was not present
L1 : (with a smile) What is this SDLC you have written in responsibility
Me: madam its software development life cycle in wich there are various stages of development
L1: different kind of models for the same
Me: told waterfall model , spiral model and one more is there and explained her that and tehn suddenly i realised the name prototype model
L1: whats the iterative model
Me: explained her that
S1: what are the problems faced by the IT sector in india
Me: told the major dependence on US and how recession had impacts on profit , reagarding our focus towards services and not products
S1: any other
Me: saturation of the BPO sector
S1: and how can you rectify these problems
Me: we are removing dependenceon US with markets in europe middle east and africa , companies are now focusing teh attention on products gave example of finnacle of infosys and in BPO things like KPO , EPO are coming up
 S1: do you think india can suustain their IT advantage from rising countries liek thailand etc..he named some i dont remember
Me: yes sir we are very hardworking people and enough talented and innovative and i think we can sustain the challenge
A1: what are the different kinds of mobile operating system
me: told about symbian , windows mobile and android by google
A1: to L1 anything you would like to ask madam
 L1: what is this resume bullet you have written in the CV
A1: haan tell us what is this
Me: madam its like thsi people sometimes just have degrees but they dont have the knowledge aboput it and the degree is just for the resume only, i dont want that i should have sumit khanna passout from IIFT 2010-2012 in my resume and dont have any knowledge about it , so i want it to be a knowledgeable experience
S1: so you think you will get diversity at iift
Me: yes sir
 A1: tell me infosys is such a big company dont you have people from varied places and diversity there
Me: yes sir we do have but all of them are from IT background and their thinking is towards that only
S1: but here also we have all engineers
Me: sir but even in engineers you will ahve some from mechanical background , civil etc and that will not be limited to IT only
S1: nah we have all engineers and all from IT..out of 13 ..12 are engineers so how can you get diversity here
Me: sir i agree to you that major chunk is of engineers but still i believe IIFT will give me more exposure than infy can give, as ther our conc is towards just getting the work done and not much innovation..here we will hve the liberty to think and even if all are from IT it will be a different case than working on the proj

S1: ok how important you think diveristy is at work place
Me: sitr i wont say it is 100% necessary but still it is majorly important as it can help in getting different thought processes for gettinmg thinsg done
S1: have you been to onsite
 Me: no sir :(
S1: but you must have interacted with people there, what changes you think are there office and ours
 Me: sir here we become mangers aftr 6 years of work and people lack the maturity and sense of responsibilty..there people become managers after 15 years and they have much more resposnibilty towards their work
S1 towards A1 and L1..anything else
 A1: yeah one last question Me: 4.7bn $ sir meand it is around that
S1: and the profit 1 bn
Me: i dont remmeber the exact figure sir but is less than that
S1: who's the next CEO of infosys
Me:sir right now it is mr kris gopalkrishnan but i dont know hwos next
S1: you dont know who will become after 2 years
 Me: sorry sir
s1: ok thats it done thank you
Me: thank you sir sigh sigh sigh so how did you find it guys and gals..it was quite good by my perception rest only results will tell