Question 1: Successful leaders have a clear sense of purpose. What is your statement of purpose?

(300
Words)

Ans: Harriet Beecher Stowe had said “ Never give up, for that is just the time and place that the tide will
turn.”. This philosophy has guided me all throughout my life and motivated me to overcome all the
hurdles and get to where I want to be.

Being born in a family of a paramilitary personnel and a loving homemaker, I have seen a lot of motion
in life. I have changed 9 schools and been to quite a lot of places. This had a great influence on my
attitude. I have become quite adaptable and flexible. Communication is a cakewalk for me. This has also
made me open to different kind of people and culture. I completed my 10th and 12th in CBSE board with
a score of 10 CGPA and 94.2% respectively. I have always been good with numbers and thus chose
science in 12th and went on to pursue B.Tech in ECE from NIT Patna. In my undergraduate college, I got
the opportunity to be a part of lot of things. I organised various events , raised sponsorships , was a part
of the dance team. There I got my first proper exposure of working in a team and it taught me a lot of
qualities such as team work, patience, leadership etc. My major project was on Machine learning and I
realised how important are the intricate details when doing any kind of project. I learnt only knowledge
is not sufficient to make any project successful but you also need to learn to coordinate with your team
members.

I have always been greatly intrigued by how the businesses are run. Management has always excited me
and this excitement and desire to learn brought me to XLRI. Further from here, I would like to explore
and find in which field of management where my interest lies. After the end of two years, I would like to
join a company where I can apply the skills and knowledge I have acquired in all these years and
contribute positively in the growth and development of the firm. As learning is a continuous process, I
would like to learn from the practical experiences and in this process widen my horizon of real-world
problems and how one can solve them. I want to be working at the top echelon of the business world
and use this position to add value to the business world. I am a very ambitious person and look myself as
a future leader. I want to use my understanding to create a good impact on the society and live my
imprint on the global arena.

Academics:

Question 2: Have you justified your academic ability in light of the marks scored till now? (150 Words)

Ans. To be honest, I don’t think Marks are a very good indicator of your academic abilities. It’s more of a
test of how you perform under pressure. Of course you need to know things to write an exam but
sometimes people are not able to do well because of non-academic incompetency. Coming to me, I have
tried to give my best for all the exams I have taken in my life except a few instances but I feel there is
always a scope for improvement. I have been a consistent academic performer all throughout my school
life. Thus, when I went for my graduation, I developed this laid back approach towards studies and
hence grades suffered. When I could have easily with little effort scored a 9 pointer, I scored an 8. I was
involved in too much of extracurricular activities. When in the 5th semester I scored really low, I was
shaken. I decided to work hard and gave my best and eventually scored really well in the last three
semesters which improved my CGPA.

Question 3: What is your most significant academic achievement and why? (150 Words)

Ans: My most significant academic achievement would be my major project which we have to do in the
last semester of our college. This project was based on machine learning and needed decent amount of
programming skills. I being an electronics engineer did not know a lot about coding as I had always
concentrated more on the hardware part. This project was thus like a challenge to me. I wanted to
perform well. I had the option of choosing some other hardware project but I wanted to push myself out
of the comfort zone. It was really tough in the beginning. I had to read all the concepts from the very
beginning. When my other friends were chilling, I was burning the midnight oil. At one point of time , I
lost all hope of completing this project but the desire of winning kept me going. Ultimately after a lot of
problems and hiccups, we were able to complete this project and were awarded 10 SGPA too which was
like a cherry on the top .

Professional: [ Not applicable to freshers ]

Question 4: Share two achievements during your previous work experience that you are most proud
of and why. (100 Words)

Personality:

Question 5: What are your long term (3-5 years) and short term (1-2 years) goals? (100 Words)

Ans: I have been inclined towards management since a very long time and that’s why I took admission in
XLRI which is quite famous for its pgdm program. Being an engineering graduate I have very little idea
about how the businesses are run. In the coming 2 years, I would like to explore the various fields which
are present in management and find out where my interest lies. Also I would like to be a part of the
activities which takes place in this campus to improve my personality as a whole. After getting
graduated, I would like to work in my field of interest for some period of time and then go for executive
MBA to further enhance of my knowledge.

Question 6: Describe an incident that has had a deep impact on you and brought about a significant
change? (100 Words)

Ans: As my father is in paramilitary, we keep on changing places after every 2-3 years. So, back in 2003
we had moved to this new place in Bengal, there was this girl who was quite rich and her parents were
quite influential people. She somehow got to know that my I love my mother a lot. She started torturing
me along with her friends. She used to ask me to do her favours and told that if I don’t do this my
mother will die. They used to body shame me as I was fat. Being a 7-8 year old kid, I was really scared by
all this. I could not even gather the courage to tell my parents about these things. I faced this for 2 long
years. But, all this made me stronger. I became fearless. I realized there are both kind of people good as
well as bad and we should not really care about what others say or think about us.
Question 7: Describe a situation where you achieved results against odds? (150 Words)

Ans : I took a drop after 12th to prepare for engineering entrance examination and went to Kota for this.
First two months were very good. I did well and everybody expected that I will crack JEE Advance with a
very good rank. As I entered into the third month (September), I was diagnosed with UTI . After that I
was diagnosed with dengue and PCOS and minor ulcer in the subsequent months. By the month of
December, I became very weak. I had so much pain in legs and hands that it was difficult for me to even
sit. The exams were only 3 months away. My parents asked me to not think about it much and come
back home but I was determined to crack JEE. I decided to stay back in Kota. I studied hard day and night
despite the constant pain. I did not give up till the end. Finally I achieved a rank of 9876 in JEE Advance
which was not that great but I was happy with whatever I could achieve in spite of so many hurdles. I
also cracked JEE Main and joined NIT Patna.

Question 8: Tell us about a position, or experience, at work or during / post college that showcases
having a great deal of responsibility. (150 Words)

Ans: In the 4th semester of my undergraduate college,I was made the senior member of the Public
Relations team of the annual techno-cultural fest of our college. The fest of our college is a medium
budget fest with few big sponsors. My job as a member of the PR team was to co-ordinate with sponsors
who were sponsoring our fests. So, two weeks before the commencement of the fest our biggest
sponsor backed out and we were in tremendous pressure financially. We decided to approach small
level sponsors like coaching centres and various food joints. These were our last hope. I personally
visited a lot of coaching centres and food joints and tried my best to convince them to sponsor various
events in our fest. The problem with these kind of sponsors are that they are quite reluctant to invest
money in college fests as they don’t have much knowledge about the business opportunities in these
events. But ultimately I was successful in persuading quite a few of them to sponsor for our fests. I also
collaborated with a beauty salon to organise the first ever personal grooming workshop in NIT Patna.
Those two weeks were quite stressful for me as a member as the successful organization of our fest
depended a lot on these small level sponsors. I learnt the art of coaxing people and it also helped me
with my communication skill.

Question 9: Tell us about a situation when you were working on an important project and it did not go
as planned. How did you modify your approach to adapt to the changing situation and what was the
result? (150 Words)

Ans:- I was working on my minor project in my 6th semester along with 9-5 classes everyday. It was a
pretty hectic schedule and had to manage studies, committees and project altogether at once. We
selected a topic on image enhancement and started working on it. We kept on working it but in the last
phase we got stuck. We were not able to implement that part. We tried everything but all went in vain.
The submission was only a week away and here were we with an incomplete project. At that time we
decided to use the part which we were able to implement and use it in some other way. It was a project
on image enhancement. We began working on it and initially there were some hiccups but ultimately we
succeeded
Question 10: Describe a situation where you had to come up with an innovative solution or display
innovative thinking. (150 Words)

Ans:- In the 4th year of my college, I was a part of the design team in the annual techno-cultural fest
which was responsible for the college decoration. We had initially decided to outsource the decoration
material and call professionals to get it decorated. Due to shortage of funds , unfortunately we cannot
get the materials. We were in a crisis situation and could not really think what to do. So I came up with
an idea where we used bedsheets and hand made lamps to decorate the whole college. We also
requested the students good at sketching to draw some graffiti art on some of the walls. It did not seem
a very good option in the beginning but we did not have any other option. But after the decoration got
completed the whole college looked very beautiful .It felt like a big accomplishment.

Question 11: Elaborate on your 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses. (100 Words)

Ans: My three weaknesses are as follows:

1. Overlooking finer details- I become so focused on completing my work that at times I tend to
miss out on the smaller details
2. Over thinking- I tend to over analyse even petty problems which drains out my mind making
me stressed
3. Procrastination- I usually keep on delaying my work until the last moment which creates a lot of
pressure on me and the workload also gets increased tremendously.
My three strengths are as follows:

1. Flexible- I can adjust in any kind of situation and don’t find it hard adapting to new culture and
places.
2. Determination- I am quite determined in nature and never give up until the task allotted to me
is completed.
3. Quick learner- As I adapt well in any kind of situation, I also learn quickly. I have changed 9
schools and even then was able to score well in all of my exams.

Value System Based:

Question 12: What are the three most important values that guide your thoughts and actions? (80
Words)

Ans:- The three most important values that guide my thoughts and action are as follows:

1. Conscience- This is the foremost value that guides anyone to the path of rightouusness. Your
conscience always knows what is right and what is wrong and it should always be listened to.
2. Self- esteem- The point is if you don’t value yourself enough, nobody else will . It is important to
believe in ourselves and remain confident despite of what others are think about us
3. Kindness- This world needs more of it. Everybody has become so focussed on themselves , they
rarely care about the feeling of others. Two words of kindness is like a powerful tool which can
really help a person in solving their problems.
Question 13: Which socio-economic issue concerns you the most and what role can you play in
addressing it? (100 Words)

Ans:- Illiteracy is the one of the major socio economic issues which concerns me the most. Education is
really important for the development of a country like India. As a large part of India’s population
comprises of young individuals below the age of 35, if all of them are educated, our country can do
wonders. The situation right now is really grim. If you go to villages, the condition is even more pathetic.
There are no teachers in school and in some places there are no school at all. Proper steps need to be
taken to spread awareness about the importance of education among everyone. From my current level,
I can collaborate with NGOs and help in spreading awareness. I can also take few classes weekly and
teach the underprivileged students who lack resources. Few years down the lane when I have
accumulated enough resources, I can open schools for the kids in villages so that they can get proper
education.

Team Based:

Question 14: Describe a time when you had to work together with other members in a team to
achieve an exceptional outcome. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them as a
team? (150 Words)

Ans:- In the 3rd year of my college, a new interdepartmental fest named Eccentrica was introduced. I
was a part of the organising team of this 2 day fest. As it was a new fest, everyone was clueless as to
how to approach it and where to begin with. Without proper work division things started getting
messier day by day. There were a lot of clashes too among the members as they had conflict of interest.
As the fest day started coming closer, there was a state of panic as nothing was prepared. We then
called a meeting of the core team and decided to divide the work among ourselves and not only that we
decided that we won’t interfere in each other’s work unless it is really required. This sorted out a lot of
things. Everybody took care of their department and things started falling in place. Due to that one
meeting, the event was organised smoothly and it was a huge success.

Question 15: Describe a situation where you had to persuade others to achieve a goal after
overcoming resistance. How did you go about doing it? (100 Words)

Ans:- In the 2nd year of my college, I was a part of the sponsorship team of the annual techno-cultural
fest corona and melange. Three weeks before the fest, one of the biggest sponsors backed out. That was
a crisis situation for all of us. So we decided to contact local vendors and food joints to ask for
sponsorship. It was not easy as it seemed to be in the beginning. These were small level coaching
centres and for them even 5000 was a big sum of money. Convincing them was a herculean task. A lot of
them just turned us down without even listening to us. We went to all the coaching centres and the
food joints in Patna in that span of two weeks. We tried to persuade the owners by citing them the
footfall and demography of the people coming to the fest. We made them feel that they are not the
only stakeholders in this transaction. We are also responsible for whatever happens with them. This
approach made the vendors feel at ease and ultimately some of them agreed to sponsor us. We were
able to raise INR 1 lakh from over 10 sponsors.