INTERVIEW HANDOUT 2022-23 You have already been tested for your academic abilities, the interview is only to test and analyze your personality and how you will react under pressure. These are a few things that you must keep in mind when you give the interview. + Wear formal clothing, BE FORMAL. Informal clothing is not at all acceptable in the interview. Nobody is expecting from you to be in three-piece suit. It's not a job interview. * Reach well ahead of your interview. They will not take it afterwards. + Make sure that you have all the required ‘ORIGINAL’ not photocopied documents, * When you are asked about IBA, give the impression that itis the one and only place for you and you will be ‘devastated if you did not get into IBA. + You must be cleaned up well (as in all showered and groomed), * When you walk into the interview room, keep your walk straight. Youf walk should depict your confidence in your own self, but do not look aloof. + When you approach the desk to which you are assigned, offer your salutation in a mariner so as to address everyone sitting on the table. * Only speak when you are spoken to. + Your answer to every question should be very relevant and wayward + If you are answering a question which was asked by One interviewer andiif another interviewer interrupts your answer by a second question, do not finish your answer for the first question but\proceed to answer the second question. + DO NOT ARGUE with the interviewer, evenif they rebuke you, be polite and control your emotions. + Remember that they will try to provoke you. either by insulting you or through any other tactic; YOU MUST STAY IN FULL CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONS. + The interviewers may discuss controversial topics with you))so take a fteutfal stance on all controversial topics. DO NOT GIVE YOUR OPINION UNLESS IT IS ASKED FOR. + You should try to answer in @ manner that would please the interview not in a manner that you think is, appropriate. Following are the interview questions being asked by IBA interviewers from different students in interviews. These are to help you out. Good Luck! General orPersonal + Describe yourself\Tell me your weaknesses and strengths. + What are your strength & weaknesses? + Why there is such a big difference between your intermediate and graduation grade? + Your Favorite subject. + You have not written any extra-curricular activities, why? + What kind of books you reed? + Tell the name of any author you Tead most. (On saying Sidney Sheldon) Kids read Sidney Sheldon. * Have you read anything in Urdu literature? + What was the last book you read? (On saying Shahab Nama) itis quite a thick book + Why do you want to do MBA from IBA only? * Do you know what subjects you'll have to read here? + Your intermediate and matriculation marks are OK, but why such a low GPA in graduation? * Why do you want to shift towards MBA from computer science? + From where did you prepare for the IBA test? + What will you do if you are not admitted to IBA? + What do you pian to do after the completion of your MBA/BBA? + Your previous grades are so bad, how will you manage in IBA? + You have been in pre-medical, why do you think you will prosper in business? * Why do you want to join IBA? Is it your own choice or are your parents pressurizing you? + What is your favorite subject? (Ask questions about it) + What do your parents do? How many siblings do you have, what do they do?* Details about academic background (schooling and grades)? Scrutinize previous academic record. + Why do u want to come to IBA, it is a business school, and u are a science/medical student? + Tell us something about your own character/personality + Ifyou were given a choice, would you like to be a team leader or a team member? Justify. + Tell us some incidence which indicates that you can work under pressure. + How will you manage to pay the fees? Are you a serious student or will you just bum your parents’ burn? * Do you know anyone who studies in IBA? Is he/she a relative? + If student is from outside of Karachi — how will you stay away from home and how will you cope with it? Will your parents be able to afford the extra cost and burden of your hostel life? + Ifwe do not admit you to IBA, where do you plan to go? * What about activities at school? * Where do think you will be after 10 years? * What does your father do? + How would you afford the fees of IBA? Course & Academic Questions * What is depreciation? Tell any three ways of calculating it. Which methodlis under use in Pakistan? + Tell me something about Balance Sheet and Income Statement and is therelany link between thése,two financial statements? + If you were the president as well as chief of the armysstaff at the moment what you would Be doing * What are marginal revenue curve, dispersion, normal population, and central tendendy? + What is indifference curve? Differentiate between GDP and GNP. * Which subject you had in BSc? + What is your expertise in computation? + What is Artificial Intelligence? + You play cricket, have u ever played from any coffipany ordepart ment? * Do you read newspapers? + Do you have any knowledge/@bout Economics or Accounting? + In which area do you have good general knowledge? + Do you read business pages in any newspaper? + Do you have any extracurricular activities? + In how many days did you complete that book? + Some questions about the characters in the book. + Have you read poetry? * Who is your favorite poet? + What is the current index of KSE? + How many companies are listed on KSE? + Is there no scope left in, computer science? * Which places have you traveled abroad? + Tell me the names of any historical landmarks in the places you have visited abroad, + Suppose you are a foreigner visiting Pakistan. What steps will you take to promote a foreign market in Pakistan? * What is your opinion abdut the current budget? + Is the budget rich friendly oF poor friendly? + What are its effect on common man and business people? + Tell me the difference between neutral network and fuzzy logic? (From a computer science student only) + Tell me if you had any courses in networking or hardware and upto what extent? + You have an engineering background. How was your experience? + Currently you are doing a job; do you know that you have to leave the job while you join IBA? + Why do you want to MBA from IBA? + Why not MBA-MIS? * Why did FORTRAN and COBOL vanish? + Intel is a monopoly; tell names of any other companies in this sector. + What does the company “Apple” produces? + Which was established first, IBM or Microsoft? + What newspapers do you read? English or Urdu?* You don't have a habit of reading English newspapers; start reading them now, as it will help you in IBA * What are the current Euro and Dollar rates? + What is the method to evaluate the currency of any other country? + On which principle does the State Bank of Pakistan works? + What is RISK and “Security Levels” in computers? + You haven't taken any courses in Economic, Accounts or Management, then how will you carry on in IBA? + You have done some internship before, what type of internships were they and how was your experience? + What do you think about 6.4% GDP, what does it indicates? + Since you have been involved in debates; + Defend the Iraq War or speak against it * Which college or school are you from? What is the character of teachers there? + Asked names of central banks of various countries. What is WTO? + Should Pakistan accept Israel as a state? + What is differentiation and Integration, what is the difference between them? + Why do we use regression? + Do you read business news? + Where do you live here in Karachi? + Favorite subject? + Benefits of debt or equity * Questions about the capital structure INTERVIEW First man: Describe yourself. ‘Me: Well itis really difficult to describe myself. However | am Very ambitious person who is really very anxious to get into IBA. | did ‘O'-Levels with 6A from St) Michael convert, school and my ‘A’-Levels from The,Lyceum School. First man: You aren't that ambitious totake my Seat. Hahaha Me: No sir. Hahaha an: You had biology im‘O'-Level. Why did you change your field? ir, actually | wanted my field to be open. When I'studied accounts | really liked it so in ‘O'- Levels | opted foneco, business, Math. Second man: Whet do you think about poverty and what is poverty line? here is great deal/of poverty in our country. People living below average income i.e. recently $847 is classified as people living below poverty line. First man: Do you have hope'with present government? Me: Yes sir First man: Why? It has remfiained same since two years. Me: No sir InshAllah more and more educated people are coming and our future is secure. And after all Rome was not built in one day. It takes time for everything to get better. First man: He just said some Shair in Urdu and laughed and then said, Thank you young man best of luck. Wa-Alaikum-As-Salam2 INTERVIEW ‘On my panel, there was a man wearing a polo shirt, with disheveled hair, that was kind of odd as everyone else was dressed up in suits and ties. Sitting with him was @ very disinterested young lady. The male interviewer did most of the questioning. He just asked me the typical questions. + Tell me about yourself? + Why, after having an academic background of pre medical, did you opt for IBA? Why did you have bad grades in Inter? + What was the topic of the group discussion? + What was your opinion? My interview went well, but | was somewhat disappointed as | was not asked the tricky and hard questions that | was well prepared for. Interview No.1 | approached the panel smiling, seeing this the interviewers were also beaming Me: assalam o alaikum female: walikum assalam Me: May | sit madam? female: Sure ME: Thank you Female: How are you today? ME: I'm good! How're you? Female: Tell us about yourself? Me: I'm gregarious, inquisitive, loyal to friends, patient (and | wention.,) Male: (for the first time) ar@you emotional? Me: No sir 'm usually not impulsive Male: usually? Me: all humans have weaknesses Female: why do you want to join IBA? Me :| read Mr. Ishrat Hussain’s interview inwhich he said 50% - 80 % of the executives in multinationals are from IBA, the IBA brand is preferted everywhere, IBA has a very resourceful library with 31 International journals and 27 Pakistani Jouraals (I kept on praising IBA until interrupted ) Female: Do you have friends in IBA? Me: two friends. Female: what did they tell you about IBA, they must have persuaded you? Me: | was brainwashed... (Now | fully used the opportunity to praise IBA) Female: Why did you change your field? Me: Family pressure Male: How do you think we can change genes in human beings in a genetically disorder? Me: is that an opinion? (I had heard the phrase how do you think) Male: Yes (after thinking) Me: One way is to enter a device in the body or you can always go for an operation!Male: Do you know what is (Itwas a very strange name of a disease) Me: Sorry Sir! | don't know Male: have you applied anywhere else? Me: NO sir, only IBA Male: What if we don't take you? Me: I'll come back next year as I've been brainwashed about IBA. Male: Do u have any idea how many years will you spend in IBA? Me: 6 years seven months Male: No its 8 years (and he kept on explaining?) Me: Sir I'm willing to spend even 10 years in IBA Male: where do think you will be after 10 years? Me: contributing in a company Female: How can you contribute in IBA? Me: Well there is a talent hunt program going on and.t'm sure the stiidents from FATA, Baluchistan and Interior won't have good English skills | can help them with that. Female: which is your favorite subject? Me: English Female: why didn't you go towards English literature? Me: Because Madam its Englishllanguage I'm interested) actually | am interested in writing. Female: Co curricular activities? Me: Social work, when the earth quake came | collected stuff imthe PAF base besides that | have many there certificates for essays and reading Male: How do you get certificates in reading? Me: Well ceftificates for ardent reader of the year, ardent feader of the month, actually | used to borrow books from my school library and after reading them | used to give in the summary, | have the certificates right now, Male: What do you do When you are free? Me: | read Female: What do you read? Me: Novels and newspaper Female: Do you read the neWs paper regularly? Me: Yes If 'm free! Female: Since when are you free? Me: Since my IBA test Male: Do u use the internet? Me: Just to check my emails and recently | was searching universities, | explored the IBA website Female: How is the IBA website? Me: InformativeFemale: What did you read there? Me: About the teachers who were honored and the library...... (and it started)until | was interrupted Male: have you read about the universities abroad? Did you compare them with IBA? Do you know their Impeccable standards? (I was getting the impression that the male was there to provoke me) Me: Yes Sir! The American Ambassador said that in Pakistan there are two universities which take students ‘on merit and IBA is one of them, besides that there was a conference in Geneva and IBA is the only university which had two of its students there Male: He was surprised and taken aback at the same time Female: Thank you Shan for joining us Me: Ur welcome! Allah Hafiz Interview No.2 | was escorted into the room where two interviewers were sitting behind the table. I\ approached themand ‘said “Good afternoon Sir’, they extended their hands which | shookfirmly and)sat in front of them. Q) Tell me something about yourself. A) (I gave him my brief introduction) Q) Tell me some of your bad qualities. AA) Sir, the quality of leadership which | haVe told you isin a wayalso my weakhess. want to lead and take charge of things but sometimes it leads to arguments. Q) The income of your father which you have méntionéd here is insufficient» How will you afford to study here? A) Sir, my mother also teaches her ioame combined with my father’s will be sufficient to pay my fees. Q) Which ere your favorite subjects? A) Physics and English Q) What isNewton’s law of gravitation? Q) What is the 2nd\Law of motion? Q) What are the greatest problems of our cotintry? A) Sir, | think corruption, ilteracy, leadership crises and education are among the greatest problems which ‘our country is facing these days. Q) I you were the President of Pakistan which problem would you solve first? {A) If| were given the honor, would look into the problem of corruption. Q) | think poverty demands more attention than corruptions don't u think? A) Yes Sir, you have a very just opinion but | see it this way that if we overcome corruption, all the other problems will dissolve automatically including that of poverty.Interview no. 3: Me: Assalam-u-Alikum ‘A: w. salam plz have a seat Me: thank you A: Please describe yourself? Me: my name is Shehzad and | have done my matriculation from mama baby care school and | secured 79% and then my inter from Bahria college karsaz and | secured 80% I m very ambitious person and | want to do my majors in marketing ‘A: oh that’s good do u know what is marketing?? Me: Yes it is related to advertisement and promotion of the sales A: Take this pen and do marketing of this. Me: our company has launched its new product which is a pen which provides ulthe pleasure of ‘smoothness at the very low cost so it's in your budget so keep it in your pocket A: ok what does u do the whole day??_ Me: | usually watch debate shows at news channels like meré mutabik, debatelwith Mehreen, and aa} Kamran Khan k Sath, and | do networking and i also play games. ‘A: hmm but why do u watch these debate show what do u learn from Me: because it teaches how to debate and we also keep in touch with the current affairs A: and does u use the facebook? Me: yes I do ‘A: what does u do at there? me: | interact with different people and elso make friends. ‘A: okay you know what-subjects are you going to learn in BBA? Me: yes cost management, financial accounting, sales promotion, sales marketing, HRM, psychology, consumer behavior, micro economies macro economics. A: Do u knolv what HRM is? Me: yes human resource management, it teachés how we can increase the productivity of our labors and how we can get maximum benefits from a limited resource ‘A: What are your favorite sibjects? Me: accounts and POC? ‘A: Do u know what e-commerce is? Me: yes electronic commerce ‘A: and what is electronic commerce? Me: umm I dun know ‘A: Why you have chosen IBA? Me: because | think i's the best platform where | would get chance to prove and flourish myself and it will leads me to success. ‘A; And what will u do if u won't get admission here? Me: | will apply next year.A: And in the mean while what you will be doing? Me: I'l be doing some English courses and helping my father in his business A: Have u applied in any other university? Me: No, I haven't | only want to do my BBA from IBA ‘A; But | think u should have to applied and make up backup in case if u doesn't get admission here Me: | told u | only want to do my BBA from here. ‘A: You want to ask any questions from us? Me: no thanks A: That is alll thank you Me: thank you Interview n 1. Tell us something about yourself, Hi. My name is Muhammad Abdullah. | am 19 years old. uhh... | aima very outgoing person. Very extrovert, like to experiment a lot with everyday life stuff. | love travelling and hanging out with friends, ‘One of the major things that make me stand out from the crowd is my different approach toissues and my views. At 19 years of age, you shouldn't expect me to act like a full grown mature adult but ! usually handle things in much better ways than an average teenager, 2. When you say you are mature than ayérage teenagers, could)you support that Wwithrany specific ‘examples or any events? Ilived in the U.S. for an academic year. It was a State Dept. funded all paid scholarship based program. YES or Youth Exchange and Study program, if You've heard about it. That single year matured me mentally and psychologically moreithan anything ever could. ! remembenthis one time | made a presentation about Pakistan and we were discussing world politics and a guy in my history class straight Off called me a terrorist. A typical Pakistani teenager not only would've been totally offended by it, but it could've lead to violence, threats, fights ete. All| did was | asked him to stay over after the class and when Thad a decent talk with him in presence of our teacher, it turned out he was also a media victim and all he ‘ever heard about Pakistan was'through media. Lack oftinformation on his part could've lead to problems if hadn't acted mature. 3. That's interesting, So you didn't apply for further education in the US? You are a state department program alumni, you could've easily gotten more scholarships or something? I did. | took the SAT last;December, but while preparing for it | had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life. All of which affected my scores. !\got a 1700 which wasn't good enough for the schools I planned for. | ended up applying to Chicago and Berea College, but didn't get in. Even if | had gotten in, my parents weren't really supportive of the/idea. So | had to drop out the whole plan of studying abroad. Plus it's super expensive and without a scholarship it was utterly impossible for me to go. 4, So, let's get back to your Personal lfe. What do you do in your free time? am huge on community service. As a YES Alumnus, we've been doing projects in the education sector for about three years now. We have done free language camps. There's a well organized summer camp program with all the CDGK schools for language and ICT Training. We've organized plantations, beach cleanups, grafiti cleanups, well diggings, micro financing projects etc. There's a huge range on that which takes a lot of my time. Besides that, | have been doing a radio show named Achay Dost. It's a UNICEF show which targets youth issues. | have worked with AKSWB on Substance Free Pakistan. | was part of the team who designed the CDGK's | Own Karachi program. I blog. | write. | paint and draw. | love photography. | love reading,5. You said you blog, you mean you have your own blog or you just read them? | read a lot of them but | also have my own. | have been doing this for about 2 months now which have been quite a ride. 6. What do you blog about? oh. Just about anything. Most of it has been on sociopolitical issues in the country. The most popular post | wrote was on "lessons i learned through FreeCell”. 7. By all that you've said, | suppose you are a smart kid. You have excellent academic record. Why a sudden interest in business? You have an A+ in Inter Pre Medical. Why do you not want to pursue being a medical doctor? | don't think studying science, and specifically medicinal sciences offer what | want from lifes. 8. And what is that? Ihave always wanted a profession which is very energetic. Very funvand exciting. With business studies, | will hopefully end up somewhere in the corporate world. The opportunities there are endless. There's whole wide range of projects and different tasks you do. Goals you decide and goals you achieve. There's always a next step. There's always chance to grow. If | become a medical doctor, there's really nothing to be excited about on daily basis. mean, come on. | don't think i's veryexciting to, wake up,one morning and think about going and doing an open heart surgery or treating) diabetic. 9. :) So, let's see. Why IBA then? Honestly, | know that | am better than a lot of crowd out there. | think that IBA is the best and I deserve the best. | have been out and about here @uite often and the IBAycurrentor former students whom | know; they are all amazing individuals, very energetic and very charismatic, There's’a certain vibe around them that you just can't ignore. | want to be one of them: Besides, IBA just feels lke home. | don't know why. Then there were some questions about basic science concepts and altemative sources of energy.