“Four options are before you. One is a problem involving insurance product. Second, data of a village.....1000 houses, 6500 people and so on. Third, documentation of a particular process or research. Fourth, liaison activities between certain groups. Which one do you think you are good at?” Immediate question I faced when I entered room for IFMR-CIRM interview. When I opted for the first one, next question was ready. “Can you solve this question?” A paper and pen was provided to solve a weather insurance product problem. Please be prepared to face unexpected questions and attitudes from the panel at any point of time. Other questions were, how many insurance providers are in India? What is the difference between life insurance and non-life insurance? Should there be different regulations to handle these 2 difference insurance domain? If yes/no, why? My favourite rural development projects (both successful and failure).Most of them were technical in nature.
IFMR-CIRM was my first interview and I had entered the room without even knowing what CIRM stands for!!! I wanted to be in marketing field and waiting for my turn in GCMMF which did not disclose my name in the initial lists. Hence instead of wasting time, I wanted to have mock interview experience and went to IFMR-CIRM. That was disastrous!! I wanted to give the interview to federation and BASIX, but my name was in the middle of the list. My second and last interview was with IFMR Venture. It was very long....Some of the questions asked were
1. Which concept at IRMA I liked the most? and why?
I told about new generation cooperative (NGC) and panel aggressively tried to convince me that NGC is no way better than traditional coop.
2. Regarding my work experience and how it is relevant now
3. I was asked to choose between rural energy and rural drinking water as Venture currently working on these two sectors and I may work for one of them. I chose rural drinking water.
4. I was asked to explain how I would implement drinking water project in a village (assumption was right technology is available). I spent lot of time in explaining my thoughts.
5. Series of questions related to failure of many government project related to providing drinking water. What is the main reason for the failure etc
6. The takeaway from IRMA and work experience.
My only request to you is try to build your own perspective in each topic. During the interview time, your original thoughts help you but not the borrowed and shortcut answers. There can’t be two answers for technical questions. But when they ask you to opine on certain issues or when they give live problems, it is your strong perspectives that help you respond convincingly. This is only about the experiences in the interview room. But how you prioritise your organisations, interviews and choices according to the changes and surprises on D day make substantial difference to the outcome. So be flexible, confident.
Prashant Hegde
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