Self-Assessment

1. Please describe yourself as a person. What are your strengths and areas of improvement (at least 3 each)? Cite situations to exemplify each. (WL: 1000)

I am very friendly and approachable. I am quite open minded because of which I can sustain a conversation with someone about any abstract topic. I am into fitness and my hobbies include playing football and reading non-fiction. I am an engineer with two years of work experience as a business analyst with Accenture.

Strengths:

I am a quick learner. I have showcased this on several occasions in the past. I have been provided with sudden requirements and changes in my previous job and I have met my supervisors expectations. The changes that need to done require knowledge of new topics which are irrelevant to the type of work I have been doing. I have quickly gained knowledge of the new topics in very less time in order to complete the task at hand.

I have strong communication skills. I have gained visibility from the leadership team in the company because of the work that I had done. I followed up and established a good rapport with them. I also had a good formal relationship with the project team and have shown initiatives in organizing team meets and outings. I have mentored two resources in the team and got them equipped with the necessary skillset to do their work effectively and efficiently and increase their productivity.

I am an effective team player. I was a part of the college football team. I have worked with the rest of the team in winning several competitions. I was the captain of the branch football team. In my final year project of engineering, my team distributed the work equally amongst ourselves and effectively collaborated with each other from time to time and finished the work well within the scheduled time after getting feedback from our project guide.

Weaknesses:

I get nervous while addressing large crowds. I have undergone soft skills training for the same in my previous company. The nervousness was quite evident from my voice and body language when I was first asked to speak up and deliver a presentation to my teammates. I have realized that some part of that nervousness comes from the fear of judgement and I am constantly equipping myself with the required skills to overcome this weakness and it is still work in progress.

I cannot take criticism well. I have been provided with both constructive and destructive criticism at my workplace. I sometimes take them personally and realize that they were for my own good very late. I hate being proved wrong. I have been recently learning the biases and fallacies involved in conversations and helping myself differentiate between constructive and destructive criticism.

I go on my own way sometimes. This usually involves very high risk. I consider this a weakness because of the uncertainty thats involved. Theres no telling where I might end up. I have taken decisions and worked out solutions in my job. Sometimes they have worked out in my favour. There have also been times when the results werent exactly favourable. Either way, Ive learnt from the mistakes that I had made initially and I am learning to take calculated risks.

2. What is your single largest achievement so far? Why do you consider it to be your largest achievement? What is your largest defeat to date and why? (WL: 500)

After my schooling, I decided to take loan for engineering on my own. I worked for two years and successfully paid back all the instalments without any discrepancies. I consider this an achievement because it gave me the sense of being independent. I am proud of being able to do this at my age. This also helped me learn about tax savings for income tax and the different policies the bank has for loan repayment and how rate of interest works. It maximized my learning and I do not regret this decision upon hindsight.

I was the captain of the branch football team in the final year of college. I successfully guided the team to the finals of the inter branch tournament. We lost in the penalties. I was the one who missed the penalty when it mattered. Even though I have had let downs in the past, the magnitude of the grief felt in this particular scenario was huge. It was my last chance to leave a mark as a good leader and I felt that I let the team down.

3. What are your personal goals in life? Please elaborate in three separate categories: Short-term (2-3 years), Medium-term (5-6 years) and Long-term (ultimate objective). (WL: 1000)

Short-term goals:

I plan on learning as much as possible in the next two years of my life at IIM Indore. I would like to prepare myself to face challenges in the corporate world by learning the necessary skillset. I would also come out of graduation better equipped to take on challenges in life like handling pressure and making formal relationships. I would like to make long lasting friendships and also learn from my fellow classmates. I would like to establish a good rapport with all the professors at the institute.

Medium-term goals:

I would like to end up in a job where I can afford to sustain myself while paying back the loan. I would like to progress in the company by learning the essentials of the corporate world. The objective would be to maximize the learning process at my first job in order to ascertain my field of interest. Once Ive narrowed down on something specific, I would like to build my career on it. I would like to connect with the leadership team in the company and get their perspectives on the corporate world. I hope to use these valuable connections in order to progress in the organization.

Long-term goals:

4. What are the three most important values that guide your thoughts and actions and why? (WL: 500)

5. What type of assignments/tasks keep you hooked and charged and what are those that you find unexciting? (WL: 500)

6. Who is your idol in life? Identify one of his/her weaknesses and elaborate. (WL:500)

7. What are your hobbies and interests? How do you intend to pursue them during your MBA and in the future? [At least 2 hobbies](WL:500)

8. What are your expectations from your stay at IIM Indore? What new skill sets and traits do you hope to acquire while pursuing MBA here? (WL:500)

9. Which industry fascinates you the most as a career option after MBA? How does your current educational qualification and skill set qualify you for it? How would an MBA help you in this? (WL:1000)

Visualizations and Decisions Making

10. Describe up to two incidents that have had a deep impact and brought about a significant change in you? (WL: 500)

11. How does an MBA at this stage fit into your scheme of things? Why now? (WL: 500)

12. At times, many of us are caught in a situation of moral conflict, where we have to choose between two seemingly right alternatives. Describe up to two situations when you faced this conflict. How did you resolve them? (WL: 500)

13. Sometimes, we may find a group of people disagreeing with our beliefs/points of view. How do you prefer to handle such a situation? Give us an instance where you had to convince a group of people on your point of view.(WL:500)

14. Describe an occasion when you realized the need for change/improvement/self-development. How did you respond? (WL:500)

15. How do you define the following: (WL:250 each) Success Failure Leadership Ethics

Demonstrated Acts of Competence

16. Describe a challenging project or a seemingly impossible task which you have undertaken. What was the outcome? (WL: 750)

17. Have you ever adopted a non-traditional approach to manage a project / situation or to solve a problem? Briefly describe the project / situation of the problem, the approach and the outcome. In retrospect, do you think you should have handled it differently? (WL: 750)

18. Have you been a member of any social/cultural organization? (Yes/No). If yes, please detail your position and accomplishments in the organization. What was the key purpose behind your decision to be associated with this entity? What are your future plans in this regard? (WL:750)

19. Tell us about a time when you had difficulty with a co-worker/team-mate and how you handled the situation. (WL:750)

20. Give two examples of how you have demonstrated leadership and inspired people towards achievement of certain goals. (WL:1000)