Did you recently noticed some changes in your life.

Like you feel an urge to dive in to the spiritual quest of knowing yourself better or to unveil the whole conundrum of the purpose of your life.. You feel sad about your performance in your board/grad exams (which you didn t care when the results were out!"... and all of a sudden you started forming your opinion on every social/business/political events. #n most of the case$ this is nothing but symptoms of a common condition that affect many #ndians during mid %an$ and is called &# got a 'all syndrome(!!!

)oo often we make mistakes that change the entire course of our life. *ome mistakes take us to a better path than the &right& would have leaded to+ but some mistakes are a recipe for continuing regret. *crewing up ,D/-# for a premier .usiness school belongs to the latter. Let me make one thing clear. /ot converting a call is /0) a mistake if you have done your best pursuing the same. #t is simple math anyway+ -eople who got calls counts more than the actual seats available and some has to be re1ected. 2hat makes life miserable is in knowing that you got kicked out from the list because you didn t give your best.

3very mistake is a learning opportunity. .ut it is much smarter to learn from other4s mistakes. During ,D/-# preparation it is quite obvious that you need advice and guidance from the experts. 5ake sure you also talk with people who screwed up their ,D/-# before. 6 &screwed up& guy can tell you 376')LY why he is not selected giving you lot of insights about the pitfalls during ,D/-#. # will try to make an attempt to collate my experience in screwing up ,D/-# sessions and hope that this help you in some way. )o prove my credibility to author this article$ # got )#** 895 call for three consecutive years and didn t make it through despite the fact that # love 895 and shared )#53 person of the year award (:;;<".

#n this article # will share my thoughts about the bio sketch and those *0-s.. 8ere we go!

,olden 9ule= /o matter who you are and what you did with your life$ you are a potential ,D/-# flopper! -anel members can break your hypothesis of being an 5.6tious person and thrash your life into pieces. During ,D/-#$ panel is more worried about selecting a wrong person than losing a good one. You can blame the supply>demand curve or our education system. .ut that the way it is. -eriod.

8ow much time you need to 1udge a person or atleast to know a person? 6 year... 6

month... 6 day...? Definitely not @; mins$ right? .ut that s all a panel got to 1udge your capability to survive and succeed their program. )he first impression you make is not when you open the door with your most confident smile and impeccable attire.. it would have happened A minutes before you make your grand entry. )hat s the whole role of a *0- or .io sketch. Do not take it lightly. )hese are some learning which # got from my travels to )#**! ="

B. Cnow every word and every number in your application form

&.eing a diehard *harukh Chan fan...( this seemingly harmless statement in your *0can be fatal. *cene goes like this

-anel= *o you like *harukh Chan 6spirant= Yes *ir. # have seen all his movies and what # feel unique about his films is... -anel= 0k. Do you support *harukh Chan endorsing brands when he should have focused on acting.. 6spirant= *ir$ # feel #t is a personal choice and since advertisements are... -anel= 'an you name some brands he endorse.. 6spirant= /okia.. 6sian -aints.. -anel= Do you think /okia4s association with 5icrosoft will help them to regain their grip in handset industry 6spirant= 8ow exactly we reached here!!!

)his happens a lot. 6 guy # met in )#** got his first -# question as 2hat is the real name of 5ark )wain? .ecause his *0- started with some quote by 5ark )wain. )hen it spiralled to other 5ark )wain related stuffs like the story behind the pen name 5ark )wain... 9elevance of 5ark )wain literature... some discussions on 5ark )wain4s famous books and characters...

.uild B;;D confidence about each and every portion in your *0-. #f you wrote your academic scores in your application form then make 1ustifications on why you got those scores ( no matter high or low.. one of my friend scored really well in academics and he

was asked to make a framework using his learning techniques that can help others to improve the score!&". #f your form has electronics engineering in it then make sure you know the characteristics graph of a thyristor and you better be aware of what happening/happened in your state and last but not the least.. Cnow the meaning of your name!

E5ark )wain4s real name was *amuel Langhorne 'lemens. 8is primary pen name came from his years working on 5ississippi riverboats$ where two fathoms$ a depth indicating safe water for passage of boat$ was measured on the sounding line. )he river boatman4s cry was &mark twain& or$ more fully$ &by the mark twain&$ meaning &according to the mark Eon the lineF$ Ethe depth isF two EfathomsF(F

#f you cannot prove/1ustify a portion in your *0-$ avoid that (if possible".

-*= # am not a *harukh Chan fan!

:. Do not tell you are superman unless you can dodge a bullet

#t is easy to make tall claims but if you cannot defend and reflect them in your ,D/-# then it can hurt your chances. # feel it is better to use visible/verifiable pointers from your life to establish a quality rather than explicitly claiming the same. Like$ if you are capable in managing a group$ don t tell it directly. Let them deduce that from the pointers like you were elected as college chairman or you managed a role which demanded coordination between cross functional teams etc. ,ive them the proofs then they will be interested in your claims.. #f you give them claims then they will be behind the proofs.

)here are always two groups in a system+ 0ne who tries to build the system and another one who wants to break it. 2e have programmers and hackers$ coaching institutes and test makers$ aspirant and panellist and so on. 2e all fill our *0- with ,6* and panel will try their best to evaluate the ,G (,as Guotient" of our hypothesis. )rust me$ they are good at it. )hey will challenge your claims as hard as they want and if your theory bursts$ so does your chance. 8aving said that$ no one can go with a B;;D solid theory.. ,as is always there.. but point is we should not make it easy for the panel to identify where the ,as points are!

5y friend$ during his ##5' interview$ was grilled on mathematics. 8e was asked to prove algebraic equations geometrically. )hen some panellist got interested in his passion for photography. 8e was well prepared for that part and he showed them many photographs he took. Discussions lead to various types of lenses and stuffs like that and he was able to convince the panel about the sincerity of his passion. 8e converted the call and eventually served as the president of photography club in ##5'.

@. Don t tell everything.. ,ive hints

-urpose of *0- is not to give a complete picture of your life. #t is meant to build a basic understanding of your profile and passion. #f used wisely$ this can be used to drive your interview in the direction which is beneficial for you. Your *0- will sketch a portrait of you before the panel. Your interview will mostly revolve around their suspicions/curiosity. )ry to avoid anything that makes them suspicious (unless you can clear the air using facts and figures". #nstead$ make them curious.

one another ##5' alum told me a story about his class mate who stated one of his achievements as &Designed and developed a machinery which is now in space&. 8e did his internship with #*90 where we was associated with some pro1ect which launched a satellite and he made some small part for the pro1ect. -oint is he was sure that there is going to be some question on that and he was well prepared to take it from there to his advantage.

H. .e positive

#f you are a panellist and you read the below paragraph what will be your possible questions?

#n my final year of engineering we had to work on our pro1ect in a team. )he model we did at the first try was a complete failure. 6nd second one was no better. .ut by then lot of negativity had crept into our group and we had a fight with everyone accusing each other of not giving his best. )hen we decided to have a proper discussion regarding what went wrong and how can we correct that. .ut most importantly we decided to never blame any single person if it again failed and vowed to work harder. 6fter A failures we finally succeeded and our pro1ect won the college award for the pro1ect of the year.

5y questions will be

2hy it failed A times? 2hen you guys worked hard and maintained decorum it was a success. 2hy it was not done at the first time itself. # don t see proper planning here and will you be able to manage more complicated transactions in a managerial role?

)he above para is from a very talented guy who scored II.< in '6) and got multiple ##5 calls. 8is pro1ect was based on an awesome concept of solar powered engine. 8is team showed the guts to pick a very challenging idea for their pro1ect$ started the work from a scratch level$ learned new domains and tools for the implementation$ struggled to complete the prototype$ managed their human capital$ successfully submitted a data driven report on the concept which can be tweaked to be the base line of a next gen energy model for small scale industries. )heir work and toil was recogniJed and appreciated as they were awarded the .est pro1ect of the year. .ut from the above para most of these stuffs may not come into attention.

6lways be positive in your *0-. 9ather than saying how you averted a problem try to frame it as how you faced a challenge. 9ead your *0- thoroughly and rephrase areas where you see negative words.

A. 'onsistency

6lways focus on the whole story. Your *0- as a whole should give a fair idea about your profile to the panel. #f you claim that you are hard working and if your grad score doesn4t agree to that what is the strength of your claim. 6s we discussed before$ this may lead to suspicions. 5any a times$ panellist will rely on two things to stress you and test the strength of your claims+ suspicious claims and negative statements. 6void them ="

# will try to write some notes on #nterview and ,D too.

'heers!