Admission Story: Jerin Baiju, IIM Jammu, CAT, 96.08

Jerin Baiju Profile

Jerin Baiju is a College of Engineering Trivandrum graduate and converted IIM Jammu with a CAT score of 96.08 percentile. He also holds an 8 months experience with Infosys limited.

Jerin Baiju Profile

Current institute: IIM Jammu
Graduation College: College of Engineering Trivandrum
CAT score: 96.08
10th Percentage / GPA: 95
12th Percentage / GPA: 93
Graduation Percentage/GPA: 7.88
Work Experience: Infosys Limited, 0.8, Engineer

Check IIM Jammu Course & Fees

Admission Experience

Did you avail of the benefit of any reservation?

Jerin Baiju: “General (No reservation)”

Describe the general setting of WAT / GD (if any)?

Jerin Baiju: “After the exam results, I was shortlisted for two processes. There was a written test before the PI round for both the processes I attended. The written test was only for 15 minutes on a random topic given by the organizers, so quick thinking and structuring was the key. The topic could range from philosophical to economical to recent events. My strategy was to form and structure my thoughts for the first 3-5 minutes, and convert that into a structured passage. The 20:60:20 rule (20% of the content as introduction, 60% as the main body, and remaining 20% as conclusion) and the power of 3 (Structuring the content into 3 points so as to create an impact) were two practices that helped me to perform in the written round.”

What was the WAT / GD Topic?

Jerin Baiju: "One topic for WAT was regarding the government spending for election.”

What were your answer/points put forward for the WAT or GD respectively?

Jerin Baiju: “In the initial few minutes of WAT, I structured the answer and thought about all the points I could bring out. After that my answer included the introduction, which briefly addressed the topic given, and the main body, which analyzed the positive and negative aspects of the topic, and the conclusion which summarized whatever points I could support with facts and figures in the main body.”

Describe the general setting of your personal Interview.

Jerin Baiju: “There were 4-5 panels for the interviews and generally 2-3 members in each panel. Most of them were Faculties of different colleges. The interview was conducted offline and it went on for half an hour. The interview was partly a stress interview as they kept focusing on the areas they realized I'm not well versed in and tried to undermine me. One factor which helped me face the stress interview was the fact that it was ok to not have answers for every question. Keeping the confidence throughout the interview, even after a few unanswered questions was also critical.”

Check IIM Jammu Admission Process

Mention at least 5 interview questions that were asked to you and your responses to each of them.

Jerin Baiju: “1. Why MBA after working in Infosys for 10 months? While working in Infosys, I realized that I was being confined to doing some tasks given by my superiors and restricted to just the designing part of the product life cycle. There was no room for my creativity or to make use of the skills I possess. Being an extrovert, I always liked to interact more with others, understand them and build networks and relationships. So, I realized an MBA would guide me to reach where I want, where I could make the best use of my abilities.

2. What is your hobby? My hobbies include Reading, Writing poetry and Photography.

3. Who is your favorite author and why? C S Lewis is my favorite author as his fiction as well as non fiction works used to touch me and have an impact my life. His famous quote "To love is to be vulnerable" is something that I try to implement in my life. His way of story telling and thinking about life also inspired me to write.

4. Why does Kerala have 4-5 airports? Considering the population and the culture in Kerala, a good amount of Keralites travel abroad for occupation, especially Gulf countries. Taking into consideration the geographical layout of the state, it is not easy and practical to have one or two centralized airports.

5. What are your strengths? I have good communication as well as interpersonal skills, which I was able to develop during my UG, by being part of many clubs and organizations. I was also the Follow Up Secretary of Trivandrum district for the organization that I was part of and it required me to be in touch with students, motivating them to attend events and keep a good relationship with them. I am also an enthusiastic person, always trying to help the teammates and motivate them to achieve the goal together.”

Mention 3 reasons why you chose this college over other colleges which you converted.

Jerin Baiju: “1. Good placement record: Compared to the other third gen b-schools, IIM Jammu appeared better in placements, both in terms of Package and the companies visiting the campus.

2. Accessibility of campus: The campus was in the city itself, just 20-30 minutes away from both airport and railway station.

3. Good campus: Although it was a temporary campus, it was a beautiful place, with recently built hostels and reasonable facilities, compared to other similar b-schools.”

Check IIM Jammu Reviews

What was the reason for you not converting to other colleges?

Jerin Baiju: “One of the reasons I couldn't convert to better colleges was, lack of preparation for Personal Interview. Although I had gone through many prospective questions and topics, I later realized it was just surface knowledge and that I needed much more preparation than that. For instance, in one of the panels, I was only asked questions related to current events and general knowledge and they were asked to a deeper extent. Also, thorough preparation of the points written in the CV is necessary to perform really well. The key is confidence and it can help survive any unexpected circumstances.”