IRMA Interview Experience - Bala Sumanth | CAT 2020 Convert

Hi, I am Bala Sumanth here to share my virtual interview experience of IRMA.

Usually, IRMA does its admission process only on campus but in this difficult situation, for the first time after its genesis (1979) it conducted the process in the virtual mode.

My Profile

I am from Andhra Pradesh, I am an agricultural gradate from Agricultural College, Bapatla, one for the oldest and prestigious colleges in this field. I am a 2020 pass-out, after graduation I joined as an intern at Agri-Joy, a hydronics start up backed by IIMA CIIE cell.

My Academic Scores:

• 10th: 88%

• 12th: 94.5%

• UG: 78.2%

Interview Process

IRMA Admission Process generally involves 4 steps:

• Appling for the College

• IRMASAT exam generally on current affairs, specially on rural topics

• Group Discussion

• Personal Interview

They exempted the GD round this year due to the virtual format.

This year IRMASAT was a 30 mins online test, majority of the questions came from rural demographics and human development index of India.

Coming to my Interview Process, it a bit lengthy as compared to IIMs. It almost went for 30-35 mins. The panel consisted of 2 males, M1 was a mid 40’s professor and M2 was a senior professor.

IRMA Interview Experience

M1: Tell me something about yourself.

B: I introduced myself with a prepared answer.

(I am from Chirala, Andhra Pradesh)

M1: Tried to say he doesn't know Telugu in Telugu.

(We laughed)

M1: What is famous in Chirala?

B: “sarees and beaches”.

M1: Okay, how much deep can we go into a beach?

B: Without boat we can go up to 50 m from the shore.

M1: We can easily go up to 100 m.

He argued a bit and got convinced (in a funny way).

M1: If you become a minister of rural affairs what will you do?

B: I will start rural training programs on agriculture and entrepreneurship and provide loan to SHGs, start them and help them backing it up with certain subsidies.

M1: He interrupted “Do you think they can repay the loans?“

B: Above a certain limit I can give under collateral.

M1: Do you really think that rural people can have valuables or land to put for collaterals?

(A bit of dissuasion happened)

M1: What is your opinion on crop loan wavers?

B: I don’t think it is a good practice, majorly happens for votes at the times of elections (it was Tamil Nadu election time and they had just declared it).

M1: Leave the political aspect, even India is pumping a lot of money into underperforming PSU what’s wrong with helping the poor farmers?

B: There are lots of schemes of state and centre and subsides to help farmers but wavering loans will be non-ethical in some aspects and also encourages the farmers to not repay the loans.

M1: Convinced and told M2 to proceed.

M2: Why IRMA?

B: I gave a prepared answer

M2: By seeing your records, you did very well in your 10th and 12th then why is there a drop in score in UG?

B: Actually, it is not a bad score in our university, Sir.

M2: Then what is your rank in school and now?

B: In my schooling, I was always in top 10 Sir, in UG I was in top 20.

M2: Then why has the performance dropped?

B: Growing up the ladder competition increases. In my schooling, I competed only with my town while in UG the best students from all over India had come.

M2: Then you understand the competition increases while growing up, if you get into IRMA, if you get 2 offers in the final placement, one is from Adani Group at 20 lakh package and the other is an NGO from Andhra Pradesh at 8 lakh package which one will you choose?

B: Sir, I will decide based on the job profile.

(Some discussion happened but I stuck to my point)

B: I will choose based on the job profile where I can contribute my best and money is like a secondary thing for me, work satisfaction is important.

M2: Seemed convinced and ended by wishing me all the best.

Verdict - Converted

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Thanks to Bala Sumanth for sharing his story. If you also want to share your experience (UG/PG), write to info.nonengineer@gmail.com. For more, check out the YouTube Channel - Non-Engineers.