HR Questionnaire

Part 2
Name

: KALADASI DILEEP KUMAR

Dorm

: MSH 3

Room

: 304

Section

:A

Mobile Number : 7702143328

Placecom Mentor Name

: VIVEK BUSAR

Question 1
Describe yourself (In not more than 3 sentences)
I believe that I am a creative learner who is not afraid of taking risks as I
had my own share of successes and failures. I also believe that I am a
constant learner and a persistent worker who strives to achieve success
as if it were the first time. Having been brought up in a middle class
family, I still believe that I am curious enough to learn and owed answers
to questions to I havent asked yet.
Question 2
Tell me something about yourself which is not there in your resume.
I would love to build something of my own. It may be a new idea, new
market or an entirely new business altogether. I dont mind in putting in
extra effort even if it doesnt pay me monetarily. This may be a statement
you might have always heard of. But, the difference I can bring to the
table when I say this statement is that I dont give up until I am done with
it.
Question 3
One principle in life, you not only firmly believe in, but also practice.
Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do
yourself than on what the world does to you.

This is one of the few principles I firmly believe in. To be put in practice, it
gives me an indication of how much effort to be put in by me to succeed
and I believe that I did, at least sometimes.
Question 4
Tell me about a time when you responded to constructive criticism.
This has been most often offered to me by friends and family as well as
my professor at Indian Institute of Science. Most often, I listen to them
carefully and we reach a consensus for any measures to be taken in the
future. This situation occurred with my professor at Indian Institute of
Science. He said that I was not a management type student giving the
reasons why I wasnt. So, I told him, I know I am not. But, isnt it time to
fix that?
Question 5
Do you think that your academic results are a true reflection of your
academic abilities? Please Elaborate.
I dont believe so. Academic results, in my opinion, are strategic games
played by students to optimize their grades. It is one such noncooperative game which every student must play, where cartels and
collusions may be formed. So, I dont want someone to judge me or any
other solely based on grades which may not be true reflection of their
academic abilities.
Question 6
Write a paragraph on each of the following.
i)

Pursued an idea or business goal to conclusion

During my time at IISc, I worked on this project about rocket engine

flames. The idea here was to verify relations between various local
factors that could affect the motion of a flame surface. In the end, we
found that a local factor curvature, is the most dominant factor
among all.
ii)

Inspired people to achieve a goal

I really dont know whether I had inspired any students to achieve their
goals, but I believe I had stood as a role-model to some of my juniors
during secondary education. I was the first student to enter into an IIT
for B.Tech from my school during my time of stay.

Question 7
You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit
page 221.
Out of my 25 years of life, I believe that page 221 corresponds to my
Masters 1st year at Indian Institute of Science. It was 2011 and I joined
Indian Institute of Science. The courses were a bit tougher than what I had
seen at IIT Madras. But, I developed interests in certain sub-fields which I
later pursued for Masters project. I had to work hard and show pure
dedication to attain decent grades in my first semester. After attaining
6.0/8.0, I went on to concentrate on subjects I liked very much related
Fluid Mechanics. Three courses related to fluid mechanics were offered at
Aerospace Engineering department. These 3 courses are so inter-related
that I had only prepared for one course, hydrodynamic stability. With the
applications I found in this course, I applied the same concepts to other
subjects and attain respectable grades there. The feeling of getting my
first S grade, that too for a course like hydrodynamics stability was
beautiful.
Question 8
What are your expectations from a summer internship program?
(Please prepare different answers for different fields)
(Divisions include Marketing, Finance, Operations, Consulting, HR, and
Strategy)
Marketing: To be responsible for developing marketing plan for a
particular brand and implement at least few of the ideas that I had come
up with.
Finance: To be able to put the knowledge I have gained at IIMA and
elsewhere in practice and develop new models if I could or evaluate a
deals valuation etc.
Operations: To be able to learn about processes involved in the firm and
provide strategies to optimize their inventory/utilization level/ efficiency
etc.
Consulting: To be able to work on different realistic problems in different
sectors and implement the solutions and be able to pride myself that it
had worked.

HR: To be able to work on strategies that can be implemented in an

organization that can better facilitate team working, reduce attrition
levels and to involve in day-to-day issues etc.
Strategy: To be able to work across various functions, so that a concrete
difference could be made by developing innovative strategies etc.

Question 9
Why do you want to be in the above mentioned field?
(Please prepare different answers for different fields Marketing/Finance/Operations/Consulting/HR/Strategy)
Marketing: To work on a product and to build its brand equity in a
realistic situation takes more than a simple STP theory. The problems that
we will be facing in making a product/brand will be highly challenging and
will pose a challenge to ourselves. When a solution that I have provided
would be implemented, it would be an utter delight to know that I have
been a part of team which made the brand successful.
Finance: Whether it is markets or IBD or corporate finance, finance deals
with lots of uncertainties and various models that are sophisticated and
can be accurate. Finance needs us to have a view on whats been going
on in the world and tells us the prominence of the project we have been
working on. The satisfaction thus achieved can be divine.
Operations: Supply chain management requires skills that are not just
reflected in academic rigor provided to students. It is the art of
maintaining relations with all the players in the chain. Whether it is
inventory management/ capacity management/ optimization of processes,
operations is one such branch of management that requires
understanding of processes across industries and henceforth developing
strategies to optimize them wherever necessary.
Consulting: Consulting is one of the highest paid fields in management.
The reason is that it includes top-notch experts from diverse backgrounds
and industries. Working alongside with them provides us with a platform
to learn from the best in the field. Hence, the learning curve will be
steeper and objectives would be well-defined.
HR: HR is like a fluid that is present to reduce the friction and facilitate
proper functioning of parts of an organization. With HR redefining itself as
strategic partner and so on, HRs role in the organization is not merely a

peoples manager. Now, theyll have to contribute to firms growth by

implementing strategies to provide better work environments, involve in
key decisions etc.
Strategy: Strategy development and implementation is one of the
toughest jobs in the field. Strategy thought-off and execution plays a key
role in developing brand image/ product superiority etc. With the world
changing every day, new strategies are required to differentiate your
product from the rest of the lot.
Question 10
At times, many of us are caught in a situation of moral conflict, where we
have to choose between two seemingly right alternatives. Give us one
situation when you faced this conflict. How did you resolve it?
One of the times when I had to make a choice between two seemingly
right alternatives was when I had to withdraw a case I filed against a
vendor who had charged me with an over-price while buying a cold drink.
This happened while I was travelling to Hyderabad from my hometown.
The vendor ha charged me Rs.5 extra for a cold drink and I had written a
complaint with the station master. A case was registered against the
vendor. After a few days, the vendors parents called me and requested
me for dropping the case. As it was the only source of income to those
people, by weighing in the stakes involved, I had to drop the case against
them.

Question 11
Can business and ethics be combined? If yes, then how? If no, then why?
Yes. I believe that ethics is an integral part of business. But, sometimes it
may happen that some of the ethical issues are violated in pursuit of
profit-making. Taking an example of Apple, where its Chinese practices
were regarded to have issues in the past. Getting exposed to these issues
will impact brand equity in either the short or long-run. Resolving issues
like these in the primary phase itself would have created a positive brand
image that the company could enjoy in the long run.
Question 12

Describe a time when you delivered significant results. Include details of

the context, the action you took, and the results that were achieved.
I could still remember that day when I had to ask professor for leave. I had
recently joined as a Project Associate under my professor at IISc. But, I
havent shown him any results till then. So, I had worked for two days
continuously and then went there to him with the results. To my surprise,
the results were according to my professors predictions and we enjoyed
that moment. The work was on tracking rocket flames and we found that
the local factor causing dominant motion of the surface was curvature
rather than tangential strain rate. The work was later recognized by 10th
Asia-Pacific Conference on combustion as an offer of presentation at the
conference.
Question 13
Provide an example when you approached your work with a mind-set of
having limited resources or time. Please include details of the context, the
action you took and the results that were achieved.
When I had started to work at IISc on the rocket flames, I never had
worked in combustion area earlier. With only few months left I had to work
on a complicated project with no much prior experience in the field. I
tackled the problem by splitting the whole work into small pieces with
strict deadlines to follow. I became more organized and the results were
pleasing as I had been invited to present the work at 10th Asia-Pacific
Conference on Combustion.
Question 14
Describe a situation where you have gone beyond normal limits to help
friend/colleague/family.
To help some of my friends, I had sometimes gone beyond my usual limits
to help them. I used to teach some of my friends during my intermediate
education. During that time I had to help my friends about various
concepts they were unable to understand. In doing so, I had to sometimes
skip my lunch/dinner and had to stay awake more time than my normal
bed time.