SPJIMR - Interview Experience

The reporting time for me was 0800 hrs.. since the mail had asked people to report to 1 hr earlier, so I landed up at the center around 0645 hrs only to find that other than me there was only one guy at the center... So I went ahead and opened the gates and parked moi bike. I asked the watchman if he knew where the interviews were going to be held. He seemed as clueless as me. Slowly other people started pouring in around 0700 hrs..But still no sign of any SPJ representatives. Around 0730 hrs SPJ's students arrived and began organizing the process. We were taken to a classroom and document verification began. Imagine my state when candidates not only for the 0800 hrs slot but also those for the 0900 hrs slot were called, and I was not!When I asked them about it, they told me that my name was not there in their list. Now to cut a long story short, I found that they were looking at a local copy and not the list that is on the SPJ website. So I asked them to verify it, showed them the mail which had information about the interview date and time and asked them to add a row for me in the excel sheet they had in their laptops. After this I was told that I would be accommodated in the 2-3 batch but soon after this I was rushed into the first batch, panel 6. When I was on the way moi panel was changed to 3. Anyway, finally I was in the interview room. But the room left a lot to be desired. It was a make shift lab with 10 chairs thrown in to give a semblance of a interview room.... Anyway no point in getting into that. Here is how the interview went:

Panel : Male Prof(MP), Female Prof(FP), Female Observer(FO), SPStudent(SS)

Candidate 1 : Mindtree, 6 months workex, Finance.

C2 : Moi, TCS, 31 months workex, Informaton Management.

C3 : Infy, 18 months, not sure.

C4 : final year Engg student from Kerela, Marketing.

C5 : TCS, 18 months, Information Management.

C6 : L&T(I think), Operations & Manufacturing.

(only writing about the questions that were put to me)
Question to each candidate: Give a brief introduction about yourself.

SS: So Mufasa, you have written that you compromised your values. Can you describe the situation to us.

Moi: told that as per my understanding we were to write about an instance when we took a stand against our value system. Forgot about the line in the form that specifically said "what values were violated". Anyway it was a very personal situation, butI had to talk about it in front of everyone.

MP: I see that 2 of you are in TCS. Why dont both of you have a conversation about things common between TCS and SPJ?

Spoke about values, both looking beyond India, balance in life they offer etc.

MP: Mufasa, describe your job responsibilities.

Moi: Started talking about it and made my first mistake. I had written that I am leading a team of 22 people in the SOP. While discussing I informed that the team size was 22 including my Project Manager and me. The MP did not like this and said I should have written 20 and not 22. He became slightly angry and wrote something on his sheet. I think he wrote that I was a liar!!!

MP: What are the technologies and business logic used in your project?

Moi: explained.

MP: What is Liberty Protocol?

Moi: I have heard of it but not able to recall.

MP: You have only 31 months of workex., how is it that you are leading such a big team?

Moi: Sir, I got this opportunity only after I had proved myself. I forgot to give any examples though there are numerous instances. Mistake 2: There were some seniors but they either left for onsite or took up other jobs. I could not believeI had said this. It sounded like I got the chance only because no one else was there.But that is not the case. I might have killed myself than saying something so stupid. Thought whatever chances I had would have disappeared by now. Wanted to take back my words, but that of course was not possible.

FO: to everyone, which was the last movie you saw?

That's all I recall, though I am sure there were more questions, but all the disasters from my end have been mentioned.

It really sounds bad, right? But there were instances when I spoke really well, with great substance. I had good composure and body language. Even after the screw-ups, I felt I was the best in the panel. But my views dont matter. I dont know what to expect out of it. Looks like it's tata-byebye to SPJ second round.

Waiting for a miracle to happen.