They came in early and gave us a presentation detailing the job profile and compensation. They had openings for Equity Research and Investment Banking. The first part of their process was conducting the aptitude test. We had 30 questions of finance, five of quant, five synonymns and ten of data interpretation type questions.

Gave the test my best shot and it paid out when I made it through to the next round of group discussions.

If there is one thing I think that should be eliminated from a selection process is the group discussion round, however the folks from HSBC made it extremely clear that they were looking for a discussion not a debate. Yours truly was able to put in one statement during the entire GD. The statement did make an impact because, to my surprise, I made it to the Interview round, along with twelve others.

My interview was conducted by two persons from the Investment Banking division and it was the last of all the interviews, which meant a slow patient wait.

The results were out rather quickly and hey! Surprise! I was selected for the Investment Banking division

For truly, nothing is impossible with God! Reminded me of my Larsen and Toubro Interview where I got placed in the first company that I applied to.

Akshat had got placed on Sunday, or more like early Monday morning and so the two of us took Aditya, Namrata and Sneha out for dinner to Kiva, The Lounge. Here are some photos from the dinner.

Will get the remaining photos soon. We got back post 11.30 and after finishing my regular blog posts dropped off to bed.

Woke up early this morning to catch the Volvo back to Mumbai. I caught a Dadar Volvo (the first one there0 from Wakad itself, followed by a train to Andheri and a bus back home. Ordered pizzas from Garcia’s for lunch. Hadn’t got much sleep the previous night and so crashed peacefully for a few hours.

I plan on going back to Pune on Monday.

As, I mentiond, today I had the GDPI for XIM, Bhubaneshwar today; the venue was St. Xavier’s College.

The group discussion topic was Union Budget 2007. I wasn’t as prepared and the rest of the folks were, and my basic knowledge turned out to be a big negative factor.

The interview was so-so or that is my evaluation for the same. But for the above question where I stumbled, minor confusion over the March 2006 tax that I paid and not knowing the various parameters for home loans from the bank’s perspective, the rest of the interview was smooth.

Now, I await the results, which are expected around March end, or early April. If they are in the positive, I’m going to be very confused about which college to choose.

If negative, well… you know where I am off to.

Btw, “What is the difference between Science, Engineering and Technology? Give me a layman’s example of it”

Have spent the entire week at home doing nothing but blogging and other computer related activity.

I’m also running out of time before the online course starts. The only break in schedule was to go to church this morning for Sunday mass. We were singing. Mass was relatively low-key and the attendance was poor because of the missions that are starting today.

Tomorrow I venture out of house once again to go for my GD and PI for XIMB.

Will leave at 7am. I haven’t woken up before 9am for a long long time!

Wish me luck.

SCMHRD – Awaiting results on 24th Feb
FMS – Reject
SPJIMR – Reject
CET 2007 – Written Exam on 25 Feb, GDPI on 24 May.
XIMB – GDPI on 12th March.

Well, from the looks of this I’ve got three options. I’m hoping they work out.

Please keep me in your prayers.

This is only my second trip to Pune, with the first one not being a pleasurable experience.

Pune as a city is still coming up. However, the opening of the Bombay-Pune highway has made travelling there extremely simple. Well, you can get to Pune from Mumbai (Bombay) in 90 minutes and it takes another 150 minutes to get from the Mumbai limits to my home!

Had a ticket for the 2.15pm bus on Saturday, but managed to get into the 12.45pm bus itself (it was half an hour late). Was stuck in Mumbai till later than 4pm and only reached Hinje Wadi around 6pm.

Transportation in Pune is a nightmare, but I was fortunate enough to get an Indica passing along the way to give me a lift from the bus stop to the hotel Tamanna Executive, the sole hotel in the area, for the cost of the tumtum, the infamous 8 seater that seats 10+.

The AC room was 1600 bucks which is a good sum of money when you want to spend a few hours. However, the proximity of the hotel to SCMHRD was primarily the reason I chose this place.

I had originally planned to take a walk in the evening. However, I was really tired after the travel and so decided to stay put and watch Twister and Chain Reaction back to back. Stuck to my room, ordered room service for both dinner and breakfast and only left it when I checked out on Sunday morning.

The walk from the hotel to SCMHRD was about five minutes. The SCMHRD campus is clean and peaceful, which is pretty much the case in this section of Pune.

The process began with the GD rounds. There were two discussions, the first involving this video:

(If you can’t see the video above then view it on YouTube directly.)

We were then asked to discuss the same and give a short caption as well.

The next round was a case-study. I must mention here than my group had only six members and the discussion were really civilized. This must be one of the reasons five of us progressed to the next round.

The next round involved a short essay, which was later followed by the interview. Now, I shall await the results which are expected on 24th. I really hope I get through !

The journey back to Mumbai was really tiresome, I guess because it involved me having to wait for over three hours (most of it standing) for a Volvo to take me back. I had company so it wasn’t all that boring. And we did pop into a McDonalds there (read first chance to eat chicken) to rest our aching legs!

Got home surprisingly fast and I walked in around 12am to find my VPS down. Hit the bed after working on getting the sites up.

The last two days have been equally hectic, but that is for another post.

Staying there is going to cost me a bomb, so I really hope things work out.

Folks keep me in your prayers. The rounds start at 9am IST Sunday.

Well, I’m going to be without a computer or internet connection until I return on Sunday evening.

You’ll hear from me then

Since the rains had descended on Mumbai, I decided to take a rick instead of the bike, which turned out to be good, though expensive.
Unfortunately, the rickshaw broke down on the way and I had to change ricks, before which I got a little wet.

Anyway, reached the place well in time.

Got my one mark for Work experience, which kinda sucks since I’ve been working for almost two years!

Instead of sticking to the batches, we were combined into a batch based on the number of people there. The GD had 12 participants.

We had to choose from “Globalization: Good for developing countries?” and “You cannot choose your battles, you have to take them on as they come”.

Group consensus was the former and almost everyone agreed on it. One thing I realized is that it was a fish market. Did get in a word (more than one actually) twice. Am pleased because both occasions saw them all stop and listen

The GD ran for around 20 minutes and a little while later I had the PI.

It was taken by two persons, though one did most of the talking. Had an interesting PI, where he quizzed me only about my job.

Am now awaiting results for both, which is expected on 10th.

Decided to go shopping for rain shoes and coats. Stopped off at the Bata in Andheri East and picked up a good pair of all season. Paid a bomb but I am happy as they are very comfortable and effective .

Next stop was for the jacket and pants. Picked up a good set.

Had plans to go out in the evening, but these had to be cancelled and the light rain turned out to be a downpour. So sat the rest of the evening at home.