Riddhish Kathar got admission to VGSoM IIT Kharagpur with a CAT percentile of 90%. He graduated from DIMS with 88.88% and had a work experience of 1 year. Riddhish went one-to-one interview with the Collegedunia Team and shared his VGSoM IIT Kgp MBA Admission experience, read below

Collegedunia Team: What was your CAT percentile? Did you avail reservation benefits for VGSoM IIT Kgp MBA Admission?

Riddhish: I secured 90%ile in the CAT 2021 Examination. And, I am from an OBC background, so there were reservation benefits.

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Collegedunia Team: Can you please describe your Pre MBA Academic Performance for Collegedunia readers?

Riddhish: In 10 board exams I scored 88.8%. I secured 77.78% in the 12 board exam. Also I graduated from D.I.M.S with a decent percentage of 88.88%. 

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Collegedunia Team: Describe the general setting of WAT / GD (if any).

Riddhish: No, there was any WAT/ GD round for the institute. 

Collegedunia Team: Describe the general setting of your personal Interview.

Riddhish: The Interview process was conducted in online mode. There were a total of 3 panels. And each panel consisted of 2 faculty members of the college. It was not a stressful interview and generally each lasted around 15-20 minutes.

Pro Tips: Aspirants have to be genuine. Don't deviate from your statement if convinced by the interviewer.

Collegedunia Team: Mention at least 5 questions that were asked in VGSoM IIT Kgp Interview and how you responded to each of them?

Riddhish: The questions asked during the Interview are:

Ques 1. Tell me about yourself. 

Ans. My name is Riddhish Deepak Kathar and I am from Aurangabad, Maharashtra. I did my schooling and Graduation from there itself. I am a Mechanical Engineer passed out in 2020 as a University Gold Medallist. During graduation, I was a part of a team participating in a national level Go kart building competition and we won that competition. I was the Steering department head where I led a group of 3 members to design and manufacture the entire steering system from scratch. I have a work ex of 7 months in a CAE i.e., computer aided engineering domain. I worked as a project engineer in a company named ELEATION and my daily tasks included collaboration with the design department and performing simulations and design analysis on real life products. After acquiring a few months of work experience, I started helping my father in our family business which deals with manufacturing and retailing furniture. Working there really motivated me to learn more about the supply chain and operations domain. To add to this I have good leadership and communication skills. So, I decided to do an MBA in SCM. 

Ques 2. Tell us about your Family business and how it is related to SCM?

Ans. Worked in a family business related to manufacturing and retail of Furniture. I managed the assembly line in the manufacturing department and also handled customer services. During my tenure, I increased the efficiency of our assembly line by 20% by proper work distribution and effective Grouping of products. To elaborate on it, we had 5 labourers working in the assembly department and all of them worked on the assembly of a single product at the same time. By this method, the output was, we got 3 products assembled in 5 hours. So, I formed 2 groups of 2 labourers each and they worked on assembly of one product each simultaneously. The remaining 1 labour used to assist both the groups simultaneously and also used to do material handling for both the assemblies. By using this method, I was able to get 3 products assembled in 4 hours.

Ques 3. Why MBA after tech education i.e. (B.E.)?

Ans. Every tech role is ultimately for a business. For example, a car manufacturing plant has a lot of tech roles, but the ultimate aim for the plant is selling that car. I realised this after working in my family business which is of Manufacturing and retailing furniture. I am completely proficient in tech roles and backend jobs like inventory management, assembly and services. But what I lack is the essential managerial skills and the ability to develop multiple perspectives. And I believe that doing an MBA from a prestigious B-school like an IIM will definitely broaden my cross functional abilities and help me become a good manager.

Ques 4. One problem you faced in family business and how do you deal with it?

Ans. Soon after COVID locked down, when our retail business opened, we were unable to get that many customers in the beginning few months. We had SS Pipes in our inventory which were taking much of the storage space and costs. Traditionally, we used those pipes to manufacture, Beds and Sofas but due to lack of customer orders for these items, we could not utilise them. During that time, a new product i.e., Swings were being sold in the local market of our city. To cater to the demands, initially we ordered ready-made swings from a manufacturer and sold them at minimal profits. We also reverse engineered these swings and found out that these are made of similar pipes which we had in our inventory and the manufacturing technology is more or less the same as that of sofas and beds. So, we designed a process to manufacture these swings and started manufacturing them with what we had in our hand and gradually it became a success garnering us 40-50% of profits in the retail market after proper testing.

Ques 5. Tell me about your role model?

Ans. My role model is my father. There are various reasons why I attribute him as my role model. I have seen him growing and I have seen myself growing under him and I can say that his life story has been definitely unique and really of patience and hard work. He is a man of few words and has managed to pull a huge family of 11 all by himself up till now and is still doing it. He raised the whole family under him and all of us were inculcated with values and principles. Because of his mettle and hard work, he was able to run a successful business right from the age of 22 and is still doing it all by himself. I think he is always a foot ahead in fulfilling our needs. Also, he is a man of wisdom and always surprises me with his plans for his business. He always had a broader perspective on things.

Collegedunia Team: Mention any three reasons why you chose this college over other colleges which you converted.

Riddhish: The three main reasons are:

  1. Better ROI (Return on Investment)
  2. Better facilities and campus
  3. IIT Tag

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Collegedunia Team: What was the reason for you not converting other colleges?

Riddhish: I could not convert NITIE Mumbai because as I was not prepared enough related to technical topics like supply chain management, Business Analytics, and Finance. It's good to have a basic knowledge of all the domains of an MBA.