Chairperson (had a pleasant disposition and was keenly observing my every move):
1. You studied at ***, considered to be one of the top universities for computer science. What are the differences in education here and in the US?
2. You went on to work at ***. Why do you now want to enter the Civil Services and come back to India? *Began answering, but the Chairperson had more to say* Anybody can become a civil servant, but only a few can work in your field. Why enter a generalized service from a specialized one?
3. If you happen to not qualify this time by one or two marks, will you retake the exam or will you go back to the US? *Yikes! Why am I being asked this question!*
4. What is good governance?
5. Now that there is going to be a new state of Telangana, will it lead to the development of Telangana? [Background: I am from Hyderabad]
6. What are some industries that Telangana should focus on?
7. There have been several farmer suicides in your state. If you are District Magistrate, how will you curb them?
M1 (Smiling, but no-nonsense kind):
1. Have you thought about starting up? … Why not?
2. What percent of returning NRIs are starting up these days? There was a recent study on that.
3. Take a guess.
4. Have you seen a recent report of ethical businesses of the world? Tata Steel and WIPRO are the Indian companies on that list. Why is WIPRO on that list but not Infosys? [Background: did a brief internship at Infosys]
5. What is Corporate Social Responsibility? ... What were the recent changes in law? ... Do you agree with these changes? ... [I said no and gave a counter-argument as to how we are reducing CSR to another tax rather than extracting full value from it-- such as expertise of the corporate sector, offsetting any negative impact on local communities, making these corporate employees responsible citizens etc.] ... You are giving me the US model of CSR. Would that work in India? [Had a long debate on this, when he didn't concede after 2-3 minutes, I attempted a reconciliation by accommodating his views]
6. Do software companies have any environmental responsibility?
7. What is the forest cover of India? What percent of our carbon emissions does the forest cover offset?
8. Have you heard of REDD+?
M2 (Was stoic and offered zero visual feedback):
1. Recently, a man from Hyderabad went on to become CEO of Microsoft. Why do you think he was made CEO?
2. What are vision and mission? [Background: I mentioned "visionary" in the answer above]
3. What about strategy and execution?
4. How will you identify whether a subordinate is a visionary or not? [Had some back and forth on this]
5. You took Anthropology as an optional? Ok, no problem [Lol].Name some STs of Andhra Pradesh?
(Samosas and tea enter at this point, I'm mildly distracted)
M3 (Was very cheerful and responsive to my answers. My longest interview was with this gentleman):
1. What metrics are used for university rankings? Are you aware of ***’s (my college's) exact rank in that list?
2. Is it fair that no Indian universities are on that list?
3. What should be done about it? Give 3 policy recommendations to improve higher education in India.
4. What are the problems that the new state of Telangana is going to face? Give me three. [Interrupted after I gave the first one]
5. How will your Computer Science degree help you in governance?
6. It is said that India is the global leader of software sector. Do you agree with this assessment? [Took the risk and disagreed, said what we are doing is at the lower end of the value chain. We can't really be called leaders unless we move up. Mentioned how some companies like Redbus are starting to innovate in India now]
7. You've mentioned Redbus, which preempts my next question... Why is it that IT is not as pervasive in Indian society as it is in the US?
Ch: Thanks, you may leave now.
Me: Thanks, ma'am. *About to leave*
M2, M3: But M4 hasn't asked yet!
Ch: Oh, really? Sorry about that. Please go ahead, M4 Sir. *I sit back down*
M4: I have only one question.
Ch: No, please take your time. I insist.
M4 (was rather serious, and visually expressed disapproval for some of my answers):
1. What is the difference between dual core and Core 2 Duo? [That came out of nowhere! Uhhh, ummm, I'm not exactly sure Sir]
2. It is being said that Intel is copying the chip design strategy of its competitors. What is this? [*I'm into Computer Science, not really chip design* I'm not aware, Sir]
3. We first had cluster computing, then grid computing and now cloud computing. Trace this evolution of distributed computing. [Excellent question, right up my alley. But the interviewer didn't seem to agree with my answer, had a bit of a back and forth.]
4. It is being said that *** is losing out to *** in the software industry. Is that true? [Both companies I had worked for. Gave a strong answer for this one question]
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