Hello ochlo…! :D
Been a tiresome week as yet and yet a day to go…! I must say here.. Job hunt is a full time job in itself…. ! I mean u gotta be on the go at all times else you might as well keep working where u are….
However for my job hunt …this was a good week of interviews for a change… and one of them was quite a thought oriented and fun to be in…!
Lets cut to time and jump onto this interview…!
Firstly it was in the Board room via a video conferencing.. Huge screens.. Seamless telephony connections… Superb ambience… all in all a great experience just being in the room…! One of the screen was a bit blurred so could not see who the interviewer was… but that is never a problem, is it???? :P
So there began the interview with a brief formal introduction on his part… he then asked me to quickly run through my CV and the reasons why I wanted to quit and same morbid interview stuff… As any good candidate would be prepared for this one, I too was. This went well with him.
The next he jumped to testing some logical reasoning and stuff…! So he gave me a case.
Assume that there is no joining charges or no annual fees for the credit card company, and no one defaults on their due repayments. What would be the major revenue contributor for the credit card company. :o …. I didn’t know this one…!
So I struggled to get through…I said “may be they could securitize the receivables and gain out of the difference in the values arrived.”… “no.. that would be hardly any and besides you cannot expect this to be done on a daily basis..”
“so may be they earn out of the agreements with the ATM agencies like Visa or Master Card”… “no no… they hardly would be earning in this..!”
“so then may be it’s the out of the various tie ups they would be doing with the vendors for allowing discounts on their next purchase… you know through those reward points redemption and stuff..” …”no.. not much yet…. Anyways lets move on to the next..!”
I was speaking to a colleague this morning and got to know that they primarily earn out of the transaction cost that they get from the vendors.. the 2.5% extra if u purchase by credit card… !! :)
In the same case lets move further..”okay.. why do you think the interest rates on a credit card are like 35% - 40% where as those on a personal loan are only 18 – 20%”
Good one again…I did not know this one too. But I guessed and shot an arrow in the dark..
”probably because the card is free any one would apply for it and you would have more card holders than personal loans… so there is higher penetration for the product.. added to this is the ATM cash withdrawal facility wherein anyone can withdraw any amount within his limit and use it… so the risk increases and thus the premium??!!”
“Okay lets move one..” .. I just felt may be this was the right answer. Nevertheless, I did not bother to ponder on this one...!
Next case: Assume you are a pirate and I a ship owner sailing through the seas… my ship and all the goods in it are worth USD100m and I have an insurance worth USD80m… u as a pirate invade my ship and now u wanna negotiate an amount which is win-win for both of us.. what would that amount be..??
I said “since you are under insured by USD20m, you would anyways take a hit of that amount so I would bargain for anything equal to or greater than USD20m..”
“No.. forget all the technicalities of insurance here…. Assume I will get the entire claim amount as well..now what would be maximum amount you’d ask??”
“Well honestly the maximum would be to kill the owner and take the entire USD100m for the pirate and the owner would try to negotiate to give nothing at all..”
“No lets think rationally and within the assumptions.. I need one amount which is a win win for both,….” .. I was thinking yaar rationally toh sirf fight hogi and khoon kharaaba hoga and either the owner gets through or gets screwed…! :D
“Well I still would say at least USD20m…”
“so give me the maximum now..” …. I sat thinking like I had forgotten my thinking cap at home before coming to the interview..! matter fact I shook my head and almost gave up on that and then suddenly said “USD80m.. coz that’s the claim amount he can extort out of the insurance company..”
“fair enough… but lets move on…”
I knew there was still a catch… I haven’t yet found out the exact answer after much pondering and discussion with colleagues…. One of my best friend in here…. Mumbo Mogambo …:D… just tried to reason this out like this…. “The owner of the ship is any ways taking a hit of USD20m cause either you take his goods and ship n stuff and he gets only the claim amount which is USD80m.. or he actually wrecks n loses the USD20m… but that’s the maximum loss for him….so why would he agree to any anything more than USD20m. Contrariwise the pirate would get either a kick or what the owner willingly gave him…:D “ he just got into the character of the owner u c.. :P
But I must admit that this one was a good one…!
The next he asked me to look at the watch.. I looked.. it was 6:30 pm… “What would be the difference in degrees between the two arms of the watch when it is 3:15 pm”
I instantly without a second thought said “0 degrees”.. wat a duh!! ….
“think again… give me the exact degrees.. take your time…” … tab meri chamki… hour arm mein 15 minutes mein kuch toh movement hoga naa…! And I simply answered like this was a ‘yeda’ question …. Wat a duh..!! :D
Started calculating and realized if the hour arm moves 30 degrees for 60 minutes which is half a degree for 1 minute.. in 15 minutes it will move 7.5 degrees… “3 degrees.. no 6 degrees.. no 7.5 degrees..” “Sorry.. wat would be your final answer”… “7.5 degrees” I don’t know why I fumbled. My tongue was running faster than my brains it seemed. :D
So there he sat, through with his questions for me…. n I was perspiring even in the AC…! Anyways.. m expecting a ‘Status Update’ on Monday… lets c…! :)
Its time I stopped boring you coz u’ve had enough for the day…! Anyways this is like two pages of gyaan.. all for free.. :P
Keep visiting dude…! There’s a lot to write… n keep commenting… I keep checking if any one has commented damn…! What the hell..! :D
Have a great week ahead…! :)
