Sunday, March 7, 2010

Interview with Vinod Seshan (CSE - 2007 All India 3rd Rank )

DOB: 18th May 1983

Native: Villupuram, Taminadu. Currently at Chennai     

Father: Seshan.T.V, Divisional Manager, Ashok Leyland

Mother: S.Lakshmi, Housewife.

Brother: S.Vivek, Engineer, Wipro

Education: Schooling: Airforce School, Bangalore

PUC: Seshadripuram College Bangalore
B.E. in Electronics (2004 passout) from Siddaganga Institutue of Technology, Tumkur

Work Experience: Software Engineer by profession. 4 years experience. Currently working with HCL Technologies at Chennai Part time freelancer with a few websites. Write articles part time

Hobbies: Writing and Trekking
Have attached a photograph

2. Your interest in CSE:
Purely accidental. Had no ambitions of coming to Civil Services. Just wanted to give it a shot because I was interested in rural development affairs.

3. Subject Selection
I choose public administration and geography.
Choose them after discussions with friends. Both are scoring options

4. Coaching if any
I joined Prabha IAS Academy (www.prabhaiasips.com) at Chennai. Shifted to Chennai from Bangalore as family shifted some years before me.

5. Preparation Strategy
No thought-provoking strategy at all. Just gave 100% possible effort. Had to manage proper time management as I was working. That is a difficult point I had to work on.

6. Book List :: Read the following books for Public Administration.

Rajni Goyal : Indian Administration
D. D. Basu: An Introduction to the Constitution of India
Mohit Bhattacharya: New Horizons of Public Administration
Stephen P. Robbins : Organizational Behavior (5-6 chapters)
Lakshmikanth
Prasad and Prasad - Administrative thinkers
Rumki Basu: Public Administration, concept and theory
Ferrel Heady : Public Administration-A Comparative Perspective (First 2-3 chapters reference)
Nicholas Henry : Public Administration and Public Affairs (some 3-4 chapters)
and the following for geography
Certificate Physical and Human Geography - Goh Cheng Leong
NCERT books
Physical Geography by Savindra Singh
Geography through maps
Physical Geography by Strahler & Strahler (Reference book)
Climatology by D.S.Lal
Hindu's Survey on Indian Industry
Atlas


6. Examination Experience

Experience is worth documenting. One of those exams that require a high level of tolerance as it is a long process. Since it is a three step process, it is very challenging and requires persistent efforts. I reckon, I did that.

7. Interview Experience.

Interview is a scoring step and decides the rank to great extent.
I had never attended interviews with more than 3 members in the panel in private companies.
For UPSC I had a 5-member board and I was asked questions on Software management to wildlife to Economics.
I was throughly superfast-30 minute experience. Went at rocket-speed.
Close to 50 questions were asked and I could answer about 43-44 of them.

8. Tips to share:

Just give 100% effort. Civil Service exams are easy though they are very competitive. Read a lot and build a knowledge base. It shall help a lot. Have Plan-B for life and don't waste your youth taking n-number of attempts. Of course financial stability plays an important role while taking successive attempts.
Hope I have answered most questions. Please do get back for any details needed.
Wishes to the www.threeauthors.com team

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