To help MBA aspirants, MBAUniverse.com is initiating yet another tool -- Ask the Experts on GD PI queries. On Ask the Experts, we have experts include Mr Nilesh Sarawate, Director, IMS Learning, Mr Nitin Jindal, National Head, Personality Development Program and Innovative Learning, Career Launcher and Mr Manish Saraf, COO, PT Education.
While responding to a student's query on MBAUniverse.com, Mr Saraf said, "The best mantra is 'to be your natural self'. Do not manufacture artificial responses. See a GD or an interview as just an extension of any other routine situation you encounter. This will induce spontaneity in your responses and will save you the unnecessary "What should I do if . . .?" problem."
Here is the detailed response by MBA test prep-expert on MBAUniverse.com:
Q. Sir, please share your overall advice and tips on how can we prepare for GD/PI so that we can clear it. Thanks. Kajal
A: Here are some tips on PI:
- Consider the interview as your final opportunity to market yourself. Establish your objectives for the interview. Think about ways of reinforcing your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. Be prepared to support your claims in the application essays.
- Know all that you can about the school and the program - the school brochures and the website can be useful sources. It could pay to project you as a person who pays attention to detail. It also conveys your interest in the school.
- If fresher - Talk about your extracurricular activities and how these activities helped build your well-rounded personality. Describe how your schooling will help you in achieving your career goals. Describe any leadership experiences and what you learnt from those experiences.
- If Work ex - Stress on teamwork, motivation, continuous learning and ownership. Be positive when talking about your boss or your firm. If you changed jobs, it should have been motivated by a desire for more challenges, more responsibilities, and opportunity to grow and so on. Avoid negative comments like unappreciated, underpaid etc.
- Take every opportunity to show that you are achievement oriented and strive to develop both personally and professionally. At the same time, show yourself to be a well-balanced and sensible person with varied interests.
- You should be prepared for these potential areas of questioning:
* Your childhood, personality, family, college life, hobbies, sports and outside interests
* Your professional and leadership experience
* Your career goals, political views and breadth of business knowledge
* Your motivation to obtain an MBA; why now, why our school
Be prepared for a wide range of questions, from casual inquiries about your family to probing questions about ethical/legal issues. Also be prepared for general questions about current events and items of interest in popular culture. Nothing is more disheartening than interviewing an "academic genius" who doesn't know who the Vice-President is.
- Finally, be mindful of the basics. Dress professionally, show up on time, project warmth and make eye contact, keep answers as brief and focused as possible based on the question, speak with enthusiasm and energy, be as humble as possible, certainly ask questions at the interview to better clarify the school's admissions requirements. And finally, the applicant should do what he or she can to close the sale.
Some tips on GD:
In GD CONTENT is KING !!!
Sailing through Group Discussions successfully is an art. Here is a look at some strategies that will take you a long way in winning the day.
BE NATURAL: The best mantra is 'to be your natural self'. Do not manufacture artificial responses. See a GD or an interview as just an extension of any other routine situation you encounter. This will induce spontaneity in your responses and will save you the unnecessary "What should I do if . . .?" problem.
MUST SPEAK: The first principle of participating in a GD is that you must speak.
For any GD, take a piece of paper and a pen with you and use them unless specifically asked by the evaluators not do so. Before you start speaking, think through the major issues in the topic in the first two minutes. Jot down points on the paper or mentally work out the framework for analysis. Start speaking only when you have understood and analysed the topic. If another participant has started the discussion even before you have read and understood the topic, you could try to ask the person to wait while you finish. It may, however, be better to continue with your analysis, while listening to what is being said, and to speak only when you are ready.
If you do not understand the topic, then either ask the group what the topic means and accept that your ignorance will be obvious to all or else wait. May be the meaning will become clear after a few minutes of the discussion, when someone else discusses it.
Avoid speaking in turn as it leads to an unnatural discussion. A GD involves a free-flowing exchange of ideas among participants. Even though there will definitely be chaos in most competitive GDs, as all participants will be keen to be heard, any suggestion of order, such as speaking, in turn, is unacceptable.
OPENING AND CLOSING A DISCUSSION: Opening a discussion is a high risk — high return strategy. In most GDs, the opening speaker is the person who is likely to get the maximum uninterrupted air time. The reason is simple — most other participants will still be trying to understand the basic issues in the topic, or are too nervous to speak and are waiting for someone else to start. Therefore, the evaluators get the best chance to observe the opening speakers. Now this is a double-edged sword. If the opening speaker talks sense, he will get credit because he opened the discussion and took the group in the right direction.
If, on the other hand, the first speaker's start lacks substance, he will attract the undivided attention of the evaluators to his shortcomings. He will be marked as a person who speaks without thinking and merely for the sake of speaking. Also, he may be marked as someone who leads the group in the wrong direction and does not make a positive contribution to the group.
So remember, speaking first can make or mark your GD performance depending on how you handle it. Speak first only if you have enough sensible things to say. Otherwise, keep yourself silent and let someone else start.
Try and summarise the discussion at the end. In the summary, do not merely restate your point of view, also accommodate dissenting viewpoints. If the group did not reach a consensus, say so in your summary, but remember, do not force a consensus. Forcing a consensus could end up working against you.
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So Aspirants, you would have found these Q&As useful for CAT preparations. You too can ask your questions directly to our experts including Mr Nilesh Sarawate, Mr Nitin Jindal and Mr Manish Saraf.
As an MBA Aspirant, all you have to do is to send your questions to us at MBAUniverse.com. Your questions can be on preparation for Group Discussion and Personal Interviews. So email your questions to [email protected] now, and stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for Q&As.
