MBAUniverse.com, India's leading management portal, is presenting a series of authoritative features and interviews on the upcoming GD PI round. For this series, we interviewed Fr. P T Joseph SJ, Director, Xaviers Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIM B), seeking his advice to MBA aspirants on the What, Why and How of GP PI round.
Excerpts from this must-read interview for MBA Aspirants:
Q: What does your institute call personal assessment rounds, and when and where are they going to be conducted?
A: The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) calls the personal interaction and assessment rounds as Group Discussion/Personal Interview. They are usually held from February to March every year after the XAT scores have been announced and XIMB releases its cut off list. They are conducted in Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. This is for our PGDM and PGDM (RM) programmes.
Q: What is the likely format of these rounds?
A: In these rounds there are two sections of selection rounds. The first round is the Group Discussion round in which the students undertake a Group Discussion on a topic of social or economic relevance to the present day context. The Selection Panel of XIMB faculty members are present during this discussion and take down specific scores based on the participant's contribution and participation. Thereafter, there is a Personal Interview (PI) round in which one prospective applicant is interviewed by a team of 3-4 faculty members of XIMB who comprise the selection panel.
Q: What do the personal interaction and assessment rounds aim to assess/ test in the MBA applicants? A: The Personal Interview and Group Discussion rounds aim to assess various aspects of the PGDM and PGDM (RM) programme applicants, such as:
• Communication skills and grasp of English as a common language of communication
• Focus and content of the applicant regarding his area of study in the degree level
• Confidence and Commitment of the applicants
• Team spirit and dynamism
• Analytical and logical understanding of issues
• Representation and conceptualization of facts
• Adaptability to situations and handling of stress
Q: How should MBA aspirants 'prepare' for these rounds? What is your advice?
A: Areas such as General Knowledge, present economic scenario and the content matter studied by the student in his degree level should be quite strong. Therefore, the applicant has to focus his attention in getting his facts right and never to underestimate the interview panel.
Secondly the applicant needs to be honest and sincere with the interview panel. Any attempts at trying to bluff the interview panel on issues would land the applicant in trouble. Some of the factual and technical details need to be clear. Also, the applicant needs to have a strong understanding of his strengths and weaknesses and during Group Discussion stage should exploit his strengths and draw his competitors from his factual and verbal weaknesses. At the end of the day, I feel that "pretension" should be cast away and the applicant should be honest about himself. The interview panel of any top B-School is always able to see through the potential of a candidate. Therefore, it is better to be honest than be sorry.
