TIPS FOR GD/PI

SOME TIPS FOR FRESHERS TO CRACK THE GD-PI

Hi Guys,

Sandipan Deb, SCMHRD MBA(HR) Batch of 2012-14, FRESHER 
Graduation:- B.Tech in ECE from Heritage Institute of Technolgy, Kolkata

Since the admissions process at SCMHRD and overall Symbiosis has changed to a centralized admissions process this time onwards, so this post doesn't focus on SCMHRD's admissions process in particular. When I converted SCMHRD 2 years back, the admissions process was not particularly congenial for freshers to convert in the first list and it is a known fact that over the years, people with work-experience are preferred in top B-schools and also during MBA placements. So, I would just share some tips, only for freshers, to confidently approach the MBA admissions season.

For Group Discussion:-
1. Reading newspapers is a must - Economic Times/Business Line, TOI/Hindu. Not only will it make you aware of the present happenings of the nation but also give you enough perspectives which can be put to use in topic-based Group Discussions. Evaluators like numbers and remember quoting numbers and facts and figures in your point will make it all the more credible. So be it about India's GDP growth or FDI policy or some branding strategy of an FMCG, quoting examples along with names would definitely earn you a brownie point.
Eg:-
a) Imagine you are given a topic on AAP - a paradigm shift in Indian politics. Merely quoting that India is in a state of disarray under UPA rule is too generic. Instead if you put in numbers and facts, not only will it strengthen your argument but will also make the evaluator know that this person is well read and well informed.
b) Imagine a Case Discussion where employees are facing problems with their manager OR a company is struggling to maintain it's market position, you quote some employee motivation practice of any organization OR some turnaround strategy of a major FMCG in recent times and the impact of your point will rise manifold.

2. Your communication skills (written and verbal) has to be very good. By communication, I do not mean fancy English words but clear, concise English sentences with no grammatical errors.

3. Your body language has to be perfect. Fidgeting with pens and/or notepads, constantly moving in chairs, facial expressions on not being allowed to speak or when cut by someone is a strict NO.

Remember that a Group Discussion is a simulation of the team meetings which you will have in plenty once you join an organization. And through this exercise, they are evaluating how well you can behave in teams, how easily you can communicate your view-point to the team, how wide and deep you can think about the topic/case in hand and also whether you are being able to earn respect from your team members that they bother to listen to your view-point and use it in the GD.

For Interviews:-
1. Knowing whatever you have filled in your CV is non-negotiable. You are committing a fatal mistake in case you don't know about a single keyword in your CV. My final placements interview at L&T revolved entirely about cricket. This doesn't mean that they are fooling around, they just want to know whether you have written the truth. So every activity you have done in your life, know them in and out. It should be like if you have been the General Secretary of the Student Body in your college and they ask you about it, you should be able to speak non-stop for at least 15 minutes (subject to no interruption from the interviewer)
2. Know your graduation subject and the recent trends in your discipline. This just shows your seriousness about your engineering. Never portray that you did not want to do engineering and are trying to run away from it. This not only shows your casual approach to life but also lack of decision-making ability.
3. If you have been selected for a particular specialization (say finance at SPJIMR or HR at XLRI), know why you want to take up that discipline. Know the recent trends in finance (at least in Indian context). This again will show that you are serious about that discipline. One tricky question for those opting to do HR is Why HR? It will haunt you till your final placements. So here, knowing what happens in the discipline will help you align your answer more to the actual happenings. Answers to such questions should ideally consist of your thought process towards taking up the specialization + how you think you will be able to add value to the specialization through your skillsets.
4. For questions asking you to describe a situation where you showed XYZ quality, mention situations which actually happened. In case you haven't faced such situation, tell the truth frankly. The risk of making up a situation is that in case they delve deeper, you might be caught on the wrong foot.
5. And the most important part, believe in yourself and your abilities. When I went for GD-PI at SCMHRD (it was incidentally the only call I had), people told me that it is impossible, SCMHRD always takes people with work-ex. In my GD panel of 6 people, I was the only fresher and none of the other 5 made it. 

MBA is a profession where your expertise and skills count for nothing if you don't have self-confidence. Trust me, over the next two years, you will need self-confidence in plenty. So prepare well and give it your bestest shot irrespective of the fact whether you have 1 call or 15 calls.

May luck be with you and you get the B-school of your dreams.

For any queries, feel free to reach out to me through FB or drop me a mail at sandipan_deb@scmhrd.edu

Interview Experience - IIM Bangalore #1

IIM B experience(Currently a student of IIMB, batch 2013-15)Name :- Jyothi NathanyProfile:98.62 percentileChartered AccountantCompany Secretary6 months of work ex in family businessGeneral

WAT topic:” Cookery shows on TV are changing the eating habits of the Indian Middle class adversely and are also responsible for causing obesity”

Till now I really don’t know what they would have expected from such a topic but as we were given the liberty to interpret the same creatively, I wrote about how the news media and the reality shows on TV cook up stories, adding more spices to it so as to make them more palatable. Connecting it with the middle class, my whole point was the way these shows emphasize on being materialistic indirectly making the middle class to opt for loans and spend on non-essential goods making themselves obese (fat being the useless intakes)

PI( panel of 2 female faculty members)
As I entered the room, one of them said to the other that she was the only person to be smiling during the WAT. And they both looked at me and smiled.

NOTE: They took my smile in a very positive way as they got convinced that i can smile even during tensed moments. So, don’t lose your calm, don’t forget basic manners of wishing them good morning/afternoon also when you enter for WAT. It gets noticed for sure.

The first question was straight from my SOP wherein I mentioned that I am a Marwari. Ma’am was interested in knowing 2 good things about the community and 2 bad things.
So, i talked about violating tax laws as one of the bad things and elaborated using few commonly misused mechanics for tax evasion. Thereafter, 50% of my interview was about tax and advice to finance minister (Tax was nowhere mentioned in my SOP but it was actually my strength so I played around with it beginning from the very first answer thereby successfully steering the interview in the direction of my strength)
45% of the interview was about my dad’s business, what inputs have I given and how much I knew about the industry and the rest was about my extra-currics wherein i had mentioned about public speaking on which they asked me a few questions

NOTE: Overall the interview experience was very calm. They mainly check on your SOP and at times create situations to check your confidence. In my case, one of the panelists was continuously showing mistrust in my answers and she kept repeating the same question but i gave the same answer with equal composure each time.
All the best!