Preparing for GD/PI: 4 must have qualities for success

By Tuhina Anukul Varshney

Getting ready for group discussions and job interviews appears daunting but in fact it is not so. The requirements and the processes are very simple demanding just four qualities in a successful candidate.  None of these qualities are complicated or difficult to acquire but yes, they do need dedicated hard work to develop. Any candidate can evolve into a winning candidate with diligence and focus.

The first quality required is – Knowledge. In a group discussion the topic given can be based on anything and if you have a vast store of knowledge you can easily draw upon it and participate impressively. You can give arguments, counter-arguments, attack the points of your competitors and defend your own points. During interviews too answering any question requires knowledge. Read here top 32 questions being asked in PI.

The knowledge required spans many areas. You should know comprehensively about your subject, your field of work to be able to answer technical questions. Then your repertoire of general knowledge should be as all-inclusive as you can make it so that you are comfortable having a conversation on just about anything during group discussions and also sometimes during interviews. Next you should have a fact finder on the company you are applying to, about the industry and the market it operates in, about the job profile you are applying for and what skills are required for that job. All this will help you answer questions like –

•    Why do you want to work for us?

•    Why should we select you and not one of the other 99 sitting outside?

•    Justify your suitability for this job?

•    Do you have any specific skills to fit this role?

•    How well do you think our company is positioned against our competitors?

•    What in your opinion is the future of this market? What will be the challenges ahead?

Your scope of knowledge should also include deep self-analysis. You should have an understanding of yourself and your inner environment as keenly as possible because if you don’t know yourself, then who does? If you are not able to answer the following questions, then who will?

•    How do your strengths and weaknesses affect your candidature?

•    What are your long term and short term goals?

•    What are your motivations in life?

•    How do you see yourself positioned professionally and in personal life in the semi-distant future?

•    What philosophy do you live by?

If you do not have sense of yourself, you will end up stumbling through such questions and it can be embarrassing.

Take a look at the MBA colleges accepting CAT 2014 scores in the following cities:

The second quality required is – communication skill. This involves two aspects. One is to know a language well. Whichever language you choose to converse in, you should be proficient in it. And then, you should be able to express yourself clearly and effectively. Many times we come across people who are not able to articulate properly, they have difficulty in using words effectively to express exactly what they want to say. This results in miscommunication or misinterpretations which can be disastrous in group discussions and interviews.

The third quality required is – creativity. Ability to be creative and come up with ideas helps in many ways – when you don’t know much about a topic, when you need to defend your point, when you are given problems to solve and when you are put through the abstract routine which is rapidly gaining popularity these days. Selectors these days know that most candidates come well prepared to be evaluated by the tried and tested methods and thus give out predicted results. So, they have come up with ideas to evaluate candidates in such a way for which they couldn’t possibly be pre-prepared. This is done by giving abstract topics for group discussions and by asking equally abstract questions suddenly in the middle of interviews.

The capability to think on your feet and perform at the spot will help you here. You have to be quick in imagination and in thinking out-of-the-box. You should have the capability to conceive tangential ideas, seek out various angles out of seemingly meaningless topics and questions. The evaluation point here is not how accurate what you are saying is but that you could think of something to say at all, that you were not stumped and rendered speechless.  Some true life examples of such abstract topics and interview questions are –

•    Two Big Brothers

•    No roots.

•    Orange juice from a mango.

•    Let’s go!

•    Have you registered for the trip to Mars? Why?

•    What would you do if I gave you ten pencils?

•    There is a pink basket and a yellow basket. Which one would you take? Why?

•    It is hot. Why are you wearing shoes?

As you read the above examples, you either found yourself laughing or in shock. You were probably thinking – how am I going to handle something like this if I ever have too?! The answer is in broadening your thought process and breaking mental boundaries. (Ideas on how to do this and some solved solutions for guidance have been dealt with in the various books written by the author of this article.)

The fourth and the last quality required is - good behavior. Excellent skills in the above three qualities can all go to waste if you do not know how to behave, if your social and business etiquettes are poor. Nobody likes to be around rude and uncouth people however clever they may be. So, mind your manners, be on your best behavior and make a conscious effort to grow a polished and pleasant personality.

About the author:

After working extensively in the corporate world, Tuhina Anukul Varshney re-invented herself as a Soft Skills and Personality Development Trainer and has been conducting Employability Enhancement Programs for students of all professional fields for 21 years now. Her training program was published as a book called “I’m Not Afraid of GDPI” by Pearson in 2012.