Personal Interview: 5 tips to face the interview panelists on the D Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOIDA, U.P, India, Republic of (Free-Press-Release.com) February 20, 2012 -- In the past articles of the Personal Interview series, you have known what the interviewers look for you and the Dos and Don’ts during the interview. In the third part of the series, we will provide you with five tips on how you should prepare for the D Day.

Read further to know more about them.

Know the current developments: Be up to date with the current affairs. Even on the day of your interview, you should be thorough with the newspaper to know the latest happenings at the business, political, sports and social front. If the interviewer asks you a question to check your general awareness, you should not appear blank. But reading newspaper only on the day of your interview is also not very impressive. In the process you will just cram information and won’t be able to gather much about it.

Brush up your basics: Before going for your interview, you must brush up the basic knowledge of your graduation subjects. According to Pramudit Agarwal, CAT 2010 99.91 percentiler and a first year student of IIM Bangalore, the interviewers ask you about your favorite or your weak subject and grill you a bit on those. Hence you should be prepared accordingly.

Gather domain knowledge of your work: If you are a work experienced candidate, you should gather as much information about your work as possible. You should be clear about your role in the organization, knowledge about the organization and few other companies of the same field and their contribution towards the society. “For the workplace, try to take a step back and make a map of where you are in the organization: what processes occur before and after your work, what is the impact of your work, where else can the same techniques be applied, etc. Know about your organization: Industry, Competitors, share price, recent news, number of employees, CEO's name, recent results, global locations, etc.,” mentions Kshitij Mohta, IIM Ahmedabad student. You should also have a ready answer on why you want to choose MBA over your job and how the MBA tag will help you in your career.

Play along with the interviewers: The main objective of the interviewers is to check how you react to unexpected and unforeseen situations. They might take the interview at a different level and ask you to tell them a joke or sing a song. In such a situation, instead of being nervous, it is advised that you just play along. As Pramudit Agarwal says, “The interviewers sometimes do try to push you out of your comfort zone to see how you respond. The best way to tackle these questions is to not to be taken aback, don't become nervous and just play along!”

Have an opinion & know the points to support it: The interview round takes place after the GD and or WAT rounds. The interviewers do ask you questions on what you have spoken or written in those rounds. You should be ready to defend your opinions or points you have already shared. “Always have an OPINION, never be unbiased. The purpose is to see how well you can defend yourself which you obviously can't if you don't take a stand. So, never sound vague and defend your proposition to the end,” states Agarwal.

To read the last two articles of the series, click on the following links:

Personal Interview: Dos & Don'ts for your PI at a top B-School

Personal Interview: Know the qualities that the top B-schools look for in a candidate

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on Personal Interview.

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