Learn the art of answering in an interview

By: Shilpa Rajpoot

Work towards enhancing the critical thinking and confidence level to crack the GD and PI rounds in the first attempt.

Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) play an important role in the hiring process. In GD, the interviewer checks the critical thinking of the candidate and in PI, the interviewer checks the confidence and various other things in the candidate. The one who clears the GD round could sit for the interview.

Interview questions with answers

1. Where did you do your graduation from? And why?

A: So in this question, we need to answer simply the name of the college and the specifications of the college. One should be clear and confident while answering.

2. Why did you choose an MBA?

A: Give a clear answer to this question so that interviewer comes to know the clarity of mind and a clear vision about your decision. We could say that I have done my graduation in this specific field and now I want to join the corporate world and learn more, this is why I am pursuing an MBA .

3. Have you done anything remarkable in your graduation?

A: In this question, discuss about any achievement or participation during graduation.

4. What do you do in free time?

A: Here, tell about your hobbies

5. What is your specialisation in MBA?

A: Tell your specialisation

6. What are your strengths?

A: Tell your strengths with an example so that the interviewer could get a clear idea

7. CGPA based questions if less then why?

A: Here, we could say that I was not much interested in the theoretical part and I always like practical work and this is the reason I got less CGPA but I have knowledge about I have done till now.

8. Tell us detail about your educational background?

A: In this question, one could tell about their schooling and details

9. If placed in Bengaluru and then asked to move to Delhi, will you be able to adapt the climate change?

A: To answer this question, you should say yes because they would want to check your adaptability which is must in the corporate world.

10. Do you have any question for me?

A: One could ask about the salary package they are offering or other simple question, if they have any.

11. What is your biggest weakness and how are you improving it?

A: To answer this question, tell your weakness, the reason, and the ways to improvise the same. One could say that my biggest weakness in my handwriting in my opinion and I trying to improve it by making notes and writing.

12. Tell us about your family business? Your mother and siblings?

A: In this question, tell about the occupation of your parents and what your siblings are doing.

13. What are the three biggest values you learnt from your family?

A: We could say that since I belong to a joint family so I have learned cooperation, hard work, and leadership qualities.

14. What type of work you had done? Share your experience?

A: We could tell about the work experience like an internship. Also, we could share the live project experience.

15. Tell me something about yourself that is not mentioned in the CV.

A: One could say, “In my it is not mentioned that I am cooperative and I am a good singer also”

16. Which location would you prefer?

A: Answer to this question should be always no location preference as from this answer one could understand that the extent of adaptability

Topics covered in GD

1. Should reservation be abolished?
2. Is India ready for a cashless economy and how safe are digital payments?
3. Pros and cons of social media
4. Retail v/s e-Commerce
5. Are women safe in India?
6. Is management art or science?
7. GST
8. Women empowerment
9. Digital India: success or failure?
10. Is India ready for bullet trains?
11. Motor vehicle amendment act 2019
12. Pollution- Causes and solutions
13. Effect of cinema on youth
14. Effect of E-commerce in India
15. Make in India
16. Does AI dominate human beings
17. Unemployment in India

Topics prepared for GD and PI

For the group discussion, knowledge about the topic is essential. To prepare for GD, one needs to read newspaper and articles daily to gain knowledge. In the GD, the panellist checks the critical thinking of student by giving them any topic and observes the actions and reactions of various participants.

During my GD, I had prepared topic s such as Pollution, Nuclear Family and Joint Family, Unemployment. I used to read the newspaper daily to tackle the PI questions as sometimes PI questions could be related to current affairs as well. For the PI round, practise questions related to all academics and the project/ internship as stated above.

Sometimes there could be a situation based questions like:

What will you do if your customer is not satisfied with the products? How will you handle the situation? So these questions could be answered only with critical thinking and should be practised accordingly.

About the Author:

Shilpa Rajpoot has completed her B.SC from Punjab University. She is pursuing MBA from Lovely Professional University. She is also working as a student consultant for NK Aggarwal Joints and Spine Centre, Ludhiana under Dr. Roktim Sarmah, Associate Professor, MSOB.