Students’ Speak: Conducting mock GDs with peers will allow you to gain confidence

By: Tata Subramanian

Now that the placement season has kicked off it is important for you to be prepared well. Just like you prepare for your Group Discussion, Personal Interview (GDPI) round, you have to start your preparations again for off- and on-campus placements. Here are some tips and tricks which I have learnt from my experience and from my peers.

Make complete background research about the company and the job role

Read the annual report of the company. In that, you can find information related to the key financial metrics, their share price performance if they are listed and about their future investments and strategic decisions. If the annual report is not available then refer to the website where all the relevant information would be provided. My suggestion would be to check for information such as mission, vision, type of business and the details of the clients they are handling. It would also be good if you do a SWOT analysis of the company and if given an opportunity to express your views during the interview, it can be a bonus advantage. Go through the job description thoroughly which will be circulated by the company in advance to the placement team. Based on the information, you can prepare for the concepts related to the job. For instance, if the role is offered for financial analyst, then start revising the concepts which you have learnt since the first year.

Read newspapers to crack GD round

Many companies that visit the campus conduct GD to select potential candidates for the next phase of the interview process. Thus, performing well in GD becomes a crucial factor. Based on the GDs which I have attended, I can safely say that having a sound knowledge about the topic will help you tremendously. This is because during GD, even if you are dominated by other members, your knowledge about the subject will eventually make everyone listen to you. So now the question is how to have in-depth knowledge about these topics. The best way is to read newspapers on a daily basis. It sounds simple but implementing this is not easy, so you have to continuously practice till it becomes a routine like brushing your teeth. Being an MBA student, it is important for you to read news related to business first followed by politics, sports and editorial.

The next crucial aspect is speaking with confidence and authority. This will follow automatically once you have good knowledge about the topic you are discussing. Still, if you lack confidence or stutter while speaking, conduct mock GDs with your classmates before the actual interview. Mock GDs will help you know not only about your strengths and weaknesses but about others as well.

Practice to excel in aptitude test

This goes without saying how important it is as companies use it as a filtering tool for rejecting candidates. My personal suggestion would be to practice about one topic for at least for half an hour a day and then practice free mock tests online regularly.

Confidence and domain knowledge are prime for the personal interview

There are no fixed rules for the preparation as the nature of questions asked by the interviewer can range from technical, general knowledge to about your personal life. Having a good domain and general knowledge will help you ace in the technical interview. For this to happen, revise your domain knowledge such as Marketing, HR, finance, etc., thoroughly.

Prepare in advance about “tell me about yourself” question. You can start with your name and then mention your current role along with usage of an adjective such as “sincere, hardworking and so forth”. The idea here is to describe yourself at the beginning followed by your work, courses related to the job that you have done and finally ending up with why HR should hire you for that role. You can mention extra-curricular achievements too but the maximum duration of your speaking should not exceed 90 seconds.

Role of the college placement cell

My college has a placement cell that is dedicated to assisting students in the placements. The placement team is responsible for sharing details such as company details, job description and salary details if disclosed by the company. It also provides information related to the eligibility criteria for the jobs as mentioned by the company. In addition to this, our placement team also conducts mock aptitude tests, GDs and personal interviews as a part of placement preparation.

About the Author:

Tata Subramanian is pursuing MBA from Thiagarajar School of Management (TSM) in Marketing and HR. He is a passionate public speaker who is enthusiastic about new technologies in marketing. A fan of crime fiction novels, he loves to study human nature. He is also a core committee member of debating and quiz club.