Students’ Speak: Ensure a formal conversation, wherein you sound keen while answering

By: Abhishek Desai

One of the most important tips for clearing any PI is “never ever lie”, both in your application form/resume as well as while speaking. The panelists are seasoned enough to catch any such bluff which will surely be the reason for your rejection.

When it comes to acing the Personal Interview (PI) round of any B-school interview process, a lot of preparation goes behind the scenes. A candidate needs to know each and everything which is mentioned in his/her application form and be ready to answer any kind of question asked with full confidence.

Usually, there are questions asked by the panelists during this round such as “Tell us about yourself”, “Why MBA”, “strengths & weaknesses”, “why should we admit you?” among others. The answers for such typical questions should sound genuine and not formulaic. Keeping the answers formulaic would imply you would not stand out from the rest of the candidates out there. Ensure that the interview turns out to be a formal conversation, wherein you sound keen while answering the questions.

The overall performance in any PI is based on several parameters such as given below:

• Confidence
• Body language
• Tone and pitch of the voice
• Articulation
• Knowledge
• Dressing and grooming

All the above parameters cumulatively decide whether a candidate deserves to be given admission or not. One must sound confident while answering any question and blatantly admit when not knowing about the answer of a particular question. One of the most important tips for clearing any PI is “never ever lie”, both in your application form/resume as well as while speaking. The panelists are seasoned enough to catch any such bluff which will surely be the reason for your rejection.

A candidate must have an erect posture while sitting on the chair, with the hands on laps. Every question must be replied with a subtle smile, for the interviewers to infer that you are genuinely interested in giving the interview and thereby fetching brownie points. Be neatly groomed, from head to toe, and try to articulate all the answers in simple English. The tone and pitch of your voice should be assertive and should not sound overly aggressive or meek. In case you need some time to frame your answer properly, you may politely request to do so (the permission is also granted on almost all occasions).

During my Welingkar PI, I had two middle-aged male panelists who had evaluated my overall interview performance on the basis of the thought process I had put in while answering, articulation, and the body and face expressions. When all the above parameters are kept in mind during the preparations, any B-school interview can be easily cleared.

About the Author:

Abhishek Desai is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in e-Business from Welingkar Institute of Management. He has done his Summer Internship in the field of Market Research with 'TimesofMoney'. He's also served as 'Secretary of the Green Committee' at Welingkar.