Students' Speak: Preparing for placement interviews? Keep these things in mind

Placement is an important phase and also among the top factors when a student plans to choose a B-School to study Master of Business Administration (MBA).

This is the first step towards starting a successful career and be placed in a reputed organisation.

Here are some things you must keep in mind:

• For this one should prepare from the very beginning. You must focus on basic academics from the very first day.
• Besides study, you should focus on choosing his specialisation.
• Read the daily newspaper and get an idea about what is happening around the world. This is helpful during the interview.
• It has been observed that many times aspirants are unable to answer questions from their graduation subjects. So ensure that you also keep on going back to your basic graduation subjects. Study at least two-thirds of subjects from undergrad.
• The next thing is the HR questions. You could find some frequently asked HR questions that are easily available on the internet. You should go through each question and prepare every question ready as per your personality.
• Don’t try to fake anything. Interviewers are smart enough to catch you and if they find a candidate is lying at any point in an interview, they will not select you.
• Be confident in the interview process and relax. Sometimes students get tensed during the process and can’t deliver an answer as expected which is also avoidable.
• One more tip I want to share is that learn to listen. Listening is a good exercise, so first listen to the interviewer and then only answer, don’t be quick to answer before listening.
• Some companies may have group discussions. So you need to prepare for that also. In a group discussion, everyone is expected to discuss a topic and which is not a debate. So you should talk politely and not in an aggressive way.
• For both GD and interview you can practice your answers standing in front of a mirror. It will improve your hand gestures and body language, too. I did the same and improved a lot.
• One more important point is to solve the case study as many as possible which will help in developing analytical thinking. So, lastly, prepare for the first day and all the best for the placement.

My college has a placement cell. Students from a junior and senior batch from each specialisation work here and approach companies. Companies from different sectors come here for campus placement. We have a decent placement record for the past years. Sometimes pool placement also happens where we need to go to different campus and students from different campuses sit together for the process. 

About the Author:

Soumyadip Roychowdhury is a student at Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB) studying Master in Business Administration with a specialisation in International Business (MBA-IB). He is a second-year student and has interned with brands such as Adani Wilmar and HealthScion. He is also a committee member of the Entrepreneurship Cell at SIIB.