Students’ Speak: This is what I was asked during XAT GD & PI round

By: Abhishek Desai

Giving a couple of mock GDs and PIs helped me a lot in knowing both my strengths and weaknesses, as well as getting me rid of most of the preparation anxieties.

During my Welingkar interview, the Group Discussion (GD) topic given to the group was, “Is the Indian youth today more confident or confused?” There was a minute given to us to think about the topic and jot down the necessary points and about 15 minutes to discuss. And when the discussion time was over, we were individually given half a minute to conclude. Everybody in the group got a chance to present their views at least once. Half of the group (including me) was more confident than the other half contradicting us with relevant facts and examples.

My Personal Interview (PI), to my surprise, got over within ten minutes. That made me a bit skeptical about my chances of getting selected. The questions asked during the PI were as follows:

1. Tell us about yourself and the family background.
2. Describe your work experience: Since my job revolved mainly around coding, I simply briefed about it and laid more emphasis on the work done which involved managerial and leadership skills (e.g. mentoring, taking initiatives to conduct presentations, multitasking, etc.).
3. Hobbies and interests: Since I had mentioned trekking as a hobby, they asked me to briefly narrate my latest trek experience.
4. Why PGDM and PGDM e-Business (the course I had given as my first preference)?
5. Basic questions on the online courses pursued in Digital Marketing and Cloud Computing.
6. State the relevance and benefits of e-commerce today with the help of two examples.
7. Why should we select you: I stated to the interviewers my technical skills and IT background would be relevant to the course I enrolled for. Moreover, a candidate with both technical and traditional business skills will be an asset in the corporate world in today’s time wherein the role of technology is increasingly proving to be vital across sectors.

For my GD and PI preparation, I had ensured to know each and everything about my resume inside out and be ready to face any unexpected questions related to it as well. Giving a couple of mock GDs and PIs helped me a lot in knowing both my strengths and weaknesses, as well as getting me rid of most of the preparation anxieties.

The GD preparation involved getting acquainted with having at least the basic knowledge about the latest happenings in India and the world. As per the major happenings two years ago, I had prepared topics such as the Union Budget, Demonetisation, GST, etc., apart from some abstract topics available on the Internet.

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.