Students’ Speak: What are evaluation parameters for GD round

By: Kuljeet Singh

Group Discussion (GD) round is much more than just presenting your argument. And so, it has varied parameters on which an aspirant is judged. GD has a lot to do with listening skills and so, the ability to mold one’s argument based on another person’s argument is important. You can’t only say what you want to say. You must make your argument look like as if you are taking the discussion forward.

Different companies would like to assess different skills based on the profile they are offering. For example, Tata Steel (for Strategy role) generally gives one minute to each participant to speak on a specific topic. They want to see how each participant can structure their thoughts and present them systematically.

Mahindra (for Leadership role) generally has ‘chairman GD’ round where each participant is given a role that of a Director or CEO or CFO, etc. and a real-time problem. The panelist wants to see how much a participant can view the problem from different angles.

Tata Motors (for Sales role) generally assesses how bent on a participant is to prove their argument and so, little aggressiveness in this GD will do more good than harm.

ICICI (for Relationship Manager role) generally gives a case-based GD where participants are supposed to analyse the problem given in the case. For case-based GD, we must try to recommend some solution at the end after thoroughly analyzing the case.

JP Morgan (for Senior Analyst role) generally has GD on some finance-related current events. The use of financial terms while presenting the argument will significantly demonstrate one’s knowledge of finance. Also, while preparing for GD for any financial firm, it must know that the quality of the argument is more important than the quantity.

During my JP Morgan GD, I had two panelists who didn’t only listen to the arguments presented by various participants but also cross-questioned some of them at the end to see if the participant really knows what they are talking about. Even the participants who did not speak much during the GD were selected as the argument they presented were very strong. It might happen that one is not fully aware or understand the topic as it may have financial jargons, in that case, it is best to first listen to other participants and then think of something. Simply summarising what others are saying do not help much in such GDs.

About the Author:

Kuljeet Singh is an alumnus of IIM Shillong. He completed his MBA with a specialisation in Finance in 2019. At present, he works with JP Morgan and Chase as a Senior Analyst.