Interviews form an integral part of any selection process of an MBA college. It allows the panelists to assess the candidate – and find the best candidate for their institute. Various traits of personal interview are explained in this blog post.

There are two types of interviews – Personal interview and group interview. While most of the B schools conduct personal interview to judge the interviewee, few of them conduct group interviews as well.

Personal Interview round for MBA Entrance or admission to any academic course in any institution may have varying duration depending upon how interesting you are during the process. PI is awarded the highest weightage in the final selection round. The PI round tests you on your one to one communication skill along with your attitude, interest in surrounding events and way of presentation. Any bluff during PI round can throw you out of the fray.

Interview Format

An interview is analyzing the personality of the candidate and assess whether she/he is the best suit for the requirement (whether it is college or during placement season). It can be conducted by a single interviewer or a panel of interviewers with varied experiences.

Selection can be done on the basis of a single interview or multiple rounds of interviews depending upon various factors like the number of vacancies, a number of applications received a number of interviewers available and the most important criticality of the position or job requirement.

The advantage of multiple rounds of interviews is that you get to assess candidates through multiple rounds of interviews, with different panelists. This allows each panelist to thoroughly assess the candidate with in-depth conversations.

However, the negative of this is that this slows down the interview process since the candidate must go through multiple rounds of interviews with different sets of people.

Important Tips

Getting Ready for Interview session:

Few things a good candidate should remember before proceeding for interview session are –

•  Gather all the required documents, their copies and each and everything that is desired for verification
•  The copy of write up that you have already sent to the B-school
• Get dressed formally and neatly but not elegantly
• Arrive at the venue a few minutes before the scheduled time for verification of documents
•  Enter the PI room by taking permission of the panelists and greet them when you reach near the table behind which they are sitting.

What are the evaluators looking for in the (to be) management graduate?

attitude, approach, thorough understanding of surrounding and concepts, body language, confidence, clarity of thoughts, career plan, curiosity, consistency, yearn for achievement(s), zest for excellence and many other things. Overall they are looking for is a well developed personality with a stable and composed mind.

Usually, there are 2 to 3 panelists in the PI round who ask questions on a variety of topics ranging from your personal profile, family, native place, courses you have studied, the environment around, current topics. Anything under the Sun could be the topic in the interview session. The questions can be both generic or specific. Questions are simple and broad, how you answer them is very important. We will update the list of a few questions to help you understand the range of questions and how to answer them. Even though we have tried to answer the questions in the most appropriate way possible, you can modify the answers according to the situation during the interview.

Mantra is to be yourself and doesn’t try to be fake or someone else other than you. Listen to each question carefully, take a few seconds to align your thoughts and construct the answer. Don’t rush to answer. Be focused.

Good Luck!!!