Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Common MBA Entrance Interview Questions..Contd.

q. what are your strengths?

While it's easy to give just any correct answer, it's far more difficult to give a correct yet imressive one. Lots of interviewees end up giving answers like - "I'm very hard working". Now, it's all very good to be hard-working but at this level, hard-work is almost a basic requirement and even if one is not, everyone claims to be one. Hence, the answer comes across as unimaginative and doesn't really add to the interviewers knowledge about you. Please remember that there is approximately 20% chance of selection, so you need to weed out about 80% of the competition through your answers, and in that scenario this answer is not sufficiently good.
If you had indeed been hard-working you should have worked on this question already - the first step would have been to try and categorize your strength areas:
1. Professional strength areas (displayed in case of those already working or in case of students this would be what you think are your potential strengths)
- You may be very good at "analysis" - try and give an example to buttress your point. You may also explain how it can help you be a good manager.
- A great "team player". - you can cite about your success in your college festivals or events.
- Technical strengths
- Any other.
2. Personal strengths
- "I am thorough, meaning you give attention to details and then explain how it wil help you in your professional areas"
- punctual, diligent
- patient, persevering
- flexible, open
3. Other skills & strenghts
- Communication Skills
- Good listener ( this may be a sub-set of the above)
- Friendly / easy to approach / sociable / easy to get along with
The above is only an indicative list, and by no means exhaustive. Please find your own and add and subtract from the list - but spend some time forming your answer. Your friends and family may be a good help here.
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Next question we will deal with: "What are your weaknesses?". Keep watching this space.
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Saturday, November 18, 2006

Reproductions from my columns in the Education Times - 5

Question:
Post the CAT, one is not left with too much time for preparations for the GD & Interviews. Should I start right away then?

Answer:
You are right about the lack of time for preparations for GD & Interview after the CAT. Plus you will in all likelihood also preparing for some of the other entrance tests. What you could do now for the second stage of the selection process is:
1. Regulary read at least one English newspaper and one Business daily. It is however preferable to read two general dailies as this will help you get different points of views on the same topic. Often the GDs & Interviews are not so much a direct test of your knowledge like a quiz, but a place to voice your opinions on matters of national & global matters, specially from the world of business. Whatever views you may hold forth, if you could back it up with substantial reasoning, is highly appreciated. In the GDs you might face counter-questions on points you raised. Even though you may not agree with the opinions of one of the newspapers, but one of the other participants may do. In such a scenario, tackling his/her arguments will be easier if you have a good idea about the other opinion(s).
Must read:
- Page 1
- Editorials
- Edit Page columns
- Business Pages
- Sports Page/s
- News n articles from areas which you may have mentioned as your areas of interest

2. Swap some of the sit-coms that you are watching with News channels. TV can be a good source of passive information acquisition. If you are not very comfortable reading your Economic Times, you may start off with one of the business channels. Choose any one that you may fancy.

3. Do a quick run through lots of political and business magazines. Spend time on areas which you may think are likely gd/interview topics. Formulating a list of such topics is not very difficult. Take help from friends and classmates.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Reproductions from my columns in the Education Times - 3

Q. Post the CAT, one is not left with too much time for preparations for the GD & Interviews. Should I start right away then?

Answer:
You are right about the lack of time for preparations for GD & Interview after the CAT. Plus you will in all likelihood also preparing for some of the other entrance tests. What you could do now for the second stage of the selection process is:
1. Regulary read at least one English newspaper and one Business daily. It is however preferable to read two general dailies as this will help you get different points of views on the same topic. Often the GDs & Interviews are not so much a direct test of your knowledge like a quiz, but a place to voice your opinions on matters of national & global matters, specially from the world of business. Whatever views you may hold forth, if you could back it up with substantial reasoning, is highly appreciated. In the GDs you might face counter-questions on points you raised. Even though you may not agree with the opinions of one of the newspapers, but one of the other participants may do. In such a scenario, tackling his/her arguments will be easier if you have a good idea about the other opinion(s).
Must read:
- Page 1
- Editorials
- Edit Page columns
- Business Pages
- Sports Page/s
- News n articles from areas which you may have mentioned as your areas of interest

2. Swap some of the sit-coms that you are watching with News channels. TV can be a good source of passive information acquisition. If you are not very comfortable reading your Economic Times, you may start off with one of the business channels. Choose any one that you may fancy.

3. Do a quick run through lots of political and business magazines. Spend time on areas which you may think are likely gd/interview topics. Formulating a list of such topics is not very difficult. Take help from friends and classmates.