My MBA Journey -Part 11 (GD-PI Prep 2)

In this post, I will share some of the learning from my GD & PI experiences.

GD Leanings:

• It is recommended to start the GD .But it is a high risk high reward venture. One needs to be absolutely sure of the topic if one wants to start. Most important point to remember here is to give direction to the GD and set the stage for discussion. If you have no or little idea about the topic, better let somebody else start the GD and you chip in afterwards. However the earlier you enter the GD the better. Make sure to make your presence felt at least once in first 2 minutes of the GD.
• Never take a stand upfront in a GD. Try to cover all possible aspects in the GD. However if you take a stand, make sure you stick to it. Moderators penalize heavily in case you change your stand afterwards. Changing your stand shows that 1) you don’t analyze the situation thoroughly and 2 ) You are a “follower” who is easily convinced by some “leader” of the GD.
• In a 10 min GD, enter the discussion atleast 4-5 times. There is no ground rule on how much you have to speak in each entry but make sure what you speak is at least audible to moderators.
• Make heavy use of 3Ls: Listen, Listen, Listen. You have to be a patient listener (at least show that on face even if you are abusing the other person from inside :)).
• Never make an eye contact with moderator. Always address all the members in the GD. Never ever ignore even a single member while talking.
• How to deal with “Fish Market”? In case you are stuck in a fish market kind of GD which is highly probable, make sure you don’t get nervous or desperate. Try to calm the group. However if group is really gone out of control, better be a patient listener. I have seen many groups which were disqualified within 4 minutes of start of GD and only members selected were those who kept quiet during the fish market.

During mock and actual GDs , I faced both extremes :very peaceful to almost War sort of GDs. My strategy however used to be more or less the same for each flavour of GD . In my IIM Lucknow GD, which had 10 people, I was 3rd to enter the discussion. And I made some 8-9 entries in 20 minutes. Each time I tried to speak new point .I was also successful to give an entirely new avenue for the group to think and discuss in one of my points. Btw GD Topic was “You have to break a few eggs to make an Omellete”

Now I move on to the next section of the post viz. PI Preparation, learning, experiences….

For PI, as mentioned before, “Malay Ray” was the man. Apart from that I had already prepared answers to all the commonly asked questions in PI such as Why MBA, Why Now , Why this IIM , What you will be 5 yrs , 10 yrs down the line …… Make sure you rehearse the answers pretty well to these questions. Any goof –up in these answers could turn out to be very costly.
Also “Pagalguy” – forum for MBA Aspirants, was of great help. There I could get a repository of all the questions asked in the previous year in IIMs and that helped me prepare accordingly. I also made extensive use of “Wikipedia” for building my database.

Remember with limited time at your disposal, you have to be very selective in what you need to prepare/study and what not. So make sure to research well on the kind of questions asked in PI of a particular b-school.

I will end this post with some points which a candidate should bear in his mind for a PI:

• Never try to befool your interviewer. He/She knows a lot more and can easily see through your tricks. If you don’t know an answer simply say “I don’t know”. Interviewers will almost always appreciate your honesty.
• At times, interviewers will make fun of you or try to stress you. Do not get irritated or frustrated under such condition. Interviewers simply want to test your mental stability. FYI… I was stress interviewed in IIM Lucknow for 5 min which I handled without getting agitated or nervous
• At the end of the interview, if prompted by interviewers to ask a question, ask a genuine query and do not ask just for the sake of asking. Irrelevant or naïve questions could attract –ve points.