This is campus interview time. The young aspirants are eager to outperform their colleagues and impress the interviewer. One of the students approached me for some tips.
At that point, I was reminded of my SSB Interview (known as service selection board interview) that I had attended some 40 years back. The interview was for 3 days. Three experts namely the psychologist, group testing Officer and the interviewing Officer used to grill aspiring candidates for those 3 days. Thereafter, a medical examination used to be conducted by specialist doctors before shortlisting the candidates. This used to follow a merit list preparation at All-India level before the candidates’ fates were decided.
I used to wonder as to why such a strenuous and an elaborate test was needed. Well the answer is simple. In business a young entrant is given a target to achieve with money and material at his disposal, whereas a young army officer is given the lives (of young soldiers) to accomplish the mission. Hence, the first tip to you is, if you want a CTC of Rs.5 lakhs and above you should become worthy of it in the eyes of the interviewer and equip yourself accordingly.
The next tip is that the interviewer is looking for your innate qualities, which in SSB interview are called as “trainable” and “untrainable qualities”. The untrainable qualities are Honesty, Integrity, Dependability and Loyalty. The rest are trainable. If your secure 99% in your academic subjects you could be topper and a Gold Medalist. However, if you happen to secure only 99% in “Untrainable qualities” your name will not even figure in “selection” list. Here 100% is a minimum inescapable requirement.
In interview you need to be precise and to the point. So while answering question if you are not sure of the answer and are guessing, you must seek permission from the interviewer to do so. You should have clarity of thought and speech. Frequent use of adjectives does not actually communicate what you intend telling the interviewer. For example, for the question “How was the food in the party?”, the answer could be
(a) It is very good and I liked it. Or
(b) The ambience was good, with light sitar music in the air and neatly laid out tables. The chapatti, rice and vegetables were piping hot and tasty. Enough waiters were present to readily refill the plates. Overall, the dinner was sumptuous and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In a formal interview (b) is preferable and in an informal chat amongst friends option (a) will work.
Keeping an eye on the “Space Management”, Let me close it here.
Wish all the TSM aspirants a Happy hunting and bountiful catch (5 lakh CTC and above) in their interviews.
With best wishes.
Go conquer the world.
Col(retd) S Vijayaraghavan,
Administrative Officer,
Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai