Acing the CAT Personal Interview

A typical PI round at a good B-school spans anywhere between 10 minutes to 30 minutes. On an average, the time duration can be considered as 15 minutes. Most of the colleges have two or more members in the Interview panel. The interview checks on the candidate’s confidence, understanding about the subject knowledge of his/her graduation stream as well as work experience (if any), communication skills, presentability, thought process and logic, social interaction skills, etc. to name a few. While appearing for the Personal Interview round a candidate need to take care of following things to become successful in the PI process.

Basic Hygiene and personality- You should be professional in attire. Business formals is best along with a tie for male candidate. For female, business formal or ethnic suit is best. The make-up should be very light and sober. Male candidates should have trimmed hair and clean shave. Also, the body posture should be straight and confident. One should bear a smiling demeanour. When you enter the room, please seek permission to enter and also to sit on the chair. A regular eye contact should be made with the panel and the candidate should keep looking across the room so that eye contact with all panel members is made.

Know Yourself- It is an important aspect and you should be aware about- your thought process, liking, disliking, strength areas, weaknesses, beliefs and values, personal boundaries, social skill, life purpose, and goals, personality traits, etc. It helps you to self-assess yourselves and helps in answering the questions which come from background, personality, values, moral, principles, guiding beliefs, etc.

Know your place/hometown/state- You should be aware about your native place/hometown. It includes knowing the history of place, geographical features, tourist destination and places of importance, economy, society, any eminent personality, trade and commerce, etc. as questions related to these topics are asked in the personal interview round.

Academic achievements- It is also important to know and understand your academic achievements in school and college and where did you stand. If due to any reason, you have not performed well at any stage in your career, you should be ready with the reasons and logic to assert the panel.

Extra-curricular- It is equally important to be active in other activities apart from the academics. Participation in social cause, NGO membership, College event organizing, member of any club/committee, etc. are few of the examples of being active on the extra-curricular front.

Subject knowledge (Graduation stream)- You must be well aware and possess knowledge about the subjects studied in the graduation. You should be aware about concepts, formula, theories, etc. and should also be able to relate it to real life examples from society and business. You also should have deep knowledge about at least two subjects studied which can be discussed during the interview process.

Knowledge of Work experience/Internships/Projects- Be aware of your KRA (Key responsibility areas), Job role, and the activities that you perform during your work. Always have a clear point about your achievements at the work place and try to quantify it during discussion. Also, have your points ready for the learnings gained and how your current work role is going to help you in your MBA education. Same applies for the internships done in your career. Be clear about what exactly you did during the internship, how did you help the organization grow or solve a problem and what were your learnings and achievements. Freshers should be aware about their projects and assignments done in their college (topic, activities done, key findings and observations, and learnings).

Career goals- You should be aware about what you want to do in your career, why do you want to do MBA, what specialization you are aiming, what are your short-term and long-term goals on personal level and professional level.

Current affairs- Be aware about the current affairs, news, events, from fields like science, commerce, business, international affairs, administration, governance, environment, technology, social, etc. Keep yourself updated about burning or recent topics in highlight at the time of interview. Following a newspaper (Indian Express, The Hindu, etc) gives a complete coverage of current affairs. It is also good to know about your country’s history, geography, political system, governance structure, development in science, economy, trade, international relations, etc.

Hobbies and likes- You should be aware about your hobbies. Develop a hobby and retain an expert level knowledge in that area. It is very essential to develop a hobby and actively engage in it because hobbies related questions are asked in the interview process.

Extempore- Many B-schools ask students to speak on a topic for a minute or two during interview. You should prepare to speak on current topics in a concise manner. Practice to speak for 60-70 seconds on each topic and analyse it regularly to improve it.

Situational questions- Questions related to situations- team work, problem solving, assertiveness, out-of-box thinking, conflict resolution, failure, etc. are asked and you should have a clear answer for such questions along with appropriate examples from your life experiences.

Opinion based questions- You are asked to present your opinion about certain activities of government, system, department, etc. related to policy, restriction, etc. and are checked on your thought process. Opinion based questions should be answered diplomatically and you should try to avoid contradictions and strong opinion while answering.

HR questions- These questions check on your HR question and soft skills. You can be asked about why MBA, strengths, weaknesses, goals, why a certain program, some behavioural questions, etc. under these.