The Final Stand At The Battle Of Interviews - Tips To Crack GD-PI-WAT - IIM Raipur

Congratulations on climbing the mountain called CAT but the tag of ‘IIMites’ still awaits you. So, brace yourselves as you make your way from the ‘third step’ to the summit.

The WAT/PI/GD round of any B-School is basically a selection round unlike CAT which is an elimination round. The only thing that you have to aim for is to make yourself ‘seen’. Basically, you have to market yourself and the first rule towards marketing a product/service is to know the product itself. That’s it, the golden rule says it all ‘Know Thyself’. As easy as it might sound, knowing yourself is actually the hardest part, you need to know everything that you have done till now and most importantly why you did it.

Let’s start from the beginning of your journey - from pre-school to middle school. Now, what’s there to revisit from the perspective of CAT, you might ask and my answer is everything.

A large part of what you have learnt comes from these very years and yes, you need to know what you learnt and be able to recollect it whether it be something as simple as the difference between an idiom and a proverb. When questions like these are shot at you (and this is an actual IIM interview question) you cannot possibly act stumped and lose the battle. You haven’t worked so hard to let everything go because you don’t remember what middle school was like. Mulling over the question for fifteen minutes and then coming up with an answer won’t help your cause either. Think about it now, how many of you can actually answer this question?

The best route to take in this situation is to tell the truth, don’t be blunt and declare that you do not know it instead take a softer route, say that you know it but are not able to recall it at that precise moment. When faced with a similar situation with regards to a question about your academics, do not beat around the bush, say what you know and for whatever you don’t know just say that that particular thing has slipped your mind and you will look it up once you are done with your interview (which you should actually do!). This reflects that though you have missed on some points you accept it instead of dodging the fact and are eager to learn and improve the areas that you lack in.  Having said that the interviewers are not going to ask you “the theory of everything” but you should know the theory of everything that you have studied so far.  The above-mentioned technique of handling something you don’t know works but not knowing something about your academics in the first place can spell trouble for you.

So in a nutshell – be clear with your basics especially your graduation

Added to that, you need to know everything that goes into your CV-from A to Z-the beginning and the end of it all.

Apart from your CV, be prepared for a question like- ‘Tell us something that is not mentioned in your CV’. Realise that this is a golden opportunity for you to take control of the steering wheel and drive as you please. Mention something that enhances your abilities to the maximum limit but do no fake it. The interviewers can easily see through a façade and that’s where you blow your chances of being in an IIM.

Now, coming to you, be thoroughly prepared with what you want to achieve in life, your strengths, weakness, dreams, failures,  ambition, aspiration and most important the WHY of it all.

For strengths and weaknesses, you need to have sufficient examples to display the same. Don’t go for heroic acts that seem incredulous, instead opt for something that actually happened and go on to explain your role but be concise.

For every question think before you answer, the interviewers are weighing your every word and so should you before it escapes your mouth. Every answer that you present is a path leading to the next question in line, so be sure the path goes to your territory instead of landing in the ‘forbidden forest’

Last of it all, be prepared with the current affairs, you need to know what is going on where.

For every interview that you go for be sure to check the institutes’ website beforehand and also prepare a question or two that you will ask the interviewer. It shows your level of interest towards the institute and gives a glimpse of your personality.

Now, the first interview is done, what’s next? Second interview? Wait a second. Before you present yourself at any other interview be sure that you have analysed and rectified the mistakes of the previous interview. You know the answers to all the questions that you faltered on in the first interview. The questions actually repeat!

So, that ‘s all for now. Prepare well and ace your interviews.

Hope to see all of you join the league of IIMites.

All the best!

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About the Author:

Vershita Srivastava

PGP2016-18

IIM RAIPUR