Pre Interview Test And Personal Interview - My Experience

Whatever be the final results that you get after this stage, the experience of this stage will definitely be a great value addition.

One aspect that I would like to state before any ‘gyan’ is that TISS is not a B-School. I stated this because the whole process has this fact as an underpinning.

So, let’s get into my experience of PIT and PI.

Disclaimer: This was the process last time. The process may change this year. Lastly, this is my experience.

• Pre Interview Test (PIT): It was quite a different process in which we were given two topics, out of which we had to chose one in the group itself and then write an essay on that topic. Post that, our papers were collected and subsequently we had to discuss the topic in a group. So, this is a reasonably well-designed process where every candidate can be fairly evaluated.
• Personal Interview (PI): After the completion of the PIT, candidates were called for PI. Usually, there will be some time gap between the two processes. PI panel usually consists of some of the most experienced Professors. Now, if I talk about nature of PI, it varies from candidate to candidate and it depends on his or educational and work experience backgrounds, his/her achievements, and everything distinctive that can be thought of between any two candidates. But, of course, there would be some questions which would be asked to almost everyone. For example the most dreaded one: Why HR? or
  “Tell us about yourself.” Like these, some other behavioural questions could be asked.

Some tips from my side:

• If you are working somewhere, you could be asked as to why you are leaving the job and why you want to pursue higher education
•  Questions could be asked from your graduation stream and from your work experience.
• You could also be asked to connect HR to your present work or your education.

So, the first part of the process i.e. PIT is more about how you perceive the world or current happenings and knowledge/ wisdom based on that whereas the second part of the process i.e. PI is about what you perceive of yourself.

Therefore, my personal suggestion would be to introspect about yourself, your experiences, your motivations, your likes and dislikes and connect the dots because life is all about finding the pattern that you want to see by connecting your own life events (dots).

Prepare well and all the best!

About the Author:

Vivek Ranjan is a first-year student of Human Resources Management and Labour Relations at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. In his free time, he likes to read books of different genres, write short stories.

He strongly believes in the concept of MOOC and likes to learn new things and wants to tour different countries.