How to handle CAT Personal interview
CAT Preparation
How do I handle a stress interview like the Personal Interview?
Don’t stress! A successful score on a Common Admission Test (CAT) may lead to a Personal Interview, which then leads to an offer of admission. You may be excited and enthusiastic for your interview, but worried that you’ll mess something up. There’s no need to fret – here are some tips that will make your interview a breeze!
What is a stress interview?
The basic mission of a stress interview is to intimidate the person being interviewed. An interviewer will try to keep you off-balance and always on your toes through a succession of questions. This might sound a bit harsh, but the main purpose of this is to see how well the candidate handles stress.
Questions about work overload, dealing with multiple projects and handling conflict may come up. Stress interviews will test your behaviour in a stressful environment.
Signs you are in a stress interview
An interviewer may behave in an uninterested or hostile style. Don’t be discouraged by this. Keep your enthusiasm up and don’t show nervousness or discouragement in your tone of voice or facial expression.
An interviewer may not give eye contact, interrupt, turn his back, or ask questions in a demeaning or challenging style. Your mission, as an interviewee, is to maintain eye contact and respect towards your interviewer. Just because they may not show you respect, doesn’t mean you should not be courteous or polite either. Always be polite.
When an interviewer asks you probing questions, you should be honest. Don’t be flustered and always be on your toes. Think before you speak and make sure that what you say, you can support with arguments or evidence. They may attempt to trigger an emotional, immature response in you – be don’t be fooled. Always keep your cool. Know that this is simply psychological and that you are aware of what is going on.
When an interviewer asks you probing questions, you should be honest. Don’t be flustered and always be on your toes. Think before you speak and make sure that what you say, you can support with arguments or evidence. They may attempt to trigger an emotional, immature response in you – be don’t be fooled. Always keep your cool. Know that this is simply psychological and that you are aware of what is going on.
“Rattling the cage”
The interviewer is acting in a social role – he or she is deliberately trying to “rattle the cage” and throw you off. You must realize that there is nothing personal against you – they are acting this way to all other candidates as well. After all, they do not know you. This is a test of your character and personality. Once you realize this, you will find it much easier to handle their questions.
Examples of stress interview questions:
A sticky situation / case interviews
“If you caught a student cheating on their test, what would you do?”
Putting you on the spot
“How do you feel this interview is going?”
Popping the balloon
(sighing) Okay, if that’s the best answer you can give me. Then what about this question…?
Oddball question
Why are manhole covers round?
Doubting your veracity
“I don’t really feel like your answering the question. Could you please clarify / could you please start again?”
Painful questions
“Why did you switch to political science? Is it because you couldn’t handle engineering? Why did you do so poorly on this test?”
How to respond
Aggressive or passive aggressive interviewers can smell fear. They will try to put you on the defensive. This approach is a legitimate and appropriate way to predict a candidate’s performance in their future studies and career. Here are some tips to help you out:
* Clarify any questions and respond thoughtfully
* If you’re giving an example, make sure you get to the point and don’t go off on tangents
* Be honest, open and direct – but don’t let yourself be emotionally intimidated!
* Realize that these people may ask tough questions but do mean well.
* Learn to think on your toes and be prepared. Practice interview questions with friends and family.
* Breathe in and out. Relax. This is not the end-all and be-all of your life. You will get through the interview. Once it is done, make sure you can say to yourself that you did a good job and that you did your best.
Good luck on your Personal Interview (PI)! And remember, don’t stress!
Discussing Strengths and Weaknesses in the CAT PI
Discussing Your Strengths and Weaknesses
in the CAT Personal Interview
You should stop worrying about the procedure being too tough and being more of a psychoanalysis test. The IIM Personal Interview only aims to determine the following key factors:
1) Are your goals in line with what the institute can offer:
What are your goals? This is the most important question you can ask yourself. Your decision to do an MBA should be a natural progression in your scheme of things. So if you want to be finance professional, list down the different niches of finance that you feel interested in. Remember you don’t have to be 100 per cent specific about your goals. The IIM panel is wise enough to know that you are not truly sure of exactly what you want to do right out of college and so make at least a list of 3 things that you feel you find interesting and want to work towards learning in your MBA.
2) How do your academics/technical skills complement your goals:
If you are an engineer you can stress upon your quantitative approach towards your work and how you find finance an interesting choice given your love for maths.
If you are from an commerce background you can stress upon your knowledge of accountancy and its relevance in the field of investment analysis, private equity and merchant banking and how you intend to add to your knowledge regarding the specifics of these fields through your MBA.
3) How to talk about your work experiences:
The IIM panel will stress most upon what you have done in your work experience and how you intend to utilize that towards furthering your career goals. Your ideal preparation for the Personal Interview should be to answer the following questions:
The relevance of your job in the business process of the company: You must understand which part of the Strategic Business Unit your work fell under and exactly what your role was towards achieving the goals of the Strategic Business Unit.
Skill sets acquired over the process of your work in the organization: What kind of specific skills did you acquire, specifically in marketing, finance, strategy etc.
What kind of products/services you sold, and what was the turnover, profitability, growth rates over the years that you were working for the organization.
What was the competition like, who were the industry leaders and how did you recognize the industry leaders.
You should be able to specify the defining criteria behind the peer competition. One way of doing this is to do a SWOT analysis of the competition. Identify the major strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis the competition.
Finally have you won any awards, commendations, business achievements that have been worthy of merit and recognition. Having awards makes it all the more easier for you to gain credibility as a highly capable employee.
How To Highlight Your Strengths And Make Up For Your Weaknesses
State your Strengths: The key to a successful interview is to clearly state your strengths and how you use such strengths.
For example suppose one of your key strength is completing tasks within tight deadlines. Suppose it was organizing an inter college/school debate that was to begin in 1 week notice. You coulds state, “Whenever a task is allotted to me, I make it a point to see it through with completion, within the given time frame with an intent to over deliver. Given the magnitude of the task, I achieve this by having a clear cut plan of short term goals toward achievement of task at hand, selection of the right team members if necessary, allocation of tasks, dynamic follow up, and constant review of goals achieved”.
Impact on Others: It is essential to show how you view your actions upon others. You could outline how you select your team members based on their strengths and weaknesses.
You could state, “I believe in cohesive teamwork, I first clearly outline the breakup of the tasks to be achieved, I will then request individual members to state which tasks they are best able to perform based on their own strengths, and create groups for individual tasks and finally clearly outline the chain of reporting of task completed and passing on the finished task to the next group.
Refinement and Self-Development: Here is where you convince the interview panel your ability to achieve deadlines.
You can state, “I believe in a system of strong follow up with team members and I achieve this through seeking constant advice from my team members, I’ll constantly ask where my teams need more active help from me and where they can handle the task themselves. By dividing the overall goal into individual targets, I can immediately determine where things are going slow or fast.”
These strategies can be applied to any strength to formulate a well thought out reply. You can see form the replies above that you come across as well organized, active and a good team player. By examining other strengths that you may possess you could formulate a good plan for marketing yourself in the manner outlined above
CAT PI: The day of the interview – Do’s and Don’ts
When schools consider their offer of admission to you, they will evaluate you on a number of factors. Once you have been shortlisted from your CAT preparation, you will have a Group Discussion (GD) and a Personal Interview (PI). Here are some do’s and don’ts when you are preparing for your Personal Interview!
Do’s
Do join way2freshers CAT Preparation community. It’ll help you out with anything regarding the CAT admissions process!
Do have confidence and enthusiasm.
Do be yourself. Act natural. Interviewers have a knack for knowing when someone is pretending to be something they’re not.
Do watch your body language. Never touch your interviewers except for when you give them a handshake. You don’t want to invade their personal space.
Do make a good impression. How are you going to stand out from the thousands of other candidates?
Do be enthusiastic.
Do leave the interview on a good note. Even if you had a great interview, your last moments with the interviewers is the memory which will linger in their minds once the interview ends. You want to leave the room on a positive note.
Do be clear and logical. That way, you will demonstrate your ability to explain ideas to others in a way that is comprehensible.
Do be concise.
Do define your goals well. Your goals should be fairly measurable and realistic.
Do brushen up on your general knowledge. Interviewers may test your conversational skills and general wisdom by asking you questions on various topics.
Do know what your strengths and weaknesses are, and be able to illustrate examples of each. Also make note of how you are correcting your weaknesses.
Do be prepared to talk about academic and job experience. They will want to know more about why you are qualified for entering their school. They will want to know how serious you actually are about your studies and career.
Do show composure under pressure. Think before you speak and reply with well thought-out, meaningful responses.
Do show energy through your body language and tone of voice. Sit up straight, lean forward slightly.
Don’ts
Don’t offend your interviewers. Be careful not to make any opinionated statements which may offend a person there (especially when dealing with sensitive topics such as religion).
Don’t rely simply on your qualifications or exam scores alone to do the selling for you. No matter how qualified you are, you need to show them that you are qualified – no piece of paper alone can prove that.
Don’t use poor language. Make sure you address your interviewers with respect.
Don’t be ambiguous. Having unclear objectives is a given and will get you nowhere. Be specific and list something measurable which you can achieve or attempt.
Don’t lie. You might find yourself in a trap you can’t get out if you do. It’s best to be honest.
Don’t forget to listen. If you spend too much time thinking in your head, you might not realize they have asked you a question and that you weren’t listening!
Don’t worry if you are soft-spoken. It does not imply you are weak. Just make sure you exude a sense of strength and authority while still being soft-spoken. Use knowledge, humor, and effective communication to show your leadership skills.
Don’t punish yourself mentally if you find you have become stuck on answering a question. It may throw you off for the rest of the interview. Just breathe and keep on going.
Don’t give up! Even if you stumble on a word, you shouldn’t let that get in the way of interviewers knowing how great you are.
CAT Personal Interview Preparation
CAT Personal Interview:
What Does The Panel Look For In A Candidate?
The focus of a B-school interview can range from specific questions about your job to broad discussions on life. Approach the interview as a conversation to be enjoyed, not as a question-and-answer ordeal. It may be about your hobbies – your recent cross-country trip. This doesn’t mean that the interviewers are not serious. It just means that you’re being sized up as a person and a future professional in all your dimensions.
Try to be your witty, charming, natural self. Do not try to put on an act. The interviewers will be able to see through your mask(s). Students, faculty, admissions personnel, and alumni conduct interviews. Don’t dismiss students as the lightweights.
The “Ideal Candidate” should be to articulate themselves in the following areas:
Justify Your Decision To Pursue The MBA Program
Don’t tell the panel that you are looking for a “challenging job in a good firm with lots of money, status and glamour”. Instead, you must convey to the interview panel that you have made a rational and informed decision about your career choice and your intended course of higher study.
There are broadly four areas which your answer could touch upon:
Career Objectives: You could talk about your career objectives and how the two year MBA program will help you achieve them.
Value Addition: Value addition will essentially be in two forms knowledge and skills.
Background: This is where you connect your past to your future. If you are an engineer, try and say that the MBA course and your engineering degree will help you do your job better in the company that you will join. You should be able to convincingly justify how your engineering qualification will help.
Opportunities and Rewards: You could also at this stage mention the opportunities that are opening up in organizations for management graduates. At this stage mentioning superior monetary rewards for management graduates may not be a bad idea.
Why Do You Think You Would Enjoy Your Chosen Area Of Study?
*In the following sections, we’ll look at a potential answers for the following test questions*
“Marketing is key to the success of any organization and the function has always appealed to me, because it requires a combination of creativity, strategic and analytic ability – all qualities that I feel I possess. Through discussions with some of my seniors, I have a pretty good idea of what it’s like to work toward taking up a marketing job, and I know I will enjoy the work.”
How Do You Spend Your Spare Time?
“I have a good collection of books of different genre and enjoy reading. In addition, I love driving during late evenings or on rainy weekend afternoons. Also, for the last two years I’ve been volunteering at the local childrens’ hospital on Saturday mornings.”
What Are Your Weaknesses?
“I used to be somewhat disorganized, but eventually this got me into trouble when I missed an appointment I hadn’t written down. It was clear that I had to learn how to be more organized. So, with the help of my senior colleague we worked out a system that I still use today. Not only do I stay on top of things, but I’m more efficient, too.”
The first thing you need to do prior to interviewing is assess yourself. This includes listing your strengths and weaknesses, your accomplishments and achievements, reviewing your strong and your weak subjects, and recording some of the key decisions you have made in your life.
You should then review your interests, the disappointments you’ve encountered, your work environment likes/dislikes, your business and personal values, your goals, needs, restrictions, and life style preferences.
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