Getting admission in top B-schools in India is no easy feat for young aspirants who are applying for admission to various business colleges these days. Every B-school nowadays has its own predefined (yet elaborated and extensive) selection process, which primarily necessitates the applicants to crack the entrance examination followed by personal admission interview. While a written entrance test is designed typically to evaluate the academic abilities of the aspirants, a personal interview (PI) tries to push their attributes beyond and judge their personality, confidence and reaction to a particular situation and so on. Also, there are many top Business Management Schools that conduct Group Discussion (GD), Group Exercise or Case Discussion in the final stages of their selection process along with PI.
For many aspirants, cracking the college admission interview at top B-schools becomes a big obstacle and sometimes, they end up making mistakes with serious repercussions. While conducting PI, the senior admission counsellor at School of Business Studies, Sharda University, herself encountered many aspirants making the common mistakes and here are some quick tips directly from her desk that each candidate must try to avoid during the interview. Let’s delve into the key points one should keep in mind when sitting for a college interview.
Understand the Purpose
It is very necessary for the candidates to understand the purpose of an interview. With hundreds of thousands of students applying for a seat in B-school, one needs to beat the tough competition and be present in the interview in an impressive way that an interviewer can sense the qualities besides the attributes that your college application form is reflecting. Along with excellent grades and test scores, an aspirant has to prove that s/he is a “perfect fit” for the college. At the time of the interview, the aspirants should flaunt their willingness, potential and readiness to work hard in front of an interviewer.
Do Some Research
Most aspirants neglect the significance of research work about the college prior to an interview session and get themselves caught in an ignominious circumstance. Nowadays, nearly every business college has a website with all the necessary information available there. Go to the website and know the college in a better way.
Watch Your Body Language
A lot of candidates get rejected in the interview just because of bad body language. One of the most common mistakes that candidates make: placing hands on the table inappropriately. Placing your hands at a slight angle is a good strategy, but taking up more than half the table space is not a good way. This way, you’re abruptly showing dominant postures, which might bring some serious troubles for you. Also, you should avoid shaking legs constantly, biting nails and playing with your hair.
Always remember, an interviewer just desires to know your strengths. So, try to share your accomplishments and be honest about yourself. Discuss your extracurricular activities and list out your achievements. Be careful that you’re showcasing the right side of your candidature to the interviewer and come across as a confident (and valuable) student during the one-on-one interaction. Don’t forget the whole point of the interview, which is to highlight aspects of yourself which are not mentioned in your mark-sheet. All the Best!
