Parul Institute of Management/PGDM

Sep 09

Frequently Asked Questions in Interviews (For summer/final placement) Take care about some basic points in an interview: Present facts and do not create stories. Be truthful and honest. Do not exaggerate. Do not sit silent for long. Respond to the questions and dont react. (think before you speak) Maintain healthy eye-contact and positive body language. Do not be afraid. After all, the worst that can happen is you wont get that job, the sky will not fall at your head! There are many fish in the sea

1. Tell me about yourself. Or Introduce yourself. Etc. This is an ice-breaker question and generally asked to put the interviewee at ease. Answer this question by beginning with your family/cultural/regional background in short educational background schooling, graduation, additional degrees work experience part time/full time, time of employment, what you learnt interests/hobbies Devote more time in explaining educational background and work experience. 2. Why do you want to join our company? This question is designed to check if you have done your homework before appearing for the interview. To answer this question in an effective way, do the following: Before the interview, gather as much details about the company as possible. Visit the website. Be aware of the following: turnover, no. of employees, scale of operations, product range, geographical presence of the company, share price. Prepare a list of points that you like about the company eg. Employee friendly initiatives, Corporate Social Responsibility, growth, research etc. Give reasons why you would like to work for that company and how as an employee you can contribute to that organization. 3. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Do not exaggerate your strengths and do not say that you have no weaknesses. Try to answer this question in a realistic way and always give the course of action that you are undertaking to overcome your weaknesses. For eg. My communication is good but my weakness is my vocabulary. For that Im working with my Prof. and referring to Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis. 4. Tell me about your achievements.

Prof. Manish Parihar

Parul Institute of Management/PGDM

Sep 09

Again, do not exaggerate and only tell about concrete and real achievement for which you have proof. (certificates etc.) Also, try to talk about things which show your leadership qualities, team-spirit, human skills, technical skills etc. 5. Why do you think MBA is necessary? Or Why you did MBA? Tell about your personal aspirations and expectations of doing an MBA course. You can justify your reasons by saying that an MBA equips people to generalize in a wide range of job opportunities rather than specialize in a very small technical domain. 6. Area of interest in MBA? Tell about your area where you would like to specialize: HR, Marketing, Finance or IB. Justify your answer based on secondary data (market demand of Marketing is always more, HR is required in every organization etc. etc.) and primary data (someone who has mentored you or is a role model or you have met some people who say that IB is best for you etc.) Also justify your inherent interest in that area and what extra work you have done to show interest in that area (eg. HR is my interest area and I work part time in an NGO to gain more people-skills) 7. What is your ambition/goal/vision/etc. in life? Where do you see 5 years from now? What is your dream in life? Etc. This question should be handled carefully. Do not give vague goals like I want to be the CEO of your company in next 10 years! Begin with your short term goals and which skills and knowledge you want to acquire during your early career. (eg. I want to gain exposure in Branding and Selling in my first couple of years in my job) Then go on with your long term goals and justify the course of action that you will take to reach there. If you do not have long term goals, you can say so honestly. No need to create fanciful goals to impress the other person. 8. How did you know about our company? Give the sources: newspaper, website, Ascent, placement office etc.

9. What are your interests and hobbies?

Prof. Manish Parihar

Parul Institute of Management/PGDM

Sep 09

This question helps to judge the personality type of the candidate. You should be frank about your interests and hobbies and should not create hobbies just to impress the interviewer. Give some details about your hobbies and provide background information. For example, if your hobby is collecting stamps, then give the scientific name of your hobby i.e. philately. Then describe your hobby since how many years have you been collecting them, total number of stamps in your collection, any rare stamps that you have etc. If your hobby is just listening to music, or reading books, then mention the genre of music and the type of books that you like to read eg. Jazz music, reading thriller novels etc. 10. Which is the last book that you read / last movie that you saw etc. ? Mention the name of the book or the movie that you saw. Be prepared to talk something about the author of the book/main character of the movie/awards given to the movie etc. 11. Tell me about your most memorable event? Try to recall an incident in your life that has motivated you Tell me about your one failure and what you learnt from it ? 11Q. Tell me about the challenge you faced and how did you overcome that ? 12Q. Who is your role model ? 14Q. If you want to change something in life ,what it would be ? 15Q. Define our company in one word or in one sentence ? OR Do you know something about our company ?

Prof. Manish Parihar