Interviewing Tips: TISS

The document provides guidance to a student on preparing for the group discussion (GD) component of admissions interviews for postgraduate programs at TISS. It outlines important traits evaluated in GDs such as knowledge, communication skills, confidence, leadership, and goal orientation. It also lists behaviors to avoid like initiating discussions without knowledge, interrupting others, shouting or dominating, showing off, and negative body language. Overall, the document advises focusing on clear communication, active listening, teamwork, and displaying self-assurance during the GD.

Uploaded by

Munish Dogra

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

44 views3 pages

Interviewing Tips: TISS

Uploaded by

Munish Dogra

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 3

c

c c
Advertisement

Prof. R.S.S. Mani - 11/21/2008

Respected Sir,
Sir I am a final year student of political Science from DU,I am preparing for MSW and
culture and media studies for TISS.Sir I am confused for its GD and PI section,I will be
Thankful if you provide me help for further preparation.

thanking you

A GD is held to identify certain traits that companies and institutes like to see in their
employees or students. Let's take a look at the traits which the evaluators look out for in a
candidate during the GD.

~ Knowledge: Whatever you do in a GD, your knowledge about the subject can't be replaced
by anything else. You are required to talk in a GD but inputs that don't contain any
substantial value will not help in any way. Be a voracious reader to increase your knowledge
on various subjects. Newspapers, TV, magazines, news portals etc are great sources of
knowledge.

~ Alertness and presence of mind: In a GD you are required to carefully listen to the other
person's thoughts and keep an argument, example or a supportive statement, fact, example
ready to participate in the discussion. Here comes into picture your alertness and ability to
think and act immediately. As you participate in a GD, make sure that you sit with an
attentive mind and keep taking down the relevant points put forward by others.

7 ways to initiate a B-school group discussion

~ Communication: You may have a lot of good points to put across but if you can't
communicate them clearly, you won't stand a chance when it comes to impressing the
evaluators. Practice communicating in a clear and effective way with your friends, family or
study group.
~ Confidence: Your self confidence adds a lot of value to your candidature. Look at every
group member as you speak, avoid too much hand movement and looking at evaluators.

~ Leadership and team skills: Your participation in a GD clearly establishes not only your
leadership skills but also your capability to work in a team. To meet the objectives, a good
leader has to be a team player.

~ Goal orientation: Since so many people participate in a GD, the chances of the discussion
moving away from the subject are high. Your focus on the goal can get you some extra
points.

Now, as you are being evaluated for the above discussed traits, you must avoid things that
can work to your disadvantage and might cost you the selection. Here are some things that
you must avoid doing as a GD participant:

~ Initiating the discussion without proper subject knowledge

Although initiating the discussion helps you get the immediate attention of the evaluators,
sharing irrelevant details just for teh sake of talking can work to your disadvantage. Start first
only if you know the subject well otherwise wait for others to start and get a feel of the
subject before entering into the discussion.

~ Snatching another's chance to speak

Give your group members a chance to speak. Talking more won't get you through the GD. In
fact it will give the evaluators a feeling that you are not a team player. Making short and
relevant contributions of 20-30 seconds 3-4 times in the discussion is enough.

Group discussions: Myths demystified

~ Interrupting others

Let the other person finish his comment before you speak. Interrupting someone is counted as
a negative trait. Remember, it is a discussion not a debate. Don't jump at the conclusions.
Listen carefully to the other person before putting your point across.

~ Dialogue
In a GD you are expected to communicate with all the members of the group. Do not keep
looking at one person while talking. Establish eye contact with all the members of the group.
It is a many-on-many discussion not one-on-one.

~ Shouting or dominating
Keep you emotions in check. Do not try to dominate the others or let your emotions rule you.
Sometimes it might happen that a group member might say something that hurts your feelings
such as a comment on your race or religion, make sure that you do not get into an argument.
Your focus should be to effectively meet the goals of GD topic.

'I nailed my IIM group discussion & interview!'

~ Showing off
You have to put across your knowledge on the subject during the GD but you have to be very
careful about the thin demarcation between showing off and knowledge sharing. For eg,
using statistics and facts during the GD is a good thing to do but you must not overdo it
enough to nauseate the group members.

~ Low self confidence or insecurities

As we have seen earlier, one of the traits evaluated during a GD is your self confidence. Do
not hesitate to speak confidently, even if you might be short of ideas or knowledge on the
subject. Listen to others and put across your thoughts in a clear and audible voice. Make sure
that you make eye contact with all the group members.

~ Slang and negative gestures

GD is a formal discussion. Avoid informal words and negative gestures. For eg avoid words
like gonna, wanna, ya etc. Similarly avoid gestures like pointing fingers, tapping the desk
with the pen.

If you ensure that you do not commit these mistakes during the GD, you will not have to
worry too much about the negative marks and your chances of getting through it also become
much brighter.

U may visit our website www.successfulmanagers.com and visit the career helpline section
for complete guidance on preparation for the personal interview

BEST WISHES

Prof R S S Mani V