How To Crack The Personal Interview Of Pgdm Colleges

By Author: Anish
Total Articles: 18
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative impacts on various industries. The management field specifically benefited from it as companies that have started working virtually, have a high demand for people with seasoned managerial skills. As a result, various institutes are looking to equip more professionals with the required expertise through their PGDM programs. Now, one cannot just get into a top-quality PGDM institute with only an entrance exam. There is a process to be followed and going through a personal interview is one of the important steps.

Securing a personal interview at the best PGDM college still might be an easy task, but many struggle with successfully clearing it. In today’s competitive environment, the general acceptance rate at the top PGDM institutes like Welingkar Institute of Management is only around 10 to 20%. This means that only one or a maximum of two students out of 10 who apply for a PGDM program are selected. Their stringent selection criteria helps them filter out the candidates, in order to recruit the cream of the crop for their institute. They have to do this as their ...
... seats are limited and compromising on the quality of their PGDM program is not an option.

According to a report from AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), there are more than 3000 institutes in India offering MBA/PGDM programs in India. The 50 top institutes among them have only 100 to 150 seats in them on average for every batch. This shows that the competition is super high to get a PGDM admission, but if you do your homework regarding the institute right, passing the personal interview and getting admission should be a breeze. Remember, the personal interview for PGDM admission is the last stage of the selection process and usually the most critical one. This blog post will act as a complete guide to help you crack your personal interview at the best PGDM colleges in and around the country.

Before we dive into the actual interview questions, you must understand two things:
1. What the interviewer is actually looking for
2. The kind of attitude/mindset you need

What the interviewer is actually looking for?
The root cause of all bad experiences in our life can often be attributed to ineffective communication. Think about it, if you can communicate properly with the other person (in this case it is the interviewer), both of you will enjoy each other’s company. So, to do that, you must know what the interviewer is actually looking for in the potential student. We have mentioned a few points you can refer to.

1. The interviewer intends to assess the personality traits of the candidate as this cannot be judged from their PGDM admission entrance exam tests. They generally look for students having skills like leadership, team management, empathy, proactiveness, strong observation skills, and more. As you can tell, these are the soft skills that a good management professional or an entrepreneur possesses.
2. They will check whether the candidate is fit for the PGDM program at their institute. Yes! This may sound different as until now, maybe we were never qualified by the education authorities based on our personality to get admission into their institute. But, here they are picky in selecting the candidates because in the best PGDM colleges, especially like WeSchool they want each and every student to give their 100% during and after their graduation. Now, for this, they may ask a few questions like Why are you a good fit for our institute? Or What value will you add to your batchmates if you get selected? Your approach to answering these questions is explained later in this article.
3. The panelist of 2 to 5 people may ask you about the current affairs in the PGDM specialization that you have applied for. They do this to check your proactive behavior and your drive or interest in the chosen field. Also, the concepts or learnings from your graduation or work experience should be at the tip of your tongue. It leaves a good impression among the interviewees as eventually, it will help the institute to easily mould you into a top-notch management professional.
4. A well-rounded professional doesn’t only have expertise or interest in one particular field but also expands their repertoire by pursuing other passions and aspirations. This is exactly why interviewers may ask you about your interests, or ambitions, in order to understand you better as an individual. The key here is to avoid unwanted jargon and be honest with your answers. Based on your responses, they might even cross-question by giving you a particular situation and ask your opinion on it. Your answer would indicate how good a leader you can be in the future.

The correct mindset before going for the interview.
Walt Disney said, “It’s kind of fun to do the most difficult tasks.” Yes, this is quite evident from his life story and it still continues to inspire everyone. This is what we call a Growth Mindset. Whatever you do and say in your life starts as a result of your unique thought process. So, having the right mindset when you are in an interview will help you answer the questions naturally.

But, what is the correct mindset anyway? Well, the number one quality you must have is honesty. The interviewers usually cross-question on your answers to tricky questions like “Why this PGDM program? “Why this institute?” During this time, be prepared and honestly answer them to justify whatever you think. It will work in your favor. Along with this being confident also helps. Your answer might be wrong, but your opinion on it should be given with utmost confidence. Generally, they are testing your thought process and presence of mind during the interview. The way you answer a question logically and work around things that you don’t know about will help you stand out from the crowd.

Not everyone is capable of doing this but you should be able to drive the discussion in your desired direction by giving explanations to the previous questions. Also, sometimes you may disagree with the panel but during these times it is necessary to stay calm and politely convince them about the correctness of the information. A positive body language never hurts anyone. Even you wouldn’t feel right when someone constantly disagrees with you, right? So, be empathetic, acknowledge them for their opinion but also put forward your perspective with confidence and not arrogance.

Most important questions and your approach towards them.
Coming to your favorite part. We believe instead of giving you the exact answer for each of these important questions, it would be a better idea to give you an approach to answer them. Not everyone will have the same response and also it will sound robotic or inauthentic. So, here we go:

• Why do you want to do a PGDM?
The interviewer wants to make sure that your decision of doing a PGDM program has not come out of following the herd but was an informed and rational decision. Tell them about what is your aim for the career and how the knowledge and skills imparted after the PGDM admission will help you in achieving it. You could also tell them that what excites you about this career other than the financial gains. For this, you will have to first introspect and have a rough outline in your mind.

• What value will you add to your batch? Why our B-school?
This question aims to see how well you can sell yourself as a PGDM student at their institute. If you think about it, they need someone who can network well with not only their batchmates but anyone they want to. Now, you just have to find a way to convey this to them. Also, share how you have a helping nature or if you are hoping to launch an entrepreneurial venture right during college with one of your colleagues. The more detailed you can get on your value addition the better it would sound to the panel.

• Why did you choose this specific field of study?
This question might seem simple but many people don’t know what to answer because they themselves are unaware of their choice. Maybe because they selected that specialization because they’re simply following a trend and have no actual interest in it. But, if you know what you are getting into, then you can simply answer what motivated you to choose this field. It can be a situation you faced in your life or you were influenced by a leader in that field. Talk about what you have previously done in that area, maybe as a side hustle, or even a job. Describe the skills you learned during that time and the importance of this field in a professional environment according to you. This should be more than enough to convince the interviewer about your choice of study.

• How is your remote work experience?
As we all know, the future calls for remote work. So, institutes will naturally want to have a student who is more inclined towards it or at least has experience working virtually. You can talk about how you organize yourself in this #workfromhome situation, your virtual communication skills, and overall how comfortable you are with this. Don’t worry if you prefer working from the office, you could say that but be ready to adapt if the situation arises.

• Do you plan to start an entrepreneurial venture?
Your obvious answer to his question would be yes! But, it’s ok if it is otherwise. It is not a bad thing to opt for a job and contribute to the growth of a company. In reality, you may not have your own business but since you are handling other people’s business, you are an intrapreneur. It doesn’t matter if it’s only a small department or you are the CEO of the company. At the end of the day, a leader is anyone who inspires others and takes everyone forward indirectly benefiting the company.

• How do you spend your spare time?
This question is asked just to know a bit more about your personality. The answer to this can be anything about your hobbies. It can be reading books, hiking, or cooking. Just make sure to talk about your productive hobbies and most importantly give an example of what you did about it in the past. It is so vital to share what you achieved with this activity because it makes the answer sound more authentic rather than just some random hobbies taken from the internet.

In the end, don’t forget to smile and maintain positive body language. Every institute wants a student who has all the above qualities mentioned in this article. We hope you found answers to all your questions regarding how to crack the personal interview of the best PGDM colleges. If you are thinking about getting a PGDM, Bangalore’s WeSchool is your one-stop destination for all the various top-quality PGDM specializations one can aim for. Click here to know more about this: https://www.welingkar.org/programmes/full-time-programme/bengaluru/pgdm

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