Most of the recruitment procedures involve personal interview or Group Discussion (GD) as one of the essential stages of selection process. Apart from knowledge, the communication skills and convincing capabilities of a candidate plays an important role in selection, especially in jobs involving public interaction or team activities. The Group Discussion stage is gaining popularity amongst the recruiters as an effective selection tool for various types of appointments in public as well as private sector. Group discussion is a systematic and purposeful communication process characterized by the formal and structured exchange of views on a particular topic, issue, problem or a situation for developing the information and understanding, which is essential for a proper decision making or problem solving purpose. It involves a lot of Group Dynamics and involves exchange of ideas and views amongst the participants in a systematic, structured and a time bound manner.

Tricks for GD-

Group Discussion is not essentially, the test of expert knowledge or technical expertise of a candidate, but it is the test of the suitability of the candidate to work as a team member towards attaining the common organisational goals. To leave an impact on the GD panel members, the candidate should concentrate on five major areas. Firstly, the candidate must try to emerge as a leader of the group by taking an initiative in the discussion and putting the discussion on right track. As soon as the time for GD starts, the candidate should initiate the discussion by a proper salutation to other participants of the group by saying – ‘Good morning friends, as the topic for Group Discussion is xyz, I think we should discuss the topic in terms of following points.’ The candidate should start the Group Discussion by introducing the topic in a simplified manner but in the right context, to other members of the group and should set the direction of the Group Discussion.

By taking an initiative in the discussion and by introducing the topic in correct context, the candidate would gain an advantage to emerge as a leader of the group. Throughout the discussion, the candidate should make it sure that the discussion of the group remains relevant to the topic and other members are also being given an opportunity to put their views in the ongoing discussion. This quality of initiative, coordination and accommodating others’ views in the discussion would help him to emerge as a leader in the Group Discussion. Even if the candidate doesn’t get a chance to initiate the discussion because of chaotic set up or any other reason, he can still emerge as the leader of the group by putting right point at right time during the discussion and helping to keep the discussion in right direction. Secondly, the candidate should always try to be the part of discussion either by contributing relevant points to the discussion or by being a good and enthusiastic listener. The relevance to the discussion is very much important as the discussion could lose the focus from original topic and the candidate must utilize this opportunity to bring back the discussion to the original topic.

Thirdly, the candidate must be accommodation to other candidates’ views in the Group Discussion. It is not desirable that all the points in the discussion are being discussed by only few of the members of the group and the candidate must have the magnanimity to listen to others’ views also and should try to motivate others to be the part of the discussion. Fourthly, the candidate must focus on developing effective communication skills in terms of command over English language, improving on body language aspects and focusing on interpersonal communication. Lastly, the most important thing which matters in Group Discussion is the ultimate impact left over by the candidate on the group, by way of his contribution towards Group Discussion. The ultimate impact of candidate on the Group Discussion is based on the overall personality of the candidate, his confidence, effective communication skills and his usefulness to the group for coming to the final conclusion of the issue given for the Group Discussion.

Sometimes in a cut throat competition of Group Discussion, there is a risk of GD (Group Discussion) getting converted into a CD (Chaotic Discussion)! One should be careful to be not part of that chaos but still try to streamline the efforts of Group towards discussion of main topic. In case of unfamiliar topic for GD, one can assume the receptive role in the initial stages of GD to various comments made by other participants and then can put the right responses to other candidates’ views at right stage of GD. Please remember that the positive attitude and confidence of the candidate in a group are the essential qualities to be successful in any type of Group Discussion.

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad. For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)