Practice For Personal Interview

Every individual has to face personal interview during some or other stage of career progression. Various types of competitive examinations include the stage of Personal Interview as the last and important phase before selection of the candidate for the requisite job. The nomenclature ‘Personal Interview’ is actually a misnomer and ‘Personality Assessment Test’ is the correct nomenclature for this phase of recruitment for various jobs. Presently, a large number of competitive examination aspirants might be in a mood of relaxation after completion of their UPSC, MPSC, Banking examinations and must be waiting for their call letters for their Personality Assessment Tests. It is not the time to relax but to utilize it in a right direction to score maximum in the decisive interview stage of examination.

The personality test, which is also popularly known as interview test, is the overall assessment of a candidate’s personality and his suitability to the appointment under consideration. It is to be noted that Personality test is not focused towards assessing your knowledge, but assessment of your aptitude and attitude towards the job under consideration. The Interviewer would like to correlate- your past, your educational qualifications, your professional experience, your likings and dislikings, your domain knowledge – with that of the requirements of the post for which the interview is being conducted. So the generalised formula for preparation for any Interview test for competitive examinations include preparation of – candidate’s personal details, his knowledge about current affairs, details about job under consideration and overall body language and management skills of a candidate. The Personality test of a candidate may last for few minutes only, during which he has to prove to the Interview panel about his suitability for the post under consideration by answering the interview questions smartly. Usually, the Interview panel is cordial and provides suitable environment for the candidates to express themselves on various issues. The interview panel prefers to start the interaction with the candidate by asking questions related to his personal details including the information related to his name, family background, native city, state, educational qualification, present and previous jobs, local issues, hobbies and so on. The candidate must prepare these anticipated ‘known areas’ of interview thoroughly, on which questions can be asked by the Interview panel. Hence, the examination information sheet (DAF in case of UPSC exams or PIQ in case of SSB) which the candidate has submitted beforehand to the examining authority, including all the personal details, needs to be thoroughly prepared. Many times, apart from the educational qualification related questions, the Interview panel also asks questions related to your hobbies. You must be thoroughly updated with the finer nuances as well as the latest trends related to your hobbies. Majority of the aspirants mention playing cricket as one of their hobbies, but I remember one UPSC aspirant who had mentioned ‘cricket umpiring’ as his hobby. The unusual aspect of the hobby had not only attracted the attention of Interview panel but majority part of his interview was related to cricket umpiring. It is important to note here that the same candidate had stood second all over India in the UPSC Civil services examination. Apart from preparation of personal details, the candidate should also brush up his basic knowledge of graduation subjects. Any blunder in answering these basic questions may create a negative impression in the minds of interview panel.

Second area of focus during preparation for competitive examination is knowledge and analytical approach towards the current affairs. The candidate must be thorough and analytical while giving answers on these questions. Awareness about the various current events, the latest trends in your expertise areas, its analysis, remedial measures for the prevailing problems of the nation within the constitutional limits would be appreciated by the interview panel. Third area of preparation for the personality test is the preparation related to body language and mannerisms. A civil services aspirant must have an officer like quality including the gentleman officer like qualities- smartness, honesty, integrity and a presence of mind. These personality traits can be assessed by the panel, especially by the psychologist in the interview panel. The practice of self talk i.e. practicing in front of mirror and exposure to number of mock interviews can sharpen these qualities required for an effective presentation of your personality during Personality test.

The stage of Personality test is not aimed towards testing the knowledge of the candidate but is mainly focused on assessing the suitability of the candidate and his personality for the desired post. This final stage of a competitive examination can be easily tackled with purposeful efforts of a candidate focussed in a right direction. There cannot be a fixed formula for cracking the Interview stage of examination but certain personality traits including the honesty, smartness and originality of a candidate matters the most, in emerging as victorious in this final phase of competitive examinations.

(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)