Discussing Your Strengths and
Weaknesses
in the CAT Personal
Interview
You should stop worrying about the procedure
being too tough and being more of a psychoanalysis test. The
IIM Personal Interview only aims to
determine the following key factors:
1) Are your goals in line with what the
institute can offer:
What are your goals? This
is the most important question you can ask yourself. Your
decision to do an MBA should be a
natural progression in your scheme of things. So if you want to
be finance professional, list down the different niches of
finance that you feel interested in. Remember you don't have to
be 100 per cent specific about your goals. The IIM panel is wise enough to know that you are not
truly sure of exactly what you want to do right out of college
and so make at least a list of 3 things that you feel you find
interesting and want to work towards learning in your
MBA.
2) How do your
academics/technical skills complement your
goals:
If you are an engineer you can stress upon your
quantitative approach towards your work and how you find finance
an interesting choice given your love for maths.
If you are from an commerce background you can stress upon your
knowledge of accountancy and its relevance in the field of
investment analysis, private equity and merchant banking and how
you intend to add to your knowledge regarding the specifics of
these fields through your MBA.
3) How to talk about your work
experiences:
The IIM panel will
stress most upon what you have done in your work experience and
how you intend to utilize that towards furthering your career
goals. Your ideal preparation for the Personal Interview should
be to answer the following questions:
The relevance of your job in the
business process of the company: You must understand
which part of the Strategic Business Unit your work fell under
and exactly what your role was towards achieving the goals of the
Strategic Business Unit.
Skill sets acquired over the process of
your work in the organization: What kind of specific
skills did you acquire, specifically in marketing, finance,
strategy etc.
What kind of products/services you sold, and
what was the turnover, profitability, growth rates over the years
that you were working for the organization.
What was the competition like, who were the
industry leaders and how did you recognize the industry
leaders.
You should be able to specify the defining criteria behind the
peer competition. One way of doing this is to do a SWOT analysis of the competition. Identify the
major strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis the
competition.
Finally have you won any awards, commendations,
business achievements that have been worthy of merit and
recognition. Having awards makes it all the more easier for you
to gain credibility as a highly capable employee.
How To Highlight Your Strengths And
Make Up For Your Weaknesses
State your Strengths: The key
to a successful interview is to clearly state your strengths and
how you use such strengths.
For example suppose one of your key strength is completing tasks
within tight deadlines. Suppose it was organizing an inter
college/school debate that was to begin in 1 week notice. You
coulds state, "Whenever a task is allotted to me, I make it a
point to see it through with completion, within the given time
frame with an intent to over deliver. Given the magnitude of the
task, I achieve this by having a clear cut plan of short term
goals toward achievement of task at hand, selection of the right
team members if necessary, allocation of tasks, dynamic follow
up, and constant review of goals achieved".
Impact on Others: It is
essential to show how you view your actions upon others. You
could outline how you select your team members based on their
strengths and weaknesses.
You could state, "I believe in cohesive teamwork, I first clearly
outline the breakup of the tasks to be achieved, I will then
request individual members to state which tasks they are best
able to perform based on their own strengths, and create groups
for individual tasks and finally clearly outline the chain of
reporting of task completed and passing on the finished task to
the next group.
Refinement and
Self-Development: Here is where you convince the
interview panel your ability to achieve deadlines.
You can state, "I believe in a system of strong follow up with
team members and I achieve this through seeking constant advice
from my team members, I'll constantly ask where my teams need
more active help from me and where they can handle the task
themselves. By dividing the overall goal into individual targets,
I can immediately determine where things are going slow or
fast."
These strategies can be applied to any strength
to formulate a well thought out reply. You can see form the
replies above that you come across as well organized, active and
a good team player. By examining other strengths that you may
possess you could formulate a good plan for marketing yourself in
the manner outlined above.
Reference: Marketing Yourself, How to Ace the IIM Personal Interview
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