Common Questions For MBA Personal Interview (PI) Round

Personal Interview (PI) is the last round of selection process where interaction is done on one-to-one basis between the candidate and the interviewer. The Personal interview shape, duration and type of questions may be different in accordance with the nature of the PI round. The Personal Interview (PI) round is the test of your verbal communication skill, presence of mind and how do you present your views and knowledge skillfully to convince the experts who are interviewing you.

In the admission process for various MBA courses, the PI round holds its special position, as it is conducted before offering you admission in a course. Here are some general tips and some common questions asked during the Personal Interview (PI) round:

Personal Interview (PI) Tips-

• Don’t start your introduction with ‘Myself (your name). Instead use ‘My name is (your name).
• When asked about you; tell about yourself cutting the unnecessary information. For example; tell your educational background, any important achievement, you can tell about your family (father, mother and siblings) but not the extended family.
• When asked about hobbies; don’t say ‘meeting new people’ or ‘making friends’.
• If you don’t answer to any question, just say you don’t know may be expressing the interest of looking it later. But, don’t say I have read this in second semester and don’t remember.

Personal Interview (PI) Format for MBA Programme

Three-four experts are appointed as panelists who throw penetrating questions to you on your academics, work experience, current affairs, social issues, about your personality, your native place, on technical issues related to your academics and work place in the personal interview round.

On an average, the duration of a personal interview is around 10 to 20 minutes. In case some interesting and knowledge bearing discussion into a topic or issue starts deeply, it can go beyond 25-30 minutes. Apart from the one to one personal interaction session, the PI round may also include some other components including Group Exercise, Writing Test, Extempore speech, psychometric tests among others.

Importance of Personal Interview (PI) Round

Personal Interview (PI) is the most important part of your final selection process. It carries high weightage in final selection process in a range from 30 to 50 percent. Immediately after completion of your written exam, it is necessary to improve your personal interview skills and do away with any type of hesitation that you may face during personal interview round. If you do not get a required minimum score in personal interview, you will not be considered for final selection even if you have scored very high score in your written test.