CSE: How to prepare for Interview ??

People often ask - where do we go from here?
“Well, it depends a great deal on where you want to go? In case you don’t know where to go, then it really doesn’t matter which direction you take!”

Hello to the all the  interview facing candidates!! The above quote is equally applicable to the interview process, we will see in succeeding paragraphs, as to how? This post is just to tell you some things about how to deal with interviews, especially if you are giving it for the first time. Well, Personal Interview is the last stage of the too long, 3 stages studded Civil Services Examination (CSE). So you just can't let the steam go off, before giving your best shot. It presently accounts for 300 marks which are sufficient enough to throw you in or out of the merit list or to put you from the bottom of the merit list to the top.

Well to start with, let me tell you that whatever they will be asking about you, will be based on what you've filled in the Detailed Application Form (DAF) or what you speak on the spot. There are just very few question that they may ask which essentially depends on what is happening around you at the national and international level. So you have to look out for three things:-

1. You should thoroughly work out on your DAF, including any minute detail that you might have filled in there, either knowingly or unknowingly. I am discussing about it in details little after.

2. You should have a significant grasp over what is happening at the national and international level especially on the politico-economic forum, though other things also do matter.

3. You have to be very attentive and careful as to what and how you are speaking in the final interview.

Having said that, let me come to the points individually. So talking about the DAF, many of us (esp those giving interview for the first time) don't have a very clear idea about it, so we end up giving many information in it which may creating problems for us at the time of personality test. The DAF has been filled and submitted, you can't do anything to change, so our focus should be on how to master it. My suggestion is to go through all the points mentioned in it, one by one and start forming your answers. This is applicable to the extracurricular section, your hobbies etc. Once you have gone through all the details that you have filled in there, it would be easy and comfortable for you to handle the preparation in general.

Simultaneously, one should also give adequate focus, to what's happening in the nation and also at the international level. This can be easily done by simply focusing on any one newspaper on a daily basis, no need to do any more like, reading 2-3 newspapers, magazines, or purchasing notes from the market.

Coming to third point, you should also practice, as to how you speak and how you should speak. Now this can be done in many ways; individually, in a group and by joining some mock interviews. I don't say that you need to attend mock interviews compulsarily, but the same helps in judging yourself in a little improved ambience, which may to a little degree have some resemblence with real interview like conditions. This also include to control your body expression and gestures, which are not favorable to an interview climate and cultivate some favorable ones. What are those gestures and how to control them, you will learn automatically during your preparation. So i am not mentioning all them here.

Finally, having confidence on yourself is the biggest, however hard you practice, try or learn things, if they don't click on the interview day, its gone! and gone for at least one year!! So keep your cool for the D-Day, be patient, calm and speak like a gentleman/lady. I know everybody gives same preachings about the final day, but trust me, this is what actually is the truth. Another important thing is that you don't need to be perfect and fearless. It is very common to be a personality with imperfections and nervousness on the D-Day. These are common things which happens to everybody, but many refuses to admit :) And the person taking interviews are humans like us, who have been taking interviews every year, almost every month and many interviews per day hence they don't have too much interest in you, as it is their routine work. So you needlessly don't put too much pressure on yourself so that you might buckle under it.
Remember that you can get selected without even giving a correct answer and you may not get selected even after giving all answers correct. What matters is how you give those answers??

“And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.”