” Pain is the best teacher in this world as it corrects, educates and disciplines the soul. It helps a person to develop will power, endurance and patience.”
Swami Vivekananda
Although, a Personal Interview has been termed as highly subjective method of assessing human performance and behaviour, Services Selection Board still considers this method as a necessary evil to assess the personality of a SSB aspirant. An interview, unlike the Psychological tests and the Outdoor tasks performed in the presence of GTO, provides a wide scope to the interviewing Officer to have a close look at the candidate. It also helps him to know about the candidate’s ability to speak and put across his/her ideas clearly, logically, without the interference of others.
Many times, what creates a little space for subjectivity in a personal Interview is the unique ways in which Interviewing Officers ask questions to the candidates. Although the main framework remains same, every individual adds his own touch to some portion of an interview and develops his/her own plan of action during an Interview. For the NCC cadets who appear for the NCC entry, there can be additional questions which an Interviewing Officer can ask in addition to the questions based on PIQ, academic performance, social qualities and life of a cadet and his/her knowledge of self. More about the general framework of a PI at SSB in another blog. In this blog we concentrate on what questions an NCC cadet can prepare and expect to be asked in PI at SSB.
The questions revolving around NCC will be aimed not just to judge one’s basic intelligence, but also to judge the behavioural traits required to be an OFFICER, i.e. the OLQs. They will tell the Interviewing Officer more about one’s determination, will and ability to perform and achieve under stressful conditions and enjoy life as it comes. If you have enjoyed each and every moment you wore the NCC uniform and performed/ excelled as a Cadet, you will be very easily able to answer these questions and show the best side of your personality: the REAL YOU. Except for remembering the names of the places, people, some numbers and ranks, you don’t have to memorise anything else.
Let’s have a look:
- Factual Information about NCC: MOTTO, name of the cadet’s wing, division, appointments, strength of cadets and location
- Rank held, duties performed by the cadet in the three years of training
- Activities performed during a typical weekly parade at NCC Hqs
- Number of camps attended by the cadet, brief description of activities done during a typical day at an NCC camp
- What type of difficulties were faced by NCC cadets during a camp/ normal training in the Headquarters
- What steps were taken to overcome these difficulties
- What are the prerequisites to pass B/C certificate examination?
- Views on Relevance of NCC training for youth of India and whether is should be made compulsory for al students ?
- What steps can be taken to improve and enhance the impact of NCC training on youth of India?
- Situation Reactions related to NCC training/ Camp: You have been chosen as the leader of your college’s NCC contingent which is to take part in the Republic Day Parade. What would you do to ensure your contingent is adjudged the best; Suppose you are in charge of the night patrol duties and encounter a shadow lurking mysteriously behind the Cook House; During a routine range firing exercise you notice 02 rounds of live ammunition are not accounted for…. and so on.
One of the methods that the interviewer uses (in order to prompt a candidate to show his real reaction)is to become silent suddenly while the interview is going on. Now, a candidate might have prepared for answering a lot of questions, but may be this: the silence s/he is not prepared for. What does one do, in such situations? Does one continue answering the previous question or does one gape at the interviewing officer?
The best response to silence is SILENCE. A self-confident, comfortable candidate will complete the previous answer and then sit still, smile and wait for the interviewer to re-open the conversation. Follow the lead given by the interviewer and one may not talk oneself out of contention.
Keep reading to know more about the right body language to acquire for the Personal interview at ssb in my next blog.
