How to crack GD-PI for Hotel Management admission

For admission to the hotel Management institutes which conduct GD/PI as part of their admission process, candidates often find this round more difficult than written examinations. This is also because lack of preparedness on part of candidates as they do not need to appear for GD/PI in most of the top hotel management exams like NCHM JEE.  However, hotel management institutes like IHM Aurangabad have integrated GD-PI in their selection process for admission to their hotel management programmes.

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Careers360 here brings in-depth insight on GD-PI from Mr. Sourabh Krishna, Assistant Professor for Tourism and Hospitality at IHM-A Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces. Mr. Krishna shares key components of GD-PI preparation and also reflects on GDPI round of IHM Aurangabad Selection Procedure.  In this article, Sourabh Krishna also offers tips to aspirants on how to ace the group discussion and personal interview, which are important stages of IHM Aurangabad Selection Procedure.

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Prof Krishna suggests that a candidate needs to have deep understanding for open or closed ended replies during interview.  This, according to him, is essential for making communication impactful.

The admission panel basically looks into candidate's integrity of character, communication skills and passion towards learning the programme. He advises candidate to be thorough with their basic introduction. In introduction, some basic details should be communicated like candidate’s family background, hobbies and passions of a candidate, marks and percentage of a candidate in class 10 and 10+2, and other achievements.

A candidate must avoid lying during interviews as it can hamper their chance if they are caught or lose confidence during cross-questioning.  So, the information conveyed in the introduction part of candidate has to be well thought as ancillary questions are framed from it.

The panel members generally ask the below listed questions to gauge candidate’s rationales for choosing their career in hospitality sector and their bend of mind for the sector. A logical and honest reply from candidate always helps in the selection.

5 questions you must prepare for Interview:

• Reasons for choosing a career in hospitality domain
• Why not other field?
• What do you expect to gain from the course?
• How do you plan to utilize the course as a foundation for your dream career?
• What do you aspire to become after 10 years?

There is always a possibility that a candidate will be asked about his/her Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT). Prof Sourabh Krishna advises candidate to avoid highlighting his/her weakness. It should be mentioned in a positive way, by stressing efforts taken into practice to overcome and win the weakness. Besides, this candidate can intelligently reflect how his/her weakness acts as a stimulator to perform better from others.

The interview round is not solely for evaluating candidate’s communication skill. The secondary importance attached with the round is to ascertain the knowledge base of a candidate in current affairs and other socio-economic topics.

Sourabh Krishna suggests candidates to stay updated with at least 6 months old national and international news. Gain knowledge on the causes, advantages/disadvantage, and consequences of political news and events.

A candidate being asked with a topic with which he/she not equipped with latest updates, in such case a general summary of the asked topic by candidate will fetch decent marks.  The interview can be lenient if holistic information is not presented as they also understand that a person cannot be an expert on every topic.

For Group Discussion

The second stage evaluates candidate’s overall personality like how better a candidate’s communication skill is over other. It also evaluates candidates thought process about a particular issue and their overall thinking pattern, and pro-activeness.

 Expected Topics for GD?

Candidates are advised to be updated with current affairs and latest happening of India and outside the country. In Group Discussions, Sourabh Krishna shares, generally preference is given to the topics related to current happenings. He suggests a sample list of topics below for GD rounds:

• Effectiveness of Narendar Modi’s social media campaign for his political success
• Political turmoil between Israel and Gaza
• Terrorism
• MH17 Plane Crash
• Challenges and growth opportunities in hospitality sector

Tips for Last Moment

Candidate with positive attitude are hard to be rejected. So, enter the interview hall with confidence, greet the interview panel with a sweet tone, and respond to the questions with an element of optimism.

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