An Encounter with Chetan Bhagat

The interactive event was held by Bengal Institute of Business Studies (BIBS) Recently on 26th March, the swashbuckling IIT-IIM grad turned banker turned author was there in our campus. Yes my dear friends you guessed it right, none other than Mr. Chetan Pied Piper Bhagat shared the insights of cracking an interview. He started the talk with a lighter note when he shared some graphs which showed why it is better to marry a Non-Punjabi girl rather than a Punjabi girl. The graphs were playing with variables such as weight, shopping expenses, books read etc. Really it transformed the silent serious kind of audience into a giggling mode.

Really, I recalled the scene of 3 Idiots ( a flim which was based on 5 point someone) where Sharman Joshi aka Raju Rastogi attends an interview in a wheelchair, when, Chetan Bhagat, author of Five Point Someone and 3 other novels, gave a googly to the young audience that sought to know what to reply if an interviewer asked about poor academic performance. According to him we should not get defensive rather should acknowledge the mistake. Our body language plays a very pivotal role. A sample answer may be like, "Sir, while I do admit my marks could have been much better and I don't really have a specific reason, all I can say is these marks are at a time when I was twenty years old, and perhaps I didn't have my priorities in life right. I do feel far more responsible now and given a chance will put in my best to any job I undertake." We should never fake that due to ill health and xyz reasons we could not secure satisfactory marks.

Moving ahead with the discussion, he threw a question open to the audience; tell me something about yourself, a question which is more often asked in an interview. Never ever commit the mistake of bringing family background in this question, they have asked about you such that they can know about your personality, it has nothing to do with your father, mother or number of brothers and sisters you have. You can include about yourself, qualification and a bit about your hobby. If you answer this question correctly then you will be on the driving seat and can guide the interview in which ever way you want, which is really going to be a boon and advantageous in a hundred ways.

Bombarding with the next question and I must tell you that it was a perfect Yorker and most of the Kolkata audience were bowled. "Have you read the news lately". Ahhhhhh how many people do actually take interest in the latest scams, budget etc. Very few indeed. News paper reading is really a great habit which we all should imbibe from our early days. But what to do when we are in a soup and we desperately wants to come out of it. Abracadabra. Our CB has an answer to this as well, a sample answer could be like "Sir I feel all these scams points to one thing - we don't have a strong system to check people in power. I'm sure I'll be able to comment further about the issue after going through the information once."

And the most important question that is served on our platter at the end of the show is "Do you have any questions?". Friends, always grab the opportunity to ask some questions about the company, your job role, targets etc to show your eagerness. Never ever ask I'm selected or not as it's the companies duty to tell you if you are selected. Asking no questions at all is a negative sign. Be formally dressed and all the best for your future endeavors.

Really it was a pleasure interacting with the maestro.