Personal Interview in the SSB Interview is the most important assessment. This is because it gives you a chance to interact and present your personality in front of an officer. The interview can increase your chance of getting selected. The officer taking an interview is a high-rank officer and his opinion in your selection matters a lot. Given below are things you must know about the personal interview.
- The interview is a one on one talk with an officer of the board. The length of the interview may lie between 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- The length of the interview doesn’t determine your selection criteria, however, the quality of the interview does.
- The PI is not a test to check you GK, subject knowledge or anything else. It is just a way to check your honesty, awareness about yourself and surroundings.
- You are expected to be dressed in decent clothes. This doesn’t mean that you wear a three piece suit. Wear simple formal/semi-formal attire. However, if you called for interview directly after GT, you can proceed in your GT dress.
- In AFSB you are informed in well advance about the interview, in Navy and Army sometimes you are informed in well advance and sometimes you might be called immediately.
- You are not expected to know everything about everything, but still it is advisable for you to know the minimum level of current affairs. Hence keep yourself abreast with latest events and happenings.
- If you don’t know something it’s better to accept it in a polite manner rather than beat around the bush.
- If more than one officer is sitting in the interview it doesn’t have anything to do with you, it simply means that one of them is an under training Interviewing Officer.
- The interview is not necessarily taken by the president of the board. But the IO is always an officer of high rank and his rank is above the GTO and Psychologist.
- Interview questions are asked from the PIQ form only, some of you may totally disagree but if you focus on this fact you will understand that any question asked in the interview is somehow related to your PIQ form.
- The questions asked will cover your academic, personal and professional life (as covered in the PIQ). Some unusual questions might be asked related to GK, to check how you perform under stress and to check whether you are honest or not.
- The whole PI or for that matter SSB revolves around the fact that an individual is bound to reveal his/her genuine personality when put under the stress of some kind, like time-bound stress or mental stress.
- IO will always try to make you comfortable so that you speak your heart out, remember this and be cautious while speaking and try not to get over friendly. There is a distance which should be maintained between you and him (being elder and a serving officer of high rank), maintain this distance.
- Be polite but firm in your opinions.
- Ladies are advised to tie their hair properly, wear simple attire and avoid make-up.
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