Common MBA Entrance Interview Questions..Contd.

q. what are your strengths?

While it's easy to give just any correct answer, it's far more difficult to give a correct yet imressive one. Lots of interviewees end up giving answers like - "I'm very hard working". Now, it's all very good to be hard-working but at this level, hard-work is almost a basic requirement and even if one is not, everyone claims to be one. Hence, the answer comes across as unimaginative and doesn't really add to the interviewers knowledge about you. Please remember that there is approximately 20% chance of selection, so you need to weed out about 80% of the competition through your answers, and in that scenario this answer is not sufficiently good.

If you had indeed been hard-working you should have worked on this question already - the first step would have been to try and categorize your strength areas:

1. Professional strength areas (displayed in case of those already working or in case of students this would be what you think are your potential strengths)

- You may be very good at "analysis" - try and give an example to buttress your point. You may also explain how it can help you be a good manager.

- A great "team player". - you can cite about your success in your college festivals or events.

- Technical strengths

- Any other.

2. Personal strengths

- "I am thorough, meaning you give attention to details and then explain how it wil help you in your professional areas"

- punctual, diligent

- patient, persevering

- flexible, open

3. Other skills & strenghts

- Communication Skills

- Good listener ( this may be a sub-set of the above)

- Friendly / easy to approach / sociable / easy to get along with

The above is only an indicative list, and by no means exhaustive. Please find your own and add and subtract from the list - but spend some time forming your answer. Your friends and family may be a good help here.

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Next question we will deal with: "What are your weaknesses?". Keep watching this space.

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