Career Companion GD TIPS

8/8/2019 Career Companion GD TIPS

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Gr oup Discussion TIPS

A GD is a methodology used by an or ganization to gauge whether the candidate has cer tain per sonality

tr aits and/or sk ills that it desir es in its member s. In this methodology, all shor t-listed candidates ar e

divided into groups of 8-12 students. Each group is given a topic or a situation. The group is allowed a

f ew minutes to think a bout the same, and then ask ed to discuss it among themselves f or 15-20 minutes,

while a panel of judges obser ves and analyzes the proceedings.

The topic could be anything r anging f rom curr ent events to some political issues, f rom social issues to

some Bollywood f lick .

The Topics can be categor ized in f ollowing br oad level categor ies:

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Contem por ar y Issues

Social Issues

Management Issues

Politics-r elated

Gener al Inter est

S por ts-r elated

Cr eative Topics

Economics / Business-r elated Topics

Education-r elated

What is the em ployer look ing f or?

Companies conduct gr oup discussion af ter the wr itten test so as to check on your inter active sk ills andhow good you ar e at communicating with other people. The GD is to check how you behave, par tici pate

and contr i bute in a gr oup, how much impor tance do you give to the group ob jective as well as your own,

how well do you listen to view points of other s and how o pen-minded ar e you in acce pting views

contr ar y to your own. The as pects which mak e up a GD ar e verbal communication, non-verbal behavior ,

and conf or mation to norms, decision-mak ing a bility and coo per ation. You should tr y to be as true as

possi ble to these as pects.

O pening a GD:

For many people, being the f ir st per son to talk in a GD is imperative. They f eel that it will give them

brownie points and that they will be per ceived as Initiator s. Nothing can be mor e f oolish if someone

without a solid plan in place attem pts to star t the GD. He/She will def initely be the f ir st one to be

booted out if the content of the O pening sentences is pathetic.




In case you ar e not too sur e a bout the topic or ar e not good in opening a GD, WAIT f or someone to star t.

Normally, opening a GD involves these ver y impor tant things:

1. Def ine the topic of the GD if ther e is a need to def ine it f or others (clar ity)

2. Set boundar ies/ parameter s that you may f eel will hel p the GD to be discussed without ambiguity.

3. In case you have a stor y/ incident/ ex per ience f or the topic, then star t with that.

4. Cr eative GD will be star ted with your interpr etation and the suppor ting thought process f or the

interpr etation.

Now let us tak e a f ew examples and under stand what is supposed to be done, and what is to be

avoided:

Case 1:

TOPIC - "R ank the 10 most Signif icant things that ha p pened in India in the last centur y"

O pener 's ti ps -

1. Star t by def ining the k ey ter ms, which in this case ar e - Signif icant and Last centur y. Def ining these

two things would give a guiding light to the GD else ever yone would come out with their own version of

signif icance.

2. Set the tone by telling ever yone the thumb rule - " br ing on one point at a time and we will f r eeze it in

ter ms of signif icance".

3. R emember - YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RA NK ALL 10 I N THE STIPULATED TIME.

Many people in the a bove GD will star t of by giving their Top 10. It may be on the basis of Date,

ser iousness, r eligion, politics, etc. This will cause chaos and the entir e gr oup will be eliminated.

Case 2:

TOPIC - "Pink Py jamas f lying high on the R ed-For t"

O pener 's ti ps -




1. In case you don't get the essence of the topic, br eak down the topic into par ts viz. pink py jamas /

f lying high / on the R ed f or t. Pink py jamas ar e worn by Ladies or gays and since the other par t of the

sentence doesn't suggest Gay protest, you can eliminate the second guess. Flying high indicates better

status, better r ecognition, or inde pendence. And lastly, "on the R ed For t" sym bolizes something to do

with the political per s pective of India. So over all, the topic can be summed up as - the status or

r ecognition of women in Indian Politics.

2. This k ind of a topic can have dif f er ent interpr etation, and ther ef or e please don’t close your self on

someone else's idea.

This will be ver y rude and you will come acr oss as someone who doesn't bother to listen.

3. As an O pener , get ever yone to discuss and f r eeze on the meaning so that all ar e awar e of what they

will talk a bout.

Now, ther e ar e situations wher ein you f ace two distinct problems:

1. You don't k now the topic but the group k nows it.

2. Neither you nor the grou p k nows a bout the topic.

In the f ir st scenar io, it is ok ay to be quiet f or sometime bef or e enter ing to say something that will mak e

sense. But what ha ppens in the 2nd scenar io? In situations lik e these, you have to the most dar ing thingone can do - ASK f or a change in the Topic bef or e anyone else does. The ignor ance will be visi ble within

30 seconds of the panel ask ing you to Star t. If you ar e the one ask ing f or the Change in topic, chances

ar e that you may be the only one selected.

Body of the GD & the Chemistr y inside a discussion:

We all k now that a normal GD would have a time-f rame of 20-30 minutes. If ther e ar e 10 students

sitting in the GD, that tr anslates into 2-3 minutes per per son. This is one of the biggest truths that GD

tak er s f or get. The ideal time f or you to talk would be this dur ation and consider your self lucky if

someone doesn't speak and you get that extr a time as a bonus.

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Career Companion GD TIPS