What is an interview?

An interview is a conversation between you and your IO to see if you are a right fit for the job you are seeking. So it is important to know what to expect from an interview and prepare as best as you can.

What to expect from an interview?

The interviewing officer will be discussing your life till now and he will be looking out for relevant qualities, experiences, and strengths you have.

He will be analyzing these things and deciding whether you meet the requirements to discharge the job of an officer in the Armed Forces that you covet to join.

How is it conducted?

Find out the format of a personal interview in the SSB. What is the content, structure, and duration?  Find out from reliable sources that you can lay your hands on like books, online content, and narration of previous experiences of other candidates, etc.

How to prepare?

Following are the steps that you can use to prepare for the SSB in a systematic way.

(A) Understand the job profile and try to match it:

For the armed forces, you have to match the profile of an average officer. This is best done by getting an idea of the qualities desired by an officer. So get a knowledge of the desired qualities and try to inculcate them. It takes time and effort, but if you can nurture and develop these qualities in you, nothing can stop you.

(B) Prepare the PIQ:

The PIQ or the personal information questionnaire gives the first impression about yourself. So filling it neatly and judiciously is obviously a good first step. But it is not only filling, you have to prepare well about the things filled, because your response to the queries on these things is what matters.

(C) Prepare your responses:

The main body of the interview consists of the CIQs which are popularly known among candidates as rapid-fire questions. These are nothing but a bunch of five to six questions given together. and they deal with various areas of the candidate’s life like education, family, hobbies, etc. The responses to these can be prepared beforehand by simple common sense. For example, what can be asked about your education? Obviously, your school and college life, the marks you got,  your interaction with teachers and your friends.

The games you played and the extracurricular activities you participated in. You can practice the responses you will give beforehand and in case of cross-questioning or any situation given to you, you can solve them by using the STAR technique ( SITUATION, TASK, ACTION, RESULT).

(D) Work on your physical fitness and body language

Armed forces are known for their physical fitness, so you should also be. This would show that you are aligned with the culture of the organization you are willing to join. Remember, you need not be some extraordinary sportsman or a bodybuilder. You just have to be physically fit. The rest of the training will be given to you once you are selected.

(E) Work on your communication skills and body language:

As the working language of the armed forces is English, your SSB is going to be in English. So you should improve your communication skills in English. The area which you have to concentrate on is speaking freely and clearly.

Hifi language or big words are not required. Just, you should be able to speak fluently and clearly. Remember, communication skills are not only oral but also written to written. Written communication is checked by a psychologist while analyzing your dossier, and by GTO during checking of your written solutions. Also, research has shown 95%. your communication is nonverbal. So it is prudent to have some knowledge of body language and management of your gestures.

(F) Work on your soft skills:

Soft skills include attributes and personality traits that help people effectively interact with others and succeed in their work. Examples of soft skills include the ability to communicate effectively with others, mentor colleagues, lead a team, negotiate a contract, follow instructions, and get a job done on time. For an officer, these skills are very important, and so you should try to develop them as much as you can.

(G) Enhance your awareness levels:

An officer is required to be aware of the things that are happening around him, more the situational awareness, the better it is. This attribute is checked in the candidate by seeing, how much he is about his city, state, country, and world –  that is by his level of current affairs. So you should keep yourself updated by newspapers news apps YouTube channels etc.

(H) Exhibit, good motivation and insight:

Every candidate coming to the SSB will invariably say that he is motivated to join the Armed Forces from childhood. But how much he is actually motivated will be clear when a few questions about the service he wants to join is asked. So prepare your military knowledge properly. This is especially applicable for the service which you have given as the first choice. You should know more of the things about that service and some things about it. You should know some basic facts. Things you are expected to know are ranks, structure, equipment, acquisitions, famous personalities, important wars, and operations/campaigns.

Also, a person’s insight about himself. is very important and is judged in the interview by how well you know yourself. This is done by asking you to outline some of your strengths and limitations.

More accurately a candidate can say this more is the level of insight he or she has. Better insight is going to help in improving more quickly and hence better utilization of training so the greater rain the chances of selection.

To conclude, the above steps will surely give the candidates a good idea about how to go about preparing for a personal interview in the SSB, however, they should keep in mind that these steps require substantial time and effort which they have to devote to them.

Article by – Gp Capt A Basu (Retd), Centurion Defence Academy