Group Discussion for Jobs : Career Quips

Group Discussion happens to be the most widely used screening tool used by recruiters in the selection process, as it enables them to judge the personality of 8-10 individuals relative to one another and in the least time.

The format of the discussion is universal:

You and rest of your group are given a topic to discuss for about 15-30 minutes, within which you are supposed to speak out your thoughts on the topic. They sit around to see how you and the group as a whole carried on the discussion.

You get positive points for following:

1.0 Teamwork:

Since post-selection you are supposed to work in an organization with your colleagues, subordinates and superiors as a team, you are expected to be a team player. In the GD therefore, you need to show this capability by sharing the time given by recruiter and your knowledge with the rest of your group members, even helping the group members when the need arises.

2.0 Communication:

You need not be a eloquent speaker but you should be able to speak out your mind clearly so that other people understands.

3.0 Initiative and Leadership capabilities:

Where possible, try to show leadership capability by initiating the discussion, by encouraging the other members to speak and also by preventing the “GD” from becoming a “Debate”. A GD is a discussion among a group of individuals on a common topic, for a ultimate common purpose and the leader of the group is expected to direct the GD in this direction.However, if you can not show the Leadership capabilities for lack of chances, just be a team player!

4.0 Knowledge on the particular subject:

Although this is important, it is not a must to have a thorough knowledge on the topic even prior to the GD. If you do not know much about the topic, chose to speak towards the middle of the time allotted for the GD. In the meanwhile, listen to others and gather knowledge, so that you can speak out later.

Many individuals, in their urge to show their Leadership capabilities, try to dominate the group for which they get the most negative points. Any words or actions that disturb or destroy a group activity (e.g. criticizing others negatively) get negative points. Even if you disagree strongly with the view points of a fellow member, use milder words such as: “Although I appreciate Mr. X's view point, I chose to differ as …” instead of saying “I think Mr. X is wrong…”

Your actual activity for the GD should in fact start much earlier, before entering the GD room. Read this story on how I did it 15 years back. Also remember, every member of your particular group may be selected! Yes, recruiter does not decides that only "this number" of member would be selected when the GD is initiated. So enjoy your GD!

How can you prepare for the GD:

It is only through practice through mock-GD’s.

For this, gather together 5 to 10 of your friends, ask one/two of them to be the observer (i.e. mock-recruiters) and rest of you as group members.

Ask the observers to initiate the GD by naming the topic from these sample topics (or any other topic you think fit) and the time frame (say 20 minutes). Begin the GD and after completion, ask for the feedback from the observers. Improve upon yourselves from these feedbacks.

Try to organize such mock-GD’s on periodic intervals (say every weekend/fortnight etc.) for at least 5/6 mock-GD’s and by this time you should be thoroughly prepared.

I am giving below a video of a mock-GD carried out by students of ICFAI just to give you an idea on how to go ahead!

While preparing for your GD, you must know what are different types of GD topics. You can find the types of GD topics (Factual type GD topic, Controversial type GD topic, Abstract type GD topics, Case Study type GD topic) with examples in my blog post: Types of Group Discussion Topics.

Have you ever conducted any mock-GD amng your friends in your institute? If yes, I would love to know about it : How it was conducted, how many people participated and what were the reactions.

Books for GD (Group Discussion) Preparation:

You can also refer one of the following books given below for GD. These books are available in most of the book stores, but you can also order them online by clicking the links below from Flipkart.com which offers huge discounts up to 15%, apart from free shipping/postage in India if the total order exceeds Rs. 200/=. You can choose to pay through Credit Card/Debit Card/Internet Banking. You can also choose to pay through “Cash-on-Delivery” i.e. you pay in cash only when the same is delivered at your doorstep:

Book for Group Discussion:
Group Discussion and Interview Skills (With CD) by Priyadarshi Patnaik; Publisher: Foundation Books
Cover Price: Rs.200; Offer Price: Rs.150; Discount: Rs.50/= (25%);
Group Discussions and Interviews by R. Guptas Publisher: RPH
Cover Price: Rs.120; Offer Price: Rs.90; Discount: Rs.30/= (25%);

Group Discussion by Manju Gupta, Prem Kant Jha; Publisher:Mahaveer
Price: Rs. 99