Stress Interview: Myth vs. Reality

Stress Interview – that jargon all the call-getters keep using in their daily interactions, and (try so hard) to prepare themselves for. There are countless stories and narratives about this enigma called ‘stress interview’. It is the season of interviews, now that all the important entrance examinations but two (IIFT and TISSNET) are done with. At this crucial juncture, it is worth taking a look at what a stress interview is, in reality.

Let’s dive in!

Stress Interview – The Myths

Myth #1:

90% of interviews where the candidates come out and say they had a stress interview are not stress interviews at all, in reality

This is probably the most common myth among a ton of others. The candidates come out of the interview room and complain that they had a stress interview, when in reality, the interview just did not go the way they expected it to have (Read about how to tackle those interviews where the panel is out there to get you, here).

A bad interview is not a stress interview, and it need not be one.

Myth #2:

Preparing for a stress interview

The aspirants spend too much – way too much – time preparing/imagining that they are preparing for stress interviews. This is the effect of the assumption that the interview panel is out there to get you by default.

NO, that is not true!

The truth is that the interviewers get irritated when you try to to act too smart during the interview. Have that in mind and try to avoid:

1. Being too cute and smart.
2. Trying to convey something witty and end up being the only person who laughed at it while the interviewers stare at you.

Be polite. Be courteous. Showcase that you do have a sense of humour, without entering the slapstick mode, and overdoing it.

In essence…

You will not get a stress interview in all likelihood. More often than not, it is just an illusion, and nothing more than that. And if you do get one, it is going to be a stress interview, and not a ragging session you might have seen in cliched movie tropes. Make that distinction between the former and the latter.

When does the perception of a ‘stress interview’ creep in?

Ah, that is an interesting question. But, the answer for this is going to be delightfully straightforward.

When you have blurted out a series of “I don’t know”s, it might appear to the interviewer that you are reeling under pressure. At this point, the interview might turn into what I call a “formalized, institutionalized ragging session”.

Meaning?

The interviewer sees through your crumbling under pressure and wants to push you a little bit to see if you choke further or can bounce back to knocking the interview out of the park.

Let us consider a scenario.

Say, you have given “I don’t know” as the answer to three questions continuously. Note that these are questions which you probably should have known.

In this case, the interviewer might want to test you with three more questions, for which the expected answer itself would be “I don’t know”.

The idea is to test how you fare not only after the first three answers but also during and after the next three. The second part is important because by the time you are at the fourth question, you start believing that you should not give negative answers anymore.

There are couple of ways using which you can aim to bounce back, OR at least express that you do not know/are not aware:

1. I should have known something about the previous questions, probably. But, with these ones, I am just not able to recall anything as an answer.
2. I will take a guess, but I am not sure if that could be the right answer.

The bottomline

It is about how well you can comeback from a spot of bother, and not really about how much of an expert you are. The interview panel is going to consist of Professors and veterans who are likely to more than any candidate; trying to prove a point to them is not something they like or expect.

Too long, didn’t read

1. 99% of the interviews that are imagined to be stress interviews do not fall under that category at all.
2. This narrative that the interviewer might scold you, yell at you and throw random things at you are just humbug.
3. A ‘stress interview’ is an outcome of a candidate going underprepared, and nothing more. If you are prepared, there is little to no chance that you are going to face a stress interview.

Stay safe and best wishes for GD PI WAT.

Rajesh Balasubramanian takes the CAT every year and is a 4-time CAT 100 percentiler. He likes few things more than teaching Math and insists to this day that he is a better teacher than exam-taker.