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[IBPS] Interview Preparation (Part 5 of 5) Stress Interviews, When things don’t
go as planned, B.Tech, Engineers and IT Why BankPO?
IBPS (http://mrunal.org/category/ibps) / 3 years Ago /
55 Comments (http://mrunal.org/2013/12/ibps-interview-preparation-part-5-of-5-stress-interviews-when-th
1. Prologue
2. Stress Interview in IBPS/Bank Recruitment
3. How to reduce likelihood of Stress Interview?
4. Stress Interview=Not always bad
5. Case#1: BBA to BankPO
6. Case#2: BE Mech vs Computer questions
7. Case#3: BE Engineer vs. SARFAESI
8. Case#4: IT Professional vs NPA Questions
9. Case#5: Small Error in the Answer

Prologue

This article is not meant for everyone.

MOST LIKELY victims of stress interview LEAST LIKELY Victims

1. Female from any stream

(in decreasing order)
2. Person already working in a Private
bank.
1. BE, B.Tech and IT (most vulnerable)
3. Person already a clerk in any bank.
2. Biotech, B.Pharm, Physio and other science grads.
4. Fashion technology, Hotel
(vulnerable depending on their bad luck)
management etc. “minority”
3. BA, B.Com, BBA (if they fumble in the 쾲rst few basic
streams.
questions).
5. Ex-serviceman from any stream
 You need not read this article any
You may read this article, if you’ve time and mood.
further.

Stress Interview in IBPS/Bank Recruitment

As such bank interviews are done in formal-friendly-cordial tone. But sometimes those AGM, senior
o穏cials and Uncle-jis  have their own bias against a particular state, region, and graduation stream.
And They don’t even care to hide it during the interview.

Some of the negative experience that you can face:

1. One of the panel member doesn’t ask you any question and behaves as if you’re not in the room.
(Important: Even if a member doesn’t ask question, you should maintain eye contact with all
members in the entire panel. Don’t make it one-on-one conversation. keep looking and addressing
everyone in the room.)
2. He asks you question but he doesn’t look at you. He just keep looking in his 쾲le / mobile / tablet /
laptop, as if you don’t exist in the room. (You still need to maintain eye contact with all.)
3. Panel seems to more keen to drinking their tea, gossiping among each other etc. rather than
conducting interview. (in this case, don’t worry.)
4. One of the member even leaves the room during interview. (in this case, don’t worry.)

But above experiences don’t count under ‘stress’ interview.

Stress interview means following:

1. He rudely keeps interrupting you “No No your answer is wrong. You know nothing. You’re not
serious about this career….…..” and so on.
2. He makes direct derogatory remarks about your home-state or graduation or both.
3. He keeps asking tough followup questions, with obvious intent to confuse and ridicule you more.
4. Even if you give a seemingly right answer, he says “you’re wrong, you know nothing.”

These things happen because:

a. They want to test how you perform under stress. (Like in MBA/Sales-marketing job interviews.) OR
b. They are just plain rude and bigots, they just hate you for no reason OR
c. Your own fault: when you fail to answer some basic questions from your graduation / about
banking sector. And he is really freaked out. OR
d. You were simply unlucky that day.
 How to reduce likelihood of Stress Interview?

(This advice is common for both IIM interviews and IBPS interviews)
As such stress interview doesn’t happen, not even with Engineer/IT. But with every answer that you fail
to reply, the probability of stress interview increases like a geometric progression. So,

1. You must stop feeling guilty. (http://mrunal.org/2013/12/ibps-interview-preparation-part-1-of-5-

stop-feeling-guilty-and-tell-me-about-yourself-stupid-cuto刞�s-and-insecurities-about-pro쾲le.html)
Else they’ll sense your weakness through your body language.
2. Thoroughly prepare the sales pitch and all followup questions and counter question associated
with it. (Why do you want to join PO? (http://mrunal.org/2013/12/ibps-interview-preparation-part-
2-of-5-why-bankpo-preparing-the-sales-pitch-career-growth-job-satisfaction-negative-factors-work-
pro쾲le-promotion-hierarchy-sample-answers.html)) Most importly: don’t contradict your original
sales pitch, when he asks the same “why PO” question in a di刞�erent tone at the end of the
interview.
3. Mugup all routine questions from Banking sector. If you fumble here, it’ll irritate the interviewer
the most. Question List given in separate article click me (http://mrunal.org/2013/12/ibps-
interview-preparation-part-3-of-5-banking-economy-current-a刞�airs-hr-and-gk-related-questions-
for-bankpomt.html).
4. Religious mugup basic de쾲nitions and terms from Graduation subject-theory
(http://mrunal.org/2013/12/ibps-interview-preparation-part-4-of-5-graduation-related-questions-it-
b-e-b-tech-biotech-b-com-bba-arts-sample-questions-from-previous-interviews.html)based
questions. Better maintain a diary, so even if you fail here, you can use the diary for preparing next
interview, rather than having to read through thousand pages college books again. This specially
applies to science-engineering-pharma Candidates because lot of their questions have factual
answers hence don’t stay in long term memory.

But just like lightening can strike on anyone, the stress interview can also happen to anyone despite
his sincere preparation, honest intention and desperate desire to join banking sector.
In any case, during the stress interview:

1. you must not let your body posture turn defensive- especially Your shoulder and back must
remain 쾲rm and steady.
2. Answers must remain calm and composed. Facial expression must remain humble and polite.
3. Don’t snide, don’t make excuses for not knowing the answer. Ignore his personal insults. The
rapid쾲re will cease soon anyways and most likely another panel member will start a new set of
questions where you’ll have better luck.
 Stress Interview=Not always bad

As such, stress interview should be taken in a positive spirit because:

1. Stress interview doesn’t mean automatic rejection. Final list made from written + interview.
2. Sometimes a stranger may tell you a bitter-truth that your loved ones will not tell you.
3. Sometimes it is God’s way of giving you a shock therapy so once you leave the room, you can think
out of the box:
1. That there is life, career, money and fame beyond sarkari naukris and stupid paper degrees.
2. That a real man doesn’t need approvals and certi쾲cates from any random uncle-ji to succeed in
life.
4. Sometimes a rude-jolt is necessary to provoke you, it’ll make you work harder than ever before.
And after 2-3 years you realize that you’re in a way better position in terms of career and emotion
maturity than the crowd of facebook no0b,  dimwit batchmates and arrogant relatives.

Ofcourse, stress interview is no good way to assess a candidate’s potential. But since we don’t make
the rules here, the only thing we can do is try to see the brighter side and move on in the life.

Let’s check some real examples when Bank interview doesn’t go as smooth as planned. It should give
some food for thought.

These experiences are taken from past Bank interviews, posted on pagalguy.com forum. (Courtesy
Mr.csl80 for compilation and sharing)

Case#1: BBA to BankPO

P1:  Tell me how to Market Banks for Pro쾲t?

Me: Started with 䫝�exible operations, quicker process timing to retail customers , term loans , call
money to Industrial Customers.

P1:  Call Money? Banks don’t have call money Operations. From where have you got this wrong
information? Which coaching walla has taught you this?

Me: No sir, I used to study myself, and I learnt these terms from Newspapers, Websites and NCFM
bankers Module.
P1:  Now I 쾲nd you had Marketing Management as your subject, so I am going to ask you
question from this subject . Any Problem?

Me: No sir, I will try my best to answer those questions.

P1: ok then tell me, how will you market Bank products?

Me: I started with Segmentation of the market…

P2: He was talking about how to market Banking products not about targeting .

Me: Sir we have to have a complete knowledge of the market 쾲rst before marketing our products.

P1: Kya yaar kya paka rahe ho! Do you know anything about the subject ? What is the 쾲rst and
basic step of Marketing ?

Me: I started with Surveys to identify the market and various products available , do a thorough
analysis of the market , needs of the consumers , competitors etc , then segment the market

P1: You people from ___ state score 90% marks, yet you know nothing about fundamentals of
marketing in BBA. This is the problem with you ___ state people, you don’t know anything!

Me kept quite

P1: Tell me how can you do the survey before launching new baking product?

Me: I said there are various Market research organisation , which conducts surveys on behalf of the
organisation etc.

P1: Bakwaas kar rahe ho, do you have any sense what you are talking? Don’t you know anything
about Sales Funnel, And myriads of other Marketing terms?

Me: I said sorry sir I am not aware of these terms (Didn’t try to justify the fact that I am hearing these
terms for the 쾲rst time in my life and was out of scope of our Syllabus).

P2 : (Came to rescue immediately and continues the 쾲nal process without giving chance to
others) How can this candidate know? He is just BBA, all these terms will come in MBA and
practical knowledge. But he has got no opportunity to explore the marketing yet through work
experiance.

Me: (relieved a bit)

P2: Are you appearing in any other government exams?

Me: yes sir , I am appearing for SSC , LIC , Other Bank Po’s …

P2 :What’s the result so far ?

Me: Sir this is my 쾲rst Interview call ….

P2 : then Why didn’t you go for MBA ? This is the best opportunity you have at present! You look
really young , you should be in a college!

Me: Sir I tried to do MBA , but due to 쾲nancial problems and my Fathers retirement next year for me
now a Job is very important.

P3: ( Now gave a very violent look – Something which is seen during a cricket match by cricketer
Srishanth….)

P2: Thank you gentleman, You may leave now.

Case#2: BE Mech vs Computer questions

P2: Have you heard the name of Induction Motor?

Me : Yes Sir. (Told about the machine)

P2: Name the important components of Induction Motor.

Me: (I could not answer this as it has been more than 8 years since I have read about it.) Sorry Sir I do
not remember.

P1: You people from ____ state…..You just run behind every sarkari naukri from clerk to IAS. Now
you’ve come even to Banking sector. If all of you come here, then where will others go?

Me: (I was shocked to hear his view but keep mum and tried not to answer by keeping quiet).
P2: What course have done in Computer?

Me: C concepts and C Programming.

(Then he asked two terms that I have never ever heard in C.)

Me : Sir this is the 쾲rst time I am hearing this term.

P2: What is the di刞�erence between Querry, Pointer and Array?

Me: I told that I do not know.

P2: Named two loops name and asked what is the di刞�erence among them and how will they be
used while writing the Programme?

Me: Kept Quite.

P2: Atleast tell me what’s the di刞�erence between C and C++??

Me (Quiet) as I do not know. (Seemed as if they are going to put me in their Software Development
Center to develop Software for Bank.)

P2: Yaar tell me one thing how did you become an Engineer? You don’t even know a single thing
about Engineering!

Me: Kept Quite.

P2: (Looking at my degree and 12th certi쾲cate.) You’ve 쾲nished 12th standard in 1999 and
degree in 2007. Right, since you took 7 years to 쾲nish graduation, that explains why you don’t
know anything about engineering.

Me: Sir I took admission in the year 2001 and completed my 8th Sem in July 2005. The 쾲nal degree was
awarded in the month of Feb 2006 as University takes a time of 6 months.

P2: Aise thore hi na hota hai (it doesn’t happen like that). Degree is given simultaneously.
Which university do you belong to?

Me: Told about University and its full form.

……

P1: Thank you, you may leave now.

Case#3: BE Engineer vs. SARFAESI

P1: ok you want to become a Banker. Meaning you have interest in Banking sector right?

Me: Yes Sir.

P1: Then tell me a topic from banking sector that you’ve knowledge about.

Me: I had no command on any topic so told him that I do not have much command on any topic and I
am still in the processes of learning.

P1: There must be some topic you’ve prepared?

Me : (To be safe told him about Key rate of RBI.)

P1: Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows about Repo rate and Reverse repo rate. What do you
know beyond that?

(I kept quite).

P1: If you’re a branch manager and a customer doesn’t repay his loan installment. What will
you do?

Me: Will hand over the case to Legal Department.

P1: But you don’t have legal department. Ab kaya karoge. (what will you do)?

Me: Will inform the headquarter and seek their advice.

P1: If you’re going to handover everything to legal department and Headquarter, then why
should bank pay you salary for free?

Me (Quiet)

P1: ok tell me from legal point of view, which law applies for such loan default matter?
Me (Quiet)

P1: (to another panel member P2: Do you want to ask something to him, or should I ask him to
go, so we can go for lunch?)

P2: Have you heard the name RBI?

Me: told full form and that it the central bank of India.

P2: Hmm.. 쾲nally you know the answer of something. Ok tell me the functions of RBI ?

Me: Told that it looks after the monetary policy of India.

P2: Meaning?

Me: Told her about money supply and liquidity control.

P2: If RBI is supposed to do all money related matters, then what is the use of Finance ministry?

Me: Told her about the Fisacal Policy, Budget, Income Tax Department, Revenue Department.

P2: Yaar tum logon ko kuch pata nahi hota hai, pata nahi kaise chale aate ho. (You people know
nothing. Why do you come here to show your face?)

P2 (to another panel member: Sir I’m done..)

P3: Ok its over from our end.

Me: Thank you so much for your time. It was nice talking to all of you. Have a great day ahead. Bye.

Case#4: IT Professional vs NPA Questions

Panel:  Accenture is a very very good company, what were you doing there?

Me:  I was a programmer there.

Panel:  why did you leave that job?

Me:  I wanted to move up in professional life, so I left it to prepare for competitive exams. if I join as a
PO, I would become a manager.

Panel:  who told you that you will become a manager?

Me:  sorry sir, I did not meant to say Branch Manager, but Junior Manager.

Panel:  WRONG, you will be joining as a assistant manager.

Me:  yes sir, Junior Manager, Assistant Manager.

Panel:  what was your salary?

Me:  Rs 3,00,000

Panel:  why did you leave the job, IT is driving the country forward, India is world leader in IT,
why did you leave that job?

Me:  sir, I wanted to move up in professional ladder, plus, I can get a similar job, like that of Accenture,
whenever I want. And this was my one and only shot at Manager Level. It would have been my last
attempt. If I was not able to clear bank PO, I would never ever give the same exam again, and I did not
want any distractions while preparing, hence I left. PLUS, Bank PO is a very professional job, with
Social Respect and. (Interrupted again)

Panel:  (getting agitated, and speaking a little bit loudly) You mean to say IT engineers have NO
social respect?

Me:  no sir, I meant to say both enjoy social respect, but Bank PO being government job, it enjoys
more Social Respect.

Panel:  BankPO is not a government o穏cer, my dear. And IT engineers have a lot of social
respect, they drive the country forward, everything is computerized nowadays, and you are
saying IT people have NO social respect?

Me:  SIR, I meant to say that PO have more social respect, plus, I am inclined towards Bank PO job,
because…(interrupted)

Panel:  what did you study for the interview?

Me:  sir, I studied general banking terms

Panel:  what do you know about NPA?

Me:  non-performing Asset, and it is that that asset on which the bank has stopped getting money, for
more than 90 days.

Panel:  money?

Me:  money as in interest. sorry sir, I forgot the exact name of the classi쾲cations, but I know NPA’s are
of 3 types:-

1. which has stopped generating income, for more than 90 days.

2. in which their still are chances of recovering money.
3. there is NO chances of recovering money.

(Although I studied about them last night only, but I am sorry, I forgot the exact name of these
classi쾲cations.)

Panel:  what do you mean by 90 days?

Me:  sir, when the money stops getting interest 90 days after the due date.

Panel:  are you sure its the due date?

Me:  sir, I am not exactly sure, but the website I referred to, did not say anything more than due date.

(then he tried to give an example of NPA, which I did not understand)

Panel:  how many marks did you get?

Me:  159, although I could have gotten more marks, as I got 48 marks in English, which got halved to
24. I had gotten emotional while attempting English section, I kept on solving questions, as I found
them easy. and I ended up attempting every question..

Panel:  you had prior knowledge that English marks would be halved,so why did you keep on
solving them?
Me:  sir, I said I got emotional, I should have attempted other sections.

Panel:  that means you have no time-management skills?

Me:  sir, I do have time management skills, as I had attempted English section the last, and I thought I
would complete this section, and go back to attempt more question in previous sections, but…
(Interrupted)

Panel:  how did you prepare for IBPS?

Me:  I was preparing for CAT side by side, so I covered most of the syllabus, and about Banking GK, I
bought Banking Magazines, and covered the banking GK from that.

Panel:  gentleman, you are contradicting yourself.

Me:  no sir, I am not contradicting myself. I know I want to join Bank, as it is government job, very
professional.

Panel: you took up Science in 11th and 12th, not commerce and arts, then you did engineering,
not BA, BCOM, then you joined a company which is an IT company, WHY did you join Accenture,
and prepare for exams after graduation?

Me:  sir, I wanted to see the professional life, how life is in private sector, that is why I joined IT
company.

Panel:  Are you willing to serve anywhere in India?

Me:  thought for 4-5 seconds, yes sir, I am willing to go anywhere, (then, I said hesitating) but I should
not be saying this, but I would prefer if I am posted in rural areas, becau…(interruped)

Panel:  RURAL areas!! you know there is a problem of NPA’s in rural areas?

Me:  yes sir, I know NPA’s problem is more prevalent in Rural branches than in urban branches, but
still I want to serve there because…(interrupted)

Panel:  you don’t know anything about NPA, but still you want to serve in Rural Areas!?

Panel: You can go now.

(Me: I wanted to tell them that I want to serve in rural areas because cost of living is less, and I would save
lots of money. but alas, they were not willing to listen.)

Case#5: Small Error in answer

P1 : Tell about RBI act ?

ME : Started very well , then gave wrong passing year of the act. It was 1934. I said 1932.

P1 : What ridiculous answer is this ? Do you know anything about banking ?

P1 told me to stop.

P1 looks towards P2, but P2 & P3 kept drinking tea.

P1 : You may go now.

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