GD for IT fresher jobs

Today the word GD has become more popular and scary among freshers than C++ or OOP's. GD has become an hurdle for most individuals aiming to get a job in the IT Sector. Look at the current situation: For every 1 job there are more than 20 candidates fighting for it. And thus GD has become an easy way of elimination in most IT company recruitment processes. During my mentoring to engineering students I ask them a question - What is a GD and Why is a GD after all required for a technical job? And the irony is till date I have not found a person who could give me the right answer or even justify his/her answer. They tell me atleast 10 Do's and Don'ts of a GD but they really dont know what is it required for? Let's demystify the whole process.

A GD is basically a "discussion" amongst people either on a topic/situation or circumstance. Please note that its a dicussion and not an argument or a debate. I am sure every person who has the ability to "think" has participated in a GD for atleast thousand times in a span of a decade. Please before you start commenting on this statement of mine let me justify it. A GD is very similar to what happens when couple of you sit together and discuss on a topic.Hang me to death if you and your friends have never discussed on cricket - Whether Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of all times or not? Have you never discussed about movies....There are many such instances - Starting from discussing about rumors to girls/boys we have all been a part so many times.We have been a part of many such GD's knowingly or unknowingly. The only difference to those and ones which takes place in the recruitment process is you speak in English, you do not use slangs and you sit in an ordered manner and discuss. Rest all remains the same. The thing which I wish to highlight is that we all have participated in GD's hence the fear of being a novice or the fear of not being able to speak needs to be thrown right away. It's fear which stops most of us to do stuff in our life rather than lack of skills.

Now having discussed what a GD is lets see why is it required for would be IT professionals. An IT professionals life is more than just coding, testing or maintaining it. It involves enormous rounds of discussions with fellow team members, managers or customers depending in the role you are in. Hence it becomes all the more important to see if skills like Persuassion, Effective communication and Interpersonal skills are in the blood of an would be IT professional. Also worth noting that like in a company a GD need not be tested only for leadership skills. It also needs to test the followership skill. What I mean here is just like a company which does not need only leaders similarly in a GD not all candidates need to be a leader to qualify. A good follower is more valued than a good leader.

There is more to GD's and smart techniques to excel in GD's specially for IT aspiring candidates. It is very much different from the original format of an GD and needs proper guidance to excel. The series of articles on GD's for IT professionals would contain a)Various types of GD's and how to excel in it b)Ways to break and pitch in your content c)How to over shadow lack of communication skills and lack of domain/topic knowledge.

"To excel in anything you need to look at the way you are currently doing it rather than worrying about if it is the right way of doing it"

Write this statement in your mind "IT companies are not looking for candidates who have a strong vocab or a excellent speaking style. They want individuals who can communicate in an effective manner. Thats it."

For more details or if you need help please get in touch with me at rccreades@gmail.com or feel free to talk to me at 9886606366