A Word of Advice From The One Who Has Been There

Lavanya Singh is 8th Topper of 2012-13 batch of Advertising and Public Relations. She has interned at Dentsu Communications for three months and her tenure has been extended to continue with Dentsu as a Management Trainee. She love travelling, cooking, reading, public speaking and love animals. Lavanya was a Computer Engineer and worked with Tata Consultancy Services before she took the decision to pursue advertising as her career. 

I had no hopes that I will ever crack IIMC, however when I cleared my written exam, and when I absorbed the fact, the next hurdle was the scary GD/PI. Now I am not really good at group discussions, I hate raising my voice and cut someone talking. When the D day arrived and I found myself surrounded by other competitive aspiring candidates my nervousness was at its peak. We were divided into groups of 12 and sent to the deadly GD room, where our course director and other faculty members were waiting for us. After sitting we were given the topic ‘has IPL diluted the value of Indian Cricket’, after 3 minutes to ponder we started off, and I finally managed to grab a few occasions to speak.

The GD is easy if you know the topic, and to know the topic you must really read everything. I am not asking you to become a bookworm, but yes you must stay abreast with whatever is going around. Raising your voice and shouting is never a solution, you might think you have made a point by that, but eventually you end up losing marks. GD is like a discussion, if you see someone not getting a chance encourage him/her to speak, if you find anyone shouting just ask them to calm down, if you find someone’s point really impressive mention his/her name, the more you respect everyone’s voice the better your GD is, and yes with all this, you need to be tactful to find the chance to give voice to your thought/views and opinions (preferably with examples).

After the GD came the PI….

When my turn came for PI, I was pretty relaxed because I find it very easy to communicate one on one. When I entered the room my Course Director and two other faculty members  were already seated, I passed my certificates and CV, and they asked me about my previous qualifications, why I wanted to join IIMC, what difference IIMC might bring  to my life , I was asked  what I knew about social media, if I knew what pinstrip was, what latest books I read, how was I fit to be a part of advertising and in the end a quick test was given where I was ask to write a catchy line for an excerpt from a book, i.e. I had to condense that excerpt into my 1 line.

PI is relatively the easy part if you are really focused on what you want to be, I prefer to be honest than making fake statements because the people sitting in the room  see students like us every day and it takes them fraction of a second to catch where we are trying to be over smart, As already advised by others, you must read, stay aware of digital media, social media changes, carry a portfolio if you have one, and be honest, be genuine, and leave the rest to your luck.

All the best for your GD/PI, I really hope the best happens to you.