Process Of Interview At Service Selection Board (SSB)

Process Of Interview At Service Selection Board (SSB)

Personal Information Questionnaire (PIQ)- the First Step- All candidates (means those who clear the screening tests and participate in the entire SSB schedule) are required to fill the Personal Information Questionnaire (PIQ) in two copies. While the first copy goes to the psychologist, the second copy reaches the interviewing officer. He reads PIQ rather closely and critically and forms an opinion about the candidate before he is called in for an interview.

Please take it very seriously- PIQ is a document that contains your entire developmental history. Its scope ranges from very mundane facts (like what is your name and permanent address) to your achievements in academic and non-academic fields (sports, NCC, extra-curricular group activities). Also, it contains information like your hobbies and interests which are difficult to verify at least on the spot (say someone writes his hobby is origami (=paper cutting craft), this is not verifiable at least directly and on the spot). A specimen of the PIQ that you are required to fill at SSBs is placed at the last of this chapter. It contains the record of all the factors that are responsible for inculcating the personality qualities and therefore, in PIQ, there stands no scope of any manipulation or impression management. I declare this fair and square.

Facts to remember during SSB Interview

Please remember two hard facts. Firstly, whatever you are today can be largely attributed to your socio-economic-cultural and political environment. The environment provides opportunities for articulation and honing of your hereditary qualities. If your environment was different, you would have different for sure despite your same hereditary qualities. And hence, show unconditional acceptance to those set of factors that have shaped you. If you accept those factors, report them truthfully without any editing.

Secondly, must you understand that you cannot manipulate your past environment due to which you are what you are today. Your imaginations, attitudes, perceptions, and apperceptions have already been displayed in various tests of psychological test battery (and group testing series too- if your interview comes after that). So, there is no point in getting tempted for impression management.

In fact, a truthful PIQ always helps a candidate. Let me cite two examples from my own days at SSBs-

• Case I - Navin (not the real name, however- happens my distant relative also), appeared for NDA entry at 4 AFSB Varanasi. The candidate

hailed from Gorakhpur and belonged to an educated middle-class family. His father was an engineer in the public sector. He studied in St Paul’s School of Gorakhpur, which is a reputed English medium school in that area. A highly motivated candidate he was and took a briefing from someone regarding SSB tests.

Navin must have played football at some stage. Getting carried away by the prospects of ‘inflating facts and impress the Board’ he wrote in his PIQ to have been the captain of his school football team. This he did under the instructions of his educated father despite my warning.

The interviewing officer quizzed him thoroughly to verify the facts submitted and to ascertain his motivation for sports. Navin hardly expected such questions. He tried to put a brave front initially but was unable to sustain the tearing questions. Finally, he broke down and confessed to the IO that he gave this information only to impress the Board. The only truth was that he liked to play football. The candidate faced a lot of embarrassment on the other achievements also which he had mentioned and finally pleaded apology for wrong; perhaps exaggerated information. Navin’s case was discussed at length in the President’s conference also. Navin was finally NOT RECOMMENDED.

Navin’s case is a burning example of how dependence on a quack’s advice could ruin your chances in SSB. Secondly, there is a general tendency among the candidates to give inflated information regarding their achievements. Had Navin been advised to be truthful he would not have faced discomfiture of that degree. The truth would have saved him!

• Case II- This case surfaced up during my discussions with my pupil psychologist at no 4 AFSB while assessing the SRT in psychological tests. The responses of the two candidates to a situation were rather interesting. We will examine these responses-

Situation- He had to go to a place some 20 Km away on a hot summer afternoon. Having waited at the bus-stop for a long time when no bus came he…

• Candidate 1- He took a Tonga and managed to reach his destination.
• Candidate 2- Hired a taxi and reached there on time.

Comment-Though the response of the second candidate (hiring a taxi) appears better in comparison to the first candidate’s response, a psychologist would not take this only at face value. A professional would find both the responses of equal merit. Both the candidates have taken the same decision i.e. not to wait any further and to go for a substitute means of transport. Both the candidates have shown an equal degree of understanding, grasp, and decision-making to explore an alternative resource.

Now, their choice of an alternative will depend on their socio-economic backgrounds. The second candidate belonged to New Delhi where hiring a taxi is a common phenomenon. Hiring a taxi is in his world of cognition. The first candidate chose to take a Tonga because he hailed from a small suburb in Aligarh in UP. The common means of transport in his environment is Tonga. He would not imagine hiring of a taxi at the spur of the moment. The first candidate comes from a relatively deprived socio-economic background. The second candidate comes from a better and richer background. However, both of them showed an equal level of a grasp of the situation and took similar decisions!

One cannot appreciate these finer aspects by ignoring the PIQ of candidates. In the mentioned case the candidates would have been assessed on an uneven keel. Correct and truthful information supplied in the PIQ can save a candidate.

That's it, gentlemen. I hope you are now clear about the process of the SSB Interview. For such informative articles do visit to study SSB Interview.