[Official ] Interview Preparation 2021 - Ask Questions, Debates and Doubts, Hobbies, Home State

Jeezus, can’t you thank forum guys without using words like vision or insights :P

Fairly good hobbies.

You are worried about the wrong problem. A 2.5 year gap won’t even attract a question. 

Nearly one third of the candidates will have a gap more than that.

And Civils is an exam where Some people face failure for the first time in their lives.

Dont worry about problems that don’t exist in the first place.

Hey, my understanding of my score and what made me get it is still a work in progress, sadly. I'm not entirely sure of how I ended up with it - but common factors seem to be confidence in demeanor, humility and clarity in responses, and answering thoughtfully wherever given an opportunity. If more things come to my mind, I'll add them here. All the best!

Good enough answer. Do fine tune this wherever you take mocks. And then freeze it, write it down. One of the folks who appeared for Interview last year said - Sir, I dont write down because then it comes memorising stuff. It is not natural.

My argument is- dont say what you write. Write what you say.

The thing with my hobbies is that they are mostly things that I do on and off. A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

For example, I've been playing the ukulele the past 8 months now and got reasonably good at it. (Guess who learned the Godfather theme music and Bella Ciao in fingerstyle this past week) Yet, my theoretical knowledge of music is  nil. It's an instrument I learned using the internet entirely. Also, I genuinely love a certain genre of music and I take my Spotify very seriously. However, my interest and knowledge is limited to that alone. If they ask me about Kishore Kumar songs or famous musicians from my State from eons ago, I would know only to the extent I've prepared. 

Similarly, I've honestly been cycling in recent times. My heart and my brain knows it to be true, but my waistline does not. AND I know nothing about cycling in general. I can only balance a cycle.

Coming to reading books, it's a habit I picked up in the past three years. I wouldn't say I'm a voracious reader, but I read books which pique my interest. A lot of books do, and they're generally non fiction books. So, my knowledge is limited to a casual reading of the same. 

I write both prose and poetry, but I mostly dont publish them because I feel it's art and art is always personal. It's weird, I know, but it is what it is.

I also binge watch movies and TV series.

Everything takes a back seat when the cricket is on.

Basically, I'm like Dee Dee from Dexter who goes " Ooo, what does this button do?" when I see something that captures my interest. I don't lose that interest ever, but since there is only so much time every day, I cant give each interest the time it deserves. 

If that is the case, would they be hobbies or just interests?

I think my best bet would beto try and learn the basics the best I can,and just be honest and authentic about the fact that my knowledge is rather shallow about each of these interests of mine, if I dont know the answer? I wouldn't look like a blithering idiot, would I?

Thoughts?

Aaaaaaaaaaarrghhhhh. Overthinking would be my primary hobby if it were enjoyable. I definitely do it regularly.

This is one video I would like you to watch. Not fancy Youtube stuff. Regular mock. What are your observations about the candidate?

Alright, so I don’t want to be the person who writes everything he hears in the forum, but I always ask people what worked for them.

And because this thread is meant for that.

So there is this student who got 190+ in the interview ( Bassi Sir board ) last year and we just spoke and I asked her the cliched question ( which I am going to ask all of you here when you get 190-200+ marks )

What worked for you

She said unambiguously 

1. I was very direct
2. I did say No to a few questions 
3. I did not beat around the push 
4. I tried to stay cheerful : happy throughout the interview
5. At the time of the interview , I felt it wasn’t going so good ( but didn’t Panick and pass judgement on myself during that interview - she didn’t say this, but said that I stayed happy till the end )

I remembered her because she had “boxfit” in her hobby section.

1. There's no error. We have uploaded our undergraduate degree with DAF I. That suffices. This is for those who check the box for having done their post graduation as well (like me). We have to upload the PG degree in support of that too.

2. The other certificates are not necessary to be uploaded with the second link. The DAF II gets submitted even without them. Did this last year, faced no issues (same columns were present in last year's DAF too)

Answering your query inline

@Neyawn Its a long query, but i have been following your advice on mains, prelims and studies though have commented only thrice on forum, Please give your guidance as its needed, would be immensely grateful :) 

Thanks for the accolades , I hope you make the most of it. The dream is to have a community meet soon. Ever since the quality of discussions collapsed, we couldnt get anyone from the community for a community meet. It became a Toppers meet from the academy, which we stopped doing. I am hopeful folks from this thread, this participation make it with flying colors :)

1. In the column for prizes/ scholarships, will it make sense to write about school level district competitions in GK / GATE rank/ giving interview for BARC scientific officer position?

People have done that. There is no negative things about them. The BARC interview can be skipped.

2. I have done two research internships in abroad during my IIT years. It will be considered under employment right.

Again, Internships have been kept out of employment, but you can still put that. Last year also people have done that. Prepare well on those topics.

3. Under extra-curricular activities along with hobbies. Would it be okay to fill in extra-curricular activities like volunteering in NGOs.

Thats okay. I personally do not think highly of NGOs thing as something that attracts a bureaucrats towards your profile. Also the questions get messy sometimes.

4. In college, i mentored a junior who had failed classical mechanics course to pass course. I happened to join a fellowship called "India fellowship" just after passing oand have worked and lived in a community school in a village near Sitapur district at Hardoi Border for an NGO as part of fellowship.

The fellowship is fine to mention.

Now thing is during my stay in village, i had mentored 4 girls from community (two from school and two from community) out of my pocket and as personal project along with work. It so happened that one of girls got job in police constabulary, two in govt colleges for engineering and fourth has now done diploma in software.

After completing fellowship, i kept in touch with students and children from nearby villages and infact have guided another girl clearing polytechnic (but this time no physical presence)...

Whenever i find time during preps, i do check with those children to check mental well being, guide, persuade parents and help find books.

I also had mentored a child of really poor farmer (less than 150 rupees a day earning) pass class 10th exam during my stay at village

Work was about implementing process in community school and even work also involved taking life skill sessions during which i used to mentor couple of students. 

*I feel like i have decent track record of mentoring, can i write "mentoring" as hobby of mine? as some friends have said it cant be written as hobby, problem is i don't seem to have any other genuine hobby it seems*

Look, you set the bars very high when you say work with NGO. There is a famous guy from forum, whose book on Socio is a bit famous. He was in Bihar when I spoke to him last. He had NGO / Mentoring and all that in his DAF. But he was actually socially committed. It was completely different talking to him. He had worked only for non profits in Africa, India.

The guys who really like to work for NGOs serve in hinterlands of Bihar and UP and poorer states. Not in posh urban areas and claiming to  serve the urban poor in their locality. Worse, they run away when there is actually serving the poor without AC in rural areas and there is no car, but kharata bus and overloaded bolero travel.

About second hobby, i used to write blog on social issues for fellowship but have stopped completely since december 2018, similarly i have watched many infotainment documentaries (500 GB HDD has 190 GB documentaries) but again i have missed out on them for last 3 years although i have started rewatching post this mains. what to do?

You could watch them like 5 -10 of them and put that. 

I am bit talkative, lack clarity of expression sometimes i feel which may be offputting to examiner i think... Please suggest your solutions to them...

This girl was talkative. The first time, it was a mess, I hated to say it, but she sat hours just to correct that behaviour. She worked very hard.

Made a 180 degree turn in how she said things and what she said.

Got a 201. Sent a thank you note. Also her mantra.

Here is a screenshot.

The solution is in written answers and not blabbering first thing that comes to your mind.

Matlab Man ki baat nahi karni hai. We already have a PM do that. 

Hope I address your query to some extent. 

I think we can use the principled distance model of secularism to handle this question. A key facet of governance is satisfaction of the citizens. The government here intends to cater to the faith of its citizens. It does not associate itself with any specific religion while doing so.

The scheme assists the economically weaker senior citizens who are the residents of Delhi to visit a choice of their pilgrimage. It is a one-time facility only. The routes chosen under the scheme cover Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist sites as of now. Moreover, it does not lay down any specific religion-based criteria to undertake journey in any route.

I have 2 hobbies to write which are genuinely my hobbies.

1. Video shooting and editing (I shoot videos from my mobile , not those cheap tik tok ones but I create a storyline around non living stuff i.e no actors, I hold the camera shoot the sequence and weave a story). Won 1st prize in Vivo ad campaign, my video was shortlisted by red Achilles entertainment(shot a stay at home horror movie) and was runner up in a competition organised by NPCI based cyber fraud awareness through a video. I edit them in Powerdirector and Microsoft movie maker. Learned through youtube, no idea about technicalities of video making, I don't even have personal favourites in this field.
2. Its making sketches with pencil. In college days used to make time lapse videos of my sketches and upload it on insta...haven't drawn anything past 2 years. But is a hobby, developed when I had plenty of HB 4H 3H 2H etc pencils left after my first year of graduation :D
What Can I expect from all this. Because I don't have anything to write in that achievement section, no leadership role ever held. 

You may, but remember that from what I have seen that setting expectations very high before the board is not a good idea. The simpler you keep the better it is.

Thats also because what you feel like the grind of life is nowhere close to how life grinds you as time passes by.

So a 65 year old is less likley to believe that you are facing some grind ( and hence turned philosophical ) , because somewhere he knows whats in store for you as years ( and decades ) pass by.

But more than that, the person going to interview you was someone like you, plus thirty more years where he has explored the topics in much more depth. ( Secreatry level officers in State govt do not have as much work. Its even more free in IPS ) 

Look, knowledge/ wisdom  per-se is gained in stages. And when you get new knowledge, it will unfold itself like the peels of an onion. If you have ever peeled an onion, you will find the "perfect-ultimate-final" piece of onion. 

But then when you peel off that layer too, you will find a completely fresh onion, which is even more perfect than the previous one.

So when we know something, we always feel that this is the ultimate truth of life/ syllabus. Until we dig a layer deeper. But while we are at a certain layer, we do feel 100% that this is "the" fact/ "the truth" and final.

Thank you. Made my day.

But Prelims *is* tricky. There are so many people every year where they have gotten a rank and flunked prelims next year! You need 4 months or solid prep before you know how to crack it. Once you develop the knack , you can do so in 2 months. Even 15 days. Then you can give a topper interview and say i cracked IAS in 15 days! That works!

But when you prepare, be cautious, give the exam the time and respect it deserves.

From what I have observed, they are the quieter ones,often lack content to be an alpha male in the group, objective, balanced and don’t give opinions in matters that are factual.

Also they always have few I don’t knows. That sometimes becomes most important.