The SBI (State Bank of India) recruits Probationary officer level candidates for banks. Its recruitment process comprises of 3 selection rounds. First two are online examinations. It consists of a preliminary and a main exam. Once you’ve cleared these 2 levels, you will be called for the final stage. This is the personal interview and group discussion round.
How can you make sure that you are investing your energy in right direction? Following are some tips that can help you crack your SBI PO interview:
Know how you are being judged
Before we discuss how to crack an interview, you first need to understand how exactly you are being judged by the interviewers. Some of the most important qualities that an interviewer is looking for include confidence level, thought process and the frame of mind of the candidate. So, make sure you go for the PO interview with the right attitude. Also, make sure your general knowledge is updated because it would is one of the most important factors affecting the interviewer’s decision.
Lead the Interview
Interviewer would ask questions to see if you fit the job role you’ve applied for. So, every answer you give must in some way make your case stronger. Now, how to do that? One simple trick is to use those words that lead to the domain you are strong in. Interviewers tend to question back on areas you mention in an answer. But, for this strategy to work seamlessly, you must be an expert in the topic you are planning to initiate.
For instance, if you feel that Banking is your strong subject, mention this in your introduction, or when interviewers ask your strengths, why you want to join the banking industry, etc.
What to Expect in an Interview?
Personal and Profile based Questions: First and foremost, be prepared to answer questions probing your areas of interest, strengths, and weakness as confidently as you can. Apart from personal questions like these, you can expect the interviewer to show interest in your family background, career goals and achievements. Moving to profile based questions, your under graduation discipline is crucial. Do expect some questions to check your knowledge on the same. If you have previous work experience, some basic level of industry knowledge must be there.
Knowledge-based Questions: In the SBI PO interview, expect a lot of questions that test your functional knowledge. These areas can be broadly divided as follows:
- Banking and Finance: You are expected to have fair knowledge of banking and finance sector. In order to do so you must read up on key finance terms, function of financial institutions and banking terminology.
- Current Affairs: You must be aware of the industry trends affecting banking sector.
- Economy: You must have a clear understanding of how an economy works and how dots connect at the macro level. From microeconomics, expect questions on law of supply and demand and on macroeconomics, on national income accounting (GDP, GNP), Fiscal policy, Monetary Policy, inflation, etc. you must be aware of ins and outs of the domain.
Furthermore, you must also expect questions on the kind of work expected from you as a PO and if you’ve applied for jobs elsewhere.
SBI PO Interview Preparation
You must be thorough with personal questions as they will build your case. Try to frame your strengths and weaknesses as you think might suit the job profile you have applied for. For example, if you are good in calculation work, then make sure to mention that this quality will help you in your job in the State Bank of India. As far as profile based questions are concerned, you need to be thorough with your job profile along with its significance. You must also know about the sector you were associated with to show your understanding of same.
Coming to knowledge based questions; you should keep checking websites like Wikipedia and Investopedia to strengthen knowledge of the banking industry. Browsing through the websites of relevant organizations like RBI, SEBI and SBO, will also help you gain deeper understanding of its history, functions, importance and recent changes.
To keep yourself updated with recent news, read English newspapers like The Economic Times and The Hindu daily. While reading them, you must focus on business and banking sections. To improve your command over the English language, you can also watch English news channel like BBC News. Last but not the least, a little bit of English speaking in front of the mirror never hurt anybody!
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