For success in a group discussion, never do these mistakes commonly made by participants.

Group discussion (GD) has become an effective and important tool for companies to interview job aspirants. Group discussion is conducted by employer to examine communication skills which most of the participants know, but there are several other things which are examined by the evaluator and participants are not aware of these. Assertiveness, courtesy, coordination, facilitation, listening skills etc. are examined by examiner in the group discussion. I this post, I share you with some common mistakes made by interviewees in group discussion assessment.

Talking too much – It’s good that you have initiated to speak in group discussion and it will create a good impression. But if you talk endlessly, you may become out of track in your content and may lose point for this. In group discussion, it does not matter how much you have spoken but the relevancy of the topic given and way you express your views are graded more points. If you start blabbering immediately after getting signal, after some time you become out of content. Save some content to speak later, the session lasts for more than ten minutes.

Keeping silent – If by talking too much you may lose some points, keeping mum certainly ruins everything. If topic given by assesse is out of your context, try to make few points with assertion. It’s better to add some points rather than ending up with nil.

Not letting others speak – If you are repeatedly interrupting other speakers, blocking other’s views and not letting other participants to speak, you image might emerge as authoritative. Even if you disagree with someone, let him finish and politely disagree. Appreciate points and views raised by other participants. Facilitate the hesitant participants to elicit their views, it shows your leadership quality.

Being loud – Group discussion is usually conducted in small sized venue within a group of maximum 15-20 participants. So, our voice can easily be understood among all participants as well as examiner if spoken with moderate pitch. There is no need to talk much loudly so that voice does not sound absurd & highly pitched. Speak gently with appropriate intonation & rate of speech.

Not listening to others – If you think that your work is done by speaking in the beginning, you are wrong. Listen to others carefully, sometimes or I will say most of times, you get more to speak by listening to others. Participate in group discussion unless the examiner declares the end of the discussion.

In group discussion assessment, most of the candidates are filtered out of the interview process and only few become able to pass through. In your next group discussion, do some early preparation & avoid the mistakes mentioned in this post. Surely you will be among the succeeded in group discussion. After all, those who make efforts never fail to conquer something.