All b-schools seem to be falling over each other in trying to pose questions or set tasks for call-getters or potential call-getters via their forms that are really unique. Gone are the simple what are your career goals or one incident where you demonstrated leadership skills; the new breed of questions are taking it to a different level altogether. A case in point is the latest set of questions that XLRI call-getters are supposed to fill.

 

But it’s not just the questions that have the aspirants worried — it is the video clip that has most people worried. So this post will be a how to about that but firstly let us look at the brief.

Share with us your views through a video — maximum duration 3 minutes — which showcases your best in the topic/subject/area/field/domain of your interest. Kindly also include why it holds your interest.

 

There are two ways to go about scripting this video.

Format A — That one thing you are crazy about

For those of you who have a very, very strong interest in one of the filed you should just talk about it or demonstrate it. This one thing for example can be

• an idea — Internet of Things, Clean Tech, Space Travel
• a thing or a category of things — Automobiles, Bikes or Technological Gadgetry
• a sport — any sport (playing or watching or both)
• an art form — classical music or dance
• a language — foreign languages or many indian languages
• a genre of books — fantasy, historical fiction, historical non-fiction

The most important thing is that your interest should not be something that everyone else will easily have. For example, no matter how crazy you are about film music, everyone else will also be equally interested; it is not an outlier interest. But the moment it come to classical music you are already in a minority. So firstly, choose an example that will fall into the outlier category. Secondly, you should have more than a superficial knowledge of the same; you cannot choose something because it is not common and then speak about it in a way that barely scratches the surface.

But what if you really like something such as say football which many people follow but your knowledge of it really goes many levels deeper than normal; the same can be the case with film music. In such cases you choose a sub-genre within in that is your speciality and speak about it. For example, in football it can be World Cups or a player. In film music it can be songs by a particular composer. But even here understand that some examples will end up being cliches — Man United/Arsenal or A.R.Rahman/Ilayaraja. In the case of interests that are common it really helps if you are a practitioner as well  — an avid footballer or singer even though at an amateur level.

Format B — Two or three things you are passionate about

Format A is for those whose knowledge/interest/work will fall in the outlier level in that particular field. In case there is no area of interest that is so overarching that you can do a Format B — my two/three biggest passions. Choose 2 or 3 things in which you have a fair amount of interest or knowledge and speak about them. They can be from the same categories listed above.

A few links to give you a bit of a reference point to write and shoot.

How to script — A video essay made by an applicant to NYU. Use this strictly for writing the script especially the way he talks about his passion.

How to shoot — A video made by an ISB aspirant. Use this to get an idea about how to set up and shoot.

Hope this suffices and hope you guys finish on time.