Page 117 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

My Target Service Selection Board (SSB)

Why SSB Interview in India's Toughest

Interview

Why SSB Interview in India's Toughest Interview. You must have read in many articles that Service
Selection Board Interview is the trickiest interview. In some places you must have read that it is the

toughest one. In fact the candidates who appear in this interview also second this opinion, that SSB
is India’s toughest interview. So we decided to dig into this point even more and thus this article talks
about why SSB is India’s toughest interview.
o Instead of ‘best’ fit, they want ‘right’ fit: Defence Forces is one such organization which

doesn’t want the best people as officers, they want the right people. In other organizations if
you go and there are ‘n’ number of people who have come there for interview, then they’ll

select based on the number of posts. They’ll select amongst the lot, who they think is best for
the job. Where as in SSB they want the right fit. If they won’t find the right fit, they’ll simply
reject all the other people, if they find the right fit in all, then they’ll recommend all. You must
have read that there is a shortage of officers in the forces, this is the major reason for that.

Since SSB is a very tough interview and they want the right fit and not the best one, hence the
reason for the vacant seats.

o The three pronged selection style: In SSB three people access you from three different
perspectives. The psychologist accesses you from you mind, he/she makes sure that you have
the necessary qualities that an officer must have, by putting you under several tests. The

Interviewing officers talks to you one on one and draws his conclusion based on your answers.
The GTO tests you for your group compatibility and other social qualities. If you are passed by
any two (in some cases all three), then only you are recommended. The conclusions of these

officers are independent and nobody interferes in other one’s deduction. They never discuss
anything about any candidate accept for the board conference.
o Mansa, Karma, Vachan and the OLQ’s: It is said that in order to pass the SSB you must be

the same person in all the three assessors’ conclusion. This means you must possess certain
OLQ’s and these should be the same in all the three results. In other words what you write in
the psychological tests papers should be in line with what you say to the interviewing officer

and these should match with how you perform in the GT series. If you are not putting any fake
reaction then generally the results of all three assessors must match, thus you get
recommended.

o The secrecy of results (Self-Introspection): There is a common complain amongst the
candidates that in SSB nobody gets to know where he/she lacked. Thus the results are secret
and you shortcomings are never told. It is entirely left on the candidate to think, introspect and

derive the conclusion where they lacked; in which test they performed bad or what might be the