The funda behind CSE interview: (15 points to crack the Interview!

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1. What do they look for in CSE interview? Rather what they should be looking forward? Of
course they look for qualities of a good civil servant. What are they? And why are they?

2. Lets start from the basic. What does a civil servant do in the government? Civil servant
here is an officer, IAS, IPS, IRS etc. What do they do?

3. If you remove the clutter of their meetings, executing govt orders, taking care of
emergencies, protocols etc, you will find that they fundamentally take decisions, day in
and day out, under varied conditions.

4. So, basically civil servants are expected to take decisions. Needless to say, they decisions
have to be good decisions, good for the public.

5. Now, what are the qualities you require to take a good decision? You need the following
5 qualities:
i. First is that, you must have interest in things around you, and people around you. If
you are not interested in the public and issues around you, then how can you involve
yourself to serve them and their cause? So, you must have a genuine interest in the
things going around you! There must a balanced passion and zest in your life for
others. If you dont have it, what will u do as a civil servant, where you are expected
to handle issues governing others?!

ii. You need to be unbiased. You mind shall not be influenced by your own liking and
disliking. You shall have the ability to look at any issue, in an unbiased manner. If you
are biased, you will choose to listen what you want to, and thus you will get
incomplete information. That would lead to further bias in the decision. A biased
decision is bad, and will be found unacceptable, thus defeating the very purpose of a
decision. When we say unbiased it takes care of honesty and integrity, as any
corrupt practice invariable introduced a bias in the mind of the decision maker.

iii. You should be knowledgeable. If you are not, then you will not be able to understand
the information you get. If a complaint is filed about environment degradation, and
you need to decide between development and environment, unless you have a sound
basic knowledge, you cant understand the arguments. Not only that, you will also
waste your time in learning or referring. But, many a times you may not get the luxury
of time to do that! Thus a civil servant is expected to have basic knowledge on
everything around him.

iv. You should have an analytical, sharp mind. Means, you should know how to deduce
things logically. You should know how to identify the relevant information from
clutter, and how logically it can lead to a decision. Every decision of yours shall be
arrived only analytically, and logically. There is no scope for 6th sense. This also
means, hard work is required to apply logic. The decision shall be logical!

v. Last point is that, you should have the courage to enforce the decision you have
taken! There is no point in taking the best decision and unable to implement it, for
want of courage!

6. Thats it! You only need these 5 qualities to be a good civil servant. If you think there are
other qualities, which cant be broke down into these 5, please let me know.

7. My 15 years of service, and my colleagues experience has proved that if a civil servant
has these 5 qualities, she/he will be a good civil servant, whom nobody can point a
finger!

8. Now that we know, what we are expected to possess, its easy to guess, how the above
qualities will be checked. Infact, part of these qualities are checked already in prelims
and mains. Interview is another way of checking it. Thats how the interview mark is
added to the total you have scored and not treated separately as a cut-off mark!

9. So, if you have exhibited all these qualities fairly well in mains, then even if you dont
exhibit in the interview, the mains will carry you to glory. But, if you think mains did not
exhibit these aspects, then interview is your last chance! Now, all the questions coming
from your DAF will be to elicit the above 5 elements!

10. After making you comfortable, they will try to find if things around you interest you. Not
just after you applied for CSE, but since your childhood. If they find that you have been
interested in public affairs selflessly, all your life, it will be a clear advantage. It will be
seen in whether you have been in any position of responsibility or taken up public cause
etc.

11. Also, if life interests you, they will ask about general knowledge. If you are interested in
public affairs, your knowledge on things around you will also be good always! They will
test it, by asking questions about your past.

12. Next is about unbiased mind. They will ask your opinion on a controversial subject to
see how unbiased, how logical you are! They may test if you are really mean it or you
have been tutored by putting you to stress! Under stress your true color will come out!
They will check if you were unbiased in young age too.

13. Then they will check how logical you are. Its checked by asking the most important
decisions in your life, and whether they were backed by logic or not.

14. Next is courage. This also will come out in the decisions you had made in the past. If you
have run away from situations it will go negative for you!

15. Thats it! This is all about interview! If you show all good qualities, you will get above
200. Average is around 150. Anything less that 150 is seen us non desirable. Now, you
may possess the qualities, but may fail to exhibit them before the interview board.
Thats were mentoring helps. It will help you to understand interview so that you are
clear and confident. These 3 elements, superposed on your DAF, will almost give you
50% of the questions they will ask! So, be confident. You cant invent yourself and fool
the board. At the same time, ensure that the board knows what you are.
Communicating yourself to them in 30 minutes is not easy, but then not difficult too!