Batch/Branch: 2107/ Computer Science (Finance Minor)
Job: Enlisted into the INDIAN ARMY, CDS All India Rank 5
Early Graduated, JPMC PPO, Basketball team Captain
Q. How and when did you get the motivation to join the armed forces? Why did you choose to do engineering and then pursue defence?
Coming from a civilian background, I didn’t have much knowledge about the working of the armed forces. But, I was always fascinated by how our brave defence personnel have sacrificed the comfort of their lives to serve our nation. I wasn’t too sure about it as my parents weren’t too comfortable with the prospect of me giving up my merit seats in colleges such as BITS and I also had done well in my JEE-Mains. But with the determination to serve the country I enrolled myself for the NDA exam after 12th standard. This exam is relatively very easy compared to exams such as JEE and BITSAT. I cleared it and went to give my SSB interview. I failed. I gave the SSB interview again while entering my 2nd year and was screened out in the 3rd round. This reduced my confidence. But, when I was in my 3rd year of college, the drive to join the armed forces came back. I then cleared my CDS exam and mentally prepared and hoped for the best to clear SSB. I honestly wasn’t prepared for it, but I was myself and honest with the review board and my dream came true when I got my reporting letter.
Q. Being from a computer science background, what would the work in the army be like? Which team are you going to be part of? (In case there is information about this yet, and if it is not confidential)
Although I was a Computer Science student at college, I wasn’t quite interested in the field. I did a minor in finance to cover up for that so I could have a decent job as a backup for the armed forces. Once you are about to complete the training after the SSB interview, you are given a preference sheet where you can fill in which regiment you want to get into. I was never interested in doing a desk job after graduation, and so I put in my preferences as artillery, infantry and special forces. They do take your major into consideration if you put something that is related to it on your preference sheet but I didn’t, so I currently have no idea where I’ll end up. Based upon how the candidate performs in the 18 months of basic training, they will be allotted their respective regiments and ranks accordingly.
Q. Could you brief us on the exact procedure for applying to the armed forces, the Indian army in particular, as an engineering student/graduate?
For applying via the technical entries, you can start applying in your fourth year of engineering. You need to submit proof that you have no backlogs and should graduate by a particular date, and then you can join once that you are selected.
There are multiple pathways for application.
One way is to appear for the Combined Defence Services (CDS) exam which is followed by the Service Selection Board (SSB) interview if you pass the test. The exam is a basic written test consisting of sections on Math, General Knowledge and English. It’s the main entry for training academies like the IMA (Indian Military Academy) in Dehradun, AFA (Air Force Academy) in Dundigal, INA (Indian Naval Academy) in Kerala and OTA (Officers Training Academy) in Chennai. If you clear the cut-off, they would call you for a 5-day SSB interview process at one of the academies. If you get selected, based on your performance and preference, you could be commissioned into one of the armed forces.
For engineering candidates, there’s a distinctive entry called the Technical Graduate Course (TGC) entry. It is more sought after by engineers because the selected candidates get commissioned as an officer with one-year seniority due to the 4-year undergrad course, unlike the usual 3-year courses. However, there aren’t many vacancies through this pathway, only around 40 seats are opened in every cycle of the process. They put up a notice on the website, https://joinindianarmy.nic.in/, where you are supposed to upload all your mark sheets for the first three years of college. After analyzing the submissions, they release branch-wise CG/percentage cut-offs for filtering. Ones selected are directly called for an SSB interview, and the same process as in the case of a CDS entry follows.
Next, another exam called AFCAT (Air Force Common Admission Test) is specifically for commission into the Air Force. That could serve as a substitute for the CDS exam. Upon clearing, the same SSB interview process follows here too.
Q. How did you prepare for the CDS exam and the SSB interview? When did you start preparing for the same?
I bifurcated my preparation strategy into the subjects that constitute the CDS exam. The exam requires you to be really quick in answering the questions. For example, 100 questions in Math have to be solved in 120 minutes.
CDS has three sections - General Knowledge, Mathematics and English.
The GK section has three major parts - Science (PCM), Social Sciences (History, Political Science, Geography) and Current affairs. CDS has a section-wise clearance cut-off too, like, you need a minimum of 20% marks in GK to clear CDS overall. Physics and Chemistry also should not be a problem as they are nowhere near the level of JEE or BITSAT. Read the newspaper regularly and brush up a bit on high school Social Science subjects.
I started preparing over a month before the test, going through several YouTube videos on the basics of all subjects. After appearing for the JEE, we all are good with basic level math but mostly lose touch with simple calculation tricks during college. Make sure to practice those to improve your speed. For the section on current affairs, being versed with the daily news should be good enough. Lastly, English should not be a problem for BITSians, they need you to be very strong and prompt in grammar. As these questions need a swift and prompt response due to the time constraint of the CDS exam.
CDS: CDS Pathfinder by Arihant - Pathfinder CDS Combined Defence Services Entrance Examination : Arihant Experts
Solved papers by Upkar publications - Combined Defence Services Solved Paper
SSB: Dr (Cdr.) NK Natarajan’s Complete Guide - SSB Interview: The Complete Guide : Dr. NK Natarajan
CDS All India Topper’s interview - YouTube channel - CTwT - https://www.youtube.com/c/ChamomileTeawithToppers
Q. Considering the selective nature of the forces, what kind of backup plans did you have? How much attention did you pay to work on the backup plans?
I’d say I didn’t ignore engineering prospects whatsoever and played it very safe. I had peace of mind knowing I always had my job at JP Morgan to fall back to in case I wasn’t selected and that I could keep trying in the future.
Q. How was the 5-day long SSB interview process? How did you go about that? Could you brief us about the parts?
The SSB interview happens in 5 steps:
Screening test
Psychological test
Group testing
Personal interview
Conference
SCREENING TEST:
The process starts with a series of screening tests on the first day. The first is an IQ test of MCQ format to be solved on an OMR sheet. The questions are comparable to ones in exams like the GMAT. The next one is a visual perception and description test. They would display a random picture in front of you, and you need to cook up a story based on that picture in 4 minutes. Later, you need to participate in a group discussion with seven other people and discuss the image to develop a story that everyone agrees to. During the conversation, what matters most is how you cooperate with others, lead a healthy discussion and make your point clear in front of everyone. Decent IQ, good communication skills and a fair command of language can make you get through the first stage.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST:
Then, there’s a psychological testing round. There are tests like the random word test, where you’re shown random words for a few seconds at a time and you’re required to write down the first things that come to your head. You’re also given 60 different situations and are questioned about what you would do if it was you in the said situation. After that they ask you to write what you think your parents and friends think about you and finally they ask you to write what you think about yourself. Your performance in all of these tests is evaluated by a psychologist to create a mental profile of the candidate.
GROUP TESTING:
All candidates are divided into groups of 8, and the groups take most of the physical fitness exams together. The tests are curated in a way that they assess the candidate’s mental and physical health thoroughly.
PERSONAL INTERVIEW:
If you manage to clear the previous rounds, you need to appear for a personal interview next. In my opinion, the one-hour interview by the SSB is the most intimidating yet enlightening and eye-opening interview one can ever go through. You can’t really say whether you did well or not because there are no correct or wrong answers. You are merely supposed to answer the questions asked in the most honest yet thoughtful way. The interview is essentially a personality test. The interviewer can ask you anything about yourself, your life, some peculiar stories, or anything impossible to answer falsely. The situations they ask you about are such that you cannot cook stories and have to tell them the truth. Speak your mind, be grounded and humble, tell the truth, and you should be good. Confidence is key and be gracious. Do not be overconfident as that’ll show your ignorance and ego. Remember, they can always see right through you. Stay calm, be focused and hope for the best.
CONFERENCE:
On the last day of the process, there is another interview-sort of round wherein they call you into a huge conference room, and the officers ask you some trivial questions together. This is a make-or-break round for candidates on the borderline of the cut-off scores of all the tests. Such people might be asked some more questions, but it’s pretty smooth for the rest. It won’t get you a rejection if you fared well in the personal interview, nor will it bring you a selection if you messed that up. It’s just the best opportunity for ones on the intersection of the two categories.
Q. Are there other pathways for female engineers to get into the army apart from CDS/SSB?
According to the current regulations, I only know about the SSC(W) Tech and CDS OTA entries into the Indian Army for female engineers. Unfortunately, women aren’t entitled to a permanent commission yet, and the OTA commissioned candidates only get a short-service commission of 10 years, which is extendable by four years. Post that, the officer gets retired from the army. However, many discussions on increasing female seats and encouraging women in the armed forces have been going on of late.
Q. How much importance do college grades have in the application process?
College grades, in general, do not have a huge role to play in the application process. If you go via the TGC entry, as long as you’re above the cut-off, you should be good. In other cases, your application should give an impression that you’re a sincere person. They do not test you on your subjects during the interview; they do the personality check, following a very holistic approach. If you have really low grades, it could be a red flag, and you should be in a situation to convince them in your favor. You shouldn’t worry a lot about it if you have a CG of 7 or higher.
Q. Can people apply only for positions in their engineering major? Or are cross-disciplinary applications accepted?
Yes, the applications are not bound to a specific branch or major. People from all domains and streams apply to the armed forces and work in different teams there. Just like your major, your minor is also taken into consideration if you put down something that is related to it in your preferences. But people with a 5-year programme are at a disadvantage when compared to those who try to get in using a BSE degree, especially when applying for the air force, since there is a maximum age limit of 23 after which you can’t apply for it anymore. And since the people with a dual degree graduate when they are 22, they only have one year left to try to get in. The maximum age at which you can apply for the army and navy vary based on different criteria but those with a 4 year degree still get 1 extra year to prepare.
Q. What advice would you give to your juniors in college?
Make sure you try out everything you can possibly explore in your college life, don’t be scared to explore. It could be something you never thought you were good at, or maybe it’s something you were uncomfortable with trying in the past. For example, a couple of days after my basketball practice, I tried out tennis and badminton as they were fascinating to me. Despite not being good at either, I went and asked the team members if I could play. This gave me an opportunity to explore those sports and I ended up liking them.
Also the 2020 and 2021 batches are going to step into a campus culture that’s a fresh canvas. The 2019 and 2018 batches are the only current batches on campus who were the last to see the old campus culture of BPHC in its original glory and it is the responsibility of those seniors to pass on all those ideals and experience over to their juniors. I really urge and request the juniors to stay in touch and interact well with their seniors so that they can carry on the true essence of BPHC that was properly established by the batches from 2008-12 and onwards. I can only give you one main piece of advice: “FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD”, as they say.
Disclaimer: The points given above are the views and steps taken by the individual. They are not fixed steps and guideline to base your college upon. Our hope is to inspire students so they can take the necessary steps here after. We hope you like it!
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