IAS officer publishes book on UPSC’s personality test

It’s a compilation of experiences of civil servants during the interview

If you have cracked the UPSC examination but are clueless how to face the interview, here is a book for you. MEPZ Special Economic Zone Development Commissioner M.K. Shanmuga Sundaram, who is an IAS officer of the 1997 batch belonging to the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has made a compilation of the personality tests of 61 civil servants in his book, Interviews Redefined. The compilation contains the experiences of civil servants during the interviews held at the time of the UPSC selection process. Speaking at the launch of the book at Shankar IAS Academy in Chennai on Wednesday, Mr. Shanmuga Sundaram said the civil services personality test, often referred to as interview, maintains its basic framework of making the aspirants comfortable and help them express themselves. “There are also more technical or in-depth questions being asked nowadays. In a purposeful conversation, the special traits of the candidates are given more focus so that their attitude, competency levels and their empathy with different people in society are expressed in no uncertain terms. As more and more aspirants are coming with specialised knowledge and work experience, the interviewers do ask about happenings in those fields,” he said.