How I got recommended in Indian Coast Guard SSB in first attempt.

Hello Everyone! I am Ambrish Shukla and this is my story of how I got recommended in Indian Coast Guard SSB in first attempt. Hope you have enough patience to read it all. I got recommended for Indian Coast guard assistant commandant 01/2016 entry in the first attempt.

First let me tell you about myself: - I am a very adventurous, ever happy, fun loving person who is very introvert but very observant and adaptable. I learn well from other peoples experiences. My advice to all is that “you always get to learn more from listening than from talking”. I am someone who wants to have everything but unfortunately lazy enough to work for nothing. I love to read, I have read the books by Barack Obama, Richard Branson, Jon Evans, Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, Rabindranath Tagore, M Gandhi, Martin Luther king, Shiv Khera, A C Doyle, Usain Bolt, APJ Abdul Kalam, and Stephan Hawkins etc etc. You guessed it right I have a lot of free time. I also want to write a book on nutrition in not so distant future. So I am an ECE engineer, done my B.tech in 2011-2015, so currently I am waiting for my date of joining from an IT MNC company by college placement. So I am currently unemployed. I am from a remote village in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh. And was currently staying at my relatives in Delhi for medicals.

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Without consuming much of your valuable time, let me get straight to it. My PSB was held on 8/7/2015 at CGSB Noida. I went with 2 of my college friends for the same but unfortunately they were screened out in OIR test. The OIR test was very easy but you have to mark your responses in OMR sheet very fast, questions are very very easy, no need to prepare but yes they are timed and most of your time flies in filling 7mmX7mm OMR boxes with black ball pen (try filling 2 under 5 seconds). Then about 39 candidates were called for PPDT. 

This is me in bottom left sitting in first pic and these are the 15 recommended candidates (one in next pic as he was clicking this pic), picture is taken outside at CGSB (coast guard selection board) Noida gate with guard bhiyaa .

My group was first of 13 candidates. The picture was very hazy about 4 masked men holding rifles in a hilly area and celebrating. I wrote a story about a soldier and his friends partying and merry making after successfully exterminating the terrorists who attacked a remote tribal village in J&K. Surprisingly most of the other candidates came at a similar story but somewhat with minute differences and one candidate apparently din’t saw anyone in picture. Then I narrated my story which was easy but in GD, initially it was like fish market but after intervention of GTO, it went peaceful and conclusion was attained. The group was wonderful and everyone got a chance to speak. Then 3 people were selected from my group including me and our biometric was done and we were sent home.

We were called for SSB on 19/07/2015 to 24/07/2015. About 80 PSB selected candidates were called. While coming to Delhi I lost my android around Aligarh so I was without phone for the rest of the week. I was allotted chest no. 2 in SSB, being a complete fresher to defense forces. In fact no one in my entire extended family has anything to do with uniform apart from school uniform which we wore when we were students. Chest no 1 never came after the day chest no’s were allotted, so I was to attend first in everything, I was “bali ka bakra”. The psychological tests went well, I wrote all stories, 53 SRTs, all WATs, with mixed attitude not so + neither so – e.g. failure = success trains, failure complains. Dance = Pakistan dances to the tune of ISI.

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Always be honest, don’t fake it, sooner than later, they will find out. SSB assessors are very skilled and adept a judging and assessing people. Don’t join any coaching neither learn or read stories beforehand, though individual guidance can be preferred Coaching’s usually mess up your thought process and originality and these pre manufactured answers are very easily read by SSB staff. They don’t select precooked people to be honest.

The next day was my interview which was taken by President of SSB himself. He was very down to earth, humble person of high moral character with a quick eye to rule out fakers and pre cooked ones. One advice don’t be nervous, before entering the room take a few deep breaths , move around , calm yourself and count to ten. You will be relaxed guaranteed. The interview went for about 50 minutes, lots of technical questions as I filled for tech branch, questions from PLQ form. I participated in zonals, interschool and district level athletics (400m, 800m and triple jump) from class 10 to class 12 but was not very much successful . He asked me why, I gave an honest answer that I was not very focused and didn’t practice hard enough, then there were some SRT questions, etc. Overall the interview went well and there was no nervousness in me by the time interview was over. I am bad at geography so I messed up 3 questions there. One more thing stick to your answers no matter what, stick to your answers in interview SRTs as further questions will be asked on your responses. Then the next day was my GTO tasks. In my group there were people from chest no 2 to chest no 11.the group was wonderful, lots of cheerful, enthusiastic and fun loving people under the same roof. Unlike me, many of them were sons of defense personnel. Our GTO tasks, lectures, gds all went well without any chaos unlike most other groups. I believe if you are calm, then your behavior reflects on others and everything goes well. The topics were very very easy and even a very naïve person will be able to speak up good enough points. Just keep an eye on current news.

A bunch of recommended candidates

As our group was first, so we got a day off after all our tests were over, some people went to see movie “Bajrangi Bhaijaan”. It’s a good movie. On Friday i.e. 24/07/2015 was our conference day. As usual I was first to go and apart from asking questions from stay, food and suggestions, they asked me what would I do if I did not get recommended. I answered it positively and very confidently. Then I thanked all and was asked to leave. Then in afternoon at about 2 pm results came. After some moral speech from our GTO and psychologist , they announced the results:- chest no 2, chest no 5, ….( I was not really expecting this but as I heard, my heart skipped a beat and I thought should I laugh or should I cry. I thought “andhe k hanth bater lag gayee”). About 15 people out of 80 were selected. 3 people from my group were selected. Then the rest were asked to leave and we were there to fill various forms which took about 2 hours.

So I advise you to prepare well in advance, practice timed WAT, TAT, and SRTs etc. Read your PIQ form well. Remain calm and others will do the same. Read newspaper also.

You also have what it takes, you have just to take risks and unlock your true potential. You can always be more than yourself. Just do your best, don’t stress and forget the rest.

The SSB proved to be a cakewalk as compared to my medicals. I was declared unfit in surgery department ( I will not go into details) on 10/8/2015 but on 9/9/2015 after 31 days, I went for appeal medical board and was declared fit in surgery department and fit in medicals overall. Now I am waiting for merit list which will come in mid November 2015. Hope I didn’t bored you.

I am grateful for Jayendra Singh Sir for putting my SSB experience in website. He is very good person who is always eager to help defense aspirants. I have come this far because of grace of almighty GOD (I pray daily), my brother Divyanshu who is doing MBA, he told me how to deal with people(that’s what MBAians do) and my wonderful and supportive parents who are foundation for my success. Wish me luck as I need it most for merit list.

I wish everyone good luck in achieving their dreams. Thank you everyone!!!

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About the Author: Ambrish Shukla is BTech in Electronics and communication and is pass out of this year only. He is an avid reader and has participated in many state level activities. He always dreamt of serving the nation and is moving ahead for it.