INTERVIEW: 1.2

INTERVIEW: 1.2 Preparation Strategy To be honest, it is not at all tough to 'prepare' for an interview as you only have to analyze yourself because all the answers an interview board seeks are within you. Although, practice for an interview session should ideally begin, as soon as you apply for a job opening. However, you should use the few weeks and months before the interview to revisit and update your knowledge base, and crystallize your reasoning and thinking process on your career and life goals. Reading newspapers and keeping updated with all the major happenings does help a lot. Revising the concepts, at least from courses one liked or did well in, from under graduation is required. Attend mock GD sessions and give 5-6 mock interviews. Importantly, preparing for GD/PI sessions is a good time to reflect and introspect on what are one's career goals and the reasons why one is opting for a certain profile with a certain organization, and one should make use of this opportunity. First steps on how to approach an interview? - Do your homework - Have well thought out answers for questions such as "What are your strengths? Why are you right for a particular profile? Why is that particular company right for you?" It shows organization and forethought if you know some specifics about the profile to which you are applying and can explain why those details fit well with your career goals. - What you'll Be Asked? - You should be prepared for these potential areas of questioning: Your childhood, personality, family, college life, hobbies, sports and outside interests, your professional and leadership experiences. Be prepared for a wide range of questions, from casual inquiries about your family to probing questions about ethical/legal issues. Also be prepared for general questions about current events and items of interest in popular culture. Nothing is more disheartening than interviewing an "academic genius" who doesn't know who is the Deputy Prime Minister or Vice -President of the Country. - How an interview commences? - A typical interview covers more than one theme. You are generally asked to first introduce yourself to the panel members. Remember that this is your opportunity to 'lead' the interview into areas that you are comfortable with or to topics that you wish to discuss. It is quite important to highlight your achievements, whether academic or extra-curricular, in your introduction itself. Don't wait for the panel members to specifically ask you about them. Other things that you could mention in your introduction are your family and academic background, hobbies and interests, goals and aims in life, your strengths and weaknesses etc. In fact, you could say almost anything as long as it is relevant, in the sense, that it reveals something about you as a person. - Academics/ Work experience - Interviews also centre on questions pertaining to academics, especially for all the freshers. Once again, it is hardly a good strategy to open your books just a few days before the interview and try to mug up whatever you think is important for the interview. Try to ensure instead that you are keeping up with the subjects in your undergraduate course, be comfortable with the basics of the course and ready to answer application-based questions on these subjects. If you appear to be the kind of person who picks up his books just to pass your examinations, the interviewers are likely to probe you further to check your genuine interest in the course you are currently pursuing and whether you, as a student, have really taken in something. Remember that the people who are interviewing you are professionals; they are unlikely to be too impressed if you seem to forget everything that you are supposed to have learnt just a few weeks/ months back! If you have work experience, you can expect some questions around that. Besides your role in your current organisation, be ready for questions about latest developments in the industry/ sector that you were working in. In summary, make sure you do the following while preparing for interviews: Read extensively and widely; and do not keep your focus or sphere of knowledge too narrow. Keep up-to-date with all the latest important developments, especially the ones pertaining to the world of your domain. Make sure that you keep up with your academic course as it is taught at your college; do not try to mug up things at the last moment. Questions in your interviews may not be limited to what you are studying in your final year only.

Think about what all you could state in response to standard interview questions.

 [to be continued...]