Book Excerpt - SoS - Ch-12 Interview Tips - How to Prepare for and ACE an interview?

Dear All

Using this forum to share some excerpts to raise the interest levels of the book I wrote and published through BPB Publications. I will share some excerpts every week to get your inputs and suggestions for future work.

This week, I am focusing on the final chapter - Interview Tips. This covers the following aspects

Table of Contents

Chapter 12 introduces the readers to a set of tips to p repare an approach for interview, practice questions and follow up questions that can be asked during the interview and follow-up approaches post the interview to create better outcomes.

Chapter 12 Interview Tips

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your  life."

—Confucius

Interviews cause a lot of anxiety and fear in the minds of interviewees. Regardless of readiness for interviews, mastery of the subject and an impeccable profile,  evena top candidate can have a nightmare and a difficulty sleeping the night before. On the other hand, some candidates take interviews in a very light manner with zero or no preparation. Both are situations that could be avoided. Interviews can be handled well with very good preparation, by energizing the mind and body, with a very confident and positive mindset, realistic expectation of the outcome and curiosity to learn and make course corrections. This chapter introduces the audience to a set of tips to practice and follow to create better outcomes.

Structure

●     Interview strategy, approach and planning ●     interview preparation ●     types of interview & approaches ●     interview process ●     virtual interviews ●     Conclusion

Objective

After studying this chapter, you will be able to understand the preparatory steps essential for an automation interview. What are the important preparatory steps? How to answer? What are some good behaviours to exhibit? What are some behaviours to avoid? What do the interviewers look for? How to show good soft skills? How to answer non-technical questions? How to answer in video/Skype interviews? How to be better groomed?

Interview strategy, approach and planning

Remember the quotes “Rome was not built in a day” by John Heywood and “Well begun is half-done” by Aristotle. If you want to succeed in your interviews, you need to plan well. Although there would be a lot of preparation and groundwork, you need to have a strategy, an approach to handle the interview and a plan to execute your strategy and approach. If you want to get into the work that would make you feel good about it and satisfied,while being paid really well, you need to work hard to earn it.

As a first step, prepare a mind map or an outline highlighting your strategy for      the interview. It is important to understand and ask questions to yourself such as what do you want to achieve, will the job help you in the long run? What does the job-offering firm expect? Are the expectations and views aligned? Are you qualified for the job? What are the essentials the hiring team is looking at? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What should be the approach while addressing your weaknesses, technical areas and the whole process of the interview  itself?

Some of the approaches would include analysis and research about the job/role, the company offering the job and the job division type. If the company is a small-scale, start-up or an emerging one, you may want to check about the financial capability  of the firm. In the case of start-ups, check the early as well as the advanced stage of the firm, including whether is it bootstrapped or angel-funded or seed-fundedetc. Once you have analysed the firm, try to find out about your interviewer, if you can. You may the interviewer’s professional profile on social media websites, especially LinkedIn, to understand his or her background. This would help you learn something about the interviewer and whether he or she is a technically orientedprofessional or a general management professional.

Since the next approach would be your preparation, you should focus on your readiness in terms of technical skills. This book covers one aspect of the Selenium’s technical skills. If there are other technical skills needed as an addendum, you need to prepare well on those topics as well. You also need to remember, what the interviewer sees in a resume is what they typically get. This is very important and what is in your resume/CV and your skills highlighted and exemplified should match .Agood interviewer can easily identify a lie in the CV and hence it is important to make sure you chisel your CV/profile to reflect your true  self.

In addition to your technical skills, you need to identify what are the skills that can be transferred to the new company. This would highlight your value to the hiring companyfor the long-term prospects. In many cases, a seasoned interviewer and firms may look for a person with outstanding transferable skills and decent technical skills than some with outstanding technical skills. Techies normally overlook the importance of soft skills but this is also very important. The soft skills the firms will be looking for may vary from firm to firm. The roles and function fitment the team is looking for could be evaluated in a behavioural interview or a human resources style interview for soft skills and situational leadership . Some of the key soft skills to be aware of include communication skills, influencing capability, team camaraderie, entrepreneurial risk-taking skills, integrity, creative talent, flexibility and adaptability to new changes (especially in technology), awareness of external changes (in the industry, technology etc.), awareness about the organization, leadership skills (for senior roles), empathy, delegation skills, relationship skills, , team-building skills, project and program management skills.

The next thing to focus on will be to practice the technical interview questions. Reading this book is one of them but not the only source. Look at all the options available, prepare voraciously. Over-preparation or practising is never a bad thing. This will put you in better shape and readiness over your competitors in an interview. The next approach should focus on practising the competency-based interview questions. Prepare a list of standard questions that are likely to be asked. Use your friends, roommates, colleagues, family or anyone (with understanding/ skills) willing to help to ask you questions. This will help you in preparing your answers. Do not memorize them though. A role-playapproach or a method with your acquaintances, such as friends, family, colleague, roommate, partner etc., can also help you motivate your skills and abilities with the job  opportunity.

Have a dry-run of the audio, Skype or video interviews. In the case of video interviews, if you are not able to test the mode of interview platform, try a platform that is similar and accessible by you. You need to ensure the phone or the audio in your laptop or a desktop is tested and validated. For a video interview, ensure that your audio and camera are tested. In addition, it is always good to check the video lighting, colour, angle of the video, background appearance etc. beforehand to avoid any potentially uncomfortable experience.

If you put all the aforementioned points into a mind-map and execute them impeccably, success will most likely follow. Let us summarize all these into a pictorial format as per figure 12.1.

Figure 12.1: Pictorial representation of how to prepare for an interview

Interview preparation

One of the most important aspects of handling the interview is preparing for the interview.

Abraham Lincoln quoted famously “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

There is no such thing as over- preparation whereas under preparation can be a killer of ambitions. Interview preparation is a very methodical approach and one needs to plan well. It is one of the most important parts of an interview, which needs to be well structured and follow  a methodical approach, done in a disciplined manner. Unless a person is a superstar, every interview could be a challenging exam that may turn out to be a tough one    to crack. The preparation needs to be more for big and well-known market-leading technology firms and start-ups.

Key points to prepare for the interview

The first point to be prepare for is, do you know yourself very well? Do you know what the prospective recruiter knows about you? Are they aligned? Are you clear about what do you want and what do you want to achieve? There could be a lot of reasons you can look at to know about yourselves. Some of the questions to prepare for include:

Why are you looking for a job change?Be very clear about it. Is it change of role, change of supervisor, change of company, better salary, better opportunity, personal reasons such as work location, to be closer to home or campus or a near and dear, fresher out of college, applying in-campus, laid-off and looking for a job, looking for a job after post-graduation, looking for a job after a work gap (to attend to familial needs/birth of a child, education, failed entrepreneurship), change of function etc. You may need to have a convincing reason for your application. No answer maybe 100% perfect or correct. However, you may need to have a solid, believable and convincing storyline to tell.

●     Why are you interested in the firm you are applying for? – This is where your research about the firm can be handy. Be very realistic and reasonable. Do not go overboard with fancy superlatives and stories. The persons(s) on the other side of the interview table may know far better than the superlatives. At the same time, your research needs to be of very good quality and approximately close to the reality (especially if you are mentioning numbers, rankings  etc.)

●     Do you know your strengths and your weaknesses? – This is a definite question to be asked by almost all the interviewers. Answering such a question would give you an opportunity to tell your story and be very honest about it. The interviewer to frame probing questions could use what you   tell here. Hence, it is prudent to be very honest. Many candidates highlight mostly strengths and take a humble-bragging route for weaknesses. All humans have weaknesses and it is good to be honest and highlight what you are doing to overcome the same.

●     Does the things mentioned in your resume match with your personality?– Good interviewers can easily figure out a lie/fake information against a genuine point. Many interviewers focus on what you have in your resume. Do not put anything in your resume that you are not sure of answering well.

●     Ensure your online presence/digital trail is good – It is good to understand and have clarity on your online posts, as at times, interviewer(s) may ask about them as well. This is relevant, especially if you have contributed to GitHub, Quora, LinkedIn, Stack Overflow and similar forums of popularity.

Logistics and firm/company research preparation

While preparing for an interview, a personneeds to analyse the job roles he or she    is applying for. It is important to understand the logistics for the process such as pre-interview tasks, online tests, coding challenges and approaches, which could be followed duringinterviews, including the types of interviews, the number of rounds, interview methods (telephonic, Skype/video, face-to-face etc.) etc. Additionally, logistics for in-person or virtual interviews need to be taken care of by the candidates as well. One of the most important aspects of the interview is to analyse the company profile and the job description (JD).

Some systematic approachesyou should consider while preparing for a job interview are:

?     Always review the JD given in the job posting.

?     Since most of the time, a lot of informationis succinctly given in a job description, you should always consider thinking about the following points

o     Can you prepare a mind-map or a point-by-point map of what a company or a firm is looking for? Does yourresume/CV/experience correspond well to the needs of the JD? The more matches you have, the better it will be for you in terms of acknowledgement of your application

o     A one size fits all resume or a /CV may not fit the requirements of the organizations.

o      Can you prepare your CV/resume with relevant JD skills to get a better ranking through an automated tracking system  (ATS)?

o     Can you avoid over-engineering or overdoingyour resume, as lying in a resume/CV is considered a big crime.

o     Can you focus on the critical responsibilities ofthe firm, understand its needs and pitch a convincing, honest story around thecompany’s key needs.

?     Apply for the roles/jobs that you qualify for. Do not try a blue ocean strategy for a straightforward technology job or a role with a specific need. For example, an engineer can’t apply for the role of a cardiothoracic surgeon  etc.

●     Be focused in your job search and prepare a super solid resume/CV that can get through advanced the ATS used by the firms.

●     Prepare your CV in such an intelligent way that it highlights your strengths on theATS system.

●     Get your networks into action and see if you can get  referrals.

Know about the firm you are applying for

?     You can perform research on what the firmdoes for a  living

?     You can perform research on the company’s mission, vision and   strategy

?     You can complete your research on the company’s vision and aspirations, including its interest in technology and industries

?     You can perform research on the position you are applying  for

?     You can try to understand the levels/bands/designations and comparison against the position you are applying for

?     You can also try to understand the organizational type (flat vs hierarchical) and rewards and recognition

?     You can try to understand about power styles and intra-team political situations

?     You can try to get an understanding of how the career growth will likely shape up later

?     You may also perform research on the campus you are requested to visit in case of an in-person interview

?     You can try to get inputs from your friends or ask for details from your hiring coordinator to familiarize yourself

?     In the case of travel, ensure you have enough travel time planned, including traffic jams, weather-related etc. If you can afford to reach ahead of time, it is a good investment, especially when you are aiming to get into an important role. It is better to be early than to give the impression that you are not very serious or lackadaisical.

?     You can analyse the technology set up in the case of a video or audio interview

?     If possible, try to run a mock session with your close friend to test the  setup.

Technical/functional Preparation

Technical and functional interviews are meant to determine the skills and capabilities of a candidate and they mostly decidethe outcome of the interview process. Hence, the preparation for technical and functional interviews is absolutely critical. In addition to looking at online resources available and speaking to the candidates orthe current and past employees can be a good tip to follow. This way, you will get to know the crux of the details you need to focus on to prepare for the  interview.

Some systematic approaches for your preparation  include:

?     Prepare a set of questions and try answering them

o     Try mirror-imagingtechnique; speak to a person over a Skype to practice for the interview. This will give you a real-life  experience.

?     Understand how the interview process will be executed o     How many interview rounds

o     Interviewer profiles

o     Types of questions to prepare for

?     Prepare for a starting elevator pitch

o     What would be your opening gambit? How will you introduce yourself? Nine out of 10 times the first question will be to help you speak first. This is a great opportunity and equally dangerous if not executed well, as first impressions may carry a lot of weight in the minds of interviewers.

?     Understand the question well before answering it o  Be specific and to the point

o     Be very positive and confident

o     Appear knowledgeable

o     Highlight yourself

o     Focus on your diction and flow

o     Collect your thoughts

o     Try to be yourself and be the same person reflected in the  resume

o     Keep in mind that you are being watched

o     Always close your conversation on a very positive, upbeat note

Appearance/grooming preparation

In a Greek and Latin proverbs, Erasmus famously quoted “Clothes Maketh a man”.   To get a first-mover advantage via a good first impression, one needs to appear professional and successful. To appear professional and confident, one needs to ensure that his or her grooming and appearance areas per the job needs. He or       she should not worry about being overdressed for a job. Being well groomed and pleasant makes a clear statement that you are serious about the job role that you have applied for and that you are very professional about the approach you  choose.

Personal appearance and grooming

Personal appearances can be a key factor in deciding the outcome of the interview. Regardless of what the skills are of a candidate, the first impressions count. Let us see how we can address this

o     If you can afford, get advice from a professional grooming professional trained to get grooming tips relevant for your  persona.

o     If you can’t afford, some important tips for grooming to consider include –

?     Be clear on what you wear – clothing is always important, including shoes, watches, ties, glasses, tops, heels  etc.

?     Remember that it is always better to dress-up well and dress up more than the level demands. No one is rejected for dressing  up

o     Check on your jewels, it is better to be  professional

o     Check your perfumes and deodorant –

?     Ensure there is no odour and there is an optimal use of a deodorant or a perfume

Body Language

As per a quote, 70% of the communication happens in a non-verbal mode and it is essential to have a very positive body language. The skilled interviewers can easily figure out if you are good, confident and know the subject or a novice who is lying, just by observing the body language.

?     Always have a very positive and confident posture

?     You need to showcase that you are full of energy and have a good body language

?     Avoid giving wrong body language messages such as leg fiddling,   tapping

?     Avoid fidgeting hands or fidgeting of a pen if you have  one

?     Have good eye contact – not too much or not too less. Avoid looking at your foot, doors or the ceiling

?     Do not sit cross-armed or too tense. Use hands for positive and open gestures to showcase your honesty and openness.

?     Do not slump into the chair as it may sound you are either arrogant or not interested in the job offer.

First meeting/contact with the interviewer

?     Before you meet the interviewers, if you know whom you will be meeting or speaking to, completeyour research onthem.

o     Look at the LinkedIn profiles, professional and social media information readily available, work and cultural styles and leadership  styles

o If the interviewer is a technical stalwart, understand the contributions, literature done by him or her and try to be cognizant and careful whilst broaching on these topics.

?     Give a very warm “Hello. Good Morning/Afternoon” regards and a very firm shake hand to the interviewers

?     Smile and greet. It is always good to smile and avoid looking very serious, nervous or tensed

?     Good interviewers can easily identify liars and mental state of the interviewee by monitoring the body language

Types of interview & approaches

There are different types of interviewers and interviewsbased on the approach adopted by the interviewers. Different firms follow various techniques and the human resources (HR) or people & operations interviews follow a certain format. Typically, HR or leadership team interviews focus on behavioural interview approach and the hiring team normally focuses on the technical and functional skills needed for the role. This section provides tips, including some approaches to address various types of interviews

Interview approaches

In continuation to the previous paragraph, interviewers can follow different types of approaches. The approach chosen depends on the recommendations followed    by a firm or the interviewer’s personal preference. To make it look dynamic, some  of the interviewers may change the approach, if they want to come across as an unpredictable person. As a candidate, it is good to be aware of various types of interviews and how to handle each of them to be  successful.

●     Traditional and timeline-basedresume

o     Traditional approach primarily focuses on the resume

o     Typically followed by most of the technical talent  recruiters

o     Focused more on the employment history, projects done, tools and skills mentioned in the profile

o     Focused on academic data and certifications (for fresh graduates) and discussion around key achievements

o     Typically starts with an ice-breaker introduction or a query about travel, weather, office etc., and an introduction, followed by a “Can you please introduce yourself?” question

o      There will be a focus to know about the strengths, weaknesses, aspirations and ambitions of a candidate and a focus on how the career progression had been so far.

o     If you have any extra-curricular hobbies including technical ones such as contribution to GitHub or any Open Source development projects or forums, include the same in the resume and discuss about that during the interview process.

o     Do not display yourself in such a way that you will answer immediately as soon as the questions are asked.

?     It is better to be rational and instantaneous and come across as a person with no knowledge than being an imposter.

?     While answering a question, try to find neutral and positive messages that you can send across and imbibe positivity vibes in your responses

?     When in doubt always paraphrase or rephrase what you just heard. This would help you to stick on to the topics related to the questions asked.

o     Keep a check on your answers. If you are taking too much time while answering the questions, the interviewer may feel that you do not know the subject or that you may not be  interested.

o     Don’t answer the question before the question is asked completely or don’t cut the interviewer or jump halfway in-between a question or a response.

?     Wait for the completion of question or the  statements.

●     Behaviour-based interviews

o     Behavioural approach will focus mostly on the exploration of behavioural skills

o     Interviewers at leadership level or H/people & organization level conducting a functional interview post a technical  interview

o     Behavioural interviews focus more on the storytelling aspect and behaviours showcased in a situation.

o     The focus will be on gathering information from various situations, responses, outcomes, emulated behaviours, contributions and lessons learnt.

o     The aim is to provide input to the interviewer with experiential, concrete and solid information in an objective manner. The interviewee should avoid a flip-flopping story or a contradicting message or superfluous information.

o     An opportunity for the interviewees to highlight themselves at a personal level:

?     If you are a good storyteller, this phase will be a very smooth one. Things to keep in mind include telling a storybased on the situation and not spilling out a regurgitated narrative memorized during your rehearsal.

?     It is important to appear very authentic. 

?     If you do not know a subject or get a difficult question from an area that is not your expertise, it is better to say you do not have enough/any experience in the area/subject instead of giving a wrong answer or posing to give an answer that could put you totally out of the picture.

?     It is also important to have a good story to tell.

o     It should be not superficial or unbelievable but more authentic and relatable one:

?     It is important to not get carried away by giving out too many details like names, brands, titles etc., as it could breach confidentiality at times.

●     Interviewers use a STAR technique or a CAR technique during a behavioural interview to evaluate candidates. Both the techniques follow a structured approach for evaluation of the candidates:

STAR Interview Technique ==> ● S-Situation ==>What was the Situation? ●  T-Task==>What was the task taken? ●   A-Action ==> What was the action taken? ●    R-Result ==>What was the result/ Outcome?

CAR Interview Technique ==> ● C-Context  ==>What was the context? ● A-Action ==>What was the action taken? ●   R-Result==> What was the result/ outcome?

?     Some of the questions asked during a behavioural interview  include:

o     How one maintains a good working relationship with teammates (social, introverted, aggressive etc.)

o     A situation where one led a team

o     What approach should acandidate follow in conflicts/difficult situations?

?     A request to share an example of a conflict handled.

?     A request to share an example of a technology-oriented challenge or a conflict handled.

o     Situations where one used innovation and creativity to solve a problem or adding value

o     Experiences of failure and lessons learnt

o     Saying “No” to an ask and standing firmly on the same and the outcome and approach followed

o    Situations where one compromised on a decision for a  better outcome to the project/firm

o     Examples of negotiation and influencing techniques used to achieve goals with integrity

o     Examples of leadership skills and communication skills used to improve situations

o     Questions     about     leadership/management      skills     used     and recommendations

o     Approach to people management

?     How do you motivate and inspire the team?

?     What is your approach to teamwork?

?     How do you constructively pass difficult feedback to the team or team members?

?     How do you receive negative or constructive feedback? 

o           Approach to delivering on-time and on-commitment to  work

o     Approach to stakeholder management

o     An example where the candidate exceeded the expectations by going above and beyond for a customer

o     A question on what the previous managers, colleagues, co-workers, team members would say about the candidate

o     An example of how an ad-hoc priority impacted the work schedule and how the candidate handled the situation

o     And, millions of other questions

Interview process

The interview process may be a very smooth and wonderful experience or could     be a long-drawn and draining experience. It all depends on how serious the hiring team is about the role they are hiring for, the interest levels of the interviewer, hiring manager, recruitment team, agencies facilitating the mapping and interviews and the candidate. The experience and the challenges the candidates go through can be very demanding and tiring and could make or break their ambitions. If the candidate is very well prepared and understands the process of the interview, it could be an excellent experience throughout.

Good questions to ask by the candidates

It’s always a good idea to ask some good questions to show your interest, research and willingness to contribute. A well-prepared candidate will be doing a fantastic job here, if he/she has done good research about the company and showshis or herbrilliance during the interview process.

Some of the good ones to ask would be on:

?     Clarifications on the vision and mission of the  company

?     Strategic focus of the company including corporate social  responsibility

?     Culture of the company

?     Employee growth and organizational development  approach

?     Typical career progression model

?     Professional aspiration and growth-related concerns

It’s also important to avoid asking questions that could act as deterrents such as:

?     Query about salary in a technical interview. This could be a permissible discussion during an HR salary negotiation  stage.

?     Checking on what an interviewer is looking for. This is an uncomfortable question and shows you are underprepared.

?     Checking on chances. This shows you are not confident and conveys a wrong message.

?     Asking or checking on how you performed in the interview. This shows nervousness. If you did well, you need to be very  confident.

?     Questions that could challenge the authority of the interviewer In case, you are visiting the office premises for an  interview:

?     Look at the company site and see the office setup, workplace environment

and interact with people to get an understanding of the company’s work culture

?     Interact with other employees and people attending the interview along with you to get an understanding

?     Check if you can get details about the roles and responsibilities, in case if you are confident of getting selected and making a decision that is suitable to you

?     Try to understand the benefits offered as much as possible, either through the information available on the company’s site or through the HR interview process

After the interview is over

Sometimes the most important tasks take place after the interview is over. Sometimes the long-wait and not so pleasant experience takes place after the interviews. The end-to-end process gets prolonged here. The need to be very poised and dignified    is a lot more after the interview is over, for the candidate. The candidate needs to showcase a more proactive approach after the interview is over. Some of the key tasks to take care includes:

●     Send a “thank you” note to your recruitment coordinator, in a formal manner for the support rendered to you, regardless of the outcome. Ideally, this should be done on the same day or within a day if you are travelling. Remember, they played a key role in getting you the interview.

●     Assess the interview. Try to replay and assess what went well, what didn’t go well, what could’ve been better, what you can do to improve for the future interviews.

●     After some time, if you are confident or unsure about the interview, check with your contacts and the interviewers as a follow-up and keep in touch with them.

o     You can send an email stating your interest in the role and would love feedback (either positive or negative) available.

o     If you do not get any response, check again after a few days (or a week) to see if there is an update.

o     If you still did not get a response, you can choose to move  on.

●     Try to continue your job search, if you are not confident about the outcome. 

o          Ensure tokeep moving on positively.

What are some reasons why people are not hired?

There are many reasons why one does not get hired and the prime reason will be  the fact that the candidate didn’t do a good job during the interview and another candidate did a better job. It is a fact that most companies interview multiple candidates, including internal candidates for a single role. The priorities of the company could be varying. A focus on diversity could also play a role at times. The process of hiring is very longwinded in big companies and some of the companies could have multiple rounds of interviews. One of the companies I interviewed for had seven rounds of interviews including a  face-to-face.

There could be so many additional reasons. Some of them could  be:

●     Focus on money as a primary objective for a career  growth

●     Coming across as too underprepared and performing very poorly in the interview

●     Coming across as lacklustre with no focus on career or not being goals oriented

●     Showing up in an inappropriate appearance for an interview:

o         Remember there is no harm in dressing up

●     Showing no interest in the role or interview

●     Poor academic or career records (it is a major matter for fresher recruitment by big MNC firms)

●     Expecting super-fast track when not qualified – by being over-ambitious in an irrational manner

●     Not maintaining eye-contact by looking very fidgeting, not confident or uncomfortable

●     Poor communication skills with grammatical error or diction, use of clutch and filler words like ‘” like”, “but”, “you know”, “Uhm...”, “mph…”, “and”, etc.”

o If you have some issues with stammering or any other difficulties,  please inform the interviewer about it during your introduction, stating how you are addressing them. It is better to showcase your courage and fight to address this challenge rather than a surprise to  the interviewer. As not all interviewers are alike or diversity sensitized, it is better to brief them in advance.

●     Coming across as pompous, arrogant and aggressive

●     Lack of confidence and showing nervousness through a poor body language and postures

What are some reasons why people are hired?

A major reason for the selection of a candidate is purely based on fitment; and that the candidate aced the interview(s). Reasons include a killer resume/CV, job-relevant experience, communication skills, good emotional intelligence and long-term potential, very good technical skills and transferrable soft skills, drive and energy, problem solving skills, cultural fit, good team working/managing/collaboration skills, ability to work with others, influencing and negotiating skills to name a few.

What are the things not to do during an interview?

It is always easy to get carried away during an interview mainly due to excitement, lack of preparation or the pressure of the situation. It is very important for a candidate to keep certain do’s and don’ts to do better.

Some of the points to keep in mind during a behavioural interview   include:

●     Long-winded, beating around the bush and elongated answers could become a part ofa rambling conversation. Remember the quote from Einstein “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough”. Use the STAR   or a CAR technique mentionedearlier to explain in a succinct, precise and concise manner. Time is limited and the interviewer (and you) may lose out the opportunity to understand better

●     Do not share personal or confidential information. It could be your previous firms, college, family or projects you worked on. Ensure you mask the data and give a relevant answer. Transparency does not mean sharing of confidential or trivial data for the interview.

●     Never berate or belittle your previous bosses or firms. It puts your integrity and discretion ability at risk. You may come across as a non-trust-worthy person.

●     Avoid usage of unprofessional, friendly slangs and filler words. “Buddy, gonna, wassup, dude, kewl, ki, and, like, you know” etc., are not going to paint you as a professional.

●     Do not show your nervousness or lack of confidence. Watch your body language and ensure that you are in a comfortable position to maintain good posture, eye-contact and confidence.

●     Embark on topics, experience or projects not relevant to the job being interviewed for. What happened a few years back in an irrelevant area may not be relevant for the interview.

●     Dinosaurs are good for the museum and not relevant in today’s  world.

●     If you are planning to become an entrepreneur (have your own start-up etc.), have plans for higher-studies or plans to go on a world tour, you need not disclose unless asked by the interviewers.

How to make a good decision, when offers are made?

Good candidates perform well and are always in demand. Good companies will try to onboard good candidates as early as possible. This means that solid candidates will get many good offers to choose from. However, at times, this puts the hiring managers, candidates and the recruitment agencies at risk. It is very important to keep in mind that a professional relationship needs to be kept in mind and it is very important to maintain a very good professional  image.

Some of the points to keep in mind while making a decision on the offer include:

●     If you are gettingtoo many offers, you need to rank the offers based on various parameters, including what is important to you   .

●     Evaluate the pros and cons, cost vs. benefits, short term vs. long term fitment of the offers against that of your objectives.

●     See if you can collect additional info informally or get questions clarified formally.

●     Do not disclose offers from competitor firms to negotiate a better offer as they are confidential. Without breaching the confidence, use the analysis done in an objective manner to decide. 

●     Once you have decided to accept an offer, do not let other offers waiting. Thank them formally and give a simple rationale by being polite with them (You may need a job at this firm later, who  knows!)

●     Give your feedback, complete a survey, if you are done with the   process.

●     Once you understand and accept an offer, do not renege or keep on interviewing to look for better offers

●     Once you’ve decided, do not back-track. If you renege or keep on trying for  a better package, your trustworthiness could go for a toss – as the recruiters are very well connected.

Virtual interviews

Given the progress in technologies and the need to interview candidates around    the clock, especially using global specialists to evaluate and to avoid expenses and longer times for conducting the interviews, virtual interviews are becoming a de- facto mode of interview type by many organizations. The virtual interviews make  up the first few rounds of the selection process. Once the screening goes well, the interview stage moves to a face-to-face mode. Virtual interviews include a telephonic, Skype, a video interview mode, or a combination of a few of these  types.

Handling telephonic interviews

One of the key challenges (or advantages) of a telephonic interview is that it’s difficult to read the body language, gauge confidence level, integrity of the candidate (from not looking up the answers) etc. Voice quality of the candidate plays a key role in determining the outcome of the interview as well. Some of the key aspects to keep in mind for a telephonic interview include:

●     Be very clear in speaking up.

●     Try a test call from where you will take your interview with a friend in an almost similar setup.

●     Make sure you sort out any technical or audio setup issues from your end before the interview.

●     Record your interview call and review how the voice comes across. o            Check for clarity, tonality, pace, diction and  grammar.

o     Check for filler words like “um”,” like”, “and”, “you  know”.

o     Check for nonstandard responses such as “yeah”, “yea”, “yup”, “no”, “gotcha” etc.

o    Be clear and respond with a reason where feasible.

●     Try avoiding timewasters such as “can you hear me now”, “sorry, I missed  a word, can you repeat”, “Sorry, can’t hear you” etc. While these technical challenges are not fully unavoidable, with better preparation/readiness such thingscanbe avoided.

Handling Skype telephonic/video interviews

A Skype or a video interview is a good way to address some of the disadvantages   of a telephonic interview wherein the body language, responsiveness, honesty in answering can be checked. It also poses some challenges to handle in terms of technology. Nevertheless, this is where good preparation and checking the setup will help.

●     All aspects of grooming are applicable for a Skype  call.

●     All aspects of handling telephonic interviews are applicable for a Skype audio or a video call.

●     All aspects of body language and first contact are relevant for a Skype  call.

●     Just like telephonic call, be very clear whilespeaking  up.

o     Try a test call from where you will take your interview with a friend in an almost similar setup.

o     Make sure you sort out any technical or audio setup issues from your end before the interview

●     As far as eye-contact is concerned, try to scan around the camera and focus in the middle. Try to look away now and then, just like a normal  interview.

●     Always dress up as you do for an in-person interview.

●     In case of use of hand gestures, ensure this gets covered by the webcam or cameras so that the interviewers can see the  gestures.

●     Do not show any signs of nervousness in the telephonic or video  calls.

Behaviours to adopt and avoid

To ace interviews, the candidates should practice and develop or build certain behaviours. They may need to avoid certain behaviours to emerge successful. While some of these suggestions may sound simple and primitive, the point is, they are indeed simple. Following certain simple behaviours will help the candidates emerge successful. These are as follows:

●     Be disciplined

o     Being disciplined gives a jumpstart to your strategic approach and planning.

o     Be a disciplined and properly skilled speaker.

o     Be a very clear writer (emails, resume, CV, cover letter, social media content etc.)

o     Be very presentable. Be well dressed, groomed, and presentable. Get professional help if required.

o     Practise having courteous and professional behaviour. Behave properly even when no one is watching.

o     Put the effort needed relentlessly. You need to persevere to   succeed.

o     Proofread everything you produce such asCVs, resumes, cover letter etc. Do you want to get ignored because of a spelling error, in spite of being a rock star and the best in the industry?

o     Procrastination could invent something but may not get you a job. Do not put preparation until the last minute. It’s a recipe for  chaos.

●     Practice, practice, and practice

o     Remember, “No Pain, No Gain” and “practice makes one perfect”. Keep on sharpening your axe. It could be your CV/resume, LinkedIn or social media profiles, your technical skills, soft skills, networking skills, communication skills.

o      Keep a goal of doing 1% improvement a day/week. It could improve you by 3678% (1% daily) or 67% (1% weekly) in a  year.

o     Learn vociferously. Be active on LinkedIn, Stack Overflow, GitHub, Quora and all other useful and relevant forums.

o     Keep on preparing for the interviews.Prepare for mock-interviews and answers to questions. You can do this even if you are not applying for any jobs to ensure you are relevant.

o     Understand your limits and plan as per your  restrictions.

o     Be a realist and a continuous learner –

?     Develop an appetite for handling  disappointments.

?     Not everyone is good at handling bad news and it is better to be prepared than going on a downward spiral.

o Divide and conquer – Split a bigger plan into bite-sized tasks so that  you can focus on one task at a time.

●     Mirror play and practice

o     Be affirmative and play a mirroring role to assure yourself that you are a star and exhibit confidence.

o     Be smiling and courteous and try to be more open and extroverted to get better in a social and professional setting.

o     Enjoy the company of people who groom you, grow you, motivate you and build you and avoid negative ones.

●     Avoid

o     Being nervous

o     Preparing at the lost minute

o     Overselling and understating

o     Including skills and work that you don’t have any experience or expertise – Reading a few pages on the Internet does not make you a subject matter expert.

o     Being late to the interviews

o     Being Rude or discourteous

?     For example,questioning the credentials of the interview panel or performing a reverse interview due to overconfidence. It’s good to showcase your intelligence but you need to manage it within a limit.

o     Asking too many questions about money on offer

o     Being very closed or introverted

o     Taking the interviewers for granted

Conclusion

To succeed in the interviews, it is important for the candidate to have a concrete strategy for the overall process, an approach to address the needs of the process and a structured planning to get the favourable outcomes. This includes a meticulous interview preparation in a disciplined manner, being ready with an approach to handle various types of interviews and a game-plan for each of them, a fully rehearsed or planned execution during the interview to address the interview process and how to deal with technology-centric virtual  interviews.

Good interviewers are well trained in identifying good candidates versus average ones and to come across as a good candidate to good interviewers, the candidate needs to do a disciplined and meticulous preparation. Reading this book is a good example of preparing well for the interviews. Although the constructs may largely remain the same, the technology and behavioural questions may differ a bit. Having a good understanding of the process, a clear thinking and approach to execute well during the interview process may go a long way. This is a repeatable   process.

As an example, simple things such as not appearing as hung-over, or arriving late   or appearing in a sleepy mode, or being in a rush, or wearing unprofessional attire  or wearing uncomfortable dresses or shoes can make one very uncomfortable and make the experience a not so welcoming one for the interviewers as well. All these can be avoided by preparationand planning well in  advance.

The candidates need to keep in mind that an interview is not a one-way interrogation but an equal-partnership exploration of fitment and an open discussion to find out the best for both a good and enjoyable job at a comfortable pay for the candidate ora well-fitted, skilled and productive employee for the organization. Having a relaxed and happy approach will help the candidates in a very positive  way.

Interviews are like examinations. To pass the exams with distinction a personneeds to do an extraordinary preparation. He or sheshould be able to solve complex problems within the timelines specified in an intelligent manner. If one does not deliver the expected solution (in the minds of the interviewers), the result is an obvious failure. Hence, understanding the question (or the needs of the organization in this case) is very important.

Questions

1.   What is the importance of preparation for an  interview?

2.   What are some of the soft skill behaviours recommended to exhibit during an interview?

3.   What are some reasons for rejecting candidates?

4.   What are some of the different types of interviews  followed?

5.   What is the importance of body language in  interviews?

6.   What would be your approach while doing a research on the  company?

7.   What is your approach to a virtual interview?

8.   How would you handle a telephonic interview vs. Skype call vs. Skype/ video conference interview?

9.   What is the importance of interview practice? How would you practice to prepare?

10.   What behaviours one need to avoid at the time of interview  process?

11.   How would you handle the situations when job offers are  made?

12.   What are some recommended tasks you can perform immediately after your interview?

13.   What are some good questions to ask during the  interview?

14.   What is the importance of appearance and  grooming?

15.   How would you make a good first impression?Conclusion

END NOTE

With this, my book excerpts articles from the Science Of Selenium is over. Expect to see general topics from the next post onwards. Hope you enjoyed the excerpts from Chapter-12 and the excerpts from all the other chapters as well. What are your comments?

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