Interview!- What went Wrong?

Interviews! It’s a bigger Giant to tackle

I usually hear from people,” I Have faced 5 interviews in a row and was not able to crack Interviews!” sad this brings the morale of the people down and some of them starts feeling depressed for the same.

Why? Comes into the picture here. I don`t know where I went wrong?

As on daily basis when I collect the candidate feedback from the interview panel people say “average”, “Not good”, “Hire”. Which I feel is not the right parameters to judge somebody’s experience during interviews. Looking at a 5- point Likert scale in the feedback form people rate them as 4 to hire. There is no one I have ever seen rated 5 and that too people who are from same skill set required and good pedigree.

Considering the sample size of 10 last interviews.

When I have discussion with these people, what I usually notice is that interview panel never discuss on following parameters:

1.      Role In detail

2.      Proper Skill that would be needed

3.      Problem that they are facing

4.      What they expect from the person who would be joining them

5.      Any behavior skill set required

What usually panel interview them is on:

1.      Technical skills

2.      Communication

3.      Logical thinking

4.      Few of them try to know about the CTC details to make their decisions

Even the candidates don’t think about asking these question during the discussion and some of them ends up asking this when HR discussion is conducted or HR meets you and asks you to leave.

Knowingly or unknowingly HR is not able to share the detailed feedback for few of you because mostly feedback received is on “Number” , “Yes” Or “No”. Which is always a cipher text for Recruiter to decode. This happens with all of us you could be on either side of the table.

I encourage people to ask these questions from the interview panel:

1.      Role clarity

2.      Your fitment

3.      Skills required

4.      Personality trait required.

If you get to know these things apart from the technical discussion it gives you complete clarity on the feedback whether you are selected or not?

How to Crack? Prepare on the following parameters before going for the meeting always

1.      Job Description: It is one of the key document that you should read and think before you apply for any job. It gives you answer of, “what expectation an organization have from the role?”, “Is it aligned with the expectations that you are looking for?”, “What you would be doing when you join this organization?”. Always ask for a detailed JD from the recruiter or consultant who is interacting with you.

2.      Company’s profile: I always feel that before going for a meeting in any organization you should read about the company’s profile first. Which includes: Sector, Key people, Product or Service, any client if you can collect the information. Try surfing Crunch base and Glass door to understand about the organization in detail.

3.      Preparation around the technical skills: When you read the JD provided by the recruiter, have a call with him/her to understand the technical skillset required .As recruiter will mostly help you out to understand the details about the technical skills. Always spend some time to brush up your skills before you go and meet someone.

4.      LinkedIn: It is one of the important and powerful tool apart from twitter and Facebook ;). Before going to meet someone please try to read about the people whom all you would be meeting during the discussion. It sometimes give a different and strong perception in the mind of interview panel and as well as you because you are already aware what skill set this person possess. This gives you confidence to face the interview.

5.      Resume: Today, we live in an arena that is more Presentation driven. I have hired people for the same managers who have reviewed and rejected the resume during review. How? Especially for tech people don`t usually mention the details about the project or they write too much about the projects which makes recruiter and hiring manager lost during screening process.  It should always comprise of impact, tech stack, Scale, Product type and brief about the problem that you solved.

6.      Presentation: Presentation is a key to impress someone who is sitting on the other side of the table. Majorly people are from same industry who work the same way you do but during first 10 minutes it’s your presentation or way you talk to him drives the chariot ahead. Being humble and keeping patience is something that interviewer seeks. Listen to what he says and respond as everyone knows you have done cool stuff during your employment so far but how would that make you a shot gun for this job he tried to understand.

7.      Objective: People usually asks what is your aim in life? What is your objective? What is your career aspirations? And majorly people says that they have heard from someone or what is trending in the market. But what should you answer? Every Individual have different skill set, he pursues different traits not everyone can be the first one to land on Moon. I always think about what I love and try to be genuine on those which help me to stand out while I answer this.

8.      Your expectation from the role:  Please be open and clear with the hiring team in terms of role what do you expect to learn? What new you want to explore? What is the change in terms of responsibility you expect?

9.      Apply for the Right & Relevant Role: People usually don`t go through JD`s while applying for the role. People gets fascinated with the designation or organization. Which I don`t feel is a right way to apply for any role.

10.  Build Strong Social Profile: If you are at mid management level, people usually refer to your social inputs majorly LinkedIn. People try to have a glance at your profile before meeting you at a leadership level or mid management level discussions on the basis of resumes are bit less.

11.  Research about the sector & Competitors: It usually helps you to understand the business of the organization and what in this role the person would do? What competitors are doing would let you know the scale of new suggestions you can share or work upon. This gives a sharp edge to your discussion and builds a base for you to prove your relevance for the role.

12.  Business knowledge: You understand your current organizations business but how much do you know about next organization or how much you can relate to it and come up with suggestion could also give a sharp edge to the discussion.

13.  New innovation: You can suggest only if you understood the business properly and you know what is trending in the sector at this point of time. Always ask the process key challenges or bottleneck before suggesting a solution to any problem. Right set questions asked would definitely help.

14.  Cost optimization: Everyone want to understand or learn what new could be done to reduce Cost, Efforts, resources and maximize the ROI. This is difficult suggestion to give but can help.

15.  Recommendations: Do collect recommendations from colleagues that you have worked with. This helps you to build your social profile stronger.

These few suggestions might help to get the clear insight about the role and where you stand in front of that role, but majorly your subject knowledge is something that would help you to cross the bridge.