Thoughts behind an interview process!

Nikhil Varma
Sep 4, 2018 · 5 min read
Image credits : https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedailyenglishshow/13422679555

So, you’re there, at the desk, waiting for the interviewer to come and start pounding you with questions. Nervous!, Anxious!, Worried!, Excited!, straining out hours & hours of hard work learning how to communicate, revise topics etc etc..

One question which prevails, — despite all the efforts, is “How do you really prepare for an Interview?” A quick Google search would bring up a lot of results on how to crack an interview but would it help or is there something more to this than meets the eye? 👀

Let’s break this down and see if we can come up with something more applicable for your application 😛

What is an Interview?

An interview is basically a way to gauge a person’s understanding of a specific subject. Again, “Gauge the understanding” and not expecting 100% right answers to the questions asked. It is like a discussion but the only difference is that you will have to demonstrate your thinking process and abilities to the person asking the questions.

What is the real objective behind an Interview?

Before answering this question let’s consider a situation.

A candidate who applied for a position which is not related to his/her field of study.

For Ex: An Electronics graduate attending an interview related to Information Technology? The candidate would not really stand a chance, right?

On the contrary, the upshots for a lot of such interviews turn out to be positive and the candidates get placed at good companies. So what is the real motive behind this process? Does that mean that the candidate is exceptional or is it something else entirely?

If you fractionate this, the focus points are really simple.

How well do you know what you have learnt? Do you really know what you say you do? How would you approach a problem which is slightly out of your comfort zone? Are you able to identify the problems with your approach? Can you think of various approaches for a single problem? And finally, How do you project yourself?

All these questions may not relate to a particular field. Rather, they are more abstract and focus on testing your problem solving abilities. Although one can argue that the questions could be more specific and granular to one set of problems but keep in mind that if the interviewer is aware of your knowledge base and your experience, he/she will make sure that the questions are framed in a way so that they test what you are and not what they expect you to be. If, in case there are problems very granular then you can as well point out that you aren’t aware of it or not related to this. This DOES NOT affect the result unless that is what they are looking for specifically.

What to do before attending an interview?

There are some things to keep in mind in general and for an interview.

1 — Before projecting what you are, make sure you know it!

We as humans have the ability to get carried away and our brain is amazingly good at projecting the illusion of superiority. And trust me, both as an interviewer and an interviewee, false information will retaliate as soon as you put it out there!

So try to eliminate it and boil down to getting the answers to some of these questions.

What are your interests? What are you good at? What are you experienced at? How good are you at what you are experienced in?

Note the order!

The answers to these questions will help you go a long way towards focusing on what you are really interested in and will also help you build an appropriate path. But that discussion is for later (wink wink).

A wise man once said (Me! Me! Me! 😜)

Before focusing on Communication, focus on Introspection and Interpretation

The thought stands! This is something that is never really taught or told in any of the so called “Communication classes” or “Personality development course”. I participated in one myself so… You know! Meh!

Another thing to keep in mind is to not be a conformist when it comes to introspecting yourself and analyzing your abilities. You are your own best critic! This factor is of huge significance and it impacts personality building heavily.

Alrighty!, so once you know about yourself try to see if you can summarize the details in some form of understandable/simple content to communicate. Communication is never the first step and neither the last but it plays an important roles only after you have understood yourself at least a little to start with.

2 — Focus on what you know rather than getting to know something entirely new (Not in life. Just before the interview)

Now imagine finding out something that you don’t know before the day of the interview! You literally skip a heartbeat! Don’t you? Well, tell you what! don’t learn that!

Nick! it’s not funny! 😒

No kidding! Learning something new entirely will not only break your thought process but also introduce more complexities. Now, hold on, I am not telling you not to learn it for the rest of your life rather just don’t do it before the interview day since it may not be of any significance. Although if you could really understand it without spending a lot of time then that would be fine but if you cannot, do not. Focus on what you know. Make sure that you are able to communicate what you know in simple terms. This would really make a difference. Interviewers’ do not really care about what you don’t know if you qualify the eligibility criteria. They make an effort to understand the extent of your knowledge and experience.

Easier said than done Nick, What should I do when I feel demotivated or scared before the day of the interview?

Be scared but don’t be demotivated. You see results are important but the way to achieve them is of greater significance. An interview is one way to identify gaps and bridge them with the information you retrieve out of your assessment. The advantage here is that the interviewer does not know you, so he/she may have a new perspective towards your thinking process and could provide you with some directions to improve. And let’s say if you don’t get selected, chill!!!. Make sure you identify where you went wrong by thinking about it or directly asking for feedback and working on it. Most people provide you with good feedbacks. Use that and don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Hope I was able to provide a perspective towards this process and help out everyone who is going through one!

May the Force be with you 😃

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade