An Undefined Strenuous Journey; Equip and Be Real

PASSENGER

Ahmad Hassan
Aug 31, 2018 · 5 min read

Every journey has a destination and a lot of hurdles and beautiful scenes during the journey. A Passenger that passes through that way to reach the destination has to survive through that journey.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

– Lao Tzu

“Just Equip enough to Complete Journey Safe and Sound”

Therefore, every single steps matter. However, a Passenger needs to be equipped with specific useful things to carry on during the journey.

In professional life, abbreviation of PASSENGER is:

P’ for PASSION

A’ for AUDIENCE

S’ for SPECIFIC

S’ for SUPPORT

E’ for ENGAGE

N’ for Non-Verbal

G’ for GRATITUDE

E’ for EQUIP

R’ for REAL

In Professional Life, a person must be passionate and he must be specific in his goals. His audience is the Interviewer, whom he has to impress. The person has support of his fellows and certifications. The person must be good in non-verbal communication and he has to be real and show gratitude to his audience no matter what the audience make comments on the person. Moreover, the most important part is that person must be equipped with specific useful things to get to his destination to survive the journey.

Meeting with HR Manager

So, to know and recognize the needs of a person that what equipment he must require during his professional journey; I along with my group mates organized a meeting with two HR Managers and asked them many questions related to equip and being real.

So, One of HR Managers, named Mr. Shahzad from LESCO Central Circle, a really hardworking and generous person, answered our questions very specifically when we interviewed him. The same case was with second HR Manager Mr. Shafeeq Sb; working in LESCO headquarters. They both described what a candidate requires during his journey and whether he should be real during the interview or he must show some overlay.

The questions that we asked were:

I. What should be a candidate be equipped with during and before an interview?

Ans: On which Mr. Shahzad’s response was; a candidate must be equipped with:

o Concise and specifically accurate Resume or a good CV highlighting his skills and experiences

o Knowledge related to the job description and better if he has knowledge about the company and its vision and goal as well

o During interview, his body language and dressing must be observed and considered as well

o The other internal specs include candidate’s confident, facial expressions, behavior, eye contact, and whether he is being real or not

Mr. Shafeeq added into it:

o Some slighter jokes are added in between the questions, so that the candidate won’t get too frustrated and confused and to stop candidate’s feet shuffling and to make candidate feel comfortable

o Candidate must have good communication skills

o Candidate must know the purpose why is he really there for the interview

o Candidate must have some experiences and examples to clarify his strengths

o In case of Government, candidate must require to pass the written exam

o Candidate’s way of talking must be formal, courteous and polite

o Candidate must have delight cover letter for foreign companies approval and for online Resume submission anywhere in private sectors where required

II. Is Being Real important during the interview or having overlay is better?

· Ans: First, I would like to speak my own thoughts about it. Actually, being real is necessary because it is like a commitment you made with yourself and you feel satisfaction about who you really are and you have no need to pretend to be someone else.

o And What Mr. Shahzad shared with us was somewhat different; he told us that being real is good but being a little bit fake is better because a candidate has mostly 3/5 skills and so he has to overlay his skills and make them close to 5.

o Mr. Shafeeq said something like that as well. He said that a candidate and his resume is like a beautiful bride with her makeup so as decent and detailed her makeup would be; she would be preferred on other girls. That was all he said.

III. How can you find out that if a candidate is lying to the interviewer?

o Mr. Shahzad replied that if a candidate were lying to the interviewer; his face expressions and body language would distinguish it.

o Mr. Shafeeq replied that some interviewers could take a quick short 3–4 minute test from the candidate if they see him bragging about his skills and thoughts.

IV. Is there a penalty if you find a candidate with illegal certifications?

Ans: Both replies were that it is severe crime but on humanitarian basis, the candidates are just throw out of the companies and nothing else, so that they could find another job.

In other case, if the candidates has legal certification but they have no skills related to the job, they had been selected for the job somehow, and the recruiters find out about employee’s zero skills. After sometime, the candidate is insulted first, then there is a “probation period”; the candidates have to emerge and upgrade their skills somehow and by leaning and developing their skills through daily sessions and attending workshops and listening to seminars, etc.

V. Other questions that we asked included how a candidate should dress up.

Ans: And combined reply from both was summed up in these categories:

o Plane or Line Shirt: White (mostly preferred), Light Pink, Light Blue, Decent Indigo, light colors, etc.

o Plane Coats with minimum two buttons: Black (mostly preferred), Dark Blue, Brown

o With Check Shirts, No tie is used

o Tie: Plane or Lines in discrimination with shirt’s color

o Belt: Black (mostly preferred), Dark brown

o Plane Shoes with straps: must be matching with belt’s color

o No studs

o Coat must be 1–1.5 inches above than shirt’s coughlings

VI. What type of question any interviewer asks frequently?

Ans: Both have same replies, the questions asked frequently are related to:

o Family Background

o Experience

o Strengths and Weaknesses

o Specific Skills

o Personality judgement test

o About candidate’s lifestyle

Therefore, these were some main questions that our group managed to ask both HR Managers and we were amazed that how gently both Managers treated us and politely answered our questions. The interviewer is a candidate’s audience so the candidate is supposed to impress the interviewer who is already in the favor of candidate. But the candidate must be highly equipped with supportive things and he must be honest with himself and be real to others as well. These were some important lessons we learned through talking to HR Managers and there are a lot more to explore.

Thanks!

Ahmad Hassan

Written by

Electrical Engineer (Power) | Sketch Artist | Writer | Photographer | Otaku :p

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