GETTING READY FOR YOUR INTERVIEW

Husnain Azam
Aug 31, 2018 · 10 min read
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The purpose of writing this blog to share our experience with HR professional. This is group activity done by Hira, Kinza, Waqar and Husnain. We met with HR professionals whose name is Mohsin and he has 10 years of experience in this field. We disscuss with him about interview preparation tips and questions related to interview that most of candidates have in their mind.

Human resource management (HRM) views people as organizational assets and internal customers and works to create job satisfaction and employee efficiency and effectiveness. HRM concentrates on internal sources of competitive advantage. It regards people as an organization ‘s most important asset.

Let’s start to talk here about our questions that we asked him and reflection of HR in response to our Questions.

Q1: What are the top three things that are matter allot on interview day?

Answers: Preparation, research, dressing and timing are mattar allot on interview day.

Q2: How important do you think it is to be yourself in an interview?

Answers: it’s really important to be yourself in interview because they need people which are sincere to their work sincere with the company. Be yourself show that you are really interested.To be yourself in an interview matters a lot if you are real in an interview it shows yourself not the others and if you are not real then this makes a bad impression on the recruiter and shows that you are dependent on others.

Q3: How you identify if a person is real or fake during the interview?

Answers: After so many interviews it is really easy for the recruiter to identify that candidate is real or not but mostly we focused on the his past experience, level of confidence, body language, gestures, eye contact and Language. to find out the truth and asking questions and sometimes by asking the same question twice in an interview with different angles.

Some interview question response can be faked specially related to any fake experience in the resume or response to some general questions. Sometimes interviews also involve presenting a solution to either a given problem or from past experience. It is difficult to fake because it allows interviewer to ask question about many aspects of the solution which is really hard to fake.

Following parameters are used to judge the candidates during interview:
1. Answering Style
2. Facial Expressions
3. Body Language
4. Speaking Fluency while answering
5. Consistency in Responses

Q4: How do you identify that a candidate is fully prepared/equipped for an interview or not?

Answers: We identify easily if the candidate is fully equipped or not by his response. If he responses poorly it shows that he has not spent time on research about the company and as a result the candidate loose the confidence.

Q5: What suggestions you may have on how to be fully equipped or organized for an interview?

Ans: Preparation of two types: mental preparation ad physical preparation. For both you have to do research on company in which you are going for interview and asked yourself different types of questions which may be asked in interview and after that be confident and making eye contact with the HR manager. . You should go through the basic knowledge of your field. Read job description carefully, make great resume with great cover letter and most importantly be positive this will help you very much.

Pick what you’re going to wear in a job interview. Dress must be neat, pressed, and professional. One of the best way to prepare for the interview is to practice, practice and practice. He must have complete documents.

Q6: How can we equip ourselves mentally?

Answers: You should know everything that mention in your resume and cover letter also able to answer any question which is from your resume and cover letter. Bring your resume and cover letter in interview. Practice answers of some questions those are expected from interviewer like what are your strengths and weaknesses, what is your goal etc.

Q7: l feel any hesitation about dropping the CV because may be the HR manager has no time to meet me or may be the receptionist do not allow me to meet him, so what we can do in that situation?

Answers: No don’t feel any hesitation HR persons are very busy in their daily work but they are not regret to meet someone.

Q8: Do you appreciate the candidate and allow him to talk to you when he comes to drop his CV, do you have enough time to give him?

Answers: Yes we really appreciate the person who come to drop his/her CV in person. That thing shows that he very passionate and interested to work with that organization.

Q9: Do you give preference to those candidates who comes to drop CV in-person-do you separate his CV from others?

Answers: Personally I cannot give any preference but it naturally happen because resume/CV of that person stick in our mind due to that I compare it with others and give some edge to that person.

Q10: In an interview, does our dress/attire matters if we are good at all other skills?

Answers: It depends upon the type of the job. Attire does matter if job involves any public relations or client interaction. If an interview is for a technical job and candidate has good technical skills then attire doesn’t matter much.

Q11: What will you do if the candidate is not wearing professional dress in an interview but give an excellent interview?

Answers: Answer is that dressing is important because it shows that how organized a candidate is. There should be strictness for it but if the whole interview is gone good then little leverage can be given to this point.

Q12: What aspects you see in a candidate during hiring?

Answers: He must fulfill the merit criteria that include:

· Education

· Experience

· Personality attributes (behavior, body language, confidence)

Q13: What you expect from a candidate?

Answers: He must give satisfactory answers to all the questions and show confidence.

Q14: In your point of view what is important marks or confidence?

Answers: Both are important and works simultaneously. You must have good marks for job with confidence because without confidence you may not answer the questions properly. So develop confidence with good marks to achieve goals.

Q15: If the person is fresh graduate, which skills will he need to develop during his educational career in order to compete for a job?

Answers: First of all, people says CGPA don’t matter but its pay a first role in your career. We call for interview on the bases of academic record if you have good academic marks then you have more chance for Job interviews so try to prove your Marks. And then try to be confident that what you have learned is correct, so when you will be confident then you will try to implement your skills in Field.

In simple words your Skills depends upon your Confidence and your confidence depends upon academic performance.

Q16: What a person should do if he is not receiving any reply even after certain attempts?

Answers: Don’t lose hope and keep trying and trying until you become successful. Do your best and keep applying in different companies and never miss an interview chance even there is just one vacancy.

Q17: Can we drop our CV even if there is no vacancy?

Answers: Yes, but it’s not a deal like *come first get first*. We call four to five candidates for one vacancy, no matter who sent his CV first or later.

Q18: What you do if the candidate is not come with the documents and you asked him to show?

Answers: In my opinion if someone is forgotten to bring documents then you can do one to one interview and can ask for the documents later.

Q19: If a candidate is skill wise a bit weak but very passionate, is he preferable to those who are skilled but lack passion?

Answers: It depends upon the level of experience required for the job. If position requires entry level to mid-level experience, a passionate candidate can be considered. In this scenario if candidate lacks some skills but passionate about the job and eager to learn then he or she is more preferred over a candidate who lacks passion. In case of senior level position, both skill and passion are required. Passion alone doesn’t help because a senior level person must possess the required skill set to perform the job duties. It often requires leading the junior level people and provide them guidance which is hard to do if a person lacks appropriate skills.

Q20: What was the best interview you ever had and why?

Answers: Through out my career life many students give their best interviews but I remember one of them a very impressive interview for the job of a lecturer. The candidate gave answers of all the questions with confidence and smile on his face. We tried to ask him difficult questions but he answered very well and show how passionate he is for the job.

TAKEAWAY MESSAGE & TIPS:

1) It’s most important to be confident and believe in yourself in an interview

2) Your attitude, accent, behavior decides that you are real or you are doing to being real so don’t estimate that you can fool everywhere because the interview board had an Experience of years so always be real.

3) Through facial expressions and confidence level, moreover by questioning the area which is susceptible. If he /she is not having that ability, he will not be able to respond properly. So always be yourself (real).

4) Always well prepared/equipped for an interview and be yourself to handle all situations. Use non verbal communication in a right way.

5) Education as well as communication skills are matters a lot and works simultaneously.

6) Great resume with great cover letter have good impression on the interviewer and know how to answer the questions with confidence.

7) Do study your subject part which related to job role specially. Do research about the company, its policies, norms and values and then keep your documents arranged one day before interview, arrange your conveyance, dress like a pro.

8) If you are extremely passionate but lack certain skill required for the job, it will work out for entry to mid-level job. But for job that require experience professionals, there is no compromise for lack of skill..

9) Join a professional body and build your network

10) Don’t talk badly about your previous company or about your boss

11) Every company is seeking for passionate candidate who want to work with them. Always show passion during th interview.

12) Skills are very important for getting success in interview. Most companies is seeking for candidate who has skills ( Soft skills & Technical skills)

13) Employer are also seeking for those candidate who will be fit in their organizations like company working environment and cultural environment

14) I showed gratitude after the interview and in follow up email as well.

15) In simple words,the takeaways from the interview’s was acronym PASSENGER:

· Passion

· Audience

· Specific

· Support

· Engagement

· Nonverbal

· Gratitude

· Equip

· Real

I would like to thanks to all of you who read our blog and giving us your precious time. I would love to hearing your thoughts and comments on our blog.

Husnain Azam

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Never stop learning because life never stop teaching

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