Going the Extra Mile:

SOHABIA TAQDEES
Sep 1, 2018 · 5 min read

Another project, another initiative. AMAL has got all of us on our feet yet again. We did need a push to get up and learn new things badly and AMAL came in like a superhero in our time of need and pushed us to be better with every session. This time we were asked to reach out to HR Professionals and ask them directly of what they are looking for in candidates like us.Although AMAL asked us to focus on asking two main questions, “Being Real”and “Being Equipped” .

We, sloth-like lazy people actually went to an HR Professional and it benefited us so much. We first chose a company that the entire group was satisfied and comfortable with. We all agreed on reaching out to Mr. Naveed Hussain Shah, Assistant Director HR, in a very well known firm, EY Ford Rhodes Chartered Accountants, which is the third largest audit firm in the world.

We reached Sir Naveed by getting his email from Linked in and used some contacts too to confirm the meeting in such short notice. I must mention, Sir Naveed is the nicest, most humble and helpful person ever. We learned ton loads from him. We sent him an email asking for his permission by mentioning our motive of meeting and showing kindness at the end too, just like AMAL had taught us. We called his assistant too. He responded quite swiftly and after a lot of struggle of deciding a time everyone waqs available on, we fixed the meeting and met him.

So, following are our takeaways from this brilliant task assigned by AMAL academy. Firstly we would like to share how Mr. Naveed Hussain Shah welcomed our group, we were not expecting such a busy person like him to be such a warmly welcoming person, he even offered all of us tea (imagine he barely know us :p) he had a smiling face and a humble personality , he made the environment so comfortable for our discussion.

Secondly we want to share the questions we asked and how beautifully he answered them all, clearing all the questions we had in our mind, and how satisfied we were after this one and a half hour meeting (he was so generous to give us this much time. )

When we told him why we came to meet him he started telling us a story about his online interview with Unilever London. And told a situation where a person like him so experienced was sweating:

He had to answer 2 Scenario based questions:

1: Tell us a situation where you have stretched yourself and succeeded?

2: Tell us about the time when you supported a decision without any information and it turned out to be right?

Answers to these questions were all about connecting the dots according to our perception.

So the questions we asked and their answers are as follows:

Q1: When an interviewer asks ‘’Tell us about yourself’’ what he actually wants to know?

Answer: He wants to know how well a candidate know himself. And how well he prepared himself for the interview.

Q2: If someone is faking around, what impact it has on the interviewer?

Answer: If someone is faking their job experiences or interests in their CV , we give them a chance we welcomes them if they are fresh graduates but it can be judged easily and it’s embarrassing when they turn out not to be what they have shown through their resumes.

Q3: How do you identify if someone is not being real?

Answer: That’s so easy , as we always have one person for checking the technical skills , so if someone has written a lie in their resume the person checking technical skills can easily identify that. And we also have a person in our penal for distracting candidates to check how focused they are, they check that if someone has written for example football in their interests they will call someone with the same interest and say ‘’yar ye dekho tumhara dost aya hai he also likes football, discuss with him how much he loves football’’ and he also given example of a candidate who finally said ‘’Sir maine esy he likh dia tha’’

So never write something ‘’esy he’’ in your CV. Be real be truthful for your first job and every job.

Q4: What is the question behind this Question ‘’Why should we hire you’’?

Answer: We actually want to know how much research a candidate has done. How well a candidate know about the organization? And how passionate he is to work in this organization. He should be interested in the organization (remember being interested instead of being interesting?)

Q5: What do you think how a candidate should be equipped?

Answer: Obviously nice dressing, having CV, Cover letter, filling online application all that matters a lot. But above all how much knowledge a candidate has about his field about our organization is what matters the most. We give a chance who is really good at the knowledge and research thing even if he is not well-dressed.

He also gave an example of a guy who has grown his beard when he came for his interview and they asked him why are you having it grown this much? And he replied I am planning to have this styled beard when it’s grown to appropriate length required for that specific style.

That’s how they judged how inclined he is towards styling than being interested and getting knowledge.

Q6: What impact job switches and gaps in resume have on the interviewer?

Answer: Gaps have a bad impression always. But if you want to justify the Job switches you have to have a best reason.

As he told about his interview when he was being interviewed in EY Ford Rhodes Chartered Accountant by the Senior Partner Mr. Farooq Hameed. He had job switches in his CV so he justified them brilliantly saying who hates better opportunities? Whoever, finds a good opportunity he accepts it. If someone is valuing you and your abilities more than you current employer, you’ll definitely switch.

And if someone is paying you more than your current employer and you are getting better learning opportunities, you’ll definitely switch. (And he got the job and now he is Director HR)

And we discussed a lot of things his life stories will share all of them in another blog but he is really a person who goes an extra-mile and who believes in going above and beyond.

After meeting him, we feel very happy that we took our time and came here. We learned so many things that we thought we already knew but we did not. There is so much to still learn tho. We sent him an email of gratitude telling him how thankful we were that he took his time out for us and showing gratitude for being so kind and polite and helpful. It was an amazing experience overall. Can’t wait to see what AMAL makes us do next!

SOHABIA TAQDEES

Written by

Ex KCite, Ravian, Business student and future Philanthropist.

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