Follow These 9 Tips To Crack Your HR Job Interview! | Job Talks With HR Smriti Jain Of KPMG INDIA
Our Guest Today is Smriti Jain,
Smriti Jain is a Talent Acquisition Manager at KPMG. She has 6+ years experience on hiring, mentoring, candidates from all around the globe. She has worked with Multiple MNC Genpact, PWC, KPMG to name a few. Our Guest today is Smriti Jain.
Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1G27tfATgPLA3BZeVinfsL
Here’s The Transcript:
Sundaraman: So today we are just going to have a 15 20 minutes just brief introduction on how to help freshers cracked jobs and basically not a job inside interview okay so with your experience you can share basic wisdoms and get some insider tips on how to prepare and create a good mindset. So this is a basic agenda for today.
Introduction to Job Talks With HR:
Hello everyone welcome to job seekers top talks with I am your host Sundaraman from Allin1hub and today on this channel we invite HR’s recruiters talent management professional to share their valuable insights on how to prepare for job and help you crack it. If you are one of them make sure you are getting subscribed and don’t miss out on this new episodes.
Sundaraman: With that being said we are about today’s guest Smriti Jain from KPMG . Smriti would you like to introduce yourself to our audience.
Smriti Jain: Hi everyone my name is Smriti. I have extensive experience into human resources. I have been part of big 4 organizations. I have been on the both sides of the table I have been into interviews also and I have given interview at some point in my life as well so that’s about it from my side I hope we’ll have an interesting conversation today.
Sundaraman: Yeah definitely. Smriti just getting into the interview just the theme of this podcast can you just tell us what your company is all about and what there is vision of your company so we can get a gist about it.
Smriti Jain: I’ve worked for multiple organizations but right now I am working with KPMG India so this organization is one of the big four organizations they provide various services but they are majorly into consulting services for B2b clients. That’s what we do we provide consulting in terms of marketing HR, finance administration so there are multiple fields but majorly it’s a consulting organization and it has a good hold across the world so there are more than 130 offices across the world and we have a huge employee count as well
I think I was lucky to be a part of such an organization during the time.
Sundaraman: You recently joined that organization
Smriti Jain: No No I have been here for more than three years now up so I work for previous other organizations but in KPMG I have been for more than three years I am saying that I am lucky enough to have my time in an organization like KPMG because these are big organizations and they have very strong roots so things like COVID don’t really; you know put the company in a very bad situation. Though everybody was suffering all the organizations suffered for sure but there was never a time where the organization had to go for layoff like it happened for a lot of organizations during COVID so we never faced any pay cuts or any kind of layoffs in the organization that’s how strong it is. I think you know I have worked hard for this position and I am lucky to be a part of such an organization for this much period of time and I am happy to kind of continue here in near future as well.
Sundaraman: That’s a good sign that’s a good sign for KPMG and you as well. So, according to what is the hardest part about recruiting?
Smriti Jain: The hardest part about recruiting is that it’s a very pressure cooker kind of job. You know, for a recruiter so it’s also like I would say it kind of sales also so you’re selling jobs to people and you are selling the right candidate to the employer as well. The hardest thing about recruitment is matchmaking of the employer and the candidate and people you know meeting people and there is so much pressure to meet deliverables and recruiting overall is very dynamic. I mean there are so many things that can happen you know, you can have people drop out of the offer during the last minutes you can have people, you know, reject your offer and join some other organization, you can have some internal problems go through the organization you can have some people get rejected in the last stage of background checks or something like that. So there are a lot of things that can happen it’s a very dynamic process so I think that’s the hardest thing about recruitment.
Sundaraman: What is there any common misunderstanding that happens during an interview or what do what do you come across as a common misunderstanding from candidates as a part of interview?
Smriti Jain: I would not say misunderstanding but there are certain myths about the interview process and I would like to highlight two majorly uh the first one is that candidates you know they tend to share impressions and spread rumors about the interview process. One of them is being that the organization or the employer is looking for the perfect candidate
undoubtedly the answer to this thing is “no”. Recruiters and employers are looking for a reasonably competent candidate with right mindset and that is all they are not looking for a perfect candidate because I don’t think a perfect candidate exists anywhere right so that’s not the case they are looking for somebody who is reasonably competent so that’s important thing to note. And the second one that I would like to highlight
I think the second one would be that candidates feel like that they need to know everything during the interview they need to know answer to every question and only then they will be selected for the interview I think that’s a myth obviously. If you don’t know answer to majority of the questions it will, you know, lead to a rejection but if you don’t know answer for a particular question just don’t try to attempt it. A lot of candidates from what I have seen in my experience try to do is they try to make up with an answer for it and a lot of time it doesn’t make sense because you are just making up an answer on the spot and then the interviewer will ask you some cross questions because that comes out very evidently that you don’t know the answer but you are just making it up.
Interview Myth busted by Smriti Jain
Sundaraman: And then they make cross questions and then you will you know get stuck in your own loop and you know that will lead to rejection you get stuck up on your own answers which you don’t know but you just created it yeah I get that right right exactly.
Smriti: And then you know that keeps on happening they’ll cross question you and then you’ll say something else at the end it will go downhill from there so if you don’t know answer to a particular question I think you can just say that I don’t know answer to this or I don’t understand this particular terminology or I have not had an experience for such a situation I think that is okay if you do not have answers to all the questions and it is okay to be honest in those situations. I think those are the two misunderstandings or myths that people have one is you know that people are looking for perfect candidate and the other one is that you have to have all the answers during the interview.
Sundaraman: A lot of time I get a question that I am willing to learn but the company which iI am trying to get in has a requirement of very large set of technical skills so if guy or a girl is unable to qualify from a technical perspective so what are the other part of skills that you see if he is not technically sound or she is not technically served?
Smriti Jain: I think every organization is looking for two things in a particular candidate one is your soft skills and the other one is technical skills so if you think that you are not qualified enough on the technical skills part you can work on your soft skills at least and that is something that you can do on your own so when I see. Soft skills these include your communication skills your presentable attitude, your willingness to learn, to think out of the box so these are the things that are you know soft skill so if you can work on your soft skills I think it will be easy for you to pass on the interview specifically in the case of freshers. So you see when you are a fresher the employer knows that you do not have the experience right, you are a fresher you do not have experience you may have done an internship or so previously, but you don’t really have a lot of hands-on experience what you probably have is you know bookish knowledge just the technical jargons and they know terminologies definitions that you have read in your course curriculum that’s all you have. So what they expect from you in such cases is to have soft skills strong soft skills, willingness to learn, your attitude to fit into the organization, you know the ability to think out of the box, to be excited about work, to have a positive attitude in mindset, to have good communication skills.
When I say good communication skills it’s not just about pronunciation or speaking fluently it is also about putting your thoughts into words perfectly so a lot of people are not able to articulate their thoughts so even if you know you are not very fluent in a particular language if you can articulate your thoughts perfectly I think that also matters a lot and puts up a good impression during the interview. So I think if you can you’re not sound with technical skills work on your soft skills and this is something that you can do absolutely yourself and you don’t need somebody to teach you these things you can just work on these things yourself.
Sundaraman: Just a side note on this, do you have any particular resources or any site which you go through or a book that you can refer for the people who are listening or any friend or anyone who wants to improve their sort of skills?
Smriti Jain: I think the first thing is to understand that what do you like in terms of soft skills see, if you lack in terms of spoken English because English is now required in most of the organizations apart from I think government organizations they do not have a strict English requirement but all the private organizations require people to speak English fluently specifically the Multinational organizations because that’s how everything is.
If you feel like that your spoken english is not good try to practice it with people around you also as Indians we have a habit of thinking the thought in our mother tongue or the whatever language we are fluent with whether it is regional language or hindi or any other regional language and then we convert that thought in English and then we speak so in that process it takes a lot of time so try to think your thoughts in English as well that ways your spoken English will also improve.
Try to read English books any book that you like whether it it doesn’t need to be an academic book, it can be a story book, it can be a novel it can be a self-help book, try to watch some English shows because you know the dialogues that they speak you’ll learn some new words and you will learn how they articulate things or you can just practice talking to yourself by thinking the thoughts. Try to think those thoughts in English and then speak because when we think those thoughts in a regional language and then we speak it takes time to articulate and that where the problem happens or you can try and speak in english with your with people around you. Secondly I would say try to be updated about your industry having knowledge is very important knowledge in terms of what is going around in the world try to network with people because you will learn a lot of things it will broaden your horizon of things so that again you know when you meet different kind of people it will broaden your horizon. It will broaden and open up your mind and that ways you will become a more confident person so you can work on your confidence by meeting more people if you feel like you are somebody who is afraid of giving interviews or you are not very social and you are not very confident during the interviews. There are no particular sites as such that I probably follow for these things but it’s about first identifying where do you lack in terms of soft skills and then working on those eventually you know uh that’s it I mean there is no particular tool for that but this is how you can do it.
Sundaraman: It’s helpful thank you for that! A common thing which I came across for two three days ago was one of my friends wanted to change his working profile he was into different domain and he said man, I want to change my profile from this domain to the other. Say for example he wanted he was in support and he wanted to get into technical background, if he has a bit of skills in that but he is not completely sure on what he can do to get an interview. How do you approach that kind of candidate who is trying to change his profile or go into a different industry as well.
Smriti Jain: If you are somebody who is looking to change your profile into something else so first of all I would suggest to strengthen a bit of your knowledge in that sector for example like you said that your friend wanted to move into technical sector from a non-technical sector right so in this case what you can do is that you maybe that person can do a certification read about that particular industry or that skill what is going on about that I think linkedin is a very good platform to see and understand and most of the people who are part of one particular technical skill usually have certain communities. Also the person can try and look for these communities read threads ( Twitter ) and understand what are the latest trends that are going on in this industry for this particular skill what is it that people are looking for and then try to build on that.
For example if I know that there is a I am a coder and I understand that there is a particular language that is very popular these days and in that language these are the sub categories that are going on around and people are looking for or you know there is a conversation around it try to educate yourself in those sectors. Then the second thing that you can do is give your services for FREE to people for example you can do internships in that particular sector or maybe you can ask somebody who is already doing that that if you can assist or shadow that person for some time to understand the practicalities of that particular skill.
Or another point is that you know the gig economy is very very open these days so you can go and list yourself on Upwork or Fivver and do a small project on that scale so with that you will have some technical knowledge as well as some hands-on experience. So once you do that I’m sure when you go to an interview and you tell the interviewer that I want I come from this background but I want to move into this background and this is what I have done, it strengthens your profile and gives you a better chance of selection in that case.
Sundaraman: Okay, first do a certification, just to sum up, first do a certification then get hands-on experience and shadow the person who has already done what you want to do and then try to get a job. Am I right on that?
Smriti Jain: Correct, correct! So one is to educate yourself, on this particular skill I mean I’m sure if you are moving to a technical skill you will have to learn that skill right whether it is via certification or you just learn it by you know doing it with somebody else so after that try to do that thing for free. So if let’s say you are somebody who is learnt no code platform or you have learned a particular coding language just try and build something create a portfolio online and when you apply give that portfolio link to that person that see sample of my work this is just an example that I am taking you show them a portfolio sample of your work and when they see what you can do I think it will easier to get a job in those cases
even if you come from a, you know, non-verbal different background.
Sundaraman: One quick question on that is how important are certifications on Resume? is that a thing which on our interview day has to be looked forward or if a person doesn’t have that kind of certifications but has some technical background, on hands-on experience would that be good without a certification?
Smriti Jain: Okay so certification is not everything I think education does play an important role but that does not define you. So having a certification sometimes helps because that ways your resume gets shortlisted for the interview because what happens is whether when you apply for a particular job specifically in terms of technicalities when whether it is a technical skill probably so in those cases having a certification makes the employer shortlist your profile for the interview so there the certification is important but after that the selection process the certification will not have any importance because they would want to know your knowledge and your practical application on that. So in those two cases your certification will not help certification. It only helps to get your profile shortlisted as a profitable candidate for the interview the interview supporters.
Sundaraman: In one line it means that a certification can get you on the your foot on the door nothing more than that.
Smriti Jain: Correct! Absolutely, yes, that’s it.
Sundaraman: Smriti, I think that’s a wonderful conversation we had today. As you know the time has been run out. So I there are a lot of questions which I wanted to get in but the time doesn’t permit that. I would just like to have to have a quick rapid fire questions you can answer them
Smriti Jain: Yeah, Yeah! Sure, of course let’s go!
Sundaraman: What is the latest book that you read the latest book?
Smriti Jain: The latest book I read often adult it’s a book about grief and I was kind of in that place so I read that book.
Sundaraman: Which YoutTube channels do you follow?
Smriti Jain: YouTube channel, so I follow YouTube channel: silicon valley girl. It’s all about entrepreneurship and business so I just love that channel and I think iI just watch those channels I don’t really get time to watch YouTube apart from that.
Sundaraman: What is your go-to site for hiring the candidates?
Smriti Jain: Linkedin. I think, Linkedin is the best site to find people and it gives you a lot more insight than any other job board.
Sundaraman: What is the one movie that you would recommend everyone to watch?
Smriti Jain: One movie that I would recommend okay I love a lot of movies but the one that comes to my mind right now is three idiots because it does relate the message of what’s wrong with our education system and what we should do.
Sundaraman: Okay, that’s it from my end. If you have any other questions for me I would be happy to answer.
Smriti Jain: No, I just hope that whoever is listening to us right now get some insight and I know I can be of help to somebody and they get positive results out of a conversation today.
Sundaraman: it was lovely talking to you okay uh before you go just one big question okay what is one action step that you would tell the audience to do right after watching this podcast?
Smriti Jain: One action step yeah. Okay so I really love that hook step from it’s the time to disco so if you can do that it will be great it just makes me happy.
Sundaraman: So where can people find you on Linkedin on any other social media?
Smriti Jain: I’m very active on Linkedin so if anybody wants to connect with me I’m happy to help. I also help people review their resumes or you know in case they have any question in terms of their career. And you know they don’t know the answer for that so I even you know speak to people that way is also on Linkedin, so Linkedin is the best place to find me and I’m very active almost every day on that platform.
Sundaraman Iyer: So people you heard it from Smriti Jain today that she is active on Linkedin. And do prepare for your certifications but there it is not everything. So that’s all for today and thank you for connecting Smriti. We had a good conversation and hope to talk to you soon again.
Smriti Jain: Thank you so much for having me today, thank you so much!
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That was Smriti Jain with her wisdom. If you like this podcast, then you will definitely like the article on How to get a job in IT industry which covers the journey on what to do as college student to get a job at any MNC
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