Remember: this is not something that you can prepare over the night before an interview. You will have to be thinking about your job anywhere you go.
The global recession’s heat is now felt everywhere. Many loosing their jobs, freshmen praying god for an interview, and crying sound everywhere around the world to get a job. I had build a small strategy after speaking to many HRD officials of various MNCs. And this was what I wanted to share with you all! 🙂
Point 1:
The first part of any interview is the question, “Tell me a little about you”. The interviewer is hoping to get some info about you. Such as family info, health info, etc., this is a wide open question, and this is the first opportunity to create a great impression. My recommendation is to prepare a set of me in 30 seconds statements. The 30 secs. Should best explain about yourself.the goal of this is to demonstrate the critical info that you possess the potential employer would be interested. No hobbies, interests, that are not interested to the jobs. Prepare about 2 or three of statements, that suits your job. REMEMBER! Don’t exceed 30 secs.
Sample:
Behavior: Your Passion towards technology
“I’ve always loved computer since childhood. I built one from the scratch in my 8th standard, and I love writing C programs, develop websites. I earned some money for building my college website when I was in the first year of my college. I personally believe that information technology has the power to change the world, and I want to be the person at the cutting edge doing it.!! 🙂
Tip: The “me in 30 seconds” statements should be well crafted and rehearsed before presenting! You should take control of the interview.
Point 2:
The behavioral interview has become one of the most essential part of the interview process among major IT players across the world. It analyses your past behaviors, the non family situations, like your school, your college, your leadership capabilities, etc. and this exposes you to how well you would work for the firm.
Point 3:
There would be questions about the past challenging situation that you have faced. If you are asked such a question, which involves a situation that you have never faced, that’s basically considered a bad answer. Cos, that reveals that 1) you are not a good thinker, 2) you don’t have much experience.
Tip: you may easily overcome this by doing an internet search on behavioral interview, and expose yourself to some of such situational questions.
Sample Questions:
1. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an angry customer:
2. Tell me about a time when you had to tell your manager she was wrong
3. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a personality conflicts on a team
4. Tell me about a time when you had to sacrifice to make a commitment
5. Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make this past year
6. The list goes on…..
Point 4: Approach of answering the questions:
There are various ways of answering the questions. One of the most accepted way is as follows:
a. The main goal of the expected answer is to check if you are capable of answering the questions to the topic and whether you are not exceeding the time limit.
Tip: keep your answers with in a minute. Practice a lot before appearing for the interview. Don’t talk very fast and keep your pulses normal. Think of answers than stories.
b. Use the SAR or STAR Approach:
i. Situation/Task:
Describe the situation or assignment. Your answer must be specific (real) event, not hypothetical.
Just give enough detail so that the interviewer understands the situation and your answer clearly.
Tip: Keep your answer with time frame of 15-20 seconds. I advise you to use a timer! 😛
ii. Action:
Describe the action YOU took personally, rather than pointing on to other team members.
iii. Results:
Describe the positive outcomes (including lesions-learned) from your actions.
Once you have completed speaking out your answer, the interviewer will surely put forward some follow-up questions to you. Be ready to give your best shot.
Sample:
Situation:
This is from an interview that was attended by a Microsoft employee.
“I was asked to join a team that had been trying to build a software system for two years with a little success.”
Action:
Here goes the action he took:
“I discovered that they do not have a specific plan. And I just wrote a draft specs and insisted that we ratify or modify it and agree to it.”
Result:
And some fruits for him now!
“We finished the system within 90 days of my joining the team. I was asked to be the project manager for the next version.”
How do I prepare then?
1. Think of some 20 to 30 plausible or likely behavioral questions that you might be asked. Think of jobs, internships, etc., and try avoiding some family and spiritual services.
2. Write out a SAR answer for each question.
3. Practice giving the answer to family or friends or anyone you feel comfortable with! J
4. Remember: you will never be asked the question exactly that you prepare for! But that doesn’t matter at all! Once you are prepared to tell a story and you know that story very well, then no matter what question they ask you, the story you tell can emphasis that particular situation.ex. you can say about some challenges that you had working in a team and how you overcame that challenge.
5. You may use one story to answer many questions! (Feeling comfortable huh? ) but I advise you to try avoiding answering the same story to more than one question! Try working out strategy like holding up your best story to a later question, that you expect to be tough. This involves both strategy and risk.
6. Try bringing out some good situations that you came across earlier while preparing.
Comment: TRY TO AVOID FAMILY AND SPRITUAL SERVICES. Family doesn’t play a major role in interview process.
7. Do an internet search on “Behavioral interview”
a. If you find a question like “Hey man, I never was under such situation”, then just go ahead and start finding a solution for that kind of a situation.
b. Search for some example answer
c. Find some additional guidance
Behavioral answers are the best of all the answers:
1. When you are questioned with a non- behavioral question, answer them with a behavioral answer. Ex., if the question is like “What would you do if…..”, then your answer may be like “I had a situation like that. And here is what happened. And this is how I did. !”
Some more guidance:
1. Most important of all, BE HONEST
2. Prepare, prepare and never ever give up. Consider an interview as your final competition, that you will have to definitely win and grab the prize!! J
3. Always answer in a way that highlights your past accomplishments.
4. 40 hours of preparation is a minimum time that you will have to allocate for preparation.
5. Avoid casting your previous colleagues in a negative light.
6. Just try to build a portfolio with examples of previous work, your college transcripts, and letters of recommendation, etc.,
Finally…:
An interview is focused conversation that YOU the interviewee have a great deal of control over what is asked and hot it goes. Focus on the accomplishments and stick on to the topic you are asked to! And never forget to rehearse before you appear. Expect some post about writing a resume to get a job for sure very soon!! All you have to do now is, Go, Get a job, comment here! 🙂