Job interviews are an unavoidable aspect of life following college. Much of the time, when we think of interviews, we get a little nervous. If the preparation is inadequate, it leads to fear and nervousness before the interview. We lose articulation as a result of our nervousness, and everything goes haywire after that. From this point on, it's all free fall. To appear assured, we must do some planning before the interviews. This means that confidence does not come easily. Demosthenes, a resident of Athens, was a popular orator during the reign of Alexander the Great. People regarded him as one of the world's greatest orators at the time. Yet he was anti-Alexander and used his oratory skills to provoke Greeks against Alexander. Before becoming the greatest orator of his time, he used to stammer when speaking. People mocked him. He did, however, train on his own to reach that position. He copied and rewrote popular speeches eight to ten times a day. To avoid being confused by crowd noise, he practiced shouting at the beach. Furthermore, he jammed stones in his mouth to solve the stammering problem and used pricking blades to straighten his stance when speaking. He was unyielding in his efforts.
Following graduation, I participated in 10 to 12 interviews. I made a fool of myself in my first few interviews. I knew how to pass written tests, but I used to get "retired hurt" during personal interviews. When I look back on the events of the past, I now realize that although I worked tirelessly to pass written exams, I had no clear plans to pass personal interviews. During the interviews, I made stupid mistakes that costed me dearly. We didn't have platforms like YouTube with all kinds of instructional content back then. Above all, the internet was an expensive affair. I mainly relied on the magazine 'Competition Success Refresher and interview transcripts of IAS candidates available in the magazine. But those are for them, and they didn't help me in my situation. Nowadays, there are career-specific websites, journals, and video blogs. The only thing left to do is find a good website or blog to follow and schedule accordingly. According to a legend, planning a task accomplishes half of the task. The next step is to adhere to the schedule and see it through to completion. When you do this, you will enjoy the sweetest fruits of your labor. However, we fail to do so and continue to suffer from our hit-or-miss approach. The old days are over. There is no time to lose now. If you waste time on your inefficient hit-and-trial method, you will soon lag behind your rivals.
Probably, by now, you are wondering that what should be the right approach. I would like to illustrate a methodical approach to be a confident person before any kind of interview in the future. It does, though, necessitate hard work and perseverance. After all, Rome was not built in a day. In the later part of the article, I will focus on the various dimensions on which one needs to work to be a confident guy.
Cover letter & Resume
To begin, we must understand how to write a cover letter and resume. We take all of these documents very lightly. Most of the time, interviewers can look over the cover letters and resumes. As a training and placement coordinator of my department, I keep on emphasizing the importance of cover letters and resumes. Even so, I come across people who have no idea what a cover letter and resume are, let alone how to write them. People always copy and paste cover letters and resumes into emails when I ask for them to be sent to businesses.
A personal experience has taught me the value of a cover letter and resume. During my final year of M.Tech, I applied for a telephonic interview with Dalkia Energy Services. I mailed them my resume. They asked me questions based on my resume during the interview and invited me to Delhi for a paid internship. It is somewhat uncommon to be named for a paying internship. In my previous article specifically on cover letter & resume, I have written in length how to draft a cover letter and resume.
Body Language
When it comes to interviews, career coaches
often recommend that the body language should be flawless. This ensures that you
must maintain good body language, eye contact, and avoid fidgeting with your
hands or feet. According to body language experts, fidgeting is the telltale
sign of nervousness. I recall Richard Nixon, then-President of the United
States, defending his innocence in the Watergate case on television in the
1960s. He fidgeted often during his speech, giving the appearance that he was
involved in the controversy. My experience has taught me that reading one or
two texts from the internet would not get you ready for an interview. It is
essential to incorporate these behaviors into daily life so that they become
muscle memory and are no longer a source of concern. (External link)
Communication
In India, we are first taught in our mother tongue so that we can learn. Gradually, English is taught in high school for future education. One who is fluent in English can move upwards easily. When you opt for higher education you have to have a working knowledge of English. It also has a lot of advantages that books and informational contents are available mostly in English. When you have a command of the English language, you can study and work outside of the country. I've found that students who attend mother tongue medium schools can write English well but fail to speak it. Students are unable to express themselves because they are not allowed to speak in English. Talking, in my opinion, is a whole different animal than writing. The vocabulary should come to mind quickly, and there are speaking-friendly phrases to help you express your feelings. I can provide my example of how I struggled to master the technique and always felt like something was wrong. That is the education gap and it will persist. However, we can narrow it down by practice. Therefore, students should find ways to talk in English and hone this skill further. Off late in lockdown, I noticed that my communication had deteriorated quite pathetically. Even the words became vague. To get some practice, I had to formulate a strategy. Initially, I used different tools to support me, and then I began recording my everyday tasks daily. When I was happy with it, I began adding some of the news stories into the recordings, along with observations and diagrams. Besides, my understanding of different subjects has vastly increased. One can also keep up with current events because people do ask about current events, as I discovered bitterly during an interview. Furthermore, you must check for defects in these recordings and fix them in subsequent recordings. I frequently search for overused conjunction terms like 'so,' 'and,' 'uugh,' and so on, and strive to use pause efficiently.
Furthermore, the delivery pace must be adjusted such that the message is understood. In addition, one should learn interview etiquette like asking to sit, thanking at the end, mirroring technique, etc. In this respect, I recommend Leil Lowndes's book on “How to talk to anyone”. I've written detailed articles on thistopic, which you can read for more in-depth information.
Building your CV/ Resume
In our days, students had just begun to
use them. We did not have much knowledge at that time about those. We would go
to some agency to get it drafted for a small fee. Many choose to write
themselves only by changing names and addresses. The rest of the information
remained the same for all in the resumes. But, mine was drafted at an agency in
Guwahati, Assam and it was a little bit different from most. Those were days of
innocence & ignorance. However, you must now begin building your resume as
soon as you start graduating. You must include things that are relevant to your
degree. If you are a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate, you must be familiar
with Mechanical Engineering-related software packages such as Mat Lab, Fluent,
Pro E, CATIA, ANSYS, COMSOL, C, C++, Python, and others, in addition to being
knowledgeable in MS Word and MS Excel. You must also take certification classes
to demonstrate your competence in these programs. In other words, you are
honing skills necessary for Mechanical Engineering students. Furthermore, via
different resources available at universities/ colleges, one must focus on
other hard skills such as communication, project management, team leadership,
and so on. In the meantime, you can focus on developing your soft skills. The
word "soft skill” refers to a wide variety of skills. It entails not only
communication ability but also management abilities. Some people are great
communicators, but they are bad at management and behavior. One must know how
to meet someone and then walk the talk without hesitation. Many of these
abilities take time to learn. As a result, to be ahead, one should begin early.
Many companies, such as OIL, BCPL, and ONGC, recruit students who succeed in
the above-mentioned traits. They also do well after placements. Therefore, it
is important to remember that good marks help you to get shortlisted and good
hard & soft skills will help you to get selected.You can read more on here.
Technical & HR Rounds
Whenever a call for a technical or HR round is made, one should prepare a proper introduction of himself or herself. The beginning of the interview or opening remarks should be always good and helps set up the candidate’s first impression. When people were asked to introduce themselves, I have seen them get stuck and stammer. When I was an intern in Dalkia, I had to introduce myself two or three times a day. It was highly useful to me. Initially, I hesitated a little bit and it went away after a couple of days. That became muscle memory for me. The moral of the story is that one should prepare a suitable introduction beforehand.
There is no shortcut for technical knowledge. You have to earn it by studying. Interviewers would ask domain-specific questions. However, one can prepare diligently right from the outset. In any graduation program, there is a limited number of subjects. Out of these subjects, some are very critical core subjects while the others act as the base for studying other subjects. When you appear for a technical round, you must concentrate on the core subjects of your domain. The job description will help you find specific core subjects. When applying for a manufacturing career, you are more likely to focus on manufacturing, design, production, organization, material strength, and so on. There aren't many of them. It would be easy if you have this in mind. Furthermore, one should prepare one or two core subjects as well as a favorite subject. Interviewers on the panel can sometimes request this. In any case, you must contribute something on your part. It is important to remember that these favorite subjects should be well prepared so that you can answer any questions. Your task is to go cramming as soon as you have a few core relevant subjects on your training list. The internet is a big support in this respect. It is chock-full of blogs that deal with interview issues. You will find important questions that have been posted in numerous PSU interviews by topic. There will be a small number of these. Furthermore, in each topic, you should recognize the important conceptual questions that might be posed in the interviews. To plan, make a list of the questions and answers. Why am I telling you this? People remember concepts only when they have graduated from college. However, there may be individuals who have extraordinary recall abilities. They may request that something is derived.
After passing the technical round, you will be invited to the HR round. HR professionals are a tricky bunch. Even if you have good technical experience, they can decide if you are eligible to be listed. They will evaluate your teamwork ethic, organizational abilities, leadership skills, soft skills, hard skills, and so on.
HR experts will question you based on the resume. As a result, the resume must be well written. They may inquire about your hobbies and the skills mentioned on your resume. Everything you write on your resume should be genuine and observable. In your resume, for example, you could write something like "a perfect team player."You should be ready with some relevant stories from the past to back them up. There will be several other points on your resume needing stories to support them too. You are to prepare these stories beforehand. These stories are very powerful and leave an impression in the minds of the listener. If you have observed, I have included a personal story in most of the paragraphs so that people can understand and my article leaves a lasting impression in the readers' mind. I have learned it from Dale Carnegie’s book on “ The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”. I have written various other articles on HR interviews which you can read for better understanding.
Networking
Networking does help in many ways. Networking can be done via various social media platforms. There is no harm in doing so. Many alumni have a soft spot for juniors. They could refer you to or suggest you for work. Otherwise, networking can be used to collect pertinent knowledge about an organization to which you are applying for a position. However, a proper plan must be followed from the start. It cannot be done overnight. You can learn more about networking by clicking on this link.
If you like the post you can read or gift the author's books “B.Tech Guide Book" & "Campus Placement Guidebook" available worldwide in Amazon in Kindle format. These book will help you strategize your life. You will find many important things which are not discussed anywhere. Click in the link below.
Campus Placement Guidebook(click)
Our posts
1. Family support: Overestimate by students
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/04/family-support-overestimate-by-students.html)
2. Knowledge trumps
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/04/knowledge-trumps.html)
4. People may not like you all the time
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/05/people-may-not-like-you-all-time.html)
5. Retirement Extended
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/05/retirement-extended.html)
6. Financial stress
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/05/financial-stress.html)
7. No one is thinking about you
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/05/no-one-is-thinking-about-you.html)
8. Expectation & over expectation
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/06/expectation-over-expectation.html)
9. Two people, two lessons regarding interviews
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/06/two-people-two-lessons-regarding.html)
11. Strategy to Write a Paper during PhD:10
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/07/strategy-to-write-paper-during-phd.html)
12. Collaboration during PhD to Write a Research Paper:11
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/07/collaboration-during-phd-to-write.html)
13. Anger Management
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/07/anger-management.html)
14. Value addition
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/08/value-addition.html)
15. Accept your reality (https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/08/accept-your-relaity.html)
16. A few observations regarding AI
(https://authenticmedia2020.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-few-observations-regarding-ai.html)
