Understanding Behavioral questions in Job Interviews ( T & P Series on Wednesdays: 13)

 

Behavioral questioning as a topic is rarely discussed. Only a few people know about it. Less limelight does not mean anything less important in any way. These are frequently asked in personal interviews. The questions assist recruiters in assessing a candidate's experience and abilities in the simplest way possible. If you're not used to answering these kinds of questions, you could hit a stumbling block. These types of problems necessitate proper planning ahead of time. Otherwise, one can begin rambling because they are unsure how to proceed. This means that a prospect is no longer a possibility.

   Recognizing the questions

When a vacancy or opportunity becomes available in an organization, the recruiting manager's job is to find the ideal candidate for the advertised position or opening. As a consequence, his job is to assess the candidates' desired abilities and expertise. Managers are trained to ask behavioral questions to candidates to observe their responses.

These questions can be differentiated by their type.

These are depicted below.

(1) Tell me about a time when….”

(2) Describe a situation when…..”

If you observe these questions, you will note that the best way to answer them is to rely on previous experiences. To present your case, you must tell them a suitable tale about a similar scenario. If you are not well-prepared with ready stories, you would be unable to draw them on the spot for fast comparison. Often you want to skirt the topic or cut corners. But it's all for naught.

  Preparing the questions

It is said that knowledge is power. You may also achieve such knowledge by going through the job description over and over again minutely. It holds the secret to all of the puzzles. For eg, a company is looking for a graduate trainee in marketing and sales. Then, one should be ready to handle behavioral questions dealing with sales & marketing in the past. Similarly, you should draw your stories from your graduation days. You would be able to discover out if you did some volunteer work in college with event marketing. Similarly, you can quickly draw anecdotes from your teamwork experiences when serving in different teams during your college days. The only thing that matters is that you were exposed to such a situation and that you learned from it. The lesson could be a huge success or a complete disaster. However, no story is a negative story. You should also present the points that you failed and possible changes that should be made.

  I was asked similar questions when interviewing for the position of assistant professor at Dibrugarh University. The recruiters inquired about how I would approach drawing lessons (graphics) in the B.Tech program. I told them that I was taking a subject called Machine Drawing in 3^rd semester already at GIMT ( where I was working at that time) that was more or less similar to graphics and if I needed to teach the students, I could easily read the subject matter quickly and brush up on my skills. This seemed to convince them. People generally dislike teaching graphics because it is very exhausting. However, in interviews, you cannot express your displeasure with handling anything that would be seen as a fault. You have to send a positive vibe at any cost.

  Better research means better preparation. In the olden days, kings used to dispatch spies to every nook and corner of their country and kept tabs on the goings-on so that there were no surprises. This was an excellent preventative measure for dealing with any eventuality. That was good research in those days. Currently, in a job-hunting setting, we may say that one would do extensive research on the business profile and its potential ventures. You will do adequate research on the firm by simply looking for it online. There will be company-related information and news that you will use during the interview. You should also request assistance from alumni in this respect. To obtain more detailed details, you can contact them online or by phone. One more useful technique could be reaching out to the people in the company through various social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook (Social Networking). The key goal is to collect as much information as possible to shape an opinion about the questions. One should not shy away from asking. I recall the story of Dorothy Parker, a well-known New York writer. During her younger years, she used to compose poetry and send them to magazines. She was regularly turned down by publishers. Fortunately, she landed an interview with Vanity Fair magazine. She went straight to the publisher and showed him her poem. She inquired about jobs. Even though she was turned down, the publisher kept her name in view. When the editor of Vanity Fair launched another publication named Vogue, he sought her out.  She would not have had the job if she had not asked for it. The moral of the story is that we must continue to strive and engage with people and solicit advice and feedback. However, one should avoid being annoying or distracting.

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Optimizing Your Brain Functoning For Success!!! ( Sunday Best Reads Series)

 

The human brain is a wonder. Unlike animals, human brains are better in many ways. Our brain can store memory and process information. John Medina, A US physician devoted his 20 years in the research of brain and their ways of functioning. He had written a book called 12 brain rules summing up his 20 years of research. There are lots of information to incorporate into our lives for a successful career. So, let us discuss one by one in simple language in the shortest possible time.

(1) Exercise boost brain power: Medina’s research refers to those aerobic exercises which increase heart rate is excellent for brain power improvement. It enhances memory and processing power. When you exercise, your brain gets more blood. Blood supplies glucose to the brain. Thus, the brain gets energy. It can process well. One should keep in mind that the human body was developed for 12 miles of walking thousands of years ago if you are reluctant to exercise.

(2) Human brain involves two: The brains of lizards have amygdale which can perform basic things such as breathing, walking, digestion etc. Humans were also like the lizards millions of years ago. But, we humans have evolved. Our brain got an upgrade called cortex when humans arrived Savanah. With his new gadget in the brain, we can process information, think, speak and store memory. After this upgrade, humans have never looked back. So modern humans use both amygdala and cortex for processing, speaking,  memory storage, reproduction etc.

(3) Every brain wired differently: Brains of two individuals are different depending on their day to day activities. Their brain neurons wired differently. Even for simple memory, their brains use different places for information storage.

(4) We do not pay attention to boring things: Our brain can focus only on one thing. Even if our sensors pick up a lot of things, our brains automatically delete them within a few seconds. We are not at all made for multitasking.  The only thing that will catch our attention is the interesting things which arouse emotion. We are hooked to emotional things. You can see the TV ads which are very emotionally arousing to catch your attention.

(5)Repeat to remember: If your remembering skills are poor, you can use this technique. We can improve remembering skill if we recall the things in the same environment when we learn it. Let me elaborate a bit more. We can remember the lessons better during exams if we have learned and practised the lessons beforehand in an environment which resembles like the exam.

(6) Remember to repeat: When we learn something, we forget maximum information in a few seconds later. If you want to memorize your lesson better way, you have to read more supplementary information related to the topic to remember.  You have to revise what you have learned earlier after equal time for long term memory.    

(7) Sleep well, think:  One should sleep well to think well. When you are deprived of sound sleep, your brain is affected negatively. You may have attention loss, memory loss, difficulty in body movement and whole lots of other problems related to sleep. The brain works rhythmically. When you sleep, your neurons replay the things and store peacefully. A simple 26-minute nap can enhance brain productivity by 34%. It has been observed on astronauts. Furthermore, it helps to lessen stress.

(8) The stressed brain cannot learn: When you are stressed, your brain loses processing capacity. When you are given a task, you can perform it. I have experienced it many times. Let us consider, you are seeing a doctor. You are given a hard multiplication problem at the clinic. Would you feel like solving it? The answer is no. Additionally, stress releases cortisol and adrenalin which scars the arteries. It can lead to a stroke.

(9) Stimulate more of the senses: This rule says that the more the senses are involved in a particular activity, the more you can remember the activity.

(10) Vision is the most powerful sense: Vision is the most dominant sense among others. It uses 50% of the brain’s energy. So, one can remember well when he sees the picture, video, or model compared to written and audio.

(11) Male and female brain work differently: It is due to chromosomes in male and female. In males X chromosomes are from mother only while in females, X chromosomes are an amalgamation of father and mother. When you keep man and woman in the same stressed position, male’s right and female’s left amygdale get activated. The females become emotional while male reaches to a conclusion.

(12) We are powerful and natural explorers: As per Medina, we learn more by active learning. Take the example of babies. They experiment with the smallest things and learn by hit and trial method by experiencing. So, do not hesitate to experiment and fail.

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Are You Doing Deep Work? (Sunday Best Reads Series)

 

While searching online, I have stumbled upon a book called ‘Deep Work’. The book sheds light on working style for maximum productivity. There are two types of style; deep work and swallow work. Deep work is something you do without any external interruptions while shallow work is done while multitasking. Suppose you are writing something while listening to a song or doing office jobs while answering phone calls. Deep work is considered to be high-quality work and shallow is low quality as the name itself suggests.

With time, deep work has become rare. A few successful people use this technique for high productivity, such as Bill Gates and J.K Rowling. Bill Gates goes to hermit’s life for a few days in a year for reading and thinking new ideas. J.K. Rowling writes her novels in hotels away from interruptions. In this digital age, our attention span has shortened due to various mobile notification distractions and bad habits of checking social media accounts. When you are working with full concentration and your attention breaks due to some interruptions, you come back to the previous state after 20-30% loss in attention which is known as attention residue. You cannot concentrate wholeheartedly. You work low quality. As per the author, the low-quality swallow work is replaceable. In future, the swallow work will be taken over by robots or artificial intelligence or lowly paid individuals due to overpopulation. Cal Neport says that the coming world will be for extra rich who knows where to invest, people who work with technology and the people who are experts in their field. Now, coming to the third category, one need to do deep work to be an expert in his field. There are a few techniques to do deep work.

(1) Monastic deep work like sages in the Himalayas. This is not possible for all. You have to cut off from social integrations for a period.

(2) Bimodal deep work like J.K. Rowling. She works in the hotel during the day away from any interruptions and comes back in the evening to social life.

(3) Rhythmic deep work is for the people who can keep aside a slot daily for deep work.

(4) Journalistic deep work is for those people who do not follow any routine. If they find the time, they switch off mobile and engage in deep work. 

 

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