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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.
B.Tech Guidebook (Click)
Campus Placement Guidebook(click)
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