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Mistakes you should Avoid At the Interview Table

bikram — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 17:22:20 +0000

Interview table is a place where you just can’t afford to go wrong. Don’t let your wrong moves and silly answers mess up the much awaited success. We often unknowingly commit few common mistakes and lose the opportunity forever. After reading this article, be careful next time, while an interview knocks your door. Here are some commonly made mistakes at the interview desk.

Grabbing seat

Often interviewee is extremely nervous while seeing the interviewer for the first time and forgets basic manners by grabbing a seat without recruiter’s permission. You may not notice it, but your interviewer will and find it extremely ill-mannered. Wait for the interviewer to sit and then take your seat with his or her permission. Sit only after you greet the interviewer.

Wandering eyes

Wandering eyes right from interviewer’s tie to shoes, from ceiling to the window is extremely disturbing for the interviewer. It not only reflects candidate’s lack of attention, but also lack of confidence. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. It’s extremely annoying. Look straight into interviewer’s eyes and don’t let your eyes wander here and there. The interviewer may try to find out what are you observing here and there. Make maximum eye contact, but don’t gaze at the interviewer either.

Too much personal talks

No interviewer appreciates personal talk. So avoid it. Even when asked to describe yourself, don’t include too much of personal details like where you were born, where you went for last holiday, what you do in your free time, your relationship status and the like. Even you can avoid too much of personal queries, simply by saying you don’t feel your personal life has anything to do with your professional field. Honesty will impress the right interviewer and he or she won’t intervene into your personal life either.

Fidgeting

Often in nervousness we start fidgeting objects and unknowingly it draws attention of the recruiter. Avoid this habit.

Dumb queries

Just for the sake of asking questions don’t shoot your questions to the interviewer. Ask only smart, interesting and valid questions. Don’t ask stupid questions like ‘Will I get this job?’ or ‘What’s your budget?’ It shows immaturity.

How Being Street-Smart Helps You Crack a Job Interview

bikram — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:35:00 +0000

A job interviewer comes to an interview table with a hope to find the best candidate for the position, and a job interviewee equipped with all the knowledge required to do the work comes to the table to get the job for himself. But both of them fail to secure the result each of them wanted: the interviewer does not get the best candidate, and the interviewee, who was the best among all, does not get the job.

Why?

Because an interviewer has only so much time and attention for one candidate, and even that time and attention shrinks down to bare minimum, for the candidates are too many. As a result, what an interviewer gets is a nearly suitable candidate for the job, and an average interviewee, who is street-smart, gets the job.

A street smart person knows the art of survival. He knows that not the best but the swiftest wins the everyday battle. He also knows what to say in which situation because he can intuitively tell what others want to hear. The tips I am going to share are the ones a street smart job searches usage to convey the interviewer how qualified he or she is.

The goal of this article is to do the same, to help you become and street smart and succeed in an interview, even if you are not the sharpest.

Experience

Your interviewer is interested in knowing about your experience in doing the job you have applied for, so instead to beating around the bush come directly to the experience part during your interview. And tell them some details of the work using jargons.

Expertise

You need to show you expertise in your domain while talking about the experience. Talk of the details tells your interviewer that you know nuisances of the job, which only the experts of the field can hope to know. And use of jargon suggests the depth of your understanding of your field. Use acronyms for “3 or more words” jargons.

Exceeding Expectation

Cracking an interview is an art of understanding the requirement and over delivering on it. There is no way that an interviewer can know about you, in any detail, in the limited time he has for you. You should, therefore, serve them what they want the most. Blow them away by showing them what they need, and more.

Follow these three advices, and you will end up getting every job you will ever apply for.

What should be your Body Language at the Interview Table?

bikram — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:08:11 +0000

Your résumé is flawless, your academic record and experience have been good throughout, and you are just perfect for the job. Still every time you are rejected. Have you ever wondered what goes wrong at the interview table? It may be your body language, the non-verbal communication. Even brilliant knowledge is often marred by poor body language; as non-verbal communication accounts for 90% of the message that you send during interview.

If you are not confident enough about your body language take help of the following tips.

Before entering the room, take a look of yourself. Make sure your hands are dry, warm. Shake hands firmly, yet don’t overpower. Sit straight, yet comfortable. Erect posture reflects energy, enthusiasm, and self control. Don’t move quite often. Make yourself feel comfortable. Slouching posture doesn’t reflect a positive attitude. Sitting on edge of the chair is to be avoided, as it reflects nervousness and lack of self-confidence.

Make good eye contact, but avoid staring. Do not let your eyes wander. While answering questions look into the interviewer’s eyes. Even while listening to the interviewer maintain direct eye contact. It makes you appear confident, attentive and pleasant. Avoid aggressive stares, blinking often, wandering eye movements, staring below. Over eye contact can again make you appear bossy, challenging and seductive.

Control your hands by being aware of what you are doing with them. Set them free, loosely clasped in your lap or on the table. Keep hands off your face. Avoid folding hands near chest, it shows defensive attitude and mind blocks. Too much hands movement is distracting. Less of movement makes you look in control, confident and disciplined. Avoid putting hands in pocket.

Place your feet firmly on the ground and avoid fidgeting. Crossing legs are okay, but shouldn’t invite too frequent crossing and re-crossings. Crossing legs at ankles appear smart and professional. Leg movements are distracting. Point knees towards the interviewer.

Speak in a clear, controlled, well-modulated voice. Avoid monotone and same pitch. Breathe properly in-between. Tone should be professional and confident. Don’t let your personal emotions reflect in your voice or words. Smile and nod, but not too loud or often.

3 Questions to Ask During Your Job Interview Even When You Are Desperate

bikram — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:38:13 +0000

Many people sit on the interview table with a set notion that it is the job of person (s) on the other side of the table to pose question, and their job is limited to providing right answers to questions asked to them. Nothing could be more wrong than this. An interview is not your viva that happened in your school and/or college. It is an opportunity for both the parties to know each other and see if both of you are compatible or not. To this end, both parties need to ask questions. Till now, I have talked a lot about how to properly answer your interviewer. In this article, I will talk about 3 important questions you must ask your interviewer even when you are desperate to get the job.

Question 1: Role and responsibility

This seems obvious, but it is not. The exact role of a sales engineer in one company can be slightly or completely different from the roles and responsibilities of the person on similar job in other company. This applies for all kinds of jobs. Therefore, it is imperative to ask about the role you are expected to play and responsibilities you have to take should you get the job. This will remove the blind spot and help you decide.

Question 2: Whom you will report to

Another seemingly obvious question that cease to sound obvious the moment you step through the giant door of your office on the first day. Save the horror of confusion and sounding horribly stupid by asking this question during your interview. This knowledge will also save you from workplace bullies who like to corner every unprepared newcomer.

Question 3: Work hours

Ask your interviewer what is a typical work hour for a person in your position in the company. Ask for a realistic answer. Do not believe when they say is 9 to 5 or 9 to 6 because it is never so. Work may starts from 9 or 10 or whatever, but never gets over at 5 or 6 or whatever is told to you. The world out there is very competitive, so to keep pace people work for long hours. Hence, you need to ask about work hours in real sense.

Could there be any question more important than these? Let me know your view on this subject.

A Job-Search Guide to Help People Over 45 – XV

bikram — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:56:24 +0000

Personal meeting and job interviews are not the places where you can hide your age. It is simply not possible. So, why to try! And as it is so far in the series we have seen why you should play your age, and not try to hide it. But, one thing that may concern you during the interview is the age, not yours, but of the people around you, of the person taking your interview, and of the people with whom you have to work. Let’s see how you should deal with it.

Age should not matter

Neither yours nor your interview’s age should matter to you when you are on the interview table. The chances are quite realistic that your interviewer will be much younger than you. Do not get unnerved by that. Be calm and give him the respect you gave to your older interviewer when you were young. Treat anyone on the interviewer’s chair with respect.

Convey your desire to work with younger crowd

One of the main concerns of an employer hiring an older person is the new employee’s ability to mix with the young crowd. Make it clear to the interviewer that you do not have any problem in working with young people. Working with young people, particularly getting managed by them doesn’t go well with everyone. Many do not like to get managed by someone who is less experienced then him. You should make this clear to your employer that you do not belong from that group.

During your interview, you need to convey to your employer that you have the desire to keep up with younger crowd, and you are willing to learn new technologies and new way of doing things so that you could succeed. Do not forget to ask about the prospect of success in the organization you are being interviewed for.

Confidence and Job Interview

bikram — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:53:01 +0000

Who needs more confidence to get the work done: an interviewee or a salesperson? The correct answer is both, but as we are discussing about the job interview, we will concern ourselves with the confidence of an interviewee. But before doing that let’s face this question: How many of us have felt the sweaty palm and restless mind when entering the interview room?

I bet each one of us has faced this situation once or more in our career, but some of us go through this many times in their career, and more often than most of us. I think I know why they go through such ordeal every time they are in there for the interview, and thus I am writing this post. I believe this guide will help them do away with interview syndrome, once and for all.

How to remain confident in an interview

Do not lie: The major reason why people feel less confident during interview than they actually are because of the lie they tell to the interviewer and the lie they wrote in the résumé. There is no point in lying because even if you get the job by lying, you will not be able to do justice to the work assigned to it, therefore, you will provide poor work, which will translate into bad review followed by firing. Now, what’s better: no job, or a résumé with a small black spot?
Reach the venue 30 minutes in advance: Not everyone lies in the interview, but most of us are susceptible to another flaw, which is equally harmful. Always reach your the interview venue 30 minutes in advance and familiarize yourself with the surrounding, so that you can feel at home.
Research the company: You are expected to know a bit about the company you are into. The knowledge shows your interest in the work, and the absence of it suggests that the company you are in at that point of time is just one of the many companies where you just dropped in with a hope to get hired. No one likes to have discarded employee.
Know your stuff: If you do not know your stuff then you should not go to the interview table. Your interviewer is your prospective employer, so he will ask you all sorts of questions related to the work you will handle in his company. If you fumble in answering to his satisfaction, consider the interview over, and do not wait for any call because there will be no call.
Be yourself: I will not ask you to put a broad grin or ear-to-ear smile on your face, and I will also not ask you to sit too straight and crush the interviewer’s hand with the sheer power of your palm just to say how confident you are. By doing all this, you will sound nothing but just an idiot who does not know manners. Hence, I will suggest you to forget what you have learned from the success coaches and be yourself. Do not try to be anyone, you will never succeed. Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”