Lecture 23 - Interview Preparation and Procedures

Figure 1: Job Interview

"The best interviews, like the best biographies, should sing the strangeness and variety of the human race." 

The biggest mistake in interviewing is not being fully prepared. It behooves job seekers to use every conceivable means possible to prepare for the interview and to allow ample time to fully prepare. Understand that interviewing is a skill; as with all skills, preparation and practice enhance the quality of that skill. Preparation can make the difference between getting an offer and getting rejected.

 

Learning from class:

Lecturer started off the lecture by stating that interviewee needs to preparer some potential questions that might ask in the interview which enable interviewee to familiar with structure of the answers that planing to provide.

After that lecturer stated that interviewee needs to prepare list of questions along with answers for them, that consist of questions and answers along with consequence such as,

1. What sort of TV programs you Watch?

• Avoid TV series and watching documentary programs that play in Discovery  and History Channel

2.  What are your Weaknesses?

• Mention only one weakness and provide a weakness that also can be seen as a strength. Examples:- Perfectionist, Inability to say No and Not giving Quick Response for highly critical tasks since its requires detailed analysis.

3. What are your Strengths?

• Always need to justify each point by giving examples. As an example if chose Leadership skills provide an example where you demonstrated it and state the outcome of it.

4. Why you need this job?

• Should come up with list of reasons and better to give three reasons and those reasons should highlights motivation and enthusiasm for that particular job. As an example state like "That I have more to offer to the organization and I think it reciprocal I have more things to get from the organization in terms of experience and skills"  
• Need to highlight interviewee dedication and motivation towards the company
•  Highlight the unique projects that company do and how the interviewee can support them 

5.  Why are you good candidate for this job?

• Find three reasons from the quick match sheet that highlight most suitability or best match qualification for the applied job.

6. What do you think or know about our organizations?

• Highlight the uniqueness and finical status of the organization as well as how it differ from its competitors

After specify above general interview questions lecturer stated in interviews there might be tricky questions shoots to interviewee after satisfy up to some extent with general question session. Those tricky questions are,

1. How much of salary you are expecting?

• A good answer would be "This job normally pays in range of  30 000 to 50 000 and I would prefer some upper bound salary"

2. What is your Ambition?

• Ambition should align with the line of work in that particular line or in job area. As example in Business Analysis or Developer the ambition should be a project manager.

3. What if kind of questions?

• These types of questions ask to check How good you are in problem solving. Basically given a mockup scenario or pseudo code to react open or provide the answer.

4. What type of dreams you see?

• Tell about some positive dreams you had.

Then lecturer mentioned that after come up with answers for the above questions candidate should practice those answers in front of a mirror with little bit of expression in face along with good body language movements relating to the answers been provided since the rehashing is the key to success. The more you practice the more you become comfortable.

Lecturer also stated that end of the interview before leaving, it a must to shake hand interviewer since it reflects your professionalism.

Before concluding the lecture for the day lecturer stated there are some Golden Rules to consider. They are,

• Always listen to the question completely and address it
• Always provide evidence what is stated and make sure it referenced in the CV
• Don't Rumble 
• Avoid slang words  

Reality of the Lecture:

From this lecture I understood how well I need to prepare for an interview and potential questions that interviewers might ask in a interview as well as how to structure the answers in a professional manner that outcome a better chance of getting me selected from an interview. The most of the artifacts that learned from this lecture can be define as commons sense that a particular candidate should develop before facing to an interview. I think I clearly grabbed the theoretical aspect of this interview code of conduct and I will use it for my future career requirements by mixing my own flavor of doing things in order to differentiate by self from other candidates.