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Tips for Attending Interview

Interview or the opportunity meeting with the employer is an important aspect in hiring process. Only successful candidate will get the job. That is the reason interview seems to be some thing scary and nervous.

First of all be confident. There is nothing scary but some thing serious. Do not take interview opportunity too lightly. Though you are very intelligent and experienced, your poor performance in the interview can turn you down. Be aware that employer is not looking only at your education and experience. They also look upon your personality, way of dressing, way of presentation, general behavior, communication etc. The hard part is that they will not tell your week sides or the things they did not like, rather simply will turn you down by saying “Thank you for coming. We will let you know about our decision.”

Usually they talk about corporate benefits, corporate history, work responsibilities, timings, showing the campus, introducing with supervisors & or with coworkers only to the candidate in those they are less or more interested. If they ask how soon you can start and if they discuss salary etc, it seems they are more serious in hiring you. Anyhow hard to say what are the final criteria of each employer.

Here are few tips, but we suggest you to develop your own tips as well.

Dress up professionally: You should dress up professionally most suitable dress is dark matching suite (Navy, Brown, Black), white shirt, colorful tie, black or brown shoes and matching plain socks. Women can use professional outfit such as pant-jacket suite or skirt jackets suite with black sandals.

Be on time: Better you do not call for directions, only get the address and try to use map quest for directions unless it is typical location. And be there on time and little advance (not too advance if you too early better stay in car or in lobby, some time very early candidate become the reason of pressure for Secretary and Interviewer). If you are not good in driving and finding place, better drive one day earlier to seek the direction and location. Anyhow if you are getting late on the way even for 15 minutes, better to call the company about your delay with the explanation.

Keep Folder with you.: You need not to carry heavy unorganized bags with lap top etc. Better keep with you a light folder. You should have with you a few extra copies of your resumes, note pad and a pen in the pocket of your shirt or jacket.

How to enter the room: Enter with all smiles, say Hello to interviewer, call his or her name correctly and give a little firm hand shake.

How to respond the interviewer(s): As soon as you occupy the chair, take out your resume from your folder, take out the note pad and put the pen on note pad (you need not to hold the pen unless you need to write some thing).

Be sure that interviewer has your resume or if there are more then one interviewer be sure every one has the copy of your resume. If not then you should hand over the copies of your resumes to other interviewers.

Usually interviewer will start one common question. Did you find any difficulty for coming here. Better to say “no” even though you were lost on the way. Because saying “yes” may counter about your weak driving.  

And interviewer will start giving you about introduction of the business. This is time you should use pad and pen and write down some points about the company as discussed.

Interviewer will also discuss about the responsibilities of the position. You should continue writing those responsibilities.

What kind of other questions they will ask, hard to imagine. But listen them carefully, do not use short cut to address your answer. If there are more then one interviewer, and question is asked only by one. While answering respond to every one present in the room. Do not miss any opportunity for smiling and eye to eye connection with all interviewers.

Usually interviewer will ask very common question “Tell us about your self”.

Seems very simple question but some time tough to answer. Telling about others is very easy than telling about ourselves.

So you can start explaining , if you are an immigrant, explain briefly from which country you are, how long you are in USA, your visa status, your marriage status, how many kids you have, what they are doing, what is your spouse, where do you live etc.

Then come to your education, and experience.

Then come to your specializations.

Explain your strong points such as that you are a dedicated, honest, committed, fast learner, team player, love to work, people type person etc.

Most of the time interviewer will ask you “Do you have any question”. It is better to ask some question even though you do not have any question. It is again better not to ask questions such as how much will be my salary, when I can start, what is working hours, is there any railway station etc. We do not say that these questions are not necessary, better to ask at appropriate time and from appropriate person.

It is much better if you ask questions relating to the job, and its responsibilities, such as how old is the company, how many people working in accounting department, what kind of software you are using and further you can pick up some questions from the list of responsibilities attached with the job.

During the whole interview process remain exited and confident.

It is always better to write a thanking letter immediate next day to the interviewer.

Again you have to develop your own strategies to attend an interview, because the whole process is very wide that differs company to company, and be a successful candidate.

Courtesy from
Realtech Business School.