Being Successful at Interviews

“Dhak dhak – dhak dhak” went the heartbeat. This is normal continuous phenomenon, but this time it was unnervingly rapid. The reason, a letter stating that I have to be present at 10:30 am at L&T Gate 5 for interview. There could be two reasons. One was the joy of surpassing the multitude of tests and a GD and being one of the few candidates selected for interview. Whew! The second reason was an unknown fear. FEAR!!!

Why do people dread interviews? Why was I scared? Now when I think I have a few answers.

a) Fear of failure: This is one gem of a company and I want this job at any cost. But then there is our class topper, Asyis and then there is Skmm who is so fluent in his language. Then there is Jilmil who can easily impress with her style and attitude. Also there are candidates from other colleges. What are my chances? Also what if they ask me questions and I can’t answer them. What if I falter? WHAT IF I FAIL?

b) Performance requirements:Just read any reviews on this topic. So full of advice! Be confident, don’t display nervousness, keep a smile on face, look in the eyes of interviewer, sit upright, don’t fidget with fingers, keep clarity of speech, avoid stammering, be relaxed, carry this, wear formal clothes and this and that and all without explaining how…no narrative examples, no personal experience. Just advice. Just so many things to keep in mind! Then again, there is so much confusion. In line 1 XYZ mentions display enthusiasm, energy in speech and line 12 says talk politely and in controlled fashion. Agreed, this may not be exactly contradictory but then where is the dividing line. Achougoo on MS says “in modern times, companies are looking for individuals who can perform multiple roles” but Jilmil says “don’t try and portray that you are Jack of all trades”. Oh God! Deliver me!

So friends, instead of giving you a super overdose of superficial advice I give you an inside view. But I do recommend you to go through these reviews at least once to get a hang of requirements. Only don’t ponder how you will be executing these. Instead let me explain how I did it subconsciously.

There I was sitting in the lounge, well dressed in formal plain white shirt and trousers and well polished shoes. Everyone around was equally well dressed. My first reason to panic was that they all had tie on and I didn’t. Lucky enough, my classmate had an extra tie that went well with my shirt.Lesson 1: Be dressed properly. Check reviews on MS on this topic and my spoof article.I looked here and there. Some boys were sitting and reading engineering books, some were reading newspaper and one girl was biting nails – nervousness obvious on her face. The room had two rooms – our interview was supposed to be in room on the right. The light above was lit and we all knew that the first guy was inside. The 2nd one was on his feet ready with all the necessary documents and was pacing the room. We told him to relax. He said he was trying. Then light went off and first guy came out. This had all of us jumping to our feet and gathered around him. The question – “Kya Pucha?” instead of “How was your interview?” Each one listening attentively as he said, “first they asked me about myself and electives in last year”… “Yes, yes what were the technical questions?” one girl interrupted. “Shit! They asked me what motor is used in ceiling fan?”. I said promptly, “Single phase induction motor”. “Oh I gave that answer too but they asked me which single phase induction motor?”. Frantic gripped all of us as we groped in our bag to pull out some book or other and read. The 2nd guy did not come for quite some time now. Meanwhile each of us asking some question to the other person and believing that he has the answers but loosing confidence on self. Actually this led to a mass panic and confusion prevailed. Wouldn’t you rather prepare well previously, and not take part in such frenzy? Such situations are unavoidable, though, most often a question left incompletely answered by previous students may repeat, but generally try avoiding such situationsI found myself breathing hard. Now it was my turn. I suddenly remembered what Mr. Vishwanathan from Indo-American Society had advised. “Sit farthest from the stage and when its your turn – get up and walk slowly towards stage breathing easily and try to relax in these initial few seconds gained during walking this long distance, so that by the time you are on stage, you are relaxed.” I did just that. I knocked on the door twice and gently and then opened the door. “May I come in Sir”, I asked as I gazed around the room and the reply was “Yes please, do have a seat”.

There were more than two persons but the arrangement did not constitute chairs on either side or a big table dividing them and me. Instead they were sitting on a sofa I had to sit on a single couch.Here they got to see my dress till my shoes and body language tooSo I sat upright. “So Hello Mr. Ameet, tell us about yourself.” So he knew my name. It must be my resume. Here was a question that was common and one that gave me the chance to orient their next question to one of my choice. “I am this and I did that and my happy moment was when I got admission to college of my choice. I won this award, attended this seminar and I worked on an interesting project in L&T once.” Bragging! Actually this is called marketing yourself in controlled fashion. Also using the reply to arouse their interest and orient their next question. So the next question was obviously to my liking. “So you worked in L&T? When? Where? Under whom? What project?”It worked! Now I got a chance to show my knowledge about the company. Also two questions in a row whose answers were favorable and controlled, made me feel completely at ease and my face beamed confidence. Also since I knew about my project in L&T well, I displayed enthusiasm, and energy and it also reflected in my body language. I could see that they were impressedThen came the techie questions and I answered most of them but then they asked me about parallel operation of transformers. I did not know the answer. I told them that I do not know exactly how to connect transformers in parallel but I know that conditions X, Y, Z need to be fulfilled beforehand, but I know how to connect alternators in parallel.This was being honest and yet hiding my weakness and displaying my strengths. “So how are alternators connected in parallel?” one fellow asked. “Blah-blah”, I continued with renewed enthusiasm.