INTERVIEW

Good First Impression. There is a famous saying a interview in human resource management, “in an interview, interviewers form their opinions about interviewee in first few minutes, rest of the time is used to reinforce those opinions.” This happens because of the effect of first impression. About the first impressions, a general saying is, “first impression is the last impression.” Looking at these phenomena, it is essential for you that you create good impression in the mind of the interviewers.

First impression or subsequent impressions is a matter of perception of the interviewers about you. This perception is formed on the basis of totality of your personality that is reflected by you the moment you enter the interview room and your pattern of interaction with the interviewers within first few minutes. They will observe you first outwardly and subsequently inwardly. In order to make good first impression based on your outward features, it is desirable that your attire should be elegant and sober, professional briefcase/portfolio/bag, professional hairstyle, and other outlook.

You should walk very confidently from the door to the chair in proper manner, if handshake is required do it warmly, sit on the chair in proper manner, maintain proper eye contact with the interviewer who is asking question and use appropriate body language. Though many of these are outward things but they speak about you and are important for making good first impression. For inward things, use sweet and polite tone while talking to the interviewers or answering their questions, show your seriousness about the job and interview process even you do not intend to join the job after being selected, and similar such things which show that you believe in high level of etiquette and mannerism.

Be a Good Listener. In an interview, be a good listener. This will serve two-fold objectives, first, when you listen attentively, you tend to understand questions correctly. This understanding will help you to answer the questions second, when you listen attentively, it will impress the interviewers by creating a feeling that you are taking genuine interest in whatever they are asking about. In the listening process, your facial expression should be such that you are taking active interest in what an interviewer is saying.

Communicate Effectively. An effective communication is one which sends the subject-matter of the communication in a way that the receiver of the message understands it in the same way as intended by the sender. Besides sending the subject-matter, effective communication also involves putting higher emphasis on more important matter. In written communication, this is done through underlining the more important matters or putting them into italic or bold form. In the case of oral communication, this is done by changing tone style supported by body language. In order to make your communication effective, you can observe the following points:

After an interviewer has finished his questions, pause for a moment and organize your answer in a correct manner.

Use appropriate words to communicate your answer. For answering a technical question, you may use technical words but for answering a non-technical question, it is not necessary to use technical words.

Follow the principle of brevity. It implies that you should answer a question in a very specific way that is required by a question. For example, if you have been asked to define a term, limit yourself to its definition only. Similarly, if you have been asked to narrate the features of an object, just mention the various points. Details of various points are not required at this stage. If the interviewers ask for detail of any point, narrate its detail. This way, time allotted to each candidate for interviewing is utilized properly.

Use proper body language to support what you say. (discussed later in this chapter.)

For communication, a famous saying is, “what you say may be important but how you say it is even more important.” Both what and how taken together make a communication effective.

Ask for a clarification.  If an interviewer has asked a question which you could not hear properly, may be because of lack of appropriate loudness of voice of the interviewer, disturbance of any kind, or your own inattention, it is better that you ask gently to the interviewer to repeat his question again. Similarly, there may be possibility that an interviewer may ask a question whose meaning is not as precise as wish. In such a case, you simply say, “sir, do you mean……?” do not feel shy that the interviewer will feel agitated. On the contrary, he will be happy that your approach is precise and this will go in your favor. Instead of giving wrong answer to a question, it is better to ask for repetition and clarification. However, this practice, if adopted quite frequently, becomes annoying. Keep this phenomenon in your mind while using this practice.

Discuss but do not argue.  It is better that you treat an interview as a discussion forum and not an argument forum. Discussion involves deliberating on issues that may emerge from a question. In order to sort out the issues, it is possible that there may be questions over questions, particularly in an in-depth interview. If an interviewer expresses his opinion on an issue with you do not feel agreed, you gently say about your reservation. if the interviewer does not agree with your view and still persists on his earlier stand, it is better not to drag this discussion to prove the interviewer wrong. If you adopt contrary practice, this will lead to argument and counter-argument which may go against you.        

Admit Your Mistake. If in answering any question, you make a mistake and the interviewer points out it, accept your mistake. A mistake is a wrong judgment of a situation and acting on that. Therefore committing a mistake is not very unusual phenomenon. while committing a mistake is a natural phenomenon, persisting on that mistake after it has been discovered is blunder. Therefore, if you commit any mistake during the interview process, admit it and offer apology. Do not bring your ego which is false in this process.

Be Polite. It is better that you remain polite throughout the interview process. Even if any unpleasant situation is created by an interviewer (this may be done deliberately to test your patience), do not loose your temper. If you loose your temper to protect your ego, you may be treated as a highly emotional person. Remember that this kind of person is not treated suitable for any job. if you are polite in the interview , it conveys that you have respect for the ideas of others; you are open-minded to accept new ideas and change you ideas which are not relevant in a given situation. All these will go in your favor.

Display Proper Etiquette and Manner. Interview is a formal process though, sometimes, this process may be conducted by the interviewers in such a way that it appears to be an informal process. This is done deliberately to put a candidate at ease so as to extract maximum possible information about him. If such a situation comes before you, do not forget to display the etiquette and a manner of a formal interview process. It may also happen that during your interview, some refreshment is brought to the interviewers. Generally, on such an occasion, refreshment is also served to the candidate sitting in the interview room. If such a situation comes before you and the interviewers ask you to take refreshment, do not deny this offer as it is against etiquette. If you do not take any particular item of refreshment served (many persons do not take tea or coffee at all), say politely about it and take only the remaining items.

Ask Questions. If the interviewers invite you to ask questions which generally happens at the closing stage of the interview, do not hesitate to ask questions. If you do not ask questions, the interviewers may perceive that you are not genuinely interested in the job or the organization. In asking questions, take two aspects in your mind. First, your questions should be limited to the job and the organization like exact job requirements (if you have researched job requirements earlier, ask about only those requirements about which you are not very much sure), nature of work environment, and some aspects of human resource management practices like type of training to be provided on the job but avoid asking about promotional avenues, salary and functional benefits, etc. Also avoid questions on your performance in the interview Second, keep the number of questions to an appropriate level and avoid asking too many questions. Asking too many questions may indicate that you have not done any research work about the organization.

Also avoid questions on your performance in the interview.

Create Good Last Impression. Take an interview just like a one day cricket match, batsman score runs at a brisk rate during the first few overs; this rate goes down in the middle overs; but this rate goes brisk again during the last few overs to score a winning total. In the same way, if you have created good first impression in the beginning of the interview but have faulted in giving the best possible answers of some questions, you can erase the memory of such faulted answers by creating good last impression. For creating good last impression, you can follow the same approach which you might have used in creating good first impression with a slight difference. Generally, chairman of the interview panel closes the interview by saying to the candidate, “thank you” and wishing him good luck.

Do not show any type of fidgetiness even if your interview is not proceeding on the line of your expectation. Try to bring the situation back according to your expectation by overcoming those obstacles which has caused this phenomenon.

Do not show any clue, either verbal or non-verbal, that you are very much disparate for this job. Desperation of any kind is not liked. If you do well in the interview, you will be offered the job.

BACK TO MAIN PAGE PREPARATION FOR INTERVIEW