sample copy. not for distribtion. - educreationof multinationals like saint gobain, mott macdonalds...

Sample Copy. Not For Distribtion.

i

How To Win An Interview.


ii

Publishing-in-support-of,

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING

RZ 94, Sector - 6, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075 Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001

Website: www.educreation.in __________________________________________________

© Copyright, Author

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer.

ISBN: 978-1-61813-843-9

Price: ` 315.00

The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation.

Printed in India


iii

Tushar Kokane

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING

(Since 2011)

www.educreation.in


iv


v

My lovely parents, Mr. Vilas Kokane and Mangla

Kokane, and my charming younger sister for being my

source of inspiration. I would also like to dedicate this

book to my wife, Nivedita, and my son,

Vihan, for their unconditional love.


vi


vii

Tushar Vilas Kokane is an experienced

human resource professional with rich

experience in talent acquisition while

working in Human Resource department

of multinationals like Saint Gobain, Mott

MacDonalds and CMI FPE.

Tushar Kokane is a science graduate from Mumbai

University and holds masters in Human Resource

Management from ITM Business School. Tushar lives in

Mumbai with his wife, Nivedita, and son, Vihan.

Apart from writing, Tushar enjoys reading books,

playing guitar and wildlife photography and bird

watching.

Tushar can be reached on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/tushar.kokane.12

Tushar can be reached on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tushar-kokane-2855b4a


viii


ix

Sr. INDEX No

Page.

No

Introduction 1

1. Pre-interview Preparation 2

1.1 Know yourself 3

1.2 “Interview” as selection process 5

1.3 Types of interview 7

1.4 Do your homework 10

1.5 Brand yourself 11

1.6 Make an impact in covering letter 14

1.7 Writing your curriculum vitae 16

1.8 Do “Dry Run”

1.9 Competency based interview

technique

27

29

2. Interview Process 32

2.1 Make first impression 32

2.2 Power dressing 34

2.3 Arrive on time 37

2.4 Review and learn 38

2.5 Most common mistakes 40

3. Frequently-asked challenging questions 43

4. Post Interview 76

4.1 Waiting game 76

4.2 Psychometric tests 79

4.3 Assessment centre 82

4.4 Tips to prepare for a psychometric

test

85

5. Jargon Buster 91


x


Tushar Kokane

1

The word “Interview” is derived from “Inter + View”

means between views. The process of interview has been

formalized as selection process in early 16th century,

and it is certainly most trusted and widely used selection

process across globe. During the last five centuries, there

have been some changes that took place in this process;

however, the popularity and reliability of the process

remain unchallenged.

During my experience as hiring manager for hiring

experienced professionals as well as while interviewing

freshers, during campus recruitment, I observed there is

level of unpreparedness of interviewee which hampers

chances of many talented professionals. It is my honest

attempt to give quick guide to how to win as interviewee

at any level from fresh graduate to senior professional

level.

This book will also help students and professionals

across industry not only toward preparation to win an

interview but also to improve their overall personality by

reflecting on their core strength areas and focusing on

them.This book contains 17 Success Mantras which will

help you to win any personal and competitive interview

by reading interviewer’s mind. These success mantras

are pearls of wisdom.

Interviewing, unfortunately, is not an exact science

but an art. At the end, it is still a process with human

emotions and ego in play. Not to forget that selection in

an interview does not guarantee success in career. At the

same time, failure in interview does not necessarily

imply the lack of capabilities. I am sure that this book

will help you nail the interview by winning the mind of

an interviewer.

Happy reading!


How To Win An Interview

2

1.0

Most of us appear for our first interview after the

completion of graduation or any other professional

course. Unfortunately, there are only few institutes or

management schools who groom their students to

succeed in the interviews. Most of the others learn to

crack the interviews either by trial and error or by stroke

of luck.

The pre-interview phase is the most important

phase for success in winning interviews as it prepares

you to handle your interview well and create an impact

on the mind of interviewer. The more you spend time on

pre-interview process, the higher the chances of gaining

success. A lot of preparation is needed for the pre-

interview preparation stage as there are some industry-

specific trends which involve some industry-specific

skills. This book will help you to race ahead of time by

using the various tools and techniques.


Tushar Kokane

3

1.1

We will read about preparation needed to complete

before appearing in front of an interviewer. The very

first question needed to answer or reflect is about the

career aspiration and

long-term career goals

as an individual. This

is more important for

freshers considering

the fact that they are

yet to start a

professional journey.

The experienced professionals, who have already started

their corporate journey in certain direction, normally

face interviews while making their next career move. In

both the above scenarios, it is important to reflect upon

our area of strength which will complement the job role.

It will also help you to prepare well for the “Selection

process”.

We spend large part of our waking hours in office.

Hence, it is important to choose your organization

carefully. It is important to know your values in order to

understand what type of an organization will provide

suitable match to your value system. The best careers are

made when the individual value compliments with

organization values.

Getting in touch with your

true self must be your first

priority.

- Tom Hopkins



4

Following techniques will help you to know about your

value system.

Ask yourself to write down your top

values in descending order starting from the most

important to the least important for seven times. Each

time record you’re your answer to different location and

different time so that you can consolidate your response.

You will observe that one value will be always on top of

the list, and this value will be important to you.

Since you know your core value now, try to do research

about the culture of the organization, which will

compliment your value system by using various

platforms like Glassdoor, Indeed and others.

Success Mantra: Ensure to use 7Q technique to

arrive at your value.

7Q technique

7Q technique


Tushar Kokane

5

1.2. “ ”

Do not waste your time and energy in applying for the

job and going for an interview if they do not meet your

personal values, beliefs or goals. If you take up a job

which does not fit your values, sooner than later, you

have to start the search all over again.

Prepare by knowing as much as you can about the

job, the organization, the competition, the location, their

product portfolio and the industry in particular. Prepare

for the interview by researching the organization and, if

possible, without "stalking" them. Remember that, while

joining the company, you are joining that industry.

Once you are broadly clear about your values and

career goals, try to search online about potential sectors

which will fulfil those. You can earn your interview call

by using various sources.

The most reliable way to earn your

interview call is to visit “Careers” link on homepage

of company website. Most of the organizations do

mention the job vacancies on their websites. You

can send your profiles to human resource team or

contact the details given on webpage.

The job portals are most frequently used

tools by human resource professionals to recruit

candidates from outside organization. Since you are

clear on the sector you want to work, try to focus

your search in those organizations. Post your



6

updated and complete curriculum vitae on all

popular job sites. You will get quick tips on

preparing impactful curriculum vitae in the next

chapter.

Digital platforms like LinkedIn are now

the central channel for recruiting strategies across

industry. Ensure that you have your updated profile

on LinkedIn with recommendations of your work by

your immediate manager or senior colleague.

Needless to mention that

after globalization, the job market has become more

competitive, so there is huge pressure to reduce cost

and improve quality even in the case of human

capital. The traditional approach of job site and

newspaper advertisement may not fetch you an

interview call. You may have to stretch your

network by attending industry-specific conferences,

job fairs, networking sessions to reach out to

potential recruiter.

Most industries

like construction, telecom, insurance, banking, oil

and gas, textiles, pharmaceuticals and chemicals

have their industry-specific magazines which also

feature job vacancies.

Funny Punch : An individual applied for a

customer-service job in departmental store, and

when asked what he might not like about the job,

he said, 'Dealing with people.'


Tushar Kokane

7

1.3

Interview, as hiring process, has evolved during last

couple of decades. There are various interview

techniques used depending upon the role, seniority of

candidate, specific skill sets required as well as industry.

In multinational organizations, especially in case of

matrix-reporting structure, the selection process consists

of various levels, or sometimes of various types. The

most common types of interviews are as follows:

a. Structured

b. Unstructured

c. Stress

d. Skype

e. Telephonic

f. Lunch

g. Panel

a. This is the most common

method of interviewing where the candidate are

asked about series of questions in structured manner

to explore their suitability for the role available. The

sequence of the questions is followed in logical

manner. This is also a type of competency-based

interview or behaviour-based interview technique.

b. The objective of

unstructured interview is to fathom the adaptability

of candidate by asking them questions in haphazard

manner. Unstructured interviews could be the by-

product of unpreparedness of a hiring manager also.



8

This traditional type of an interview technique is

common in small-scale industry and family-run

businesses across globe.

c. Stress interview could be the

combination of structured and unstructured

interview; however, the interviewer may move to

next questions before getting answer of the earlier

ones, which may lead to create some stress on

interviewee. This technique is used by hiring

manager for the positions which require promptness

in dealing with some stressful situations as part of

job role.

d. This is

one of the methods of interviewing which is a

common interview method in most of the technology

companies as well as multinationals. The objective

of this interview is to have first level of screening to

understand the relevance of the experience, verbal

communication skills, attitude toward job and

aspirations level. The Skype interviews are popular

methods of interviewing as it saves time and reduces

cost of travel for organizations. Many organizations

use Skype interviews or video conferencing as one

of the level of selection process, in case they have

two or more levels of interviews. The reliability of

this interview is more or less to physical interview

except the absence of physical presence.

e. This method was unheard

20 years ago; however, after globalization, there is

pressure on cost effectiveness and hence saving time

and energy imperative. Telephonic interviews are

common in the case of first level of screening from


Tushar Kokane

9

large pool of talent. Telephonic interviews have their

limitations due to no visibility of interviewee which

results into no non-verbal communications.

f. Lunch interviews are informal

way of interviewing candidate and often restricted to

very senior-level positions. The objective is more to

assess the softer skills of candidate and see the

interest level of candidate. This technique is often

practiced for senior leadership or CXO role.

g. A panel interview is another

special interviewing situation where 2 to 5

interviewers are present to interview a candidate.

The panel may include members of the HR team,

technicians, consultants, partners and line managers

from various departments. You will find that panel

interviews are more typical in some industries than

others like government organizations and non-profit

organizations.


https://pixabay.com/en/manager-person-people-group-308474/


10

1.4

After receiving interview call letter, it is typically 2–3

days of time to prepare for your interview. The job

applicant needs to

prepare well to be

successful for job

interview. You can do

research about your

perspective

organization, their

financial results, products, culture, future plans and

vision. In the digital world, websites like Glass door also

offer organizational feedback from their ex as well as

current employees on pay, organization culture,

performance appraisals, senior management and so on.

You can also visit LinkedIn profile of hiring manager in

case you know the name of the hiring manager. Getting

feedback from your network about the reporting

manager/hiring manager will boost your confidence by

bringing some familiarity.

“Success is where preparation

and opportunity meet”.

- Bobby Unser


Tushar Kokane

11

Get Complete Book At Educreation Store

www.educreation.in


sample copy. not for distribtion. - educreationof multinationals like saint gobain, mott macdonalds...

Documents