MBA Crystal Ball

Job interviews provide the most fertile ground to discover you are human...by making mistakes (or 'unforced errors' as Sania Mirza would describe them). A job interview is also the best place to discover a highly evolved species called Bosses, who use it as an opportunity to demonstrate how lowly and insignificant the rest of us are.

If you’ve been preparing for an important job interview, here are a few do’s and don’ts so that the discovery process doesn't push you on the road to extinction.

Most of them have been thrashed to death, but it's always good to keep a checklist handy when your memory isn't exactly keeping pace with the demands of the cruel world.

Top 10 tips for job interviews

1. Punctuality
Reach a few minutes before your scheduled interview time (but hopefully not before the security guys have arrived and opened the office) so that you have some time to calm yourself down and get settled.

2. Formality
Interviews are meant to be formal, so avoid narrating personal stories or incidents or discussing Vidya Balan's dressing sense. Stay clear of getting too friendly or asking personal questions or trying your hand at humour.

3. Backup
You may have e-mailed your resume across however it’s always a good idea to carry additional copies so that you can produce your resume on request. Old-fashioned paper hasn't been pushed out by iPad and Blackberry yet.

4. Patience
Be a patient listener, even if the bloke asking the questions sounds like a high-pitched dog whistle. You need to be attentive and answer to the point rather than giving inappropriate answers. Do not interrupt your interviewer (you can have your revenge after you join them). Rather wait for the right chance when you can narrate your achievements related to the topic being discussed.

5. Exaggeration
Don’t oversell yourself. If you have been selling soap, don't tell them you are on a secret mission to eliminate the evil, invisible bacteria that have been plotting to take over our world for centuries now. Your interviewer would arguably be smart enough to know if you are trying to present yourself as a super-achiever though you were not.

6. Too much Transparency
If your interviewer enquires about your long-term career goals, avoid confiding about your ambitious plans of coming up with your own start-up or vague plans you have in mind for the future (like time-travel). This would not be the right place to divulge information which would create a negative impression about your long-term commitment to the job.

7. Questions
You may be given an opportunity to ask questions. So do the necessary research about the company, their previous projects, and the job description of the role you’re applying for. Ask specific questions related to your role which would reflect your enthusiasm to take over the position applied for and be a part of the company. Enquiring about salary, vacations, bonuses can be kept for a later date if you get an offer.

Also be sensitive. Don't ask how one of their Directors ended up in jail for fraud, while the rest are on the interview panel giving you the same third degree treatment that their buddy is getting behind bars.

8. Bad-mouthing
Your interviewer would be curious to find out the reason for leaving the previous job. Maybe the output from the coffee vending machine really tasted like rodent pee, as you wrote in your last complaint letter to HR. But try to avoid any negative portrayal about your previous company, your former colleagues or boss. Instead talk about the work you did there and the new skill sets and learning potential that this new job holds in store and your excitement about acquiring the same.

9. Deer-in-the-headlight Syndrome
During the course of the interview, if you’re faced with a question about an area you’re not familiar with, don’t panic. Rather maintain your composure and express your desire to pick up new skills and work in new areas you’ve never worked before. And try not to laugh out loud when you say that.

10. Gratitude
Don’t forget to send a personalized ‘Thank you’ note to each person present during the interview. Let them know you’re still interested and waiting to hear back from them. Ensure there isn't anything extra in that email that accidentally gets forwarded - like jokes, trade secrets or snippets from your porn collection.

P.S. This was about job interviews, not MBA interviews.

Scroll down to read:
- Advanced interviewing techniques

You know the basics of how to tackle interviews. You also know about behavioral interview questions. But then if you've spent enough time on the internet reading the basic job interview tips, you know what most others know. So what next?

Our guest blogger Rohit Gupta shares advanced interviewing techniques, concepts and skills that aren't run of the mill.

- -

Advanced interviewing techniques and skills
by Rohit Gupta

If you are seriously on a lookout for ‘the dream’ job (Oh Exalted One!) which excites you endlessly, blurs the boundaries between work and play, and is an extension of your way-of-life— either you are in for some serious mind-numbing self-exploration which should ideally be followed by a few strokes of luck, or you are going to chart your own path eventually if you prove crazy enough.

If you are a lesser mortal still unprepared to cross the rough road that leads to the heights of greatness, you surely want a job in which you get better bucks/greater job satisfaction/more respect (!); a job where you don’t get a queasy feeling every other day that you are just a replaceable cog in the giant machinery.

You dream of that sexy job this very second, the job with awesomeness and unlimited Wi-Fi and foosball at evenings, all rolled up in a dose of the irresistible oomph factor.

Yes, that divine personal cubicle of yours where you’ll hang up posters of Pink Floyd/ Led Zeppelin or something fishy or err…

As a natural extension you would also furtively hold a wish to inculcate qualities of those homo-sapiens who seem to have special skills to systematically dissect interviews with ease.

Put simply, you are selling yourself to an organization and convincing them that you’re worth more than your takeaway salary. But alas, you are a just a tiny coordinate on the wrong side of the demand-supply curve, wading through a mob that will slit your throat the moment they get a chance.

The Internet is replete with job interview tips and suggestions:

“You need to reach on time, have proper attire, proofread your Resume!”

The problem is that the real interview process begins where this generic advice ends. The recruiters are in a mood to rescue only few smart and crucial warriors from a huge battalion fighting for survival.

You have to be that fearsome lone warrior — the sparkling superhero.

I can go on endlessly with this topic as ‘recruiter psychology’ is one of my interest areas, but I have a job to do (double pun intended). Hence, I present to you some awesome and practical ways to hack your next job interview.

Advanced techniques to crack the job interview

1. Breathe the industry.

Before you convince anyone else of your fit with the future job, make sure you are firmly convinced yourself. Decode the DNA (Description, Nature & Attributes) and study it under the microscope of your interests and skill-sets.

If you are joining an organization, you should ‘know’ about the particular organization, its competitors, the macro environment, the problems and strengths of the organization etc.

Not surprisingly, many of your interest areas are in direct correlation to a specific industry and the problem reduces to discovering the shortest and efficient path to get to your destination.

2. Networking is not sleazy

Most people are happy to help if you ask intelligent and relevant questions. So it makes sense to do enough homework to avoid vague inquiries as successful people are busy people (causality and correlation?)

As the elephant share never ask anyone in the first place, it is not surprising that people don’t get to network with a tribe which is instrumental in making the difference between perpetual crisis of a disgruntled employee and a lucky one spoilt for opportunities.

Ramit Sethi, the successful entrepreneur and author says that 85% of the work is done before a serious candidate steps into the interview room.

3. Love and critique their products

The stalwarts opine that a fair indicator of how passionate the candidate is about a particular organization is the opinion the candidate has about the products/services of the organization.

If you can delineate the exact reasons as to why you like/dislike their products and make corresponding recommendations for improvement, you have just made a small dent in the organizational universe.

The hiring staff might hug you, or even kiss you, if you can utter exact specifications of their products like a melodious rhythm. It is a subtle sign that you will prove to be a good cultural fit.

When employees are the biggest fans, the organization is doing something remarkable.

4. Impress the gatekeepers

Keith Ferrazzi tells us that the secretaries secretly run whole organizations, and he has a ton of corporate experience to back his opinion.

The proverbial gatekeepers can give you insights and information that you can’t glean from anywhere else. It is a by-product of humility, and it always pays.

5. Add value

Don’t bore them by bragging about your awesome grades right through childhood, or you being an excellent “team player”, or your regular contribution towards the disadvantaged sections of society.

Contribute to the organization before they even think of hiring you. Point a specific loophole in their web security. Show them statistics unraveling untapped revenue streams presently not accounted for.

Suggest a new design for an existing product. James Altucher has a lot to say about the importance of adding value.

What have you learnt from your own experiences and those of others about the art of interviews? Leave some quirky comments. Please don’t hesitate to share your happiness in case you rock your next interview as I love beer and celebrations in general.

Author Bio: I am Rohit, an engineer by education, a data analyst by profession and a reader by inclination. Since 2012, I’ve been writing about self-improvement, productivity, coping with life as it comes and just being plain happy.

- -

The advanced interviewing techniques that Rohit has shared, require not just knowledge, but training and practice as well. So start when you don't have an interview coming up, not 2 days before.