The Final Frontier
Interview time! Once you have scheduled an interview, you must be excited and nervous at the same time. Don’t worry it happens to the best of us, even the experienced folks go through this. The key is to be fully prepared and go into interview with the right mindset. I hope you have been following the advice I laid out in the first chapter. If not, you better start doing it!
This whole “getting a job” affair is nothing but selling yourself. That is right! It is about marketing yourself, your technical skills, communication skills and personality. The more personable you are, better the chances of getting the job. Do things right during the interview like I tell you in the coming chapters you will blow away the competition and secure the job!
The day before (or earlier than that) the interview there are some things you should be doing and they are MAN-DA-TORY! No skipping them, capiche?
Action plan before D-day (Interview day)
- Resume
- Reconnaissance
- Route
- Grooming
- Story
Resume:
Make sure to take printouts of your resume to the interview. Have enough copies at hand. If you have the job description of the interview, customize your resume to match the JD. Also tweak your personal projects to match the JD if possible. By doing this you will get an opportunity to talk about it and showcase your skills related to the job opening at hand. I will tell you how to find opportunities to talk about it during the interview.
If your personal project doesn’t directly match the JD, it’s ok. Make some points of the project that are relevant to the JD. You don’t have to make stuff up. You can always find a way to make connections even if they are not directly related.
Push the projects that are relevant to the top of the resume. And also add the skills that are important to the job in your summary (if you have one). If
you are an experienced candidate, make sure to highlight these skills in the experience section if possible.
If you don’t have enough info about the job, try to find out through the HR, or other people you know who work at the company or in the team. The more you know about the job, the more you can go in prepared and the more you can impress the interview panel. And of course boost the chances of securing the job offer.
Do your homework on this. Don’t be lazy!
Reconnaissance:
Time to find out more about the company and the interview panel if possible. This is an important exercise, ignore it at your own peril.
Look up the company to find out information such as
- When was it founded
- Who is the CEO
- What are their products
- Who are their competitors
- What is their industry
- Who is the industry leader
- What technologies do they use, if applicable in your situation
- Their headquarters and other branch locations
- What other related job openings they have – In case you blow the interview and it is obvious you didn’t do well. You can enquire about these openings and let them know you are interested in it
Route:
Find out the location of the company and plan your travel accordingly. Find out the bus numbers etc if you are going to take the bus. Find out the route if you are taking your vehicle. This is especially important if you are new to the city! Last thing you want to do is be late for the interview. That is not acceptable!
Story:
What is your story? How are you going to sell yourself with this story? As I have mentioned earlier, interview is nothing but selling yourself, the personality, your skills, the whole package.
Customize your resume, make a list of interests in your field that is going to help you with the target job. And start creating stories (based on facts) and selling points on how you and your skills will help perform the job better than the other freshers/candidates.
Gather tidbits of your personal projects that relate to the JD, job responsibilities. It doesn’t matter if they are not connected directly.
Example:
Design Engineer Job Description:
Fresher will be designing surfaces of the car body using Catia. Will also work with the team in making changes to the existing designs. Should know advanced features of Catia.
Responsibilities:
- Create new surface designs
- Work with the team in collecting the requirements
- Co-ordinate with vendors and clients for design changes
- Maintain a repository of all the designs
- Assist senior engineers when required
Skills:
- Excellent knowledge of CAD
- Good knowledge of Catia.
- Design experience with Catia preferable
- Knowledge of designing and its related principles
- Excellent written and verbal skills
- Excellent communication skills
Next I walk you through on how create personal projects that can be used for upcoming interviews.
Targeted Project Example:
Consider you’re a Mechanical Engineer and you are interviewing for the above position. What you can do is start a personal project based on the above description. You can start a CAD project designing the surface of the car door, the bonnet or whatever part of the car using any CAD software,
preferably Catia if you can get it, since it is the requirement. But don’t worry if you don’t have it, use whatever CAD software you have access to.
You work on it at least for a few days, by doing this, you will face problems while designing or your brain may come up with questions you have never thought about or faced before. For example you may have to make decisions on tolerance, certain surface angles, aerodynamics etc.
All the experience and the questions you face during this project make a note of them. You will be creating opportunities or wait for an opportunity to bring these up during the interview.
Talking about this experience or asking questions relating to this project will show the interviewer you are serious about this job interview and your career as well. This will definitely put you far ahead of your clueless competitors.
You can also let them know you had asked these questions on LinkedIn, if you want to. But make sure you have actually done that!
If the interviewer takes the bait and engages you in the conversation of your project, grab the opportunity and talk about it. Depending on the timing, context of the interview feel free to ask more questions that you faced while designing it. If it turns into a discussion with the interviewer, engage him asking him more questions or ask for his opinions. People love giving opinions, it strokes their ego, they also feel like experts. There is no harm in asking opinions during the interview if done correctly. It should come off as natural, and not forced or ill-timed!
Make sure you don’t ask very basic technical questions that any Mechanical engineer (in this example) should know. This applies to any engineering field or any profession for that matter.
If possible carry this exchange in a conversational style instead of a Q&A session, you will come off as a confident and relaxed person. Don’t worry if you can’t pull this off, as long as you discuss comfortably without nervousness you are golden.
Grooming:
Alright this section will sound like I am preparing you for your marriage but I am not, but you can follow this advice for your marriage as well.
Please take note that good looking/well-dressed people automatically command more attention than the rest. This is unfortunate, but true. So make sure you cash in on it.
Hair:
Make sure your hair is trim and doesn’t look unkempt.
If you are a guy trim your ear and nose hair as well. Make sure you shave the day of the interview. If you have a goatee or French beard, make sure it is trimmed!
Remember you are interviewing for a job, not auditioning for a “Majnu” role in a Bollywood flick! Look sharp!
Body Odor:
Make sure you wear some deodorant or cologne/perfume. Don’t overspray! Carry it with you if you are going to use public transportation. It can come in handy if it is a hot day and you were stuck in a crowded bus/train.
Clothes:
Ironed formal clothes. No casual clothes! It is better to be overdressed rather than underdressed for an interview. No crumpled, creased clothes. Preferably freshly washed and ironed clothes.
Story:
Whatever movie you play in your mind about your circumstances, past, during college days, you need to rewrite it if it is filled with negative feelings, full of doubt etc.
It is time to reset the mindset!
Next Lesson : Old Story
Previous Lesson : Search Strategy #9 – Target Startups