Tips on how not to be cowed by interviewers
Monday, 5 November 2007
Maswood Alam Khan
WHETHER it's for a job or for a promotion the most common scene in the waiting room where interviewees gather is a crowd of candidates who are seen frantically browsing books and notes for their last minute's revision of what they assume they might have to explain to the interviewer. Amidst the crowd are also candidates who would not be facing the interview that time or that day; they came just to test the water well beforehand in a bid to know the pattern of questions being fielded in the interviews so they come prepared with some prior ideas to face the same interview board next time or any of the next days.
There are some vulnerable moments in our life when we can't really help but fail to keep a cool head and nerves of steel. At times it is not possible to bottle up our emotional fallibility. Such susceptible moments are visited upon us when we become desperate to surmount a critical phase like an interview that may qualify one to get a job to earn his/her livelihood or a promotion that may add a luster to his/her career path.
About twenty-three years back, just minutes before my turn to face a promotion interview, as I was memorising three words "Alden Winship Clausen", the very difficult name of the then World Bank President, I was awe-stricken when I found a colleague, sitting next to me, who had a Master's in Physics, flipping through pages of a Physics text book while we all others were busy with the latest info on banking law and practices. On my curiosity he informed me that on the previous day he came to learn about a Physics graduate who instead of being quizzed on anything related to banking was asked by a member of the interview board to explain "Doppler effect". I wondered how his fitness for promotion as a banker could be adjudged by his capacity of keeping fresh the knowledge on Physics!!
Many of my colleagues I later talked to told me that none of them was asked a single question related to what they memorised or revised at the last minutes during their arduous wait inside the waiting room for interviews. The only info, however, that helped many interviewees respond to questions efficaciously were what they read in newspapers during the previous weeks.
Some management gurus and scholars are highly critical of the oral test of the interview to assess suitability of a candidate for admission into a college or for employment or promotion in an organisation on the ground of its subjectivity and uncertainty, especially when marks assigned to oral test constitute an abnormally high proportion of the total marks in a competition where scores on past experience, past performance, conduct and written tests etc., are taken into consideration. Viva Voce examination is basically an impressionistic test for duration of a few minutes where the result is likely to be influenced by factors such as predilections and prejudices of the interviewer, his attitude, preconceived notions and idiosyncrasies. W P Sharma, in his book 'Public Administration in Theory and Practice', opined that "Different interviewers have their own notions of good personality. For some, it consists more in attractive physical appearances and dress rather than anything else, and with them the breezy and shiny types of candidates score highly while the rough uncut diamonds may go unappreciated."
But in today's corporate world an executive, clad in pinstriped suite and having ages of experience in handling crises, who is also conversant with protocols and etiquettes may better contribute as a negotiator to cut a deal with an overseas client compared to what a scholar who gave away his entire career tutoring his pupils 'techniques of negotiations' can offer over a formal dinner. Here, a polished piece of diamond is better than an uncut one. Moreover, when a candidate has grown mellower with age a face-to- face interview with him is essential to screen for his load bearing capability and psychological alertness before placing him on a higher echelon of the management.
If you, a reader of this article, happen to be a young or a matured person readying yourself to face an interview for a job or for a promotion you may please take lessons from the blunders my colleagues and I myself had committed before and during the interviews we faced with ignominious outcomes. Here below are a few tips you may reckon while preparing yourself for your impending interviews.
Don't please carry any book or a note sheet except the invitation letter, certificates and papers you were asked to carry along when you are awaiting a call for an interview in the lounge. Don't burden pockets of your shirt, jacket or trouser with papers, useless items or avoidable gismos like cell phones. Feel light and fresh with appropriate dress. Selection of your dress should speak a volume about your sense of propriety. Avoid dresses of gaudy colours and flowery designs.
For an interview I would love to wear a beige shirt with buttoned down collar that would comfortably snug my neck, a light-colored necktie with diagonal stripes appropriately knotted, a black trouser fastened by a genuine black leather belt and a pair of black socks and black shoes that will not squeak while walking; I won't wear a jacket if the weather is not chilly. I would have had my haircut at least five days ahead of the appointed date of interview to avoid my looking like 'a hen with her featherless neck'. I would be the last person to hide my bald head with wigs or dye my pepper-and-salt hairs into jet black. Suppressing anything natural, we must remember, is a signature of a human penchant for counterfeiting.
If I were a lady I would not visit a beautician to dye a few wasps of my hair and plaster my face with foundations of cosmetics to hide my age before my interview unless I had applied for a job in a pub or a beauty parlour. Women, young or old, look dignified if they wear white sharis with matching blouses of loosened half-sleeves. Tight wearing of dresses does not augur well for ladies facing interviews in high-status environments.
An interviewer may, however, behave with you in a deliberately hostile style with a view to evoking your emotional responses to watch how you handle stress and pressure. Your ignorance or incorrect answers are not what they would be looking at; they would eye at your body language whether you are abnormally blushing or your hairs are bristling. The company you have applied to for a job is in need of persons capable of shouldering work overload and dealing with multiple projects in conflicting and stressful environments.
In an interview with a financial organisation you may be required to know what the acronym NASDAQ stands for. Headquartered in New York NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) was the world's first electronic stock market and now the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. If you fail to answer such a question, don't worry. You are not supposed to know the explanations of acronyms of all the financial organisations under the sun.
Qualifying in an interview is the easiest task compared to rigours you had undergone in your college or have been facing in your present job because the question paper of the impending interview has already been composed by yourself. The most common reason for disqualifying in interviews is a candidate's inability to fully explain the contents of his or her own resume which means either I am poor in framing my resume correctly or I don't know what my job assignments are.
If you read and reread your CV and mull over probable questions and appropriate answers based on what you wrote in your resume you have already won 90% of the battle to pass the interview. The rest 10% depends neither on your handsome or pretty face nor on your ability to pronounce Renminbi, the Chinese currency, correctly. Your ability to exude an air of self-confidence, your attitude to deliver ideas with natural aplomb, your measured smiles (not toothpaste-advertisement-smile), appropriate size, colour and collar of your shirt, absence or presence of stains on your teeth from munching 'puns' and the cute dimple formed below the knot of your necktie etc., are to determine how much you would score on the remainder of the battle.
No institution would hire or promote you for charity or out of pity. Time has taken a U-turn in the corporate world that demands smart, young and energetic executives who can deliver service on time and in times of stresses and crises. You have to prove that you have the right mix of experience and education to bring value to the position you are vying for. Based on your past experiences you have to convince the employer that you are the right person they are looking for.
Don't visualise the interviewer as one like a demon or a king on whose mercy your future life will depend. You are a precious human resource and in no way you should underestimate your potential. Rather condition your mind that the interviewer is one of those commoners with not much knowledge compared to yours and imagine a situation---to neutralise your tensions----that had you been the interviewer and the real interviewer an interviewee you could have popped his/her brain out with questions and quizzes!
Remain carefree, composed and relaxed before your turn for the interview. If you can't help relax despite yourself you may find out what technique among many methods like deep breathing, biofeedback, music or meditation may suit you best to help melt your tension away. Ruminating over a joke to smile minutes before your call for the interview may help dissipate a few ounces of your tension. Remember, it was only stress and tension that perhaps quivered the legs of sterling footballers like Zidane to miss many a penalty kick. Good luck!
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, and may be reached over,
[email protected]
WHETHER it's for a job or for a promotion the most common scene in the waiting room where interviewees gather is a crowd of candidates who are seen frantically browsing books and notes for their last minute's revision of what they assume they might have to explain to the interviewer. Amidst the crowd are also candidates who would not be facing the interview that time or that day; they came just to test the water well beforehand in a bid to know the pattern of questions being fielded in the interviews so they come prepared with some prior ideas to face the same interview board next time or any of the next days.
There are some vulnerable moments in our life when we can't really help but fail to keep a cool head and nerves of steel. At times it is not possible to bottle up our emotional fallibility. Such susceptible moments are visited upon us when we become desperate to surmount a critical phase like an interview that may qualify one to get a job to earn his/her livelihood or a promotion that may add a luster to his/her career path.
About twenty-three years back, just minutes before my turn to face a promotion interview, as I was memorising three words "Alden Winship Clausen", the very difficult name of the then World Bank President, I was awe-stricken when I found a colleague, sitting next to me, who had a Master's in Physics, flipping through pages of a Physics text book while we all others were busy with the latest info on banking law and practices. On my curiosity he informed me that on the previous day he came to learn about a Physics graduate who instead of being quizzed on anything related to banking was asked by a member of the interview board to explain "Doppler effect". I wondered how his fitness for promotion as a banker could be adjudged by his capacity of keeping fresh the knowledge on Physics!!
Many of my colleagues I later talked to told me that none of them was asked a single question related to what they memorised or revised at the last minutes during their arduous wait inside the waiting room for interviews. The only info, however, that helped many interviewees respond to questions efficaciously were what they read in newspapers during the previous weeks.
Some management gurus and scholars are highly critical of the oral test of the interview to assess suitability of a candidate for admission into a college or for employment or promotion in an organisation on the ground of its subjectivity and uncertainty, especially when marks assigned to oral test constitute an abnormally high proportion of the total marks in a competition where scores on past experience, past performance, conduct and written tests etc., are taken into consideration. Viva Voce examination is basically an impressionistic test for duration of a few minutes where the result is likely to be influenced by factors such as predilections and prejudices of the interviewer, his attitude, preconceived notions and idiosyncrasies. W P Sharma, in his book 'Public Administration in Theory and Practice', opined that "Different interviewers have their own notions of good personality. For some, it consists more in attractive physical appearances and dress rather than anything else, and with them the breezy and shiny types of candidates score highly while the rough uncut diamonds may go unappreciated."
But in today's corporate world an executive, clad in pinstriped suite and having ages of experience in handling crises, who is also conversant with protocols and etiquettes may better contribute as a negotiator to cut a deal with an overseas client compared to what a scholar who gave away his entire career tutoring his pupils 'techniques of negotiations' can offer over a formal dinner. Here, a polished piece of diamond is better than an uncut one. Moreover, when a candidate has grown mellower with age a face-to- face interview with him is essential to screen for his load bearing capability and psychological alertness before placing him on a higher echelon of the management.
If you, a reader of this article, happen to be a young or a matured person readying yourself to face an interview for a job or for a promotion you may please take lessons from the blunders my colleagues and I myself had committed before and during the interviews we faced with ignominious outcomes. Here below are a few tips you may reckon while preparing yourself for your impending interviews.
Don't please carry any book or a note sheet except the invitation letter, certificates and papers you were asked to carry along when you are awaiting a call for an interview in the lounge. Don't burden pockets of your shirt, jacket or trouser with papers, useless items or avoidable gismos like cell phones. Feel light and fresh with appropriate dress. Selection of your dress should speak a volume about your sense of propriety. Avoid dresses of gaudy colours and flowery designs.
For an interview I would love to wear a beige shirt with buttoned down collar that would comfortably snug my neck, a light-colored necktie with diagonal stripes appropriately knotted, a black trouser fastened by a genuine black leather belt and a pair of black socks and black shoes that will not squeak while walking; I won't wear a jacket if the weather is not chilly. I would have had my haircut at least five days ahead of the appointed date of interview to avoid my looking like 'a hen with her featherless neck'. I would be the last person to hide my bald head with wigs or dye my pepper-and-salt hairs into jet black. Suppressing anything natural, we must remember, is a signature of a human penchant for counterfeiting.
If I were a lady I would not visit a beautician to dye a few wasps of my hair and plaster my face with foundations of cosmetics to hide my age before my interview unless I had applied for a job in a pub or a beauty parlour. Women, young or old, look dignified if they wear white sharis with matching blouses of loosened half-sleeves. Tight wearing of dresses does not augur well for ladies facing interviews in high-status environments.
An interviewer may, however, behave with you in a deliberately hostile style with a view to evoking your emotional responses to watch how you handle stress and pressure. Your ignorance or incorrect answers are not what they would be looking at; they would eye at your body language whether you are abnormally blushing or your hairs are bristling. The company you have applied to for a job is in need of persons capable of shouldering work overload and dealing with multiple projects in conflicting and stressful environments.
In an interview with a financial organisation you may be required to know what the acronym NASDAQ stands for. Headquartered in New York NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) was the world's first electronic stock market and now the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. If you fail to answer such a question, don't worry. You are not supposed to know the explanations of acronyms of all the financial organisations under the sun.
Qualifying in an interview is the easiest task compared to rigours you had undergone in your college or have been facing in your present job because the question paper of the impending interview has already been composed by yourself. The most common reason for disqualifying in interviews is a candidate's inability to fully explain the contents of his or her own resume which means either I am poor in framing my resume correctly or I don't know what my job assignments are.
If you read and reread your CV and mull over probable questions and appropriate answers based on what you wrote in your resume you have already won 90% of the battle to pass the interview. The rest 10% depends neither on your handsome or pretty face nor on your ability to pronounce Renminbi, the Chinese currency, correctly. Your ability to exude an air of self-confidence, your attitude to deliver ideas with natural aplomb, your measured smiles (not toothpaste-advertisement-smile), appropriate size, colour and collar of your shirt, absence or presence of stains on your teeth from munching 'puns' and the cute dimple formed below the knot of your necktie etc., are to determine how much you would score on the remainder of the battle.
No institution would hire or promote you for charity or out of pity. Time has taken a U-turn in the corporate world that demands smart, young and energetic executives who can deliver service on time and in times of stresses and crises. You have to prove that you have the right mix of experience and education to bring value to the position you are vying for. Based on your past experiences you have to convince the employer that you are the right person they are looking for.
Don't visualise the interviewer as one like a demon or a king on whose mercy your future life will depend. You are a precious human resource and in no way you should underestimate your potential. Rather condition your mind that the interviewer is one of those commoners with not much knowledge compared to yours and imagine a situation---to neutralise your tensions----that had you been the interviewer and the real interviewer an interviewee you could have popped his/her brain out with questions and quizzes!
Remain carefree, composed and relaxed before your turn for the interview. If you can't help relax despite yourself you may find out what technique among many methods like deep breathing, biofeedback, music or meditation may suit you best to help melt your tension away. Ruminating over a joke to smile minutes before your call for the interview may help dissipate a few ounces of your tension. Remember, it was only stress and tension that perhaps quivered the legs of sterling footballers like Zidane to miss many a penalty kick. Good luck!
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, and may be reached over,
[email protected]