1. Tell me something about yourself?

This question seems to be very simple but it has a very crucial role. Candidates don’t prepare for it as they think it as an easy one. Answer of this question will lay the foundation of the whole interview. So, always prepare for it.

• How and what you know about the company?

After asking the candidate profile, interviewer is always interested in knowing about him and his company’s profile. How much research a candidate has done on company’s site will make a great impact on the interviewer.

• Why you left your previous organization?

This is the most critical question to be answer. You have to be vigilant while answering. Don’t say anything negative about the previous company or organization. Try to give answers that show you left the organization for your better growth and future.

• What are your strengths and weakness and how you will use them for this job profile?

Always try to be specific and share true strengths through examples. And for weakness, try to say those negative things on which you are working and before joining the organization, it will convert into your strength.

• What are your salary expectations?

This is the most difficult question to answer. A candidate always got confused what to quote for salary requirements. Do research about the salaries people getting at the same position in other companies. Based on your education, skills and experience quote the amount and be flexible also.

 This is just an overview of the some questions that an interviewer can ask. But there are lot many questions that he might ask. Thus, to get the success in job interview, always prepared your answers and you too take the help of your elders, mentors and teachers for the answers.

Salary negotiation is an integral part of any interview process and it is not completely done until you get the Offer Letter with your desired pay package.

Here are some expert tips on salary negotiation techniques, what to say, how to say and what not to say during that time.

• Never start the negotiation from your side. It sends a negative signal to the employer. It shows that you are much interested in the money rather than in job. And also if recruiter tries to your focus your attention on salary, shift the focus on your talents, skills and what you intend to bring to the table.
• If forced to give insight about salary in number, never give any exact detail. Keep a salary range according to the job profile and skills. For this, you can research on the others what amount they are getting at the same level.Also, the best answer would be to say as per industry standards.
• Never reveal your personal financial detail to the employer for getting salary hike.
• Treat your negotiation as a healthy talk. Use positive phrases like’ we can look forward on this’, ‘Surely I will consider your view point’. Play it cool and try to work out a way that works for both the parties. Don’t get emotional and get rough during negotiation talks; keep it as friendly as possible.

• Show your accomplishments and achievements to the manager. Brag your true worth in such a manner that employer can’t refuse to give the amount that you have in mind. Statistics and numbers that prove how you’ve added to the revenue, savings, efficiency, and productivity of your current employer will help you to get extra perks. This is a perfect strategy.

So, to make the salary negotiation a fruitful task – always prepare for the interview in advance highlighting technical skills, accomplishments,contributions to the team in the past with quantifiable results and ultimately what you bring-in along with you to the current role.Be aware of the industry pay standards of the role and negotiate accordingly so that you don’t quote unrealistic numbers.

A mentor plays various roles in the life of a student:

• Bring the best out from you: Every person knows his/ her strengths but there are few who know their weakness. Mentor is the person who can bring your weakness as strength. He will prepare you for the worst and toughest condition.

• Guides you to the goal: Mentor is not less than a guiding tool or a career guider who will guide you to your goal and suggest various paths that can direct you.

• Uplift your career: The role of a mentor in your career program is that he can guide you on the skills necessary for professionalism. He can help you in finding opportunities and make you more confident in harnessing your potential.

• Reduces stress level: A mentor role is very crucial in a student’s life. He has to play different roles at different point. Mentee can feel stressed due to over burden of work, study and life issues. It’s a mentor role to boost, motivate and encourage the mentee during harsh conditions.

Thus, mentor is such a person who will give you an opportunity to make your best image.

Verbal and Non verbal skills: Non verbal skills and verbal are also known as hard skills and soft skills respectively. Hard skills are those skills which a person acquires during his training and education and are industry specific like technical skills. Whereas soft skills are the major requirement of all the organizations as it includes interpersonal and communication skills. Every leader has to be a good communicator because he has to express himself to a team. Apart from being a orator, he must be listener too. He should have patience, empathy and power to resolute conflict in an effective way.

Quick Decision taker: A leader has to face positive and negative situations at any point of time. So he has to be a quick decision maker. Decision making skills comes with time and experience.

Building Relations: Relationship building is an important task for a leader. His way of communication can make or break the relationships. Relationships can be built on the basis of collecting personal information, enquiring about the followers.

Motivator: Effective leader should have motivational capabilities. Followers can feel depressed or emotional at any point of time but an effective leader can handle the situation very well. He will encourage the team and can direct the team towards the goal.

Honesty and Integrity: To maintain a healthy image among team mates or followers, the leader should have ethical and moral values on which he sticks to in any condition. He must be honest towards his work as he will be an inspiration for others.

One can practice or learn leadership skills at any level of employment. Every organization demand best leaders with leadership traits making the organization worth a while.

There are some Do’s and Don’ts that a job seeker must follow while framing his/her resume.

Do’s

1. As far as possible, make your resume reader friendly. Do not make it too long and limit it to one page.
2. Resume design should be such that it is different from everyone else.
3. Please give complete information about your contact, email id, city name in clear words.
4. Focus on key strengths using which you can help the organization.
5.  Create a summary of qualification and profile.
6. Mention your experience in chronological order. If you don’t have an experience, then mention your skills.
7. If you were a team leader in previous organization, mention this information and what the previous company has benefitted from you.

Don’ts

1. Never give false information in your resume.
2. Do not use personal promos (I, my, me) in resume. Never use justified text blocks.
3. Do not use expressions such as Duty included, responsibility involving, responsible for.
4. Avoid giving too much information about very old experience.
5. Avoid giving information about your highlights, current weight, name of last boss, previous salary etc.
6. Do not let your hobbies and any other worthless info in resume.
7. Do not mention those skills and job activities which do not match with the job profile.

It will leave a strong impression on the interviewer and make you best from the rest.

1)            What are the daily tasks for this job?

 Although you are familiarized with the job description, but asking about day-to-day expectations for the job can give you a better idea of job profile.

• What can you tell me about the company culture?

To work happily, knowing company culture is extremely important. If the culture of the company doesn’t fit your needs, or you don’t feel comfortable in the environment, you aren’t going to be happy with the job. This includes how co—workers interact, dress code, behavioural conduct, timings etc.  

• What qualities does someone need to have to be successful in this role?

Asking this question allows you to see if you meet the expectations for the position. It also gives you an idea of what qualities and characteristics the company values in their team members. This will give you an idea about which traits to focus on.

• What career path does someone in this role typically follow?

When you will accept the job, you will look for long term goals with short term goals. If you know where you’d like to be in a few years, you want to be sure the decisions you’re making now will bring you closer to getting there.

• What are the next steps for the interview process?

Each organization have their own process of following up with candidates after the interview process. While someone will let you know through contact, some by emails. Thus, asking this question will help you to clear your mind and less stress on further communication mechanism.

Thus, these can be some of the questions that you can ask to an interviewer but there are some questions too that you shouldn’t ask like about salary and other perks. Don’t ask a question that makes you look unprepared.

It is highly recommended to treat the ‘Phone Interview’ as a normal ‘Regular Interview’like a face-to-face interviewwith the same seriousness & be well prepared. Below are some of our top telephone interview tips:

• Do Proper Research: Visit the company website understand their entire history, background and leadership team to get a good perspective of the company along with their products & services. Also try to understand the role for which you are getting interviewed. Before the interview try to get the information of interviewer to visualize and be mentally well prepared.
• Put down all your Ideas & Questions on Paper: A phone interview is a really good opportunity to find out more about the role you’ve applied for, the company culture and opportunities for growth and also all the steps on the interview process.
• Hard Copy of your CV in hand: Most likely the recruiter will have your resume in their handsduring the call and may ask you specific questions from that. Soto ease the situation for both of you it is good to have it handy to effectively communicate.

• Be Calm, Positive&Smile: This shall help you ensure you are sound, positive, upbeat and generate that positive vibration through your voice to the recruiter. It energizes the mood. Take the phone interview in a good location like a conference room, study room with good cell phone signal, hotel lobby or a good coffee shop. Avoid outdoor & noisy places that could give you distracted noises.
• Listen More & Talk Less: Take on board all elements of their questionsand make note of anything that you feel is important; that makes communication clear and effective. You will not miss any of the questions being asked. Be honest in your answers and it is perfectly fine to say NO & I do not know the answer in case you are not sure about the answer. No need to fumble or panic in such situations. Always remember honesty is appreciated. Show your energy with your enthusiasm

• Preparing a CV
• Sharing your CV to the Right People
• Gentle Follow-up
• Phone Interviews
• Follow-up
• Personal One-On-One Interviews
• Thank You communication
• Follow-up
• Etc.

Each and every step in the process in very important and you always need to give your best in every step. Also, during Personal or One-On-One Interviews your professional behavior (etiquette) is extremely critical which leaves a strong positive impression in the minds of the interviewer. Personal behavior (professional etiquette) consists of

• Perfect Dressing Sense
• Smiling Face
• Neatly Groomed
• Wishing all people very politely and being gentle
• Confident, Calm & Composed Attitude
• Speaking Slowly, Clearly and Articulating your ideas well
• Making sure your Phones are on Silent or Switch-off Mode
• Etc.

Following are some of the critical interview manners that need to be followed before, during and after interview to help you in performing better.

• Punctuality: Reaching to an interview site few minutes early than the given time is very helpful as it will give you an extra advantage by making you get adjusted to the interview environment. Relax, get your breadth, have some water, fresh-up if needed, sit calm and organize all your ideas/thoughts, Review your Resume all over again, Review of notes on company etc.

• Body Language: The non-verbal communication through body language is an integral part of an interview. The hand, body gestures and face expressions should show that you are interested, confident, honest and very enthusiastic of the job. It shouldn’t feel like that you are submissive, shy, introvert or defensive in nature. Greet the interviewer and all with abroad smile & a firm handshake.

• Dress Sense: An interviewee must know the corporate/business attire before going to an interview. As well-dressed person will get an extra edge over the untidy person. This is not only for the interview panel also for you as a good neat business attire help you with a feel good factor & enhance your confidence levels. Wear pleasant colours with fits well with you & your personality. Avoid heavy jewellery and shining clothes.
• Home on Company Background: It will be very embarrassing and foolish on your part of you are not aware of the company history, background, leadership team, culture etc. Form an opinion about it so that you have a talking point which will be really appreciated. Also, if you can appreciate something about the company based on some factor that will have a very good positive impact.

• Closing an Interview: As starting an interview is important as closing it also. Close the interview with a firm smile that shows you are interested in job and would like to work for it. That leaves a good impression on them. Always thank them for their time at the end and followed by a Thank You e-mail after an interview. Be sure to ask some questions related to your position, company long term goal, benefits, or next steps in the interview process etc. It will send a positive impression on the interviewer.

Thus, by following these simple and basic manners during an interview, one can Excel and leave an everlasting impression on the interview team which can certainly help you to succeed in the process.

Most of the young students and working professionals have the above 2 questions while they get started. It has been observed that student’s take-up the CV’s of their friends and copy paste which is a big blunder where it does not reflect his personality.

From a recent survey from a leading HR Firm from recruiters and students on the issue of CV/Resume are:

• 80% of the CV get rejected within 2 minutes
• 85% of the CV lack originality
• Many of them copy pasted from others sources & does not reflect the individual’s capability
• 70% of the Students are not sure how to get started (Starting Trouble)
• Poor Formatting & Presentation
• What things should & should not be present in the CV

Most of the issues that students are facing is there is no one who can guide them on the basic requirements that they must have before even thinking to attempt any interview or job application.

The following elements need to be very clear in your Resume / CV:

• Contact Information:The most consistent element in the CV & your contact details must be outlined near the top very clearly (Phone, E-mail & Physical address)
• Career Objective:Resume introduction can be used by anyone to give an illustration on your objective in 3-4 Lines; it is strongly advisable to make it relevant to the company/sector & position. (I mean you cannot have a strong technical ambition for a managerial or sales position)
• Relevant to Position & Sector: Make the resume and tailor it to meet the needs and requirements of the employer. Absolutely NO – One size fits all!
• Work Experience:Illustrate all your Work (also Internship) Experiences, Accomplishments, Tenure, Duration, Location etc. along with lessons learnt and how you contributed to that particular role.(It is highly recommended to make this highlighted a lot; be consistent and chronological)
• Additional Skills: Your skills section must be used to highlight personal attributes that you are proud&add a WOW Factor, be it leadership, Software, Team Building, or anything that reflects yourself.
• Education: Your degrees (any) and certifications (if relevant) should be highlighted
• Notable Coursework: It is always good to have a few notable Coursework that you have taken as a part of your Education and the projects that you have taken-up as a part of it. MAP these to the skills you have developed & to the position that you are applying to.
• Awards & Honors: Be sure to mention your most impressive example/s that could tell more about you and add a WOW Factor.

Thus, these are some of the many things that are required for sure in your CV. Candidate can take the help of academies that Guides, Mentors, Inspires, Motivates Students on various factors and give a 360 Degree perspective on how to write a CV and be presentable at an interview.

Without any doubts the Resume/CV should be Error Free; very presentable in such a way that the recruiter will be more pleased to take the interview process to the next level.

These are some of the most important flaws that a candidate must avoid while preparing or constructing a CV:

• The length of the CV should be taken into consideration before applying to any organization. It is the Quality that matter more than Quantity. A recruiter does not have all the time in the world to go through a lengthy CV with too much texts and long sentences/content. CV should be like a snapshot of your qualifications, experience, accomplishments, personality etc. A short and simple CV will be eye catching for a recruiter. Remember it should be like a 2 min trailer for a 2. 5 Hour Movie.
• Always proof read your CV four to five times before applying to ensure that there will not be any grammatical, spelling or misleading information in it. Get it reviewed by your friend or senior with a fresh pair of eyes; sometime we cannot catch our own errors since we have spent a lot of time on it.

• Try to be as honest as you can in presenting your accomplishments in your CV; never share unrelated or irrelevant information which has no significance to the position that you are applying to. Care should be taken to ensure there is nothing suspicious at any cost in your CV that could raise doubts on your honesty & credibility. Always remember the recruiters always want Honest, Reliable & people with Credibility in their organizations.
• CV layout matters a lot to a recruiter. It should not look messy, untidy, crampy with too much texts or long sentences without proper spacing etc. Proper font and size which is very pleasant to the eye should be used in the CV.

So, these are some of the many precautions a candidate should take care while constructing their CV which shall increase the chances of getting selected in the interview process.