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The door of opportunity wont open unless you do some pushing.

Anonymous
General Skills Personal skill competencies

Advertising Analyzing situations Assisting Building relationships Building credibility Budgeting Communicating ideas Conceptualizing Counseling Decision making Directing Helping others Initiating Marketing and communications Organizing Public speaking Team building Team leading

Action oriented Ambitious Analytical Assertive Balanced Calm, Caring Challenging, Committed Communicative Creative, Dedicated Energetic, Enthusiastic Friendly, Generous Hard working, Helpful Honest, Sincere Inspirational Motivating, Optimistic Patient, Perfectionistic Resourceful Responsible Self-motivated Task oriented, Team oriented

Flexibility Interpersonal communication Ability and willingness to learn

Interviewers these days want to hear specific data.

Prepared by: Abu Taher, EEE, RUET

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Managing the First Twenty Seconds of the Interview:


You have 20 seconds or less to impress upon an employer whether or not he should consider hiring you from the moment you walk into her office to the moment you sit down in a chair.

Arrive early at reception ten or 15 minutes early so you can look around the building for features you could comment on and genuinely praise Wear a smile, no matter how you feel. A smile conveys confidence, high self-esteem, competence, warmth, and enthusiasm. Wear clothes that are appropriate to the occasion. Have a firm handshake, using the whole hand. Introduce yourself by your first and last names and say that you are happy to be there. The interviewers very often feel more nervous about interviewing you than you feel about the interview! Do not sit down until the interviewer suggests that you do. If he or she doesnt, ask politely if you may sit down. Do not, at any time during the interview, put anything on the interviewers desk. Keep briefcases, note pads, date books, and purses by your side or on your lap. Keep hands, elbows, and any other items from the top of the desk. Make your behavior in the waiting room impeccably professional and polite. Always bring a pad of paper and a pen or pencil for taking notes but not for interview board. Avoid bringing a cell phone, pager, or hand-held device that may ring or sound off an alarm. Take Several copies of your CV or application form

Straightforward Questions
Q. Tell me about yourself. A. Tell them your name, educational background, briefly about your family ( dont say your parents name), hobby, experience etc. Q. What are some of your strengths? Say about your strengths and try to give some examples to your each strengths. For example: My strengths is training. I trained a group of 16 new employees for the help desk, and they were able to function 20 percent faster than their predecessors.

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Q. What is your greatest weakness? A. I know that I can get frustrated very quickly when people dont make decisions. However, now that I am aware of it, I try to remember that colleagues may need time to think something through before giving me an answer. Q. What was your greatest failure? To answer the question you can say funny something. For ex: my greatest failure is that I can not cook not even making mumlate. Q. What would your last boss say about you? A. I believe he would say Im innovative, dependable, and professional.( try to give example if any).

Q. What do you think your former coworkers would say about you? A. I think they would say that Im friendly, efficient, honest and professional ( try to give example if any). Q. What kinds of skills do you have that would benefit this company? Or What can you contribute to this company? Give the skills mentioned above that are related with company benefits. For ex: I believe that my management, budgeting, and purchasing skills wouldbenefit the company ( try to give example if any). Q. What do you think youll be doing 5 years from now? Or Where do you see yourself in five years time? A. My goal is to grow and learn more as a professional. Q. Why did you apply for this job? A. ( for example) I have been targeting my job search toward major companies in the software industry. I came across yours on the Internet and decided to research it a bit further. Q. What do you know about this company? To answer this question you have to do some homework about the company. You can get information about the company from company website or from any other sources. Q. Don't you believe you may be overqualified for this job? A. After discussing the position with you and seeing the job description, I feel I have a good understanding about both the responsibilities of the job and the compensation. I feel comfortable with both, and I'm eager to work for your company.

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Q. How would be your rate yourself as? (You could be asked to rate yourself as a team player, a researcher, a leader, or just about anything else.) A. Id rate myself as a good leader because I work hard at developing the capability of the people who work for me.( try to give example if any). Q. Are you familiar with our products/services/work? Say something positive and obviously your honest experience. For example: Ive been reading as much as I can about your current range of medicines and drugs.. Q. Why do you want to work for us? A. I think your business has managed to develop leading edge products that other companies go on to copy. Ive been very impressed by the quality of thinking of all of the employees that I have met so far. Q. What attracts you most about working for us? A. I think the fact that youre one of the oldest and most established businesses in this sector with a track record of having delivered business-tobusiness website solutions for nearly ten years says something about the quality of the management team. Q. What other jobs are you applying for? A. Ive applied for several other jobs but these are all in hi-tech businesses. Technology is my big passion and thats where Im determined to work. N.B.: Basically they want to know your field of interest. Q. How does this job compare with other jobs you are applying for? A. I have to say that the people at the other firms were also very bright. But, even though this is obviously only my second interview with you, I prefer what I have heard so far about your incentive scheme. Q. If a competitor offered you a job right now, would you accept? A. I would have to weigh up the pros and cons of exactly what they are offering. The most important factor for me is getting a good training programme and having a boss who will develop and mentor me. Having said that, Ive liked the people Ive met here and have been impressed by what Ive read about the career path so Id rather work here, given the chance. Q. Have you received any other job offers? A. No. I started applying for jobs only a couple of months ago. Or Ive received an offer to work in the same role but for a smaller company with a less impressive brand than yours. N.B. : Avoid the temptation of lying to make yourself look as if you are in demand

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Q. Do you have any personal goals that you have yet to achieve? A. Im always looking to develop myself and move out of my comfort zone. ( you can freely say your personal goal but be professional) Q. You seem to have changed jobs very frequently why is that? A. Its true that I have dabbled in a variety of jobs, but that was early on in my career, just after I had graduated. But I think I have now sorted in my mind what I want out of my career. Q. You left one job after only a year why? To answer the question Always try, if you can, to talk about the positive reasons you decided to join a new organisation rather than the negative reasons you decided to leave your old one. Q. Why do you want to work in this field? A. Ive always been fascinated by how businesses make money. I did economics at school because I enjoyed understanding questions about pricing and marketing and creating products that make a profit. So I have for many years wanted to work as a business analyst. Q. What role do you tend to play within a team? A. I tend to be the one who gets things done. I enjoy working with people who can come up with ideas. But when they come up with new ideas all the time, its up to me to turn those ideas into reality. Im good at following through, delivering what I promise to do, and having good attention to detail. Otherwise our team would have lots of great ideas but no implementation of them. Q. What kind of people do you tend not to get on with? A. I get a bit frustrated when Im dealing with people who say I dont know all of the time. I like to work with bright, energetic people who have suggestions to make and arent afraid to speak their mind. Q. Do you enjoy speaking in front of other people? A. Yes, I quite like speaking my mind in front of others. I got a lot of practice at college because we used to give 10-minute presentations to the other people in our class on our thoughts about the essay topic of the week. Q. How do you respond to personal criticism? A. As long as the criticism is fair and constructive, I try to listen to it, thank them for their candid feedback, and modify my future behavior accordingly. Q. Can you work under pressure? A. I positively thrive on pressure. I couldnt do a job where I had to sit and watch the clock ticking by every day. I like to know that each day is going to be very different, with its own set of decisions to make and problems to solve.
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Q. How do you deal with failure?

A. I dont really think in terms of failure. I think that failing to achieve


something the first time around shows that only your approach was wrong. So I see failure as useful feedback for how something should work. Q. How would you respond to change? A. Some people see change as threatening, but I see change as exciting. In fact, I get bored if Im asked to do exactly the same thing month after month. I actively enjoy pursuing new opportunities and often end up volunteering for new projects and initiatives. Q. If I told you that youre not suitable for this job, what would you do? A. I would respond by asking you why you think Im not suitable for the job. Are you saying that I am not suitable for this job? Q. What is your greatest achievement? A. (Try to keep your response specific to the job.) Q. What is the greatest challenge you have faced and how did you respond to it? In answering this question, think back to an occasion when you were faced with a work problem that at first seemed insurmountable. When talking about how you tackled the problem, try to emphasize your personal contribution as opposed to what the rest of the team did. Q. Who in your life has inspired you? To answer this question tell them about that person and say all positive things from that person that encourage you most. the person name is perhaps less important. The person may be from your family, parents, teachers etc. Q. What kind of manager would you like to work for? A. I would like to have a manager who will give me clear instructions and expect me to be able to deliver good results. Id like to work for manager who will listen to my ideas and give me the authority and responsibility to do a good job. Q. Why do you think that you are better than the other candidates? A. I havent met the other candidates, so I can talk only about myself. What I hope I have done is to impress you with my track record of results. In particular, I think I have three main strengths, which are Q. You dont have much experience of X how will you cope in this job? Your response must reassure the interviewer that you at least have similar experience and that you learn fast.

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Q. Do you ever have any doubts about your ability to do the job? A. Of course there are moments when I feel tired and frustrated. But I can honestly say that for 99 per cent of the time, I get a real kick out of the variety, the pace, and having challenging deadlines. Keeping busy and learning new things is how I know Im still alive. N.B. be honest to give the answer of this question Q. Are you married? A. No, Im not married. But when or if I ever get married, I canguarantee that it wont affect my work as my career is incrediblyimportant to me. Or Yes, Im married. But my other half and I have completely independent careers so please dont think that my marital status would in any way affect my ability to do the job. Q. What hobbies and interests do you have outside of work? A. Im a keen photographer. I find that looking for interesting photos to take gives me a fresh outlook on life, something that probably helps me to stay more open-minded about opportunities at work too. Remember that there are many untrained, unskilled interviewers who can ask questions that bear little relation to the job. However, put up with their sometimes strange questions by smiling and trying to turn them to your advantage. Control your emotions or any anger you may feel when you are asked an illegal question. Q. Why did you choose the degree subject that you studied? A. I enjoyed chemistry and biology at school so I thought biochemistry would be a great way to combine both subjects. When I looked into the subject, I found that a lot of the work is aimed at helping people to live longer and more satisfying lives.( say about your subjects objective) Q. What did you do outside of your studies? Try to talk about sporting clubs, societies, or other committees in which you participated. Try to show the interviewer that you didnt just spend all of your time buried in books for the duration of your course. A.I was quite active in a society that aimed to raise money for deprived children in the vicinity of the university. Q. Why arent you following the career path suggested by your course? try to talk about the positive reasons for wanting to enter a new career rather than the negative reasons that put you off your course of study.

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Q. Why do you have such poor grades? A. I enjoyed my course of study but unfortunately Ive always struggled to cram information into my head so Ive never done well in examinations. My reference from my tutor shows that I was much better at the practical side of the course, giving talks to the other people in my tutorial group and debating issues. Given that this job is of a very practical nature rather than requiring me to commit lots of facts to memory, I know that I can excel in it. Q. What further education do you think you may need? A. In order to fulfil my ambition of moving into a more generalist role, I realise that I need to sharpen up my financial understanding of the business so Im thinking of taking a part-time Masters course in financial management.

Salary Discussion
Try to follow some rules given below: Try to postpone the salary discussion until a job offer has been made. Speak in terms of ranges of salary rather than using exact figures. Q. What is your salary expectation? A. Well, it doesnt depend on my expectation rather it depends on skills, quality and salary structure of the company. So, maybe you could tell me what salary range would be reasonable for a person with my skills in this company and requirement of the post. Then the interviewer may say you a range of salary, if you are agree then say the highest figure of the range. If you dont get according to your expectation then say: A.[ lean back in chair for a moment, thinking, then lean forward with direct eye contact] To tell you the truth, I was expecting something somewhat higher. Or Thank you I think I would find the offer more attractive if it were closer to 70,000.

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You need to ask question to the interviewers to show that you have done research on the company and you are interested. You can ask two or more question to the interviewers. You may ask: What are the day-to-day duties involved in this job? How will my performance be measured? Who will I report to? Who would I be spending most of my working time with? What do you see as the immediate challenges for me if I were to be given the job? Why has this vacancy arisen? What happened to the previous job holder? Are you looking for anything in particular from the person who will take this role? What are the organisations long-term objectives? What are the companys plans for growth? And how will it achieve these? Whats the best thing about working for this organisation? Some more tips: First be bold make your mind by emptying the thoughts from it make sure and clear about your throat & voice should be clear and audible ok.. Have a smiling face.. When you are telling about yourself just feel free.. Dont tell your role in your projects you have done let them know by the way u narrate... But be honest what you r saying dont try to impress the interviewers by too much buttering to your content they 'll catch you easily because they are well experienced. Try to prepare your self introduction, your answer should be short and simple. Dont include your weakness until/unless they asked you.....

N.B. There may be many questions other than these questions. Try to give your answer from your intelligence. Dont try to memorize the answers, just follow the way of saying. Because interviewers are so experienced they will catch your memorizing answer very easily.

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Introduce Yourself
Its my pleasure to introduce myself and I would like to thank you for giving me such an opportunity. I am--------. I was born in ---------. I have completed my graduation from ---------------------. I have also completed Intermediate from ---------------------. I have done my SSC in ------------------------------ a reputed school in my locality. Regarding my family, I hail from middle class family. I have two younger sisters. I like myself very much and i love what i am doing.I like to spend my time with friends. Basically I can adopt in any type of environment. I am a good listener and quick learner. I am also good team player and i have a good leadership skills to manage to the team. My strengths are honesty, Self confidence, positive approach, believe in hard works, problem solving ability and curious to learn new things from others.. **My weakness is straight forward. I spent more amount of time with in a particular work because i am not satisfied until my work has done properly. Apart from my studied my interest is playing cricket and making friends. My role models are my professor ________________________ My aim is to get in to an organization which makes best use of my technical and logical skills, which helps the organization to go higher and higher. My short term goal to get placed in well reputed IT company. My long term goal is to bring my company at peak position where I'm one of the responsible for it. That's all about Myself. "Would you like to know anything else sir?

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