Let us tackle some important questions that are often asked in interviews :
Tell Us a Story.
This question has some variants, for example, “Describe yourself”, “Tell us a story” , “You have mentioned in your CV that...”, etc. Generally, this kind of question is asked at the start of the interview. Interviewers understand the psychological aspects that a candidate can be tense, stressful, and is in a new situation sitting in front of altogether unknown people whose status is certainly above him. This question is aimed at putting the candidate at ease and giving him an opportunity to speak in an area about which he alone knows the best—that is the candidate. But it should be understood that the “first impression is the last impression”, so a candidate must put his best foot forward and sail through the interview successfully.
As far as the word ‘story’ in this question means is not the story of Alif Laila that the interviewer is interested to listen. He wants the candidate to describe himself. Now, do not start giving a verbose description of those feats that you have achieved and have already mentioned in your CV or the questionnaire that the organisation might have asked you to fill in when you arrived for the interview, and which is lying before the interviewer. As a matter of fact, repeating the facts and feats already mentioned in the CV is a misconception showing your inability to put forward anything new in a new situation.
Then how to tackle this question? The right approach should be to bring out some positive traits and attributes and make upon them to show how you have improved upon them in your personal capacity or for the previous employer or organisation that you have worked for. It remains a fact that there is no one fully perfect person in the world. Everyone has some or the other negative attribute or shortcoming, but a prudent man always works to improve upon them. It is not a bad idea to put yourself in good light, but it is also a sheer folly to overstate such facts. Remember, the interviewer is trying to know how you fit the job well. He is not going to hire you as a mechanical worker serving him in the capacity of the post, but it includes your whole personality. What he wants is a man, who besides being a specialist in his job and post, is also a person with positive traits—pleasant and adaptable, assertive and confident, social and affable, and is passionate about work and interaction with the colleagues and customers, and the other persons who with the organisation has to deal.
The other meaning that can be ascribed to this question is how you tell your interests and hobbies which you may or may not have mentioned in your CV. The candidate must be well prepared for this question revealing his personality in compact, whole form rather than in fragments.
What People Criticise You For.
This question can be phrased in many ways, such as ‘Describe your strengths and weaknesses’, ‘What do people criticise you for?’, etc. This is a serious question which needs self-assessment of one’s personality. A candidate should judge his attributes : both positive and negative, but he should not be too soft or too hard. What the interviewer is interested is to know how you can evaluate yourself objectively. A candidate should be honest, truthful and pragmatic. He should not relate those qualities or attributes, both positive or negative, that are not part of his personality.
A candidate should rather choose one or two weaknesses which an interviewer is likely to gauge. Now he should project that negative point as a strength rather than a weakness. He can do this by showing the remarks of the people he faced and conclude how they are wrong or how he improved upon his negative trait. If a candidate chooses to tell that he has been able to overcome such a shortcoming partially, he should also put forward how much time he needs to overcome it completely. It shows the flexibility of approach of a candidate, that he can change and amend himself if the situation so demands. But it should not be done with affected manners or making false airs about him.
Suppose, a candidate says that earlier he liked to tread his path alone, now he is improving upon his aloofness with sociability. Then he should be careful to maintain it during the entire course of interview that he has worked upon it, that is, he should not tell in the later stages that he likes to go for movies or evening strolls all by himself. I am afraid, he would have contradicted himself. And mind it, interviewers ask questions, many times disguised in different words to bring out the qualities that a candidate has attributed to himself.
Tell Us a Story.
This question has some variants, for example, “Describe yourself”, “Tell us a story” , “You have mentioned in your CV that...”, etc. Generally, this kind of question is asked at the start of the interview. Interviewers understand the psychological aspects that a candidate can be tense, stressful, and is in a new situation sitting in front of altogether unknown people whose status is certainly above him. This question is aimed at putting the candidate at ease and giving him an opportunity to speak in an area about which he alone knows the best—that is the candidate. But it should be understood that the “first impression is the last impression”, so a candidate must put his best foot forward and sail through the interview successfully.
As far as the word ‘story’ in this question means is not the story of Alif Laila that the interviewer is interested to listen. He wants the candidate to describe himself. Now, do not start giving a verbose description of those feats that you have achieved and have already mentioned in your CV or the questionnaire that the organisation might have asked you to fill in when you arrived for the interview, and which is lying before the interviewer. As a matter of fact, repeating the facts and feats already mentioned in the CV is a misconception showing your inability to put forward anything new in a new situation.
Then how to tackle this question? The right approach should be to bring out some positive traits and attributes and make upon them to show how you have improved upon them in your personal capacity or for the previous employer or organisation that you have worked for. It remains a fact that there is no one fully perfect person in the world. Everyone has some or the other negative attribute or shortcoming, but a prudent man always works to improve upon them. It is not a bad idea to put yourself in good light, but it is also a sheer folly to overstate such facts. Remember, the interviewer is trying to know how you fit the job well. He is not going to hire you as a mechanical worker serving him in the capacity of the post, but it includes your whole personality. What he wants is a man, who besides being a specialist in his job and post, is also a person with positive traits—pleasant and adaptable, assertive and confident, social and affable, and is passionate about work and interaction with the colleagues and customers, and the other persons who with the organisation has to deal.
The other meaning that can be ascribed to this question is how you tell your interests and hobbies which you may or may not have mentioned in your CV. The candidate must be well prepared for this question revealing his personality in compact, whole form rather than in fragments.
What People Criticise You For.
This question can be phrased in many ways, such as ‘Describe your strengths and weaknesses’, ‘What do people criticise you for?’, etc. This is a serious question which needs self-assessment of one’s personality. A candidate should judge his attributes : both positive and negative, but he should not be too soft or too hard. What the interviewer is interested is to know how you can evaluate yourself objectively. A candidate should be honest, truthful and pragmatic. He should not relate those qualities or attributes, both positive or negative, that are not part of his personality.
A candidate should rather choose one or two weaknesses which an interviewer is likely to gauge. Now he should project that negative point as a strength rather than a weakness. He can do this by showing the remarks of the people he faced and conclude how they are wrong or how he improved upon his negative trait. If a candidate chooses to tell that he has been able to overcome such a shortcoming partially, he should also put forward how much time he needs to overcome it completely. It shows the flexibility of approach of a candidate, that he can change and amend himself if the situation so demands. But it should not be done with affected manners or making false airs about him.
Suppose, a candidate says that earlier he liked to tread his path alone, now he is improving upon his aloofness with sociability. Then he should be careful to maintain it during the entire course of interview that he has worked upon it, that is, he should not tell in the later stages that he likes to go for movies or evening strolls all by himself. I am afraid, he would have contradicted himself. And mind it, interviewers ask questions, many times disguised in different words to bring out the qualities that a candidate has attributed to himself.
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