Interviews 1

[Zoom1234]

Hi All,

Recently i gave two interviwes back to back. The position was for perl-linux programmer.

The first interview was given to two interviewers, both of them were not comfortable with either perl or linux.I came to know abt this as they themselves confessed taht during interview. So they asked me some vague questions.so they juged me on one of the questions i didnt know answer of.

The second interview of another company went fine.But when i contacted them i was told that i was technically good but the position is not matching my skills.
This answer really shocked me as the interview place was four hours from my place and i had given my CV to them long time back.
I am in no mood of asking them why was i called if the position was not suiting my skills. but am i doing justice to myself ?Dont know.

This was last week and nothing i can do abt this at this moment but i just wanted ur inputs abt this.

Many Thanks.

 

[chiph]

Sounds like you have the technical part down pretty well.

But, how do you feel you did on the inter-personal part of the interview? The non-verbal communication, as well as the manner in which you answered their questions?

Chip H.


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[SQLSister]

The first thing you have to remember is that you are being judged in comparison to the other people being interviewed. If you have a terrific interview, you still may not get the job as someone else may have done even better. WHen you interview, you area a salesman. Like all salesmen you will not close every sale. It is best to fully undersand this so that you don't get too discouraged.

That said, you want to improve your chances of being selected. People interviewing for jobs are doing several things, they are evaluating whether they think you can do the job, they are evaluating whether they think your personality will be a good fit for the organization, and they are judging you in relationship to how other interviewees performed. So what do you do? First make sure that you really know your techincal stuff. In many jobs though, no one has all the technical qualifications they want, so when they ask a question you don;t know the answer to, then admit it and sell yourself by saying how you would go about finding the answer or what other skills you have that would make learning the new skill easier. IF you feel you blew a question, then research the answer and when you do your thank you note, put something in it about how you felt you didn't fully answer questions such and such, but you went back and looked it up and the answer you would give now is... This shows initiative and that you do have the skills to learn new things.

In general, I advise people to be themselves in interviews and not worry too much about the people aspect. You want to find a company you will fit in at after all, you don't want to be fake in order to get a job. One caveat though, nobody likes an interviewee who is negative. Don't diss your current job, no matter how awful it is.

You can't do much about how well other people perform, just make sure you did the best job you could.

You say you don't understand why they think you don't have the right skill set because they read your resume. I've interviewed liteally hundreds of people. Many of them look better on paper as far as technical skills than they do when you talk to them.

For instance, suppose you are a .Net programmer. This will probably get you an interview at a company hiring .Net programmers. But they want you to do things such as set up the project from scratch and design the basic architecture and talk to the customers and create web services. In talking to you, they find that really while you use .net in your current jobs, you haven't been doing the kinds of tasks they need and do not appear to have any in depth knowldge of the the more arcane parts of .Net. Sure you can create a web page and access data, but they are looking for something significantly more complex than that. It doesn't mean your skills are bad, just that they are not the particular .Net skills they want. It is usually impossible to tell this sort of thing from the average resume.

Don't expect people to tell you the truth as to why you weren't selected either. They will give you the most leaglly defensible reason they can think of. No one will tell you that you weren't selected becasue they disliked your personality. On the other hand if that was the real reason you weren't selected, you are better off for not having gotten the job as you would be miserable in such a place anyway. Your personality does have to fit the corporate culture for you to work there effectively.

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[willir]

Zoom1234

SQLSister provided us / you with some very sage advice.

To add to this...
- A very competant person may undergo dozens of interviews before they land a job. Job hunting takes work, and can be very demoralizing. In a sense, job hunting is yet another test where your "character" as well as your abilities and your attitude are bing tested. As SQLSister stated, you have to be your own saleperson. So please try not to be disheartened after two interviews. NOTE: A job interview will often turn out to be at least two interviews, and maybe more depending on the level. The first interview is often a "weeding-out" process. Often, this task is doled out to HR and/or less senior people who may misread an answer or a situation. The subsequent interview(s) will be with the more immdeiate people who you will work with and report to.

- A technical part of the interview should be expected, so prepare for it.

- Communication skills are important. Pick up a book on interview questions to see how the "experts" answer some of the more difficult questions. Chip discussed the importance of body language -- shyness, evasiveness, or being stumped can be portrayed with your body language -- practice protraying confidence, calmness and alertness with your body language. Moreover, in your post, I noted that english may not be your first language. If this is so, then I salute you -- so many of us only know only one language and are very ignorant of other cultures and have very little appreciation in how understanding more than one language can make you a better communicator. However, if you are not fluent, the ignorance of the interviewers may work against you. Practice your answers and your diction with some one who is fluent. In addition, it is really important to ensure that your résume / cv is grammatically correct. Some managers get real hung up on typos -- perhaps they perceive it as a test in your attention to detail and communication?? (I am one to speak with all the fat-fingering I do!) Oh yea, two other parts of communication -- answer the question asked! -- be ready to ask your own questions -- these questions should demonstrate intelligence and curiousity (doesn't hurt either to stroke the back of the interviewer by suggesting their approach or answer is brilliant)

- History. There is a real difficult first hurdle that may or may not apply to you -- we all have to jump this obstacle. You need experience to qualify for a job <-> You need a job to gain experience. Develop a track record with proven results. When you go for your interview, use your past experiences to demonstrate that you really do have the abilities and know-how to accomplish your tasks. Fairly new to the employment "game" -- consider volunteering for a non-profit organization. Help an old-folks home setup their computers, help a medical centre with their technical issues, etc. This way, you are gaining experience ... AND you are networking with potential employers ... AND you are establishing references which will be requried before you can cement the "deal".

Richard

 

[Zoom1234]

Hi All,
Thaks a lot for the replies.

The first thing you have to remember is that you are being judged in comparison to the other people being interviewed. If you have a terrific interview, you still may not get the job as someone else may have done even better. WHen you interview, you area a salesman. Like all salesmen you will not close every sale. It is best to fully undersand this so that you don't get too discouraged.

I must admit here that i never thought in above said point of view.As soon as i read that i realised the misunderstanding from my part.

I also realised now that i was rather aggresive while giving answers. So that might have hepled them making the decision.

Anyway i am going to try harder.


Thanks again.