Getting IT Job is no Rocket Science....
I am a fresher, I have four years experience, I am a manager, I have got all the certification. We belong to one of the categories and we all look for a job or a better jo,b is it so tough to get one, no not really.
There are lot of job opportunities but still getting one is not so simple, guess what only around 5% of people get through the interviews, where are others gone what do they lack, why cant they make it to the final stage... why ?? What are the companies looking out for.. What they want.. Well if you want to know the answers for all these questions that have been a mystery, you are in the right place.
I have changed around 3 jobs I know not much by current Industry standards :P, gone places, got lot of offers, attended interviews for no reason and even took interviews.
Communication.. we all know this one of the skill that is highly stressed on in IT field but the question is why it’s been given so much priority what about my technical skills and my experience.. I will try and answer all of them in the blog. So let’s begin..
Sell yourself in a best way
Tell me about yourself, why are you looking for a change, what are your weakness, what are your strength, tell me about your project they ask the same question everywhere, every time and best part is you know the answers and you manage to put it across to them but still you cant get through, even if you got through there is one more area where you will be impacted if you don’t score here, your package, I mean it, I will get back to you on that.
so enough of pulling around lets begin, the way you present yourself is very important not to forget you are selling yourself, don’t argue on that, its a known fact, so consider yourself as a product and whether customer wants to buy or not all depends on how you present it.
You need to get best out of yourself, tell lie do whatever you want but at the end you should be feeling comfortable and confident. I am not going to answer much of technical part here there are lots of website for them, but you should remember knowing the answer is not just enough. How do you get best out of yourself is crucial.
Communication is the Key
Why do you think communication is given so much priority, both in product and service based Companies you need interact with different people, normally in service based company you need to interact with clients directly and even in product based company you need to interact with onsite teams, anyways communication is a basic essential without which its tough to grow, if you don’t feel comfortable push yourself and make sure you get it right.
Lets see what all is lined up and you choose where you want to go.
1. Read the Interviewers mind (50% job done)
2. Make them ask questions you know. It’s possible. (90% job done)
3. Feel comfortable, Dress Code. (100% job done)
Read the Interviewers mind (50% job done)
The person who takes the interview just another guy like you, may be a bit more experienced then you or even less.
Look out for the interviewer, you can very easily read him by his looks and initial questions he asks. You need to understand one thing taking interview alone is not their job, they have lot of other work to do.
1. Experienced Person taking interview.
This person would have a taken a lot of interviews earlier, all the questions he asks will all be very common. I mean just overview of all the technical stuff, so he is not going to go in depth.
How do you score here - Most of the people will answer his questions, but how do you score over others, that’s where presentation skills come into picture, don’t go in depth, just give overview of the things, tell some of the new features on the topic but don’t go in depth, don’t let him get bored, make it more Interactive just checkout the reaction he shows for your response if its positive there you go explain whatever you know until he stops.
Always give example
Note :- Interviewers most of the time are impressed when you tell him something they don’t know, something new, but not too much, if he feels you acting over smart, believe me he is going to screw you.
Key points to remember is to make it more interactive, don’t go too much in depth, always give example and never give a text book definition he would have asked the same question 100 times, 90 plus people would have given the same answer.
Watch out for the skills you would have mentioned in your CV, you need to know at least overview of it, being a experienced person he would be having some idea at least on most of the technologies, be very careful one bad step here, it gives a fake CV impression.
Since he is a experienced person there are chances you might work under him, so there are chances that if you score here you are through and as always be confident, positive and be ready to accept if you don't know something, its fine they can understand that.
2. Technical Person.
You can make this out in first couple questions they ask, if the interviewer goes in depth, means this person is technically strong the only way to impress, your bad luck you need to be technically good :-).. but don’t loose confidence if you cant explain a couple of them, answer whatever you know, put it straight this is what I have worked on and this is all I know, but I can improve. You didn’t answer best but you where better then the worst out there, so you are in next round :-)..
3. Just 2-3 years in industry.
Again you can make out by the type of questions interviewer asks, well what type of questions, the same ones which you would have browsed on the net Interview Questions :-).. Don’t be smart I mean it, these are young guys and with lot of ego, its easy to score over them, when done with the questions try to ask him about the company the kind of work and environment, just make him feel friendly and believe me you will 100% get in.
4. Managers.
Well talk talk talk and talk lot of sense that’s what they expect from you, nothing more then that, they want hire, they want fill the positions as soon as possible and want to make you productive they are in a hurry more then you, they are ready to compromise, so what you have to do, just talk sense, make him feel you are confident guy and have lot of enthusiasms to learn, and will be a team player, the more you do well here, the more confident you look to him, the more package you can demand for.
Make them ask questions you know. It’s possible. (90% job done)
Your answer should always leave a question for which u know the answer
Let’s start with an example.
In one of the interviews I was asked explain the project, I started with brief overview, then I explained the technologies used, interviewer was just listening now I began with some features of that technology. I didn’t explain the features just listed them, so suddenly he asked me one of the features I had just listed, then again while explain that features I used basic conceptual terms guess what next question was, to explain what those terms mean, so the key is stress on the features you know, drive the attention of the interview to your strength, Interviewers doesn’t have a lot of time they need to finish it fast and if you can make them ask questions of your liking what better you want.
One more important thing the best way to impress a interviewer is use the board or a piece of paper given to you, but you are not 100% perfect or not so confident on all the concepts, what to do ? Write it when you know it and just try to push of a question where the interviewer expects you to write. Didn’t get that, I had been to an interview, I sat on the desk saw some rough sheets used by others who had already attended the interview, I just lost all my confidence, I began with technical architecture of the project, I didn’t wait for him to tell me to write, I immediately started drawing the structure and explained him, and as I told before (I being a java person) told some features in Java 5 and he indeed asked me to explain them, again pull of the rough sheet write and explain, now he asked me about EJB, I was not so confident and I saw he was just about to push the paper to ask me to write, I like a master in EJB said its very simple you do it like this, be careful saying and writing are two big things, they can find a lot mistakes on written sheet of paper and ask more questions on it so be very careful here. Write only thing on which you are very confident and worked on it.
Feel comfortable, Dress Code. (95% job done)
You need to be comfortable to get the best out of you, so you need to be confident. Interviewers are no monsters they want just select some talented guys who meet their requirement. You can’t be nervous and expect to present yourself in the same way, you will get 100 tips on this in other website, overall u should believe you can make it through and try to answer whatever you can.
You also need to be comfortable with what you wear, don’t wear a jeans to attend a interview, try to give a look of professional, good-looking does matter sometimes. I have see good looking girls being pushed by interviewers even though they are not the best, that’s a sad part, but some companies believe its very necessary to have a good mixture of boys and girls.
I belive Above information is helpfull, Your feedback is appreciated.
I am a fresher, I have four years experience, I am a manager, I have got all the certification. We belong to one of the categories and we all look for a job or a better jo,b is it so tough to get one, no not really.
There are lot of job opportunities but still getting one is not so simple, guess what only around 5% of people get through the interviews, where are others gone what do they lack, why cant they make it to the final stage... why ?? What are the companies looking out for.. What they want.. Well if you want to know the answers for all these questions that have been a mystery, you are in the right place.
I have changed around 3 jobs I know not much by current Industry standards :P, gone places, got lot of offers, attended interviews for no reason and even took interviews.
Communication.. we all know this one of the skill that is highly stressed on in IT field but the question is why it’s been given so much priority what about my technical skills and my experience.. I will try and answer all of them in the blog. So let’s begin..
Sell yourself in a best way
Tell me about yourself, why are you looking for a change, what are your weakness, what are your strength, tell me about your project they ask the same question everywhere, every time and best part is you know the answers and you manage to put it across to them but still you cant get through, even if you got through there is one more area where you will be impacted if you don’t score here, your package, I mean it, I will get back to you on that.
so enough of pulling around lets begin, the way you present yourself is very important not to forget you are selling yourself, don’t argue on that, its a known fact, so consider yourself as a product and whether customer wants to buy or not all depends on how you present it.
You need to get best out of yourself, tell lie do whatever you want but at the end you should be feeling comfortable and confident. I am not going to answer much of technical part here there are lots of website for them, but you should remember knowing the answer is not just enough. How do you get best out of yourself is crucial.
Communication is the Key
Why do you think communication is given so much priority, both in product and service based Companies you need interact with different people, normally in service based company you need to interact with clients directly and even in product based company you need to interact with onsite teams, anyways communication is a basic essential without which its tough to grow, if you don’t feel comfortable push yourself and make sure you get it right.
Lets see what all is lined up and you choose where you want to go.
1. Read the Interviewers mind (50% job done)
2. Make them ask questions you know. It’s possible. (90% job done)
3. Feel comfortable, Dress Code. (100% job done)
Read the Interviewers mind (50% job done)
The person who takes the interview just another guy like you, may be a bit more experienced then you or even less.
Look out for the interviewer, you can very easily read him by his looks and initial questions he asks. You need to understand one thing taking interview alone is not their job, they have lot of other work to do.
1. Experienced Person taking interview.
This person would have a taken a lot of interviews earlier, all the questions he asks will all be very common. I mean just overview of all the technical stuff, so he is not going to go in depth.
How do you score here - Most of the people will answer his questions, but how do you score over others, that’s where presentation skills come into picture, don’t go in depth, just give overview of the things, tell some of the new features on the topic but don’t go in depth, don’t let him get bored, make it more Interactive just checkout the reaction he shows for your response if its positive there you go explain whatever you know until he stops.
Always give example
Note :- Interviewers most of the time are impressed when you tell him something they don’t know, something new, but not too much, if he feels you acting over smart, believe me he is going to screw you.
Key points to remember is to make it more interactive, don’t go too much in depth, always give example and never give a text book definition he would have asked the same question 100 times, 90 plus people would have given the same answer.
Watch out for the skills you would have mentioned in your CV, you need to know at least overview of it, being a experienced person he would be having some idea at least on most of the technologies, be very careful one bad step here, it gives a fake CV impression.
Since he is a experienced person there are chances you might work under him, so there are chances that if you score here you are through and as always be confident, positive and be ready to accept if you don't know something, its fine they can understand that.
2. Technical Person.
You can make this out in first couple questions they ask, if the interviewer goes in depth, means this person is technically strong the only way to impress, your bad luck you need to be technically good :-).. but don’t loose confidence if you cant explain a couple of them, answer whatever you know, put it straight this is what I have worked on and this is all I know, but I can improve. You didn’t answer best but you where better then the worst out there, so you are in next round :-)..
3. Just 2-3 years in industry.
Again you can make out by the type of questions interviewer asks, well what type of questions, the same ones which you would have browsed on the net Interview Questions :-).. Don’t be smart I mean it, these are young guys and with lot of ego, its easy to score over them, when done with the questions try to ask him about the company the kind of work and environment, just make him feel friendly and believe me you will 100% get in.
4. Managers.
Well talk talk talk and talk lot of sense that’s what they expect from you, nothing more then that, they want hire, they want fill the positions as soon as possible and want to make you productive they are in a hurry more then you, they are ready to compromise, so what you have to do, just talk sense, make him feel you are confident guy and have lot of enthusiasms to learn, and will be a team player, the more you do well here, the more confident you look to him, the more package you can demand for.
Make them ask questions you know. It’s possible. (90% job done)
Your answer should always leave a question for which u know the answer
Let’s start with an example.
In one of the interviews I was asked explain the project, I started with brief overview, then I explained the technologies used, interviewer was just listening now I began with some features of that technology. I didn’t explain the features just listed them, so suddenly he asked me one of the features I had just listed, then again while explain that features I used basic conceptual terms guess what next question was, to explain what those terms mean, so the key is stress on the features you know, drive the attention of the interview to your strength, Interviewers doesn’t have a lot of time they need to finish it fast and if you can make them ask questions of your liking what better you want.
One more important thing the best way to impress a interviewer is use the board or a piece of paper given to you, but you are not 100% perfect or not so confident on all the concepts, what to do ? Write it when you know it and just try to push of a question where the interviewer expects you to write. Didn’t get that, I had been to an interview, I sat on the desk saw some rough sheets used by others who had already attended the interview, I just lost all my confidence, I began with technical architecture of the project, I didn’t wait for him to tell me to write, I immediately started drawing the structure and explained him, and as I told before (I being a java person) told some features in Java 5 and he indeed asked me to explain them, again pull of the rough sheet write and explain, now he asked me about EJB, I was not so confident and I saw he was just about to push the paper to ask me to write, I like a master in EJB said its very simple you do it like this, be careful saying and writing are two big things, they can find a lot mistakes on written sheet of paper and ask more questions on it so be very careful here. Write only thing on which you are very confident and worked on it.
Feel comfortable, Dress Code. (95% job done)
You need to be comfortable to get the best out of you, so you need to be confident. Interviewers are no monsters they want just select some talented guys who meet their requirement. You can’t be nervous and expect to present yourself in the same way, you will get 100 tips on this in other website, overall u should believe you can make it through and try to answer whatever you can.
You also need to be comfortable with what you wear, don’t wear a jeans to attend a interview, try to give a look of professional, good-looking does matter sometimes. I have see good looking girls being pushed by interviewers even though they are not the best, that’s a sad part, but some companies believe its very necessary to have a good mixture of boys and girls.
I belive Above information is helpfull, Your feedback is appreciated.
