Interview, workshop and interview is a conversation where a question or ask and answers are given,
it's that simple.
The word interview refers to a one on one conversation with one person acting in the role of interviewer
and the other and the role of interviewee.
Now, this is the definition straight out of Wikipedia, and everybody sure knows how the interview
is conducted between two people.
The interview tips are the tips that I have put together for you guys.
And those are, I think personally, I think are very important for you to keep in mind.
No one is research the company and understand the job description before you actually pick up the phone
and have an interview or actually go on side and have an interview, then make sure you are focused
on the question that they will ask you about.
Tell me about yourself.
This is a favorite question of every hiring manager.
So make sure you know how that you are going to answer this question.
Regardless of what type of job you go to.
They will always ask you this question.
This is their favorite question.
Now, you also have must have proper attire, of course, for guys.
You should have a suit and tie for ladies, a nice attire, business looking attire back up your resume
by giving real life example.
We are not talking about backing up like a system back up or file backup.
We are talking about whatever you have written in your resume.
Make sure you back those up by giving real life examples.
So if you have mentioned that you have done system management of a thousand servers, put it an example
like where those thousand servers where we are located, what are the different type of those servers
were?
Look in the eye of hiring manager when you are sitting in front of the hiring manager, if you're not
on the phone, make sure when you are talking to him or her, you and you answer, you should look,
that person's in the eye, but not stare at them.
But, you know, back and forth, you should have an eye contact then.
Of course, the last but not least is sell, sell, sell.
You are there to sell yourself.
Think that in your head you are selling.
You're just like as if you are selling some aluminum siding or selling a car.
You are there to sell yourself.
So whichever way that you have to put it in, you have to consider yourself as a product.
Now I'm going to go into more details of our interview workshop after this light.
Usually the interview last for an hour.
You will get a call from the hiring manager or you will be on site meeting with him.
Well, let's call the hiring manager in our scenario.
Let's call him Russell and introduce yourself to everyone.
If there are more than one people, of course, tell them my name is Imran Afzal.
And thank you so much for your time today for this interview.
The hiring manager, Russell, will introduce himself or others if there are more people on the interview
panel.
Well, the first five to 10 minutes, it will be utilized to give you the company overview, like what
does the company do, how long they've been in the market, what they have done or what they have achieved.
Make sure to research the company before you go for the interview.
This will tell that you are interested and have done your homework.
Now, the next thing Russell will tell you about the job itself.
He will go with a quick description of the job, what they are looking for, why they are looking for
the number of people in their team and things like what they will expect from the new person.
Or you make sure you write this part, because this information will help you answer according to the
requirement.
For example, let's say if Russell mentioned that we are looking for someone who's like a team player
or someone who could improve for their documentation, etc., then later you can you could say that
you have worked as a team or have done a lot of system documentation, stuff like that.
So you could add that to your conversation.
If you are in person doing the in-person interview, then make like a mental note about this before
Russell start talking or start asking you questions.
He will mention about the interview process.
He will lay out how the interview will be conducted.
How much time will it be spent on the technical questions?
How much time will be spent on the behavior question?
And then in the end, there will be some time for you to ask questions.
So explaining this interview structure is what I would say a great hiring manager do to stay on track.
OK, so all said, all done.
Now, one of the most favorite questions every hiring manager asks, and that is tell me about yourself.
You should take anywhere from, let's say, five to ten minutes to answer this question.
Now, this is the opportunity to sell yourself, you should break down your answer in five categories.
Category one, start by introducing yourself again by saying, look, my name is Imran Absolu and I'm
a systems engineer by profession or whatever your profession is.
My expertise are like Linux, VMware, Windows, technical training, project management and so on.
So basically list all this.
A quick summary of your skills in Category two of tell me about yourself.
You'll say I have been working with the company, let's call it art when delay industries for the last
so and so years as assistant administrator or whichever your your title was or have been the title.
OK, so if you are not in it, then again, really quickly, go over your day to day task, but don't
spend more than like 20 to 30 seconds on it because they don't want to know a lot about what you what
they are not looking for.
Focus more on the technical side.
For example, if you are in sales and you probably working on Pewsey system, so Sapers system or sometimes
you troubleshoot technical issues related to it, if you don't do any technical work and then don't
lie about it, they'll make up things, move on to mention about your lab, how you started and how
many hours you have spent to learn how many hours you have spent each week to manage it.
You break it, you troubleshoot it had different issues.
Next mentioned your previous job.
If you had one once again, go with a quick summary of your daily tasks in Category three of your.
Tell me about yourself.
I would say after that experience, tell Russell about your education background.
You should be proud of what you have achieved as a kid in academics, which college college you went
to and what was your major.
If you majored in accounting or any other concentration aside from computers, then now is the time
to tell why you decided to move to it.
Now, in Category four of tell me about yourself.
Bring up your interest like on your spare time.
You like to play soccer or watch movies, help around the house.
Tell him what you really enjoyed doing in your spare time next.
And of course, the last category that I have defined and tell me about yourself is tell Russell why
you want to leave your current job to apply for this job.
Perhaps your contract with the existing company is coming to an end, or you are looking for a career
advancement where you can apply for your technical skills or simply want to start your career.
And it mentioned about your documentation skills because remember, he brought this point during the
initial conversation, right?
Ask yourself, what is that one quality you have that your competitor does not have and tell that to
Russell.
Next one we have is why do you want to leave or what are you looking for in your next job?
You know, we have covered this question in the last lap, one of the last category.
But many times hiring managers will include this question again.
So you could, you know, rephrase what you have said.
Then the poor start of behavioral questions, these type of questions are one of the way for Russell
to find out your personality, whether you are the right fit for this environment or not, it can take
anywhere from like 15 to 20 minutes to answer them.
He will ask you questions like like how do you handle a difficult situation?
How do you meet your goal?
If you face an obstacle, how do you handle differences of opinion?
These are the type of questions that shows your behavior.
Now, remember, you don't have to be in a corporate environment or to have an I.T. job to answer these
questions, because these type of challenges almost every day with our family, with our friends, or
even during a situation which is like unrelated to any relationship.
For example, let's take an example.
Yes, you are at the airport, right.
And you are given two options.
Either wait for actually you missed a flight.
And so you have an option to either wait for a second flight, which will leave in eight hours from
now and will get you from point A to point B and of course, in two hours, let's say, or you can rent
a car and drive for six hours.
So which one option is better for you and why pick one on the other?
So think of a situation like these and answer these question accordingly.
I'm sure in your life you have faced these three questions in your entire life.
I'm sure about it.
OK, now becomes the technical part.
Now let the fun begin.
You will be asked a question back and forth from 20 to 25 minutes.
Sometimes technical questions are made up of a situation.
For example, what if you have to run a script at night but you are not available at night?
How would you manage that?
So it's a situational question, but if you answer by saying, of course you schedule the job.
OK, so now once Russell and the team done asking all the technical questions, now it's your turn to
return the favor.
Ask them questions like what is a typical day looks like for this position or if it is a contract position,
ask if there's a possibility to become permanent.
This will show that you are committed and how will you measure the success of a person that they will
hire?
These are the type of questions that you should ask now.
Of course, you don't have to ask exactly what I said you could.
You could come up with your own questions, of course, depending on your situation now, before and
before you say your goodbyes and shake hands, you should say a closing statement.
So this is all about the interview that I want to cover.
But at the end, before you leave, remember, there's anything you should say that will stay with Russell
and will keep him reminding of you when he is actually going through interviews with other candidates.
Now, you must be thinking, what could I say or what could that be?
Well, of course, it all depends on you and what you are good at.
As an example, I would give you a few examples.
So you relate to them a few of the example.
Like before I leave, I want to say one thing, Russell.
If you ask me something and I don't know the answer, then I'll tell you.
I don't know.
But I promise you that I will work on it and I'll get you the answer.
So this is like example of what you could say or another example that I have is before I leave, I want
to say one thing.
I might not be the smartest or most technical person, but one day I will make you proud of your decision
for hiring me.
Right.
Said this is the thing they'll say to them.
Right.
OK, and I can give you an example before I leave.
I want to say one thing, Russell.
I might not meet all the requirements for this job, but I definitely being loyal to you and will be
there whenever you need me.
So even if you want to pick out of these three, that's OK.
But make sure whatever you say stays with him.
Let me tell you a little secret about my career.
Long time ago, when I went for my first job interview, the hiring manager met me and he actually hired
me without asking any technical question.
Now, keep in mind, I did not have any experience.
So anyway, I was hired.
So a few weeks later, I started my job.
I asked my manager a few few days later, and why didn't you ask me any technical questions?
He's like when I was like when I came for the interview.
OK, so he step back and he looked at me and he said, because of your attitude, I knew you were hungry
to learn and willing to do whatever it takes.
So what I learned that day, guys, that it's not what you say, it's how you say it.
So good luck.