Guest Post: Eshwar Narayan

Eshwar is one of Chris' Summer 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

Interviewing is one of the most difficult things everyone faces in their life. Interviews are not given daily and hence most of the people face difficulties in preparing for an interview. If you give interviews daily, you will master the skill of giving a very good interview. But interviews happen only intermittently. Once you are settled into a job, you hardly will think of any interviews.

What I’m going to do now is put summarize the things essential for preparing for an interview.

What is an interview? The answer is simple. It is the inner view of you. What are you from inside? For any person to know you, it takes days, weeks and months. But you need to accomplish this in a span of 1-2 hours in an interview.

Remember the basic concept – What’s in it for the interviewer to interview you spending his precious time? Try to know:
What they are looking for in you? Every employer needs a candidate to be active, energetic, have good communication skills, and fit into the organization culture. Try to gather their requirements and try to achieve them and in turn you will achieve your goals.

Why are you here?
There are some basic things that you already have and hence they have called you for an interview. The most basic is that you are good at something that the company works on (like technical skills). It is taken for granted that you know it well. The next core skills they look at are leadership skills and how good are you at networking. As you go to the upper layers of the core values – they look at whether your goals match with the organization’s goals, and how good are your communication skills.

What can you do for us?
How much value can you add to the organization? A person who is hiring you wants to utilize you to increase the revenue of the company or decrease the cost of production or wants to increase the productivity of the company. Try to prove that you can achieve and you will surely impress the interviewer.

What kind of person are you?
Any organization wants to hire people whose goals and ambitions match with the organization goals. This is an obvious fact. It’s a win-win situation for both the organization and the employee. So you need to see if you fit into their organization goals and culture.

What makes you different?
There are thousands of people applying for the same job. If you want to get recognized among the crowd, you need to have some bullet points to showcase yourself that keep you apart from the herd. Try to think differently and give a broader picture about your experiences.

Can we afford you?
Be prepared to give a range of salary you are expecting. You can just tell them that, according to the current market for a person with so many years of experience on this particular domain the market salary range in between X and Y. So you would like to be placed in that range.

Prepare yourself for an interview –

1. Do a research about the company – Find out the facts like who founded the company, what business line are they working on, what are their stock prices, etc. Find out about the culture of the company. Prepare answers that are in sync with the culture of the company. Never try to give practice interviews at any company. Always give 110% at any interview.
2. Resume – The most important part of the interview process. This is like the trailer of a movie. You have very limited time and space to tell about yourself to the company. So keep it small and crisp but use lot of keywords that have a powerful effect on anyone in no time. Always carry multiple copies of your resume along with you to an interview.
3. Interview – Always keep in mind that you will perform better when you start thinking of an interview as a conversation with any other person. This will reduce your stress levels and you will be yourself. Since it is a conversation, there should be questions from each side. So don’t think that you need to wait for the end to ask your questions. You can ask questions about the company in between. By doing so you show your interest towards the company.
4. Before the Day of Interview – Always relax, rehearse and get a good night’s sleep the day before interview.
5. Be Early to the Interviews – Always try to be early to the interviews. 15 minutes early is best way. If you are too early, try to spend some time at the nearby coffee shop and then head to the company.
6. Politeness Rule – always be polite to all the people you meet in the company floor. Your interview is not over until you step out of the office premises.
7. Introduction – Go for a firm handshake with good eye contact. This is a first impression you are making. Get dressed well in formals and have positive body language. Introduce yourself and tell about your hobbies and your passion toward one thing you like.
8. Stories – Always try to build a story of what you are telling to the interviewer. This will keep the interviewer interested in you. Get the interviewer engaged in the conversation.
9. Wrap-up – Wait for the interviewer to end the session and then get up and say goodbye. Don’t be the first one to end any interview.
10. Post interview email – Always send an email; this is one more opportunity to express yourself in a proper way. You can give better answers to some of the questions that you were not able to excel at in the interview and send a thank you note. A paper letter will have more weight than an email.