Going for interview? Do some interview preparations before appearing.

Through my last article I explained the process of interview and challenges which arise during an interview. Now we know the major challenges which might forbid a candidate’s success in an interview. So, to overcome these challenges some preparations will be required to successfully clear an interview. Interview is an open interaction between employer and applicant, thus it cannot be predicted about questions asked and discussion topic in the process. Candidates need to have a comprehensive analysis of personal life, academic life, extracurricular activities, industry and various related fields. So let us try to know where to these preparations start from and how to do these.

Preparation starts with analysis of personal life which includes – education, family details, origin background, professional career details, skills set followed by company analysis and industry analysis.

Education analysis is the details of academic life of the candidate from schooling to college or university. Candidate must have quick answer of all schools attended, passing year of a class, major subjects in any standard, percentage or grades scored in the class reason of choosing particular stream.

Family background is the detail of family members which include parents and siblings only for unmarried candidate and spouse and children for married candidate. Have a quick answer of any details asked about these members. Married candidate might be asked about spouse details, so have all information ready before going for any interview.

Professional details – If already working, be ready with details of all previous and current employers with working tenure, joining dates, separation dates, remuneration and major jobs responsibilities and most important, reason of leaving job.

Accomplishments and achievements – A documented track of all your achievements like scholarships, award, prize, recognition and appreciations. Your accomplishments include solving any difficult situation, any successful completion of task assigned to you, completion of any academic project. Sometimes we might have not any documented details of such tasks, but still have the details of such extracurricular activities which you can tell to the employer if such discussion starts.

Skills set – The skills which are learnt by candidate from academics, experience, analysis and the skills which are developed by intuitions of the candidate must be in knowledge of the candidate. Sometimes candidate possesses a skill but when such thing is asked in the interview, candidate is unable to respond promptly. Make an analysis of all skills which you possess. Your learned skills are – IT skills, communication skills, administrative skills, languages known, negotiation, management, data processing, driving and interpersonal skills. Your intuitive skills include – flexibility, analytic abilities, assertiveness, loyalty, discretion, patience, optimism, anticipation.

Know the company which you are applying in. It’s very important to know the details of the company of company like company’s size in terms of manpower, establishment year of the company, major businesses of the company, products and services of the company, growth and expansion, other allied companies, management team and hierarchy of the company. All these details get available on the website of the company. In addition to this try to explore any information of the company from other resources like news papers any reference etc.

Major job responsibilities – You have to convince the employer that you are perfect person to handle all job responsibilities competently. You will not be able to convince unless you know major job responsibilities and extra responsibilities required. You need to know the work process and it’s all stages from beginning to completion. What will be your role and how you can facilitate the process of your job. As a fresher too you need to know basic information, less information can harm your chances to get employed. Now question is, especially for the fresher – where to get this information from? Internet is very good source of this, just type keywords and millions of results will be there, gather the information you require and analyze it. Any person who has industry experience can be a valuable resource, browse your contact list and definitely you will find one.

These are some preparations required to be done before any interview. After these preparations there will be a prompt response and you will not have to think before speaking. It will show your proactive approach and your chances to meet the interview challenges will rise. I will be discussing top frequently asked questions in interviews with most suitable answers in my next write up, till then prepare yourself for interview challenges.