On Interviews

Well, I'm still alive and kicking here. As expected, I've been busy the past few days with lots of phone and face-to-face interviews. As I continuously search for the ideal job, I guess now would be a good time to share something I've learned about interviews.

Questions To Prepare For

Among all of my interviews for the last two weeks, here are the top five topics that were asked by all of my interviewers:

• Description of your current job


• Reason for leaving your current job


• Your career plans/targets/goals


• Your strengths/weaknesses


• Worst problem encountered and how to deal with it

The following are other notable information/questions that, although not always asked, are quite tough to answer if you are caught offguard:

• Your knowledge of the company


• Your knowledge of the position applied for


• An actual example showing your skills, initiative, sense of responsibility, etc


• Management style you prefer


• Current and expected salary, and notice period/availability

Delivery of your Answers

Take care when answering the above questions. Your answers reflect your personality to the interviewer, which is basically the main reason for asking these in the first place; they want to know you and your work attitude; at that point, they can already decide whether they want you or not.

Here are some tips which should prove useful:

• Prepare your answer. Don't think of the answer just when the interviewer asks you right then and there; you know that at some point that it is going to be asked, so you might as well prepare a good answer.


• Be brief and concise. No need to beat around the bush or say any gibberish; just get straight to the point. Based from experience, your answer is brief and concise if it consists of not more than three sentences and if you can say it in not more than two minutes; if you exceed these, you might consider shortening your answer a bit, while still getting the message across.


• Be confident. You have to convince yourself and your interviewer. If you don't believe your own words, neither will anyone else.


• If you don't know, be honest about it. You are not really expected to answer every little question asked. If you don't know the answer, just say it so you can move on. If you dwell to much on a particular question, that is the most likely thing that the interviewers will remember about you when they are shortlisting of candidates: the guy who wasted our time.


• Practice! In a certain company, 80% of applicants failed their interviews not because of lacking technical skills, but because they did not practice what to say. You may know your stuff but if nobody understands what you're saying, there's no point.

Interview the Interviewer

Interviews are two-way; the company (through the interviewer) evaluates whether you fit the job; likewise, you, the interviewee, evaluates whether the position/company is worth going to -- or at least it should be. Know your employer before you proceed any further.

The following topics should have been discussed during the course of your interviews:

• Complete/detailed job description


• Working environment


• Benefits package (medical, leaves, bonuses, allowances, etc)


• Whether your career plan coincides with the career path set by the company for the position


• Trainings offered, if any

Hope this posts helps anyone who will be having interviews in the near future.