Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Agenda
WHY INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEW BASICS
ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
PRACTICAL TIPS
What purpose do they serve?
Why Interviews?
Punctuation Adds Meaning!
Why Interviews?
Interviews help differentiate and segregate from a common pool
Resume
Skills
SELECTION
Job
Interview
application
Intangibles
Skills
Why Interviews?
Interviewers are looking to minimize errors
Selected Type II
What
Know your resume Show passion, Personality,
you inside-out and be knowledge, appearance,
need ready to validate understanding and presentation skills,
EVERYTHING willingness references
Formats, Mediums, and Types
Interview Basics: Formats
Formats / Mediums
Telephonic / Skype: Lazy way to shave a long list of suitable applicants. You
want to sound like someone they want to meet.
In person: With each round, they are looking almost exclusively for
negative surprises, i.e. a reason to eliminate
Who is you Interviewer:
One-to-one vs. Panel: Former is warmer; latter mostly designed to
overwhelm, test and/or save time
HR: Screening interview that mostly precedes the Business round and
looks at personality fit with organization culture and JD/JS compliance
Business: To familiarize you with the role and team, and test your
technical + personality fit with them
Leadership: Usually happens only with startups
Interview Basics: Types of interviews
Behavioural
Candidates need to recall specific instances where they were faced with
a set of circumstances, and how they reacted.
Premise: your past performance and behaviours are important and are
best indicators of future performance.
Some examples:
“An example of your leadership skills”
“That time when you failed”
“When you had to do something that wasn’t honest or ethical” / “Dealt
with someone who did”
Interview Basics: Types of interviews
Behavioural
What you need to show: What did you face > What did you do > What
was the outcome
Don’t skirt the question (“I’ve never failed” is a bad answer and a lie)
Walk the walk; don’t talk the talk – interviewers do not need lie
detectors to ferret out lies
Construct beforehand 1-2 stories under each typical area (failure,
leadership, teamwork, initiative, unpopular move, etc.) and rehearse
them in “S|T|A|R” format.
Interview Basics: Types of interviews
Behavioural
Interview Basics: Types of interviews
Technical:
Designed to assess technical competency for the role
Evaluate the JD thoroughly and sharpen your competency around the
most important skills sets
Fit:
Designed to specifically assess fit with role and organization culture
You need to be aware of the demands of the role and assert your
capabilities
Some traits like aggression are a deal breaker in the interview, even if
they are a role requirement (eg. for Investment Banking)
Interview Basics: Types of interviews
Stress (Why haven’t you / Why did you)
Aim is to confuse, disorient, and provoke to see you a) break down; or b)
become hostile
How you react says more about you than you imagine
Typical for roles like CRM, Sales & Trading, I-Banking, etc.
Experienced stress interviewers use subtle techniques: rudeness, ridicule,
long silences, show disinterest, disagree and interrupt, look at phone all
the time
Best responses (this is all they want to see). Realize the objective and:
don’t let them see you squirm or sweat
don’t be despondent
watch your tone, body language
How you say what you say says more about what you say than what you say
What you say, how you say it and how
you appear while saying it
How
Tone of voice accounts for 38% of the
overall message
38% Appearance
Body language accounts for 55% of the
55% overall message
What
7% Words (the literal meaning) account for
only 7% of the overall message
What,
7%
ETHOS LOGOS
Credibility / trust Logic / reason
• ISB’s signaling value • Real examples, fact, figures
• Prior academics • Structured response / flow
• Work ex • Referencing answers
Some grammar best practice How,
38%
What,
7%
Appearance
COMPOSURE
Questions can fall into one of the following:
Type Bear in mind
Follow up question Keep response contextual to the earlier question and your response
Hypothetical question Seek clarifications and question assumptions if needed. No one minds
Behavioural question Judge what is being tested about you and respond carefully
Dumb question May be deliberate. Don’t show that you think the question/interviewer is dumb
No
No
Bad Responses
Bad Responses
Bad mouthing previous employers or bosses
Deflection: “It wasn’t my fault”
Too much vagueness: “I guess / I think / I hope / I’m not sure / Probably”
Saying "we" instead of referring to your own achievements
Being defensive about skill gaps in your profile
Being defensive about gaps in work ex
Not knowing much / anything about the recruiter or role when asked
Overdose of ambition, aggression even if the role demands it
Speaking enthusiastically on politics or religion (even if you are asked)
Talking About Bad Bosses / Employers
Trash talk backfires
Don’t indulge even if interviewer baits you
Spin a bad boss trait into a positive one
He/she was an obsessive maniac? “My boss was hands-on on even the most
minutest details
Force optimism / tell anecdotes
Talk about lack of fit than attack
“Management style was not ideal for me” vs. “My boss was a creep and the
place was a hellhole”
Staying prepared
Staying prepared
Nutrition
Practice Hara Hachi Bu (eat until you’re 80% full)
Avoid coffee
Food interactions MATTER
Eat Cinnamon (for glucose regulation)
Rest
Naps (15-20 mins max) for alertness, enhanced performance, fewer mistakes
Beyond 20 mins leads to sleep inertia
Mind what food you are combining with your nap
Hydration
Physical comfort
Bad interview recipe: a big, carb-laden meal followed by a 2 hour “nap”
Staying prepared
(physically, mentally and emotionally)
Building confidence
Staying Prepared: Work Out
The underestimated influence of exercise on
cognitive power
‘99 Finnish study showed people who worked
out intensely 2-3 times a week experienced less
depression, stress, anger, and cynical distrust
Study of 19,288 Dutch twins showed exercisers
are less anxious, depressed, and neurotic
At Virginia Tech, cutting gym class for more
time in math and science did not lead to any
improvement in test scores
Staying Prepared
Some Other Books Worth Reading
Questions worth asking
Ask questions that show interest in the company + role
What are some of the challenges a person in this position can expect?
Don’t word any question to suggest you assume you have the job
(unless you have been told)
B+
Not a data structure
Not a blood group;
Not your course grade;
But an attitude.