Old Interview Tricks

This is one of the old articles i had written about interviews, we are going to come up with more MYTHBUSTERS

Are interviews a complete farce?

Every time i have been through a campus placement or walkin interview process, the feeling i had been led into was “interview results/process are arbitrary”. But they are not! What is wrong is the perception with which job interviews are seen. Atleast that is the case for software jobs.
Myth 1: Job selection process takes in the candidate having best knowledge/ability/other skills.
Fact: Companies never look for exceptionally talented employees. A good employee is one who likes his work, is sincere and a pleasure to work with. A employee will stick with the company not for money, but if he likes/enjoys the work he does. Job retention is very important for a software company so they will settle for a below average guy rather than a person who wants to go for MBA/MS.
Myth 2: The company with toughest technical round will give you the best technical/quality work you can get.
Fact: Technical interviews are there to know the level of your knowledge, but that is not important what is important here is “if you like a particular programming language you will have good knowledge of that language”. Only if you like C programming you will know the nuances of C language. Technical interviews are there to check your dedication to the work you do, which will be there only if you like the work.
Myth 3: If you have Comp Sc degree/B.Tech from IIT you hold a advantage over others.
Fact: This is completely false unless and until the company has a policy which binds it to take only Comp. Sc./IITians. The bottom line is if a company is allowing you to take the written test , it will take you regardless of your background. Some companies might require or recruit only grads from the big league colleges but that is more of pure HR policy than anything else.
Myth 4: You should a strong reason when you are going for a job shift
Fact: When you are leaving one company and going to another it is a disaster to the give the following reasons:
“I don't like my BOSS”
“I don't like the company culture”
“I don't like the salary”
“I don't like the city i am staying in”
“I don't like to work with non-IITians”
“I don't like to wear tie to office”
“I want to earn more money”
“I don't like to work in a manufacturing sector”
“I don't like to work in shifts”
“I need better work as i am intelligent”
“I don't want to work in support projects”
It is better not to give any reasons for changing job rather than giving the above reasons.
The only reason why a company will take you is if it feels “you have the energy but you cannot utilize all your skills and potential in your present job”.
This is true when you are making a shift from non-comp sc. background to software industry. Never ever curse your previous employer/your branch of study/your department or anyone for that matter.
All this was DON'T now coming to DO:
1) Resume- Your resume speaks a lot about you. If it just mentions your educational background, it gives a impression you just want to get a job. If it is gives information about your career interests/objectives it shows what you want to do. Everyone wants to have a employee who is clear with his goals/career and what he wants to do. If you are not clear with what you want to do with your life spend some time in introspection. Just add these two sections to your resume if you don't have.
Career Interest: To work in Enterprise Application development projects/ To work in development of editors/compilers.
Career Objective: To use my skills/work in challenging product development projects/To use my debugging skills to deliver world class products/To work in a challenging environment where my skills are used.
It could be anything but definitely something you want to do and something in which you have genuine interest. So that if they ask you questions you can easily prove your skills. NEVER LIE anywhere nor in resume nor interview. Try to include all the things you think would be important for a software company, that is quantitative/analytical skills.
2) Written Test- This is the easiest part as it is easy to get idea about written test from various sources.
3) Technical Interview- There is no shortcut to this stage. You will have to work on improving technical skills. If you like programming you will definitely do it and if you don't like programming no point in going to software industry. You should mention something you know very well in your resume to avoid rejection in technical rounds. You must know about the project you are working on.
4) HR Interview -Getting rejected at this stage means something is wrong with your attitude/behavior or something else which you need to work on. You should tell what you want to do with your career in next 5 years. And how that matches with the company you are applying to.
DISCLAIMER:
Girls don't need to do all this they can get any job anywhere.
I might have missed some points which are pretty obvious.
You can turn to me for any specific questions.