Article Written By Sachin Thakur

For all the people, who have never faced an interview, the bare thought of facing a panel brings knee-shaking thoughts in their minds. Some people may be better off than the rest and they may not have the zitters by the name of an interview, but it is certain that they do have a sense of question mark in them. There may be a number of questions such as what does the interview hold, what will be the questions asked, how will I answer them, will I succeed or will I fail, what are the key focus areas and the list is endless. And these apprehensions are certainly true as to face an interview requires grilling preparations. Now here it does not matter whether you are facing it for the first time or the tenth time, the idea is to be prepared. So, the big question is :

WHAT SHOULD I DO TO BE PREPARED?

Precisely this is what my article is all about.

What should I do to face an interview boldly and succeed?

Step 1.

Think that you have the gray matter!

The first and the foremost thing is to have trust in yourself. Think that you can do it. Everything starts with an “I will do it.” Approach. If you think you can, you will. So, have it in your mind that you have to make it in the interview. Success or failure must never be the hindering factors, as success depends on a number of factors, therefore simply saying that since you have failed therefore you are incapable is ABSOLUTELY wrong. Failure may be because your profile may not be matching the profile desired or they may not be in a position to give as much salary as asked by you or you may be having more qualifications than the qualifications desired or in some exceptional cases the interview might just be a formality, the position might have been already filled up and similarly the list goes on & on. SO………The Key is not to underestimate your potential by a failure.

Remember: “YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL AND YOU WILL SUCCEED THE NEXT TIME”

Step 2.

Punctuality :

Punctuality plays a pivotal role in ascertaining the candidate and this is the primary factor, which is subconsciously present in the minds of each and every interviewer. If the interview is at 9.00 a.m. you must be there at 8.30 a.m. This will give you sufficient breathing space to get adjusted in the surrounding conditions. The reason is, first of all you are going to face an interview and on the top of it the surrounding environment is going to be entirely alien to you. Both of these factors together will increase your levels of anxiety. Moreover if you reach prior to time, you can talk to the candidates who have already been interviewed. This will give you confidence as you will get time to work on the points, which have been asked to the interviewed candidates. Reaching early also helps in cooling down your body, which otherwise starts reacting to the hostile thoughts that starts coming to your mind before the interview. But trust me if you are late, then 98% of the chances are that you are going to miss the bus. The 2% chances I am keeping for the exceptional cases wherein luck may be favoring you. Therefore the second step on the ladder of success is to be PUNCTUAL.

Step 3.

Dress Code:

You make an impact of the interviewer in 2 ways. Visual and Verbal. What you wear puts a visual impact on the interviewer. A few must dos for the dressing code are:

A. Never wear jazzy clothing especially fluorescent or the college kind of cloths are a MUST NOT.

B. Males must be formally dressed, wearing a descent shirt with a proper combination of trousers. The best combination advised is black trousers with a light blue shirt and a dark blue tie. You can also try other combinations of light colored shirt with a dark colored trouser. Try to avoid yellow red or other such colors.

C. Females on the other hand have a wider choice. They can wear sarees, suits or a typical corporate dress. But be selective in what you wear, like if you are going for an interview for a front office position in a hotel industry, the best possible choice will be to wear a saree.

D. For males brown shoes and white socks are MUST NOT.

Step 4.

Initial Gestures:

The other kind of impact is the Verbal impact. The first step to put this impact is to work on your initial gestures, which includes primarily the way you enter the interview room and the way you greet the interviewer or the interviewing panel. Make sure that you warmly greet each of the panel members. Warmly means that you have to make them feel that you are feeling comfortable while appearing for the interview. Always seek permission before entering the room and before taking your seat.

Step 5.

Body Language:

Apart from the sense of dressing, body language is the second tool of making a visual impact. But this is for sure that it is a far much more powerful tool than body language. Dressing puts an impact in a passive way where you are indirectly communicating with the panel, whereas body language helps you communicate with the panel directly without speaking any words. But as it is true with every powerful tool, if you do not use it properly, it can go against you. So the idea is to use it optimally. Body language includes a number of human body behavior during an interview. For example while facing a panel you must always establish an eye-to-eye contact with each and every panel member. This will help you in gaining the confidence of the panel members, as eye contact forces the person to fully divert his/her attention to the person who has made the contact. But it must never be in the form of staring, as staring is the mutated form of an eye contact. Similarly never keep your hands folded as it signifies that you are hiding something from the interviewer.

Step 6.

Control Your Brain

Human body is having an automatic system of reacting to conscious or unconscious thoughts. Thoughts forces us to be nervous, thoughts forces us to be bold, thoughts forces us to be in a good or in a bad mood. That’s why it is rightly quoted, as “It’s All A Game Of Mind”. What you think commands your actions. Think positive do positive think negative do negative. Our brain is a powerhouse and our thoughts are transformer, which controls the power generated by our powerhouse. It may increase it, it may decrease it. Therefore to harness this immense power, it is inevitable to harness our thoughts. While appearing for an interview, we consciously or unconsciously starts thinking for the result of the interview or what is going to be asked in the interview or whether I am looking good and other such things. The effect of this is that the brain reacts because such thoughts passes on negative impulses to our brain and our brain reacts in the same way. As a result our heart beat increases, we starts getting zitters, we may sweat, we are unable to speak, we may feel dizziness, we may shiver. The ultimate outcome of this is a bad interview. Therefore while waiting for an interview never ever think of the result. Have control on the thoughts. Remember, “You may face ten interviews, you may succeed in all of them, but till the time you have defeated your inner fear, the chances of your failure will be ten out of ten” .

Step 7.

Paint Your Profile Beautifully :

When you are facing an interview, you are trying to sell your services to the interviewer or the interviewing panel. And the interviewer has got all the rights to reject your proposition. After all it’s there decision to keep you or not. So, become a perfect salesman. Present a beautiful picture of your services to the panel in a way as if you are the only one cut out for this job or position and you are the one who can be fitted into this job. To do this the primary thing that you have to do is to be prepared before appearing the interview. You must be having a clear-cut picture in your mind of the positioned that you have applied for. Think of your negative points that can become a hindrance and then try to fabricate a solution or an alternative for them.

NEVER EVER keep mum or be silent. If you do not know the answer or you stuck up somewhere, politely tell it to the interviewer. The other option is to offer them an alternative answer. But never be quite. Silence shows your nervousness and a nervous person having a lack of confidence is of no use to the judging panel. Present your qualities, your achievements to the panel! Try to win their confidense!. Show them your potential!

Step 8.

Keep On Charging Your Brain Info Bank:

Reading is the best way to keep yourself updated on the latest happenings and it certainly comes handy when you are out of the way asked a question which is not from the questions that you expect to be asked. Therefore make it a point to start reading . If you belong to finance filed, you can start reading newspapers like Financial express, Financial times, Economic times, Dalal street e.t.c. Marketing aspirants can gear themselves up by magazines like A&M, Brand equity e.t.c. Similarly people related to other fields must read the periodical journals. Apart from journals and newspapers, you should read books related to your field. Since I belong to Marketing, I can suggest some, must read books for the marketing aspirants. Like Marketing Warfare, The autobiography of Lee Iacocca, Brand positioning, Organisational Market Segmentation. Reading doesn’t mean that you should remember all the things and Facts & Figures. It means even if you are able to retain 10% of the things you read and out of that 10% if you are able to utilize as low as 1%, your objective is achieved. But even if you are not asked the question related the info that you have gained, you can always use it while answering other questions. For example while answering a question related to marketing, you can always quot examples from the books or the latest journal that you have read. The objective is “TO PUT AN IMPRESSION ON THE PANEL, THAT YOU ARE SPEAKING QUALITY AND NOT QUANTITY”. And trust me if you make reading a habit, you will see an amazing change in your personality. It will automatically force you to prove that what you speak, makes sense. Apart from facing an interview, reading will definetely help you in excelling in other spheres of life too.

To be continued further………………..

Article written by Sachin Thakur

Presently working as market coordinator with Usha Drager Ltd.

Please send your comments or queries to sachin_thakur005@yahoo.com

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