Interview Room Questions

Interview literally means to discuss formally with somebody for the purpose of an evaluation. Two parties involved in this process – interviewee, who is interviewed and interviewer, who conducts an interview.

Today, when everything is changing everywhere, the style of interviewing is also getting changed. The witness of any interview i.e. the Interview Room is also getting enhanced and upgraded. The latest trend in this is asking the Simple questions.

Now a days, there is a great interview dilemma happening. The candidates are preparing for the technical and difficult questions but the interviewers are asking very simple questions. These entire set of simple questions not based on the bookish knowledge but they analyze the personality and the behavioral knowledge of the candidate. The smart answers of these questions could play a major role in selecting the candidates for the further rounds.

In this blog, I will summarize some questions like this.

• Question 1. Give me a brief intro about yourself.

I encountered this question every time when I faced the interview. And the funny part is that 95% of the time, this is the first question that has been asked. Most of the times, I started with my educational background and then my professional background although all the information that I was mentioning is already there in my CV. But actually this is the best question to start the conversation between the two parties. So better to streamline and summarize the answer of this question before anyone is going to an interview.

• Question 2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

SWOT analysis. Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats. SWOT is a very famous technique to highlight the above four categories for any organization/individual. One should give something more than his/her thoughts before thinking and getting it answered for the same. Normally the interviewer wants to know about how much you know about by asking this question. Knowing yourself is a tough science and that is being examined by this question.

• Question 3. What you know about this company?

This is homework question for all the interviewees before attending the interview for any organization. By asking this question, the interviewer wants to know whether the interviewer is aware about the “CV” of the organization. This question is also very important as it can give the answer of whether the company is best suited for the profile and work and that the interviewer is looking for.

• Question 4. Who are your clients?

This is more or less a question for the high profile jobs. Because once a high positioned person is switching the job, he will normally join the organization with his/her last organization’s clients. I mean the person will snatch the clients also from the last organization. For other profile job, this question is being asked to get the information about the clients and how anyone was handling the clients.

• Question 5. Where would you like to see yourself in the coming five years?

This is again a homework question for any interviewee. The aim of asking this question is to get to know about what a person is thinking about his/her capability and what the future roadmap of the individual is.

• Question 6. Why you left your last job?

The answer of this question could be very diplomatic. At least this is what I have done in the past. But I would like to suggest one thing that better to be more transparent when answering this question, if you can.

-- Sanat Sharma

Smart, Smarter, Smartest Management

I will start this blog with a joke.
A group of managers were given the assignment to measure the height of a flagpole. So they go out to the flagpole with ladders and tape measures, and they're falling off the ladders, dropping the tape measures - the whole thing is just a mess. A tester comes along and sees what they're trying to do, walks over, pulls the flagpole out of the ground, lays it flat, measures it from end to end, gives the measurement to one of the managers and walks away. After the tester has gone, one manager turns to another and laughs. "Isn't that just like a tester, we're looking for the height and he gives us the length."

Recently, I witnessed a great example of getting a CMMi level in a group. The team was working in the same way, for which they were used to of. There was a simple process defined for everything that fits down everywhere. That process could be defined in a single straight line – “We will not follow any process”. And the whole team was superb in justifying their “Single Process Oriented” behavior.

Then suddenly, a big giant hit the market. The name of that giant was “Recession”. Everywhere the giant was destroying the economy like anything. Although most of the professionals in that group are not aware of what is recession. But still they were afraid. And then the top management tried to exploit the situation. A mandate rule hit the company that all the groups should be CMMI level before the completion of the annual appraisals cycle. If not able to achieve the same, you will be befooled with the appraisals.

All the managers worked hard to achieve the CMMI level. They tried their best to introduce the processes and get it followed by the sub ordinates. Since everyone wants a good appraisal hike in his/her salary, irrespective of the fact that whether he/she is doing OK or not, all tried their best. The game played by top management was going to be a super hit show. Finally, after a time span of about two months, the group got the CMMI level and that too, before completion of the appraisals cycle.

And after that, the team got the appraisals. Not even a single team member in the group was happy to see his/her appraisals. There was a dissatisfaction wave flowing in the group.

And then what happened was expected from the situation. The team again started following the same process that they were following in the past and that was “We will not follow any process”.

We may boldly state our commitment to quality and may even wave the banner of certification or process maturity. But the thing that really matters is how users experience our product. If they have to put up with frequent crashes, annoying bugs, or software that is difficult to use, our quality is merely a facade. Wrapping ourselves in the flags of ISO, CMM, or Six Sigma doesn't make our users feel any better.

The whole story had turned up into a summary line if you stand close to the management, you will hear the sea. But in any case, the management will always try to put you on the spot and will take certainly long time to make himself/yourself pointless. Management should not be dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.

I will end up this blog with one more joke.

A man piloting a hot air balloon discovers he has wandered off course and is hopelessly lost. He descends to a lower altitude and locates a man down on the ground. He lowers the balloon further and shouts "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"
The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, about 30 feet above this field."
"You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.
"Yes I do," replies the man. "And how did you know that?"
"Well," says the balloonist, "what you told me is technically correct, but of no use to anyone."
The man below says, "You must work in management."
"I do," replies the balloonist, "how did you know?"
"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect my immediate help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault!"

-- Sanat Sharma

Emotional Boss

Recently, there was a survey in Australia, the crux for the same came out is very interesting. According to that survey, if you, as a professional, are emotional and cooperative, there is a very little chance of yours to become a Manager in your team.

The survey was done by “Research School of Social Science” of Australian National University. As per the research, there is a deep relation between your personality and your job. If your behavior is too good, there would be little chance of yours to become a Boss. The research also says that if you are an easily convincible person, you will not become a good manager or businessman. On the other side, if you are an experimental personality, you will perform well in business line or in education field.

Currently, I am reading a book “Know Can Do!” by Dr. Dick Ruhe and other authors. The book defines some guidelines to help professionals to become successful in their organizations, as a successful leader. The points are:

1. Maintain a moderate emotional level. Balance a sense of urgency about what is going on with a quiet confidence. People appreciate a leader with a cool head.

2. Don't fall into the trap of inaction. Make decisions. Step up to the plate. Without a doubt, life rewards action.

3. Be honest with employees about what you know and what you don’t know. Say, “We are making some moves here. We don't have as much information as we would like, but we’re on our way.”

4. Hold people accountable. Let employees know that everyone—the leader included—is accountable for going in this direction.

5. Maximize information flow. Now, more than ever, the left-hand needs to know what the right hand is doing.

6. Give people permission to fail. It’s important for people to know that while you are going to hold them accountable, it is not going to be with the same kind of exactitude you might expect with more routine tasks.

Few years back, I was reporting to a person (my Boss) who was a very emotional guy. I still remember how I was befooling him on daily basis about everything going on in the office.

Sorry Boss for the same ……………………………

-- Sanat Sharma