Facing an interview with confidence and landing the job that you are being interviewed for. Do some research before the interview, face the interview confidently, and answer the questions clearly and to the point. Do that and you have a good chance of getting your dream job.
Since we focus on the jobs in the IT field, here are some tips that would help you. You might get the job on your first try. Well, if you didn’t, treat it as a good interview experience. We have to start somewhere, right?
Preparation
Treat it as you are being evaluated. It all depends on how well present your skills and the impression you leave with the interviewers. So, you got to be well prepared. Let’s see what you have to do before an interview.
Know your employer
The first thing to do is, do some research about the employer or the company that you are applying to. You need to know what you are getting into. Research about,
How many employees the company has?
What do they do?
What are the technologies they specialize in?
What is their motto?
How long have they’ve been in service fo?
What are their values or what they stand for?
Sort of things.
If you know this, you can impress the interviewer. For example, consider a company that specialized in mobile-based products. You can, for example, say:
“I am good at android and React Native developments and I have a few successful projects that I have worked on with those technologies”
Which the company might be very interested in. Furthermore, it is very important that you know what the company stands for, what its mission is. Consider a company that strives to develop innovations that develop lifestyle products to make peoples’ lives better. You can say that you are an innovative person and interested in improving the lifestyle of people.
Most importantly, prepare yourself to explain why you are fit for the job and why should they hire you.
If the interviewers know that you care and both your and their goals align they would surely want you in their crew. I mean who wouldn’t?
Ace the common questions
Well, interviews are not as unpredictable as we think. Regardless of what sort of a company it is, it’s normal for them to ask you some typical questions about you. For example:
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Whare you want to be in five years ahead?
Why should we hire you?
Can you fulfill the responsibilities of your role?
What is your biggest achievement?
Why do you want this job?
These questions may seem cliché, but your answers to these questions will make a difference. Let them know that you are worth their consideration.
If you are asked about your strengths, for example, you can say: “I can easily adapt to new technologies and I am extremely proficient with mobile application development. I am good at working as a team”.
And of course, don’t exaggerate or say things that you cannot do. Be truthful about it.
And when you are supposed to speak about your weakness, you can say like “I am not good with User Interface Designing” and so on. Always be truthful about them and express yourself so that they understand your strengths and weaknesses clearly.
If you are asked what would you want to be in five years, just figure out an answer that would make an impression like you are interested in working long term with them.
Overall, do some ground research about the most common questions that are asked in an interview. If you are not a fan of reading, try Youtube tutorials. There are a bunch of tutorials that would help. But make sure that they have indeed helped other people if you follow those instructions. Reading some of the comments below the video will verify that to some extent.
Practice with a friend
Practise makes perfect. So, practice with a friend simulating an interview. If you are a student at the Institute of Software Engineering, you have mock interviews for you. This will help you to get used to facing an interview. That is not all, if you want you can request the Training & Development Division of IJSE for a mock interview if you feel like you need more practice and experience facing an interview. And of course, these mock interviews are exclusive for students of the Institute of Software Engineering.
Prepare to bring the things that you need
You might need your resume, service letter(If you have worked somewhere before), and your other certifications or materials for the interview.
When it comes to the ICT field you have to make sure that your Git account, Stack Overflow Account, and Linked In profile are in order and presentable to the interviewer. These accounts are pretty important if you want to make a good impression on the interviewer about what you have done so far.
Prepare these before the interview. You know last-minute preparations don’t always go well.
Prepare for the technology-related questions. (For ICT Personnel)
In the ICT field, they additionally test your knowledge of related technologies as well as theoretical knowledge. So, it is important that you review the technologies and theoretical material before you go to the interview. This too will be made easier for the students of the Institute of Software Engineering by the Training & Development Division. They will be given a thorough knowledge of the related and they will be trained by going through mock interviews and VIVA regarding technologies and theoretical knowledge.
This point is quite important because the interviewers judge your capacity up to a significant level with the answers you give.
Facing The Interview
After going through various preparations you have to be mindful of how you face the interview. Let’s see how you should face an interview.
Dress Professionally
As they say, clothes make the man. To make a good impression on the interviewers it is always better to dress up professionally with an office-appropriate outfit.
Arrive Early
Being there a bit early shows that you are enthusiastic about the job and you are a punctual person. Besides, you won’t have enough time to adjust your mental state before the interview if you are late, and your nervousness will get in the way. This will cause your interview to be awkward and unsuccessful.
However, don’t come too early or you may seem desperate.
Introduce Yourself with confidence
When you enter the room do not look around the room. Make eye contact, and put up a pleasant smile, walk in with confidence and introduce yourself to the interviewers. Give them a confident handshake while you are at it.
As we all know, the first impression matters a lot. So, you have to make sure the interviewers have a good impression of you.
Thank the interviewers in person before you exit
Thank the interviewers for taking their time and giving you a chance to talk about your qualifications and skills. Be a little considerate but don’t overdo it. Everybody likes a considerate person after all.
Answering Interview Questions
Be Fluent and Coherent
It is important that you speak fluently and coherently. Make eye contact and use body language to express yourself. Do not stutter and try to avoid saying “um”, “uh”, “well” and “like” too much. Otherwise, the interviewer might feel that you are not confident.
For this, you can practise the answers to the most common and predictable questions with a friend or if you are a student of IJSE, you can request mock interviews.
Make sure your answers are short and to the point
Give the interviewer short answers and make sure that they are to the point. Don’t include unnecessary information. That will confuse the interviewer, the worst-case scenario is that they might feel annoyed.
Be Polite and Respectful
Don’t be arrogant and don’t be overconfident when speaking. Don’t exaggerate your skills or knowledge.
Dos and Don’ts
Only speak about the topics that you are most confident about
This is a very important point for ICT students because interviewers tend to ask questions related to the answer to your previous question. So, unless you are confident about the topic or technology do not try to answer that question. Let the interviewer know that you are not familiar with the technology or the topic.
Think of some questions to ask the employer
It is important that you ask a question or two from the interviewer too. To keep the conversation going and not to seem too passive, to keep the conversation going. Use the opportunity to get to know about your job more and the operations of the company. For example, you can ask “How will my performance be measured?”.
Don’t share overly personal information
Even though the interviewers eventually get friendly with you as the interview goes on, do not speak about your family, your girlfriend, kids, family problems or they might think you are unprofessional. They will think with all the distractions, you might not be able to work properly.
Don’t ask about the perks of the job first
Don’t ask about vacation days, demand an amount of salary first. Ask about the benefits you get as an employee after convincing them that you have enough skills and confidence to face the job.
Don’t talk about how many interviews you got rejected from.
It will cause a bad impression and it will imply that you are desperate for the job.
Don’t badmouth your previous employer
It would make you seem like an ungrateful person. It will leave a pretty bad impression about you on the employer.
Follow Up
After the interview, send an email thanking the interviewer for their time and just express your interest in the job and display your eagerness to know the next steps.
