NPTEL- COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Communication Skills: Lecture No. 25

Module 8
Lecture 4

INTERVIEW SKILLS

In this lecture, I will discuss in detail most of the typical questions that will be asked in an interview
and suggest possible ways for giving acceptable answers. However, I would like you to be as open-
minded as possible and think of creatively answering those questions, especially, in relevance to
your personality and your career profile. Besides, I will also share with you some useful tips for
approaching the interview panel with confidence and enthusiasm. The following are the typical
questions that are likely to be asked in various ways in an interview:

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Typical Questions

Suggested Ways of Answering Typical Questions

What interests you about this job?

Never say that the financial prospect is the only thing that interests you about the job. Highlight
the challenges the job offers and its potential for your personal and professional growth.

How do you see your career developing in the next 5 years?

As far as possible, explain how you visualize your career developing as an integral part of the
organization. In such case, you will be helping the organization to grow while it facilitates your
growth. It’s a mutual goodwill and win-win situation.

What other jobs have you applied for?

This is a tricky question and hence you should be careful while answering it. You must have
applied for certain other jobs and expecting interview call letters from most of them. You must
have already got an interview call from a company. If you a prospective candidate, informing that
you have got call letters from many reputed companies can make the interviewers think that you

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might not join their company. However, informing can be beneficial in cases where you can
negotiate for higher perks and pay.

Why did you select your course? Tell me about it. Describe any projects you’ve done.

For all these questions, as discussed in the previous lecture, try to relate what you have done in the
form of courses/projects with the career you seek in the form of a job.

What are your strengths and weaknesses/key achievements?

Again, as discussed before, you need to have a clear perspective of your merits and demerits. Your
key achievements will indicate some turning points in your career or personal life.

What can you bring to this post?

The post has already some designated strength on its own, when you get it, you assume its strength,
but at the same time, you are expected to add some value to it. Assess your personality traits, career
ambition and the existing job values and see how for you can add to it.

What have you done to prepare for this interview?

A good opportunity to demonstrate how much and how thoroughly you had prepared for the
interview in terms of researching the company, studying the profile of key people of the company
combined with your updating of the subject knowledge.

What if you were the Director, what would be your priorities?

There could be what if questions like this one. You can be asked what you would do if you were
the CEO of the company. It would helpful here if you had done a study of the limitations of the
organization and suggest possible ways of improving it while answering this question.

What’s your opinion of the Government’s policy on increasing fees at IITs and IIMs?

Instead of just jumping into conclusion that it does not benefit students and hence you should be
opposing it, you need to exhibit a balanced view by considering first why the Government is taking
such a stance and what could be the compelling reasons. It will also reveal your analytical skills
and ability to keep yourself updated in terms of general knowledge.

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Competency-Based Interviews

I have listed above some of the typical questions that are asked in competency-based interviews.
Having identified the requisite key skills required for the job, the company designs questions to
elicit evidence of skills. Candidates are checked with respect to their competency and proficiency.
Candidates with proven track record will be preferred owing to their successful task
accomplishments. All candidates are asked the same questions and rated according to the time
taken and efficiency in answering them.

As far as communication skills are concerned, here the company is not looking for your
vocabulary, fluency, and felicity of expressions but seeking your persuasive ability to influence
somebody to do something in your favor. Along with this, your interpersonal skills, especially in
terms of resolving conflicts will be tested by asking such questions as: What kinds of people do
you find it difficult to work with? How do you handle those situations? Saying that you can work
with anybody, thinking that you will be on the safe side, will not fetch you extra credits. People
appreciate honesty here; hence, you can say for instance you do not prefer to work with hypocrites,
but you can add to that by admitting that though if situation demands, you can adjust even with
them.

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Your employers are interested in knowing whether you are self-directed and self-motivated so that
you can work even if somebody’s behaviour is affecting your group’s harmony. That’s why they
will you give an example of a situation when you had to go beyond the call of duty to get something
done. Many people generally prefer to stay within their limits, though a leader will dare to cross
any limitations. A good example is when a person takes the risk of doing someone’s job. For
instance, you are not supposed to take care of a new machine installation, for which technicians
have come but the concerned in-charge is absent owing to sudden illness. However, if you can
supervise the installation and get it done successfully, it demonstrates your innate leadership
quality and selfless concern for the company.

Since the employers are interested in knowing your problem solving ability, they will ask you
about an error you made and what you learned from it. Saying that you are a perfectionist and
that you never committed an error is a neutral and safe answer. But an impressive answer is
explaining how you really made an inadvertent error and learnt so much from it. In computer
programming, for example, one learns a lot in debugging—the stage when the programmer
identifies the mistakes and sorts them out before the programme is implemented. In such case,
learning from mistakes only contribute to the strengthening of the programme.

Expect the Unexpected!

One can prepare endlessly for an interview. Nevertheless, the most interesting, the most
challenging, the most threatening, the most amusing and the most rewarding part of an interview
is when the candidate is caught unawares when posed with unexpected questions. Yet, handling
unexpected questions will reveal one’s spontaneity and creativity.

Funny questions are asked to identify one’s ability to

think under pressure,

use one’s presence of mind,

show good sense of humour,

react spontaneously and think creatively.

It helps to weed out candidates who do not possess creativity, or lack lateral, out of
box thinking.

Take a look at some of the funny questions that I have listed below.

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Although there are some stock answers, the good answers vary depending on the creative nature
of the candidate’s personality. It’s easy to say that (for the question on choosing an animal or bird)
you will choose to be a dog (faithfulness) or a dove (peaceful) or a peacock (beautiful) but it is
difficult to say something that is apparently ugly and repulsive like cockroach, lizard, etc., and
defend why you want to be so. People will rarely choose crow (black and ugly) but still the bird
can be defended for its ability to pick up waste and keep the environment clean for human beings.
If you choose a tree, think of it in terms of its traits like giving fruits, shelter, and purifying the
atmosphere.

A candidate who got selected on high rating for a management school convinced how he would
make an Eskimo buy a refrigerator. One of the facts he highlighted was that regarding the fridge
one can always moderate the temperature and it will be helpful to keep some vegetables in extreme
weather conditions. He was perceived to be technically sound with persuasive skills, which were
very much need for the job.

People react emotionally for a question like if you were to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
They often say they will run to see their beloveds, confess their love, or send messages to
concerned people. Very few might say that they would switch off their computer, sign the cheque,
or return the borrowed amount. These answers appear to be simple ones but they tell a lot about
the conscious and altruistic inner nature of such people.

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The list goes on and on . . .

Five Basic Questions

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From Your Perspective

The question at the bottom line is this . . .

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The overall concern is to choose the right person for the right job . . .

The main concern is to select the right person for the right job. Selecting the right person for the
right job, no matter what amount of money is spent in the interview process, is always a gain for
the company. Ultimately, the discreet choice is between liability and asset. A liable candidate is a
problem creator and a pain in the neck for the organization. S/he is a weak-minded negative thinker
who lacks confidence, keeps complaining all the time, comes late to the work, does not perform
tasks in time, and is inefficient and incompetent. A candidate who is an asset to the company
works hard to achieve targets in time and helps the company to grow and increase its turnover.
S/he adds to the reputation of the company and everybody enjoys working with him/her and are
proud of his/her achievements.

Once you learn how to tackle the typical interview questions, you should keep in mind that you
should also prepare your own questions.

Prepare questions of your own

Asking practical, smart and intelligent questions can impress the employers because the employers
are interested in your answers as well as your questions. They would assess you not just by your

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answers but the kind of questions that you would ask them at the end or during the interview
process. Some of the smart questions you could ask are listed below.

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Interview Rating Scale

Generally the panelists use the following the interview rating scale and selection criteria. Knowing
this beforehand will help you to upgrade yourself with relevant skills.

In the next lecture, I will discuss how you can create the first best impression by focusing on the
soft skills—that is the non-verbal, body language aspect of communication.

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Further References

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