#Interview story 1 of 3: "The interviewer did not ask any questions related to the job description."

#Interview story 1 of 3: "The interviewer did not ask any questions related to the job description."

I started interviewing for junior level positions for my employer in 2013. However, as an interviewer, it’s difficult to get completely honest feedback. That’s where mock interviews come in handy. Last month, I conducted a mock interview for a student from my B-School. He had three years of experience as a developer in Infosys before B-School and was looking to return to the same domain. Surprisingly, Infosys rejected him.

To investigate further, I asked him to provide more details about the interview. The interviewer had asked him basic questions about his resume, favorite subjects in B-School, and hobbies, and then closed the interview in 15 minutes without asking him about his relevancy to the JD.

As a technical interviewer myself, hobby related questions are asked only in two cases:

1. In the first 5-10 minutes to pass time since the candidate is not fit for the JD.

2. In the last 30-40 minutes of deep technical discussion, where candidate did well, to gauge the attitude and soft skills.

I suggested to him that he is leaving the onus on the interviewer to ask about his expertise relevancy to the JD. Instead, he should prepare case studies of how his expertise is relevant to the JD and talk about them briefly in the first minute. This will set the tone for the interview!

For an interview, be like hashtag#stevejobs Jobs, who would spend weeks rehearsing and refining his presentations, even though he had designed and developed the product. He knew every detail of every demo and slide, which helped him deliver a flawless presentation.