Interview

Get u r basics right

Tring....Tring... the phone rings from an unknown number, you pick it up and some nice voice from the other side says "Hii, your resume has been shortlisted, you have an interview tomorrow. Please make sure you be at this location by 10.00 in the morning. Just bring a couple of copies of your resume, 2 PP size photographs, photocopies of your certificates and address proof. If you are lucky enough you can walk away with the offer letter tomorrow. Good Day and All the best" and he/she hangs up.

Now your head starts turning. You don't know what to do. The word ' interview tomorrow ' itself makes your stomach turn. You have sleepless nights. You keep asking yourselves (mock self tests) what questions he might ask and keep murmuring the answers. This session continues till you come face to face with the interviewer. One more tension keeps running in our mind, about the documents what he/she has asked you to bring. To your worst nightmare you find out that you do not have many of the things that you are asked to bring. So immediately you rush to the xerox shop to get our photocopies of your certificates, next you get your resume printouts and then the photographs. Having no other option for photograhs you go for the digital 2minutes photograph and that guy knows that it is urgent and really asks for good sum for less number of copies. What to do? but we go for it.

Atlast admist all the tensions you somehow gather all the necessary things and get ready. You come back home its already night and sit back to realize that your dress is not ironed. You immediately put on the iron box and somehow complete it. After all this you donot have any mood to eat but you just crunch something and go to sleep. You get up early in the morning and start murmuring the answers then get ready before time and you see that your shoes are not polished. You polish your shoes and make your hands dirty, you wash your hands making your cuffs wet. "Shit", "No problem it will dry up before I reach there", Saying this you leave hoping the best.

Now two things can happen after this: Goodluck, you get selected and you forget all the troubles you have taken, it just vanishes before your happiness.

Second, Badluck, All roses are not red.   You are disappointed, frustrated sometimes accompanied by the feeling of shame that you didn't make it through this simple interview.

But here's what I say. Stop blaming yourself. It happens.Success and Failures are two sides of a coin. Theres nothing great in a guy who attends his first interview and get a job. I would say he is unlucky rather than lucky, cos god never gave him a chance to undergo the pain, the frustration, the disappointment, the shame that you have undergone. 

But many of us curse god because of our personal reasons and question him "Why me? I am a good guy and Why does bad things happen to good people "? This is an interesting question. Very long back I happen to read a book that answers this question. The author of the book says when you ask this question, god will never answer that because you are not asking for an answer but for an argumnet and god never likes to argue? So is my question wrong? Yes. So what is the right question? The author says

Never ask "Why does bad things happen to good people?" Instead ask "What happens to good people when bad things happen to them"? and god is sure to answer that.

Now ask yourself what good has this failing in the interview done to you? What are you saying? How can failing an interview do something good. It was the best company I attended? I lost my future, my career, my salary, my pride  and the list goes on. But if you think harder there will be something that you would have gained. What is that? After all no one gains anything from failing an interview isn't? But if you think harder, more and more the interviews you fail you will see that the better and better the person you are becoming. You are becoming a very modest person. Your ego and your false pride shatters and the real good of you comes out. All you guys reading this may not agree with me for a long time, just a simple question from your side "What good is my becoming modest is going to bring me? Does it anyway solve my problem, does it decrease my frustration? No. Then what good is this modesty for me? 100% correct from your point of view. But trust me on this, its really gonna help you in the long run.

More and more modest you start becoming, you become more approachable and friendlier. More approachable and friendlier you become people around you start sharinng there personal things with you because you have also become more caring and compassionate for others. Because you know what failure is, you donot look down a failed person. You care for others feelings and that will make you a magnetic person and people will just get attracted to you. Now if you think back failing that interview didn't do that bad as you thought at first? Still donot agree. No problem one day you will. I am sure about it.

But we can't let ourselves to keep failing just to make ourselves more and more modest. That is foolishness. isn't? Yes damn right you are. So what do we do to turn our failure into success. Look first and foremost you first need to look back and see where did you go wrong? According to me you have made the mistake not at the interview but before the phone call itself. You were not prepared at all for an interview. 

So what should I do?

Here are somethings I would suggest you guys to do from my interview experience. It will cost you some money but trust me its worth it.

Buy yourself a nice good folder, a a file, a notepad and a pen.

Must have always during job search:

Always have 3-5 copies of your resume handy.

Around 3 Photocopies of certificates and address proof.

Around 10 PP size photographs

Your original certificates

Your salary slip and experience certificates incase if you are experienced

A notepad

A pen

and an orginal ID proof ( Driving Licence, Passport, Pan card etc)

Two pairs of neatly ironed shirts and trousers

Neatly polished shoes

* Nowadays it has become mandatory to carry an original ID proof to the interview location otherwise you will not be allowed to attend the interview. 

keep all the mentioned copies in a folder in a suitable place in your home. Prior the day of the interview take up what is required and put it in the file and keep it aside. Second important thing is refilling. You attend an interview and if you are not successfull then on the way back home get all the copies of what you have spent on that day and put it in the folder. I understand that  its frustrating but it will reduce your frustration later on for the next interviews. Replace your clothing with others. If you have only one pair no problem wash and it the other day itself (donot postpone) and neatly iron it. Polish your shoes and keep it. In this way you will always be prepared for the interview. 

Write down all the possible questions that you feel will be asked during the interview with your answers in the notepad. Donot just murmur your answers. The questions can be anything that you feel, the questions that you might have gathered from the net, friends or from your previous interview experience. Write and rewrite your answers. Read and re-read what you have written. Go through all your answers once every day till you feel you are comfortable with the answers. Keep making improvements to your answers. Just murmuring yourself the answers will do no good to you. You might feel you can answer it but during the interview you will definitely go wrong. And most important keep adding questions and answers in the notepad even after you are successful. It will be important to your later part of life.

Remember getting a job is just luck. If you are lucky on that particular day you end up in a job. So hold your patience till you you get your day. Dont lose faith. Something good is waiting for you. But that doesn't mean that we donot try and we donot prepare. We must keep on doing our duties. But donot push yourself too far. Everyday is not sunday and remember one more thing.... if its too dark that means twilight is just near.

All the best to all of you and thanks for taking time and reading this. Awaiting comments.