Candidate Preparation Guideline

You have been shortlisted by the prospective Company based on your resume and now,
they are happy to meet you in person to have an in-depth conversation regarding the skills
listed on your resume

You are requested to go through the following general guidelines, some are relevant to you,
some may not be; but will help in preparing to have a positive interaction with the
interviewer(s)

 READ YOUR OWN RESUME AND THE JD OF THE COMPANY THROUGH AND THROUGH

 IDENTIFY THE SYNERGY AND PREPARE YOURSELF TO CREATE A COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN BOTH

 DISCUSS MORE ON WHAT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE IN AND NOT WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW

1. Their questions will serve to understand you better

In terms of your competence, your successes, your maturity and abilities to handle challenging situations,
which have benefitted your earlier companies.
And not to disqualify you

 From your resume they have an overview of your background, they are interested in learning how your
experiences align with their role and other skills they may introduce.

 Provide detailed and robust answers to align with their philosophy of clear and cohesive
communications. They need to understand your background.

 Your answers and examples to their questions should illustrate the reasons you are providing said
answers. And they should be based on actual situations that you have encountered.

 Show that you take ownership of your work, as opposed to a minimalist approach. “The project called
for this and that is what I did”.

 They are a leader in their field. They will assess your readiness for their opportunity. You can offer a
great interaction by understanding your resume.

 Clients do not value evasive, vague, rehearsed answers or candidates that try to show more than what
they know.

 If they ask a question for which you have no experience, tell them you have not had the opportunity to
gain said experience but if given the chance you can learn. And then immediately offer relevant work
examples of where this has been true in you in your earlier engagements.

 Be fluid in the presentation of your skills and experiences.

 Be completely familiar with the job description while keeping an open mind to other topics of
discussions, if any, that may be introduced. Companies hire people they like.

2. You may be asked to elaborate

 On your experience and core background. Be fluid and confident.

 Provide examples of your experience working with multiple stakeholders/ functional heads. Express
how you collaborate to provide positive solutions. Be ready with examples.

 Provide examples of utilizing existing systems, people on your team and others you interact with for
maximum output. Of introducing innovation to projects while adhering to corporate guidelines, process,
procedures, and budgets. Detail how you accomplished this and the benefit to your employer. When
extending these examples discuss what took place, the steps you took, how it came to be the end
result.
  What professionally frustrates and motivates you.

 List any training you have taken on your own time or through your employers to upgrade your
knowledge and skills

 Everyone has been involved with challenging projects, coworkers, and superiors. The interviewer will
want to understand how you handle work related conflict and uncomfortable situations. There is no, “I
have never experienced a bad project or a negative coworker, superior/manager”.
 Tell them about a difficult project, challenges faced. Perhaps you did not agree with the given
approach or you knew a better way. They understand not every project is successful or headache free.

 You may be asked about your game plan for the role they are hiring you for, how you plan to make it
your own, please be detailed with your examples.

 Demonstrate that you can be a major contributor to their organization. Give examples from your past
experiences.

 They want to understand your personality and character, to know you are one of them because you
took time to prepare, showing consideration for their time and yours. This will happen through your
candor and not by being evasive, vague or rehearsed.

A lot of candidates try to sell the reasons for being the best fit for a role, instead of simply presenting their
experiences for the client to assess if it aligns with their needs. Confidently present what you can offer if it
is a match, great! This helps the client to focus on the experiences you possess and not on the one’s you
have yet to gain, those become a non-issue because they value how you communicate and conduct
yourself.

Your answers and examples should illustrate you are someone that sees the possibilities in a challenge
rather than the problems. They want to hire a confident and nice person with great communications skills.
They are in hiring mode.

3. The following are important to all hiring managers:

 Finding a candidate that understands how to share information.

 Being able to work on simultaneous projects with people of all skill levels and career trajectories. They
value technical substance and confidence.

 Provide examples of satisfying your immediate job responsibilities and of working beyond them while
adhering to corporate and department guidelines for the benefit of your manager/director. This
represents corporate awareness. An understanding for making a positive contribution beyond initial
expectations.

 Your experience working with disparate business units. Working on various teams, performing various
functions, processes and methodologies.

 Working with end and super users, internal and international teams, providing global support to
different regions.

 When appropriate share what you have learned during your career. Demonstrate that you are a
student of life, situations and technology that you can adapt to change and unknown variables. Please
provide relevant examples.

 Show that you are a self-starter, always ready for new assignments and that you can create positive
work place initiatives. Provide relevant examples. They are not interested in individuals that
consistently wait for work to be assigned. They want to feel that you will succeed and look for ways to
improve things without upsetting the corporate or department balance. They value this.

 You may be asked why you wish to work with them. Be prepared. They want to make sure you are
happy with their role and their organization. They want to hire a quality individual. That’s you.
 Confidently detail your skills, they understand not everyone is a 100% match. You do not need to speak
beyond what you know, if you fulfill 80-90% of the job requirement, 100% detail your 80-90%. The
candidate that effectively communicates, shows confidence and is likeable will get the job.

Your resume has already created a positive reaction. They are interested in learning your personality and
approach to work, how you interact with your team, managers, directors, etc. Do not guess at what you
think they wish to hear. they are not interested in that.

4. The Company is in hiring mode

 They may ask how you spend your time at work, the tasks you are responsible for. There is no RIGHT
or WRONG answer. They need to understand your experience.

 If they ask where you see yourself in 3 to 5 years tell them you wish to learn their corporate process
for making a positive contribution that you wish to keep learning all facets of your role and if a
promotion arises you will be ready due to your work ethic.

 They want your honesty/sincerity and not well rehearsed answers.

 Show that you make the best of any situation be ready with examples.

 They will ask about your weakness and strengths. Please be prepared.

 It’s great when without guessing your answer/comments tie into their next question, ie, when
discussing your experience you can follow up by mentioning how it impacted various
departments/business units, the overall organization. A cognitive, common sense approach works
best.

 When appropriate give examples of your willingness to learn new material, always be positive when
expressing how you learned a new method/approach, working with unknown variables. Hiring
authorities place a lot of value in this.

 Be someone that embraces the challenge of being the GO TO resource, the more examples you can
provide the greater appreciation they will have for bringing you onboard. They want a confident
candidate.

Printing and reading your resume prompts memories of your past and current work experiences of your
career progression. This visualization exercise keeps your information fresh and at the forefront of your
mind, you can then express it in a succinct matter of fact manner while providing a detailed account of
your experiences.

 They want an open minded individual a lot of candidates when switching from one company to another
posses a lack of understanding of how things are done in one place may not be how they are done in
another.

 They need someone that understands when to and when not to escalate issues. They want a mature
professional, a well rounded individual that can be strategic and that will not be bored with the small
day to day tasks.

 They want a candidate that understands how their work, small or large can impact an organization.
They will appreciate understanding your work ethic.

Employers feel, the more scenarios a candidate has encountered the greater their frame of reference for
dealing with unforeseen issues. They are ready to receive your best.

5. Better to be over rather than under prepared.

 Familiarize yourself with their website, their company and industry and its direction, you do not need to
make specific reference to it. However, at the appropriate time introduce information conveying your
knowledge of their organization.

Please stay away from making general blanket statements; “I saved the company Rs. 1.00 cr. Instead talk
about how you achieved this. What took place, etc. This is important. The more fixated they are on your
professional/personal depth less attention is paid to experiences you may not posses. They love a
positive “let’s get it done” attitude/spirit. This is what they are all about, moving along until success is
achieved.

POTENTIAL QUESTIONS

 What in particular makes you want to work for The Company

 Can you give me an example of a very challenging problem you've encountered in your career, and
tell me how you were able to solve it

 When you first start out, your co-workers may all know more than you about the tasks at hand, and
you may be at a senior level than them. How will you handle this? How will you earn their trust and
respect despite being less knowledgeable

 Some people in your new team may resent being passed over for an outside person. How will you
deal with this

 What is your management philosophy? How do you motivate people

 Let's say you have a co-worker who wants to keep asking you for help resolving issues, and you don't
feel they're really doing enough to try to solve the issues themselves before escalating. What would
you do in that situation

 Tell me something interesting about you that I would never know from just reading your resume. Can
be anything

 Tell me about your past management experience. What kind of teams have you managed? How many
people. What were their roles

 How do you approach learning new things in general

 What's your greatest weakness

 What stresses you out the most at work

 Where do you see your career going down the road? Where do you see yourself in five years? How
does this job fit in with those goals

 How are you with setting your own direction and priorities without a lot of supervision/guidance

 What are three adjectives people who know you would use to describe you

 Describe yourself