This article is your tip sheet for Interview Preparation.

You were busy in preparing for exams or perhaps travelling or occupied in some personal work and you receive a surprise email in your inbox that says ‘Interview Schedule.’

Perhaps you were waiting for it for a long time or given up on it. 

And now that it has arrived unexpectedly in your Inbox, you open that email with trembling hands. 

What happens next? 

You start panicking.

‘Oh Gosh! I don’t have time to prepare.’

‘I don’t know what to do, I am going to fail, no time to prepare anything.’

‘What should I prepare, so less time.’

Facing the laptop screen you hold your head in your hands, anxious, feeling lost, perhaps regretting, and deeply thinking about your situation.

You need this job and the interview is so important for you, perhaps it is the last round and you have come to it, after clearing 3-4 earlier rounds. 

In my experience this situation is pretty common.

I have seen so many aspirants taking it easy after qualifying a few initial rounds and becoming relaxed or not giving due important to the fact that they need to continue their preparation without any breaks till the final round is over. 

Let’s assume for a moment that you had a legitimate reason for taking a break- perhaps you were unwell or you were dragged into an unforeseen personal situation that demanded your time, completely cutting you off from the preparation.

And that’s fair. We don’t get to choose our situations. 

In this article, I am going to suggest a simple crash course to prepare for your final round, if you are time pressed.

Let’s say you have got a few hours or a day, what would you do?

You need a ready-to-eat meal, on the back of which it says – Peel the outer wrap, put it in a boiling water for 15 min and you are done, ready to eat.

And that’s exactly what I am going to suggest you here.

A structure that is simple yet very effective, can work with all forms of interview – Face to face, Zoom or via phone. 

Here is the crash course structure –

In that limited time you need to focus on these three aspects to make a high impact impression. 

1. Top 5 Questions for Interview Preparation:

You need to pick up Top 5 most commonly asked questions and that certainly includes – Walk me through your resume, or tell me about yourself and frame your answers and mug it up or practice it hard, multiple times.

If possible, do a mock with yourself or a friend at home. For your reference here is a list of those five questions that you must prepare.

Tell me about yourself?
Why do you want to work for us?
What are your strengths?
Tell us about a project you faced challenges, how did you overcame them and what were the results delivered?
What are your salary expectations?

You can read my blog articles and watch my reels, shorts and videos to get answers to all these commonly asked questions, I have covered them in detail.

Now you have got a hang of the first part, let’s move to the second part.

2. Things you need to research well for Interview Preparation:

To customize your answers during the interview, a good quick and effective research comes very handy.

I am not really suggesting here to spend six or ten hours in this step, but just a couple of hours of very smart research on the following four areas –

Job-description:

Familiarize yourself with the JD, that’s the first and the most important step.

Read it word by word, line by line and get a good grip of it.

About the Company:

What they do, and for whom

Write down 1-2 reasons why you want to work for the company – focus your research then in that direction.

Create a fact sheet about the company – A simple one pager, with numbers like Revenue, Share Price, Profit in the latest year etc.

If you have done smart research and have got your notes ready, this will ensure you go into the interview well prepared and confident.

It will also ensure your answers are well customized and pruned.

Now if you look at the first and second point holistically, and combine both, you will get to the point I am trying to make.

The second point will help you customizing and drafting your top five questions in the point number one.

Am sure by now you would have got the point I am trying to get to.

Let us move to the third and the final point.

And this one is more about Hygiene that plays an extremely important role in the recruitment but sadly being the most ignore point among the folks who prepare for interviews.

3. Infrastructure Readiness: 

Make it a point that your laptop is ready, the microphone is ready and there are no initial glitches during the start of the interview.

Find out a nice place or a nice clean corner devoid of distractions in the house for you to comfortably sit and participate in the conversation.

There has to be an ample light in the room or lights specifically focusing on you as you sit facing the camera of your laptop.

Turn all your phone and computer notifications off because if they pop up in the middle of the interview, it will throw you off and create distractions leading to problems during the process.

And lastly, ensure you dress well for the occasion. A profession attire is suggested and should be followed without any exceptions.

No bright colors, a combination of black and white or blue and white or grey and white works well for interviews.

What you need to keep in mind is the way you dress is going to be very closely observed and the hiring manager would be thinking if you are dressing well and if you can represent the organization in front of leads, leaders, forums, webinars and so on.

So dress up keeping this broader perspective in mind.

Keep this structure handy and when you are in a situation facing challenges with time, it can see you through nicely.

You should also remember that interview preparations are not one night fight or one day effort, it has to evolve consistently over a period of time.

An important Job interview deserves investment of quality time from you and please do not devoid that from it.

Happy Job Hunting!