An interview is a formal meeting between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information to find out about qualities, attitudes, wishes etc. form the interviewee.
Please keep in mind that Interview is a selection process not a rejection process. One has to prepare himself / herself before appearing for any interview.
What is a Resume and why it’s important?
The purpose of a resume is to provide a summary of your skills, abilities and accomplishments. It is a quick advertisement of who you are. It is a “snapshot” of you with the intent of capturing and emphasizing interests and secures you an interview. Your resume is a primary tool in your job search; it needs to be carefully written.
Keep your resume to one or two pages - do not go beyond two pages. Employers want to look at a resume and quickly find the information they need - keep it clear and concise.
Find below few important parts of Resume:
Heading: The heading is always at the center or the left-hand side of the resume. List your name, temporary or permanent street address and e-mail address. Make it easy for an employer to reach you.
Note: Do not put “CV / Resume / Bio Data” as heading
XYZ D’souza
Flat No. 204, Ostrich Building. St. Peter Road. Andheri (E), Mumbai.
+91 0000000000 | [email protected]
Career Objective: Career objective is the most important part of a resume which describe your motive for job. This statement helps employer to determine whether your goal is in line with that of the organization and the position available. Try to keep the career objectives practical and not overly ambitious. For entry-level positions, career objective should state that you are looking to join a stable company that would give you a chance to learn more and therefore enhance your job profile greatly.
Note: Do not copy the ‘objective’ of your friends
To use my technical skills in the best possible way for achieving the company’s goals.
To enhance my professional skills in a dynamic and stable workplace.
To gain employment with a company that offers me a consistently positive atmosphere to learn new technologies and implement them for the betterment of the business.
Seeking a position in an organization where I can display my technical abilities and knowledge to contribute for the growth of the organization simultaneously helping me to fulfill my carrier objectives and widen my knowledge in this rapid changing field.
Education Details: The summary of your educational background and training is one of the most important parts of your CV. It informs the reader, in brief, of the education and training you have received to date, starting from the most recent. List your most recent educational qualifications that are relevant to the position. Education and training can include:
School / Degree Name of School / College Board / University Year Of Passing Percentage
Academic Project Details: Your academic project gives more information about your accomplishments of your technical skills you leant. Don’t complicate in writing. Make it Simple and Clear. Academic Project Details can include:
Achievements / Awards: This section is used to highlight anything you are proud to have achieved in your career. It may include personal achievements. Ideally list 1 to 5 points of key achievements that relate to your technical and personal skills and are suited to the job you are applying for.
Note: don’t write I got first rank in my class, second rank in my class
Personal Details: Personal detail is to understand more about yourself. Ensure your details are kept up to date and include the following as a minimum:
Note: Hobbies plays an important role in the resume. The interviewer may ask a question about your hobbies. If you write “reading books” as your hobby then interviewer may ask what your favorite book is.
Declaration: Keep a simple declaration statement.
I hereby declare that the above mentioned information is true to the best of my knowledge.
Important Notes:
What is Personal Interview?
Personal Interview is an important round to shortlist the right candidate. Remember that, there is no right or wrong answer. All you have is a right way of answering. So more than concentrating on getting selected, one should be focused on NOT getting rejected. The interviewer does not know anything about you. It is very important that you are able to discuss every item listed on your CV. It is also wise to research the company you will be interviewing at.
Listen - Actively listen to what the interviewer is asking.
Understand - Understand the meaning of the question. Don’t hesitate to ask, if you did not understand.
Answer - Answer in clear words, spell out your ideas as clearly as you can. Don’t be too wordy and try to keep your answers to the point.
Note : DO NOT interrupt the question or answer before the question is complete.
Interviewers look for quality college graduates with:
Practice Interview Question
These are a few HR interview questions which will help you in preparing for the HR interview.
Important Notes:
The Most Commonly Asked Question:
Tell me about yourself
This question is actually an ice-breaker. Asking this question starts the conversion. This question gives the interviewer a chance to know about the interviewee. Once you start talking about yourself, the interviewer starts preparing his/her next question. So there are good chances that the next question that would be fired on you will be based on the answer of the previous question. As the answer for this will be based on you, you need to think and prepare them before the interview.
Interviewer:
Tell me something about yourself.
Interviewee:
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Let me introduce myself, I am XYZ from Mumbai Or else (I born in Delhi and Brought up in Mumbai).
There are four members in my family; my father, mother, me and my sister. My father’s name is _______, he is a Farmer. My mother’s name is ________, she is a housewife. My sister’s name is ___________”, she goes to school.
About my education & qualification, I have done my engineering in Electrical from ____________college of engineering, City under University, and schooling from _________ School, Mumbai.
I have done projects on ________________________ along with 3 team members.
My role in this project was from Planning till Execution.
I am self motivated and an easily adaptable person.
This role (job role) demands that the person should know (mention skills required for role by company) and I posses all of the above skills. I am confident that; if given an opportunity I will be your best return on investment.
A Group Discussion (GD) is conducted to test the Competence / General Knowledge / Subject Awareness / Confidence / Thinking and Communication Ability / Leadership / Team Work and Maturity.
Why Group Discussion (GD)?
In a GD, a group of students is asked to discuss a topic given to them. The topics that are given in GD are of two types – Knowledge based and Abstract. GD is conducted to test certain key attributes in you. You would be tested for your clarity of thought and clarity of language. The companies, also, test your ability to understand and structure a response to the topic. Your leadership skills are also put to test during Group Discussion. In order to do well in GD, you need to read newspapers, magazines regularly. Increasing your General Knowledge will come from watching news, reading magazines and being up-to-date on current happenings. Spend time discussing these topics with friends and family. If possible, create your own study group for discussing topics.
Dos
Don’ts
Let’s discuss
Topic - Water problem in cities
Student 1) Friends, let me take this opportunity to highlight some of the problems faced by our dear countrymen. We have water problem, poverty, illiteracy, corruption and reservation in our country.I think we should do something about it.
Student 2) I think we should not waste time talking about water problem when we have other bigger problems facing the country.
Student 3) Friends, I do agree with the first speaker that water shortage is a serious problem and with the second speaker that there are other problems too facing our country. However I would like to add that water shortage affects city life far differently than it affects village life and that being the case different problems need to be handled differently. Before proceeding to discuss solutions to water shortage in cities, please let me go ahead and name some of the causes of the problem. Some of the causer are...
After understanding the causes, let me now talk about some of the possible solutions and their effectiveness...
Student 4) I agree with all the participants. Water is very important and we must save water. Jai Hind!!
Student 5) It has been a very interesting discussion so far, with valid points being made by most of the participants. However, we are forgetting that the topic for discussion is “Water problem” and all of the participants have so far spoken only about water shortage. It is a much bigger topic with much more scope for discussion. Take the case of the recent Chennai floods...
Conclusion:
Likely evaluation of participants:
Student 1: The student is confident enough to be the first to speak. He has also very quickly but only partly come to the main point of discussion – namely water problem. However he does not mention ‘water problem in cities’. He also goes off the topic by naming other problems and finally not coming back to the topic for discussion. He only suggests that something needs to be done about the problem, and does not offer any solutions.
Student 2: The student is quick to seize an opportunity to speak as soon as the first speaker stopped speaking. It shows a challenging personality. However he shows scant respect for the topic and is hence likely to be excessively argumentative by nature.
Student 3: He is well prepared for the topic. He displays excellent knowledge of the topic .He not only acknowledges the points made by the preceding speakers, but also goes on to name causes and solutions related to the topic. Very clearly, he is the best participant in the group…. A team player with potential ability to be a leader
Student 4: This student is only a passenger in this discussion. He is extremely passive as he agrees with everyone and everything. He tries to please everyone. He tries to create support by saying “Jai Hind”, but he is fully unaware that he has said it out of context. He may be a good employee, but he is definitely not a good leader
Student 5: Very strong contender to be the best speaker in the discussion. He does not get discouraged by the fact that Student 3 has covered most of the points, but he looks for a missed opportunity to bring in fresh scope for the discussion. He has an eye for detail and displays innovativeness and uniqueness in his approach to the topic. With this approach, Student 5 shows potential to be an asset to his team and to the company that he works for
An aptitude test is designed to test an individual’s propensity to succeed in a given activity. It is a type of assessment that evaluates the talent/ability/potential to perform certain task. Even though, it doesn’t require prior knowledge of the subject, it is well proven that the ability to excel in aptitude tests can be substantially enhanced by focused learning and exercises. Aptitude Consist of below Topics:
A) Quantitative Aptitude
It measures the numerical ability and accuracy in mathematical calculations. The questions range from purely numeric calculations to problems of arithmetic reasoning, graph and table reading, percentage analysis, categorization and quantitative analysis. For example:
Question: A bag contains 2 yellow, 3 green and 2 blue balls. Two balls are drawn at random. What is the probability that none of the balls drawn is blue?
Answer: 10/21
Explanation:
Total number of balls = 2 + 3 + 2 = 7
Let S be the sample space.
n(S) = Total number of ways of drawing 2 balls out of 7 = 7C2
Let E = Event of drawing 2 balls , none of them is blue.
n(E) = Number of ways of drawing 2 balls , none of them is blue
= Number of ways of drawing 2 balls from the total 5 (=7-2) balls = 5C2
(∵ There are two blue balls in the total 7 balls. Total number of non-blue balls = 7 – 2 = 5)
P(E) = n(E)n(S) = 5C2/7C2 = 10/21
B) Verbal Ability
Verbal reasoning involves understanding and reasoning using concepts framed in words. It aims at evaluating ability to think constructively, rather than at simple fluency or vocabulary recognition. These tests usually involve grammar, verbal analogies and following detailed written instructions. They can also include spelling, sentence completion and comprehension. For example:
Question: Below question consist of two words which have a certain relationship to each other followed by four pairs of related words. Select the pair which has the same relationship. PAIN : SEDATIVE
Answer B (grief: consolation)
C. Logical Reasoning
It is the process of using a rational, systematic series of steps based on sound mathematical procedures and given statements to arrive at a conclusion. Logical reasoning test can be both non-verbal (shape sequences) and verbal (formal logic).
Non verbal logical reasoning: The assessment usually consists of abstract, diagrammatic or inductive reasoning tests.
Non-Verbal logical reasoning:
Question:
Answer: Option C
Explanation: The half-shaded leaf rotates 135oACW and the unshaded leaf rotates 135oCW.
Verbal logical reasoning:
Question: Dan is Joshua’s son and Guy’s brother. Margaret is Guy’s mother and Judy’s daughter. Which of the statements below are true?
Answer: Option 2
Explanation: Dan and Guy are siblings, (not half brothers or step-brothers) and therefore Margaret, who is Guy’s mother, is also Dan’s mother. The answer is ‘Margaret is Dan’s mother’.
Data Interpretation
Data analysis and interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the collected information and determining the conclusions, significance, and implications of the findings.
Question: Study the following table and answer the questions based on it.
What is the average amount of interest per year which the company had to pay during this period?
Answer: Option D
Data Sufficiency
Data sufficiency requires a person to determine whether it is possible to solve the problem using the given data and applying well known formulae. These questions do not expect the person to perform complicated arithmetic calculations for arriving at the answer. On the contrary, they test understanding of the fundamental and subtle principles of arithmetic, algebra and geometry.
Question: If a real estate agent received a commission of 6 percent of the selling price of a certain house, what was the selling price of the house?
Answer: Option D
