What do interviewers look for in prospective candidates?

Hiring process involves many aspects during an interview through which interviewer judges about the potential of the candidate. Some of these are summarized as follows.

The graph of unemployment is growing very steeply in Pakistan. There is a lot of competition for each job opportunity. Employer interviews the applicants to choose most suitable candidate for the available position in their company. Interviews are not only challenging for employees to make their career but also crucial for employers to make best decisions in the interest of the organization. Employers come up with shortlisted candidates for interviewing them after scanning many resumes. Interviewers expect the interviewees to achieve some standards required for a particular job. Hiring process involves many aspects during an interview through which interviewer judges about the potential of the candidate. Some of these are summarized as follows.


Do you reach for interview in time?
In Pakistan, traffic conditions in big cities don’t allow many people to reach their destinations in time. It is very important to have a margin of at least half an hour for reaching interview place. If you are late for interview, interviewers surely take negative impact of your behavior. Even if you are getting late, you may inform the hiring officials. This would wave off some bad image.


Do you know about the company and nature of the job?
The interviewers expect you to know something about the company and about the position you are applying for. You must research about the company before appearing for the interview. For this purpose, you can visit the company’s website and find the related information. If you know someone already working in that company, you can contact him for the necessary information.


Does your resume really reflect your skills?
The most common questions in interviews are related to your resume and attached cover letter. Interviewers try to match your skills with those mentioned in your CV. They will analyze you for the qualifications required for the available job.


Are you good in team management?
Many organizations focus on skills of team management and leadership. Interviewers try to get an idea about your potential to work in a group. You, as an interviewee, should describe your team projects and your role in the team. You should describe how you broke down the project into small tasks to be done by team members? How team members coordinated with each other? Were you able to integrate the work done in parts as a whole project at the end? How did you make idle team members work? What role did you play in your team?


Are you willing to do the job for the sake of getting salary only?
Interviewers judge your passion to learn the work to benefit the company in the long run. It’s not just the formality to do the job instead the employees should have the required will to perform well in the organization. Some people are desperate to get the job without any concern of the nature of the job. If you don’t fit into the role that job demands, you will not be able to pay full attention to the assigned tasks. You will only be eager to earn more and more money and wait for the month to complete and get salary. This behavior should be eradicated otherwise self contentment of the job will never be cultivated.


Is your attitude towards the job positive?
Hiring officials seek for positivity in your behavior from the way you describe about yourself in the resume and then question about some general things to find out your attitude towards life. You shouldn’t speak negatively about any person from the previous work especially about your managers. Sometimes you are made to wait for a long time before starting the interview to check your patience. You should avoid getting frustrated in any condition. Even if you are tired because of travelling or for some other reasons, hide your negative feelings.


Do you have the required communication skills?
Communication skills reflect the confidence, mannerisms, dealing with people and reaction at different situations. Such skills are required in jobs like marketing where you convince the customers to buy your products. It depends on job nature, how much you need to apply soft skills? Sometimes you need to hear your boss very carefully while at other times he requires you to present your views about some issue. It is necessary to listen to the questions carefully in interview and answer to the point only. If you try to deceive your interviewer by dragging him to pointless discussion, you are certainly not going to make an impression in his mind.


How do you correspond with employer on phone and email?
The correspondence with employer must be kept to official terms. The CEOs of the company may call you anytime on phone. Even though, it may be an unknown number for you, but as soon as you realize the importance of call you shouldn’t refrain from talking at that point. If there is some emergency, you may ask them very politely to call you sometime later. In terms of email correspondence, the format of message should be completely official. You must proof read the mail for grammar and spelling mistakes. The emails shouldn’t be too long to create boredom for the employer. Keep the discussion to the point only.


For how long you are willing to work for the company?
It is possible that you may leave the company as soon as you get the better opportunity. The employer will judge your will to work for him in the long run. Some questions are asked in the interview to guess your interest in the long term like what if you get job with higher salary than what we are offering you? Will you leave the company if you get chance to settle abroad? What if your family shifts to other city and forces you to change the job? Do you plan to study further?


Do you have the will to learn from experience?
Interviewers inquire about your experience from the previous jobs. Boasting off your work is not going to help a great deal. Instead, the will to learn from mistakes and experiences must be shown to the employer. Keep the balance in describing your successes and failures and what you have learnt from your failures.


How do you solve the problems at work?
It is common to ask about some problems that have occurred recently in the company or some general scenario to evaluate your way of thinking and tackling the situation. The employer may not be looking for the exact solution but he may judge your experience from your arguments to solve a query.


How do you resolve conflicts with other people?
It is natural to have conflicts with the people of your workplace. Employer seeks the positive person inside you who keeps a good environment inside the company. Even if you have bad terms with someone, you should be able to clarify the matters and be polite and humble in your behavior. Rudeness and ill behavior may lead to deep rooted enmity among the employees.


What are your strong points and weaknesses?
It is the most common question asked in the interviews. You shouldn’t hide your weaknesses as nobody is perfect in this world. But be wise to hide those weaknesses that put you out of the competition for the job position. Also highlight those qualities that make you perfect match for the current position in the company. Those qualities shouldn’t deviate from your resume.

 

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