I have decided to share some of my personal feedback regarding job interviews in this stress-free post! (: (I hope Pei Rong does not strangle me for neglecting the project to do this post!)
My group (Rohan, Diana² and myself) has interviewed Pei Rong, Godwin, Nicole, Glenn and Joshua. My feelings/comments would be largely similar to my group's - in which Diana2 has passed to them. However, I'm still creating this post so that all of us may learn.
For Pei Rong, I guess she needs to be more to the point and not try to go around in circles. Other than that the interview was fine. (Or alternatively, it could be me who is totally uninterested in that field where she's interested in. lol)
For Godwin, our team feels that he needs to smile more, and handle stress better during interview. For goodness sake, Rohan isn't even there! But I quite like some of the answers that he gave.
I did not have a chance to interview/grill Nicole, but I guess she had the easiest time since Rohan was being nice and friendly. Or am I wrong?
For Joshua and Glenn, it is really of great reluctance that we have to interview the 2 of you together. Given a choice, we would really want to interview you all individually so that a nicer and more realistic experience may be gained.
Joshua, please do take note to never interrupt the interviewer. Ultimately, the interviewer is also trying to assess whether he feels comfortable working with you or not. Thus it's best to not get into a conflict with the interviewer, unless he's the sort that always welcomes a challenge or an employee that dares to speak up. Our feel is that you tend to take up a defensive stance when being interviewed, please try to avoid that. Other than that, I'm impressed by the knowledge and verbal skills that you possess.
For Glenn, sorry I was slightly stern with you although you did not really grill me back then. However, do take note of your Singlish and sitting posture. With proper preparation before the interview, I believe that you would do better!
Now to talk about my own interesting experience, I was questioned by Glenn, Joshua, Pei Rong and Godwin. I guess my interview was one of the slacker ones among my groupmembers. I went in with the aim of making my interviewer smile and also feel comfortable with me around. So I smiled hard.... Really hard.... I guess they can testify that whenever I'm faced with a difficult question, I will start smiling (: . However one of the mistakes that I noticed myself make is that I tend to say "actually" too many times. One bigger mistake was the Russian roulette question, the correct answer should have been spin again. Oops, I did not know why you all did not correct me because I would have been so dead if you all did. Perhaps I really have good convincing power? LOL. I admit that most of the replies I gave were smoked, but at least the conversation with the HR personnel was real! Overall the interview was pretty close to what a real interview that GE would actually give me and I'm really thankful and grateful for you guys' hardwork!
My personal aim for interviews is that I have to make sure that the interviewer is affected by my presence and smiles back at me. Perhaps you all might also want to adopt this mentality! Last but not least, good luck to for your tests and projects!
Kun lin (:
Hi Kunlin,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. Indeed, there is lots we can glimpse from each other's experience during these mock interviews, and hence I must say I am quite surprised that a blog post is not set on it. I suppose that is in consideration to the amount of work we have to put in already, though.
For Joshua's interview, I was thinking that perhaps he is so used to be in control of the interview in playing the tough interviewer part, that it carried on to his part as an interviewee?
Lastly, I would also like to share my aim for interviews. I aim to engage and converse with the interviewer pleasantly, and will try to treat interviews as meetings during which the interviewers and I understand each other better, rather than a face-the-firing-squad experience. And of course, make the interviewer laugh as much as possible!
Actually, just tonight I thought that indeed, we should have a blog post on the interview process. But like Clement says, the consideration has been the amount of work you already are doing.
ReplyDeleteThanks though for this "free post," Kun Lin. I appreciate you giving the peers you interviewed extra attention. You also reflect well on your own interview. Priceless stuff indeed. I hope this helps each of you land the job or internship you really want.
Hey Kun Lin, thanks for the comments. These are points I’ve never taken note of. I never knew my singlish was a problem till the interview where I realized Rohan couldn’t really catch what I was saying.
ReplyDeleteAs for your interview, I personally didn’t really know the answer to the Russian roulette. Your answer would be convincing had you not started with “I heard this answer from my friends”. You give yourself too little credit during the interview, so you should try not to be so humble and sell yourself more. Lastly, I didn’t really notice the smile. Sorry! I think it’s because you didn’t show any teeth. I think it presented a different image from what you wanted. I feel your normal smile is fine, so be yourself.
hi
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