Personal Interview FAQs for Post-COVID Times

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”. These are the opening lines of the novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ written by Charles Dickens, over 150 years ago. Humanity has never been as close to this phrase, as it is today, during the lockdown tenure because of Covid-19 outbreak across the globe. To everyone reading this article my request is to read only the first half of this sentence by Dickens and repeat it to yourself every hour that you are awake. Sounds tough? Remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. It’s that simple.

Amid the ongoing online classes, assignments, exams, projects, certificate courses, probably the biggest question in the mind of every final year graduate is - what will happen after all this settles down? Will I get a job on the other side of this crisis? Will there be enough of jobs for me to choose from? Is the economy going into recession? While these all questions are pertinent, no one can exactly predict how things will shape up 100 days here-on. However, what we can fix, is that our focus is firmly on our goal and that we work on ourselves to get out of this crisis with a more confident and future-equipped frame of mind.

As a means to prepare you for the future interviews of your life, where you will need to prove who you are and what you were doing during ‘the’ crisis, I am putting forth a list of few updated and relevant Frequently Asked Questions, which are often repeated during interviews. Through this initiative, I know, I will be joining the thousands of others who have earlier tried to decode this riddle, but I strongly feel that I can give meaningful inputs on these aspects. An exact answer to each question would vary from person to person but here, I would like to bring forward a few pointers about how to handle these questions.

Question 1: Tell me something about yourself?

(Why do they ask this question with a copy of your resume in their hand? Can’t they read it out and ask a few more specific questions. Well, the answer is they are not interested in your answer but the way you answer it, simply put they are checking your confidence.)

Suggestion: Tell them about necessary part of introduction such as your work experience (if any), education, hometown, interests, but, just don’t stop at it. Mention something which is not there in your resume but you consider it as your strength. It could be teamwork, result orientation, organising capabilities or any other aspect of your personality. Try to come up with a short incident from your life which can effectively prove your point. Remain crisp, complete this in maximum two minutes, laced with confidence. Probably the next question of the interviewer will come from this answer only. So, this is your opportunity to steer the interview in your preferred direction.

Avoidable: Speaking of hobbies such as watching a web-series on Amazon Prime from start to finish in one sitting (You are here for an interview, not for promoting Amazon Prime) or partying with friends. Not that you should not socialise, but remember in the phrase ‘Work hard, party harder’, Work comes First. Stick to this rule.  

Question 2: Tell me about your strengths

Suggestion: This question means that the interviewer wants to gauge your analytical ability about yourself and how strong your conviction is, in your own strengths. Talk about some really genuine strengths, such as planning skills, along with meticulous execution or your result-oriented approach towards tasks. However, do mention only those strengths which can be supported through real-life examples.

Avoidable: One-liners such as , ‘Sir! I am smart’ or any other over-clever remark, followed by silence. The interviewer is clearly expecting you to give some relevant details about your strengths and wants you to elaborate on it.  However, avoid cooking-up false stories. Probably his years of work experience outnumber your age. Stay real and relevant.

Question 3: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Suggestion: This question is proof that the interviewer wants to further probe into your thought process. Give a structured answer like, ‘I would like to add multifold value to myself by acquiring new skills relevant to my job from a future perspective and see myself in a responsible position performing my duties and responsibilities with a self-disciplined approach’. This is just an illustration. The moot point is that you must express your desire to learn and grow.

If time and situation permit, you may speak about other dimensions as well such as financially, I would like to pay off my education loan (shows sincerity on your part, say this, only if it’s applicable), physically, I would like to example, run a marathon (you may have any other goal that you can talk about), academically, I would like to equip myself with a Certificate course from (Name of Institute) (Nature of course). This way you can exhibit your structured thought process. 

Avoidable: This is where most young inexperienced people can go wrong because they have had an overdose of social media and seen flashy answers like, ‘I want to be the CEO of this company’. Please appreciate, answers like these are too far from reality and will make you appear as a dreamer and an impractical person.

Question 4: Why should we hire for you?

Suggestion: Congratulations! This is the strongest indicator that your interview is going well and you can’t afford to go wrong in this answer. The interviewer has a sheet in front of him or he is mentally assessing you on the parameters mentioned in Job Description (JD). Hence, you need to answer your question with words thrown-in from the job description. Don’t simply repeat out these words. Try to cover them up in three to four lines. For example, if it is a Sales & Marketing role, you can mention your love for travelling. Particularly, if the job demands heavy travelling and you are up for it. Similarly, for an HR role, you need to speak about how you love interacting with new people and understanding their perspective or approach to the task in hand.

Avoidable: Do not say absurd things like ‘Just hire me, and I will transform your organisation’. No one wants to hire someone who does not respect the current system or is not interested in working according to the system. Also, do not over-promise. As your words may later become your biggest enemies.

Please notice that I have not given actual answers to any of the questions but I have put forth suggestions on the approach. The reason is that the actual answer would vary from person to person and these suggestions can help you to form your own unique answers.

Last, but not the least; I will give one final advice: Never lie in an interview. Either your own voice will betray you then and there or you may be exposed later, which would destroy your credibility forever.

All the best.

About the author:

Devesh Awasthi is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Lucknow.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha