job interview advice

[wwhong]

i found the advices provided in the forum of scholarship interview pretty useful. I guess it would be helpful if we can get advices on job interview as well as most of the people here going to have one soon. I heard the most popular interview method now is behavioral interview? Did anyone went through that before? if yes, mind sharing?

[jiinjoo]

I guess asking on a general "job" interview is kinda broad. I'll probably post some tips on tech interview later next week.

The behavioral interview you mentioned is indeed very common - more commonly asked by companies like consultants firms, or when you're looking for managerial positions. There's a huge wealth of information out there about this if you just wanna read about it. Personally, all the questions I've ever got in interviews for jobs were programming questions, so can't help you there.

I guess one aspect you can look out for during a job interview is how your interest and enthusiasm fits the vision and purpose of the company. In other words, most companies would like to pay you $1 to get results that worth more than $1 from your contribution. So you have to be really clear why you want to work for that company, and why you're their best candidate (i.e. why should they choose you and not the monkey next to you)

Hmm... :roll: Too broad... will see if there're specific questions.

[wwhong]

or maybe i should ask about the "trick" to be successful in interview? based on your own experience, what do you think that makes you get the job or why not?

i m pretty sure most people read about interview advices like remember to bring resume, arrive earlier and blah blah blah. is there anything else other than those?

hmm...i guess i should ask about personal experiences like what had you done that you think contribute to your success in the interview or what bad things happened to you. yeah, i will just read online all those behavioral interview stuff.

[jiinjoo]

I must say that there's no silver bullet in a successful job interviews. Different interviewers want different things from the interviewee, so to present yourself flawlessly to one person is to present yourself like a dork to another.

The fact that you only get very "broad" advice (such as arriving early, bring extra copies of resume, be prepare to elaborate anything on your resume, be truthful, dress well, put on a smile, stay calm, greet and thank the interviewer, ask questions to show interest, understand the company you're interviewing for in general, behave even when you're done with your interview, etc.) shows that academic advisors don't want to get into trouble if they give you a wrong advise.

But since I'm not an academic advisor, and here is ReCom we're excellent rumor mongors :twisted: , I guess it won't hurt to share what we each learned about the interview process, since the interview season will start pretty soon.

(Sorry wwhong - I didn't see this topic until 8 months after you posted!)

The interviews I had were very technical. If you're going for a software or hardware developer or engineer kind of job, be sure you know about who you're interviewing with! Companies like to ask students about things they sell, e.g. if you're interviewing with an Internet company be sure to visit their site and use it a bit to familiarize yourself with it; if you're interviewing with a hardware company, be sure to at least know what kind of product line they're at and show some interest in the design if you can get hold of any in school. My own example would be my interview with Amazon.com, in which they asked me to design a system to synchronize baby registries between Amazon and BabyRus (interestingly, I ended up implementing most of it a year later). It would be embarassing (although not entirely a bad thing) so stare at the interviewer and ask him to elaborate the feature he or she asked you to design.

And be sure you know your stuff! If you want to write code, make sure you show them that. If you're applying for a sales job, be sure you're able to sell yourself to the interviewer. Don't just stop at enumerating your past achivements, explain why you think they are important and what kind of an impact it has created. It doesn't matter how many "great" things you've done in the past - as long as you have always done your best in whatever you try to do - and show /tell them that.

Another interesting point - costume. Well ok, dress, whatever, cloths. I must say that I felt odd sitting in a room with a big black jacket and a tie, while my interviewer is in shorts, slippers and a colorful T-shirt. You need to know who's going to interview you - is it just another worker in the company? Is it the CEO? Find out if you can about who you're going to be talking to helps calm you down as well as helps you make pre-interview decisions like what to wear, how to greet, etc.

Tis the season to be interviewing - good luck interviewing everyone!

p/s for tech co: don't go worry about the IQ questions - I think in general companies are now refraining from using them. The questions they ask are moving gradually towards problem solving questions, i.e. put you in a situation to see if you can give a good, interesting and creative solution to the problem. There's no right answer, but you'll still have to try your best.

[weich]

hi jiinjoo, mind if I copy your advice to Internship ASIA's forums?