A person might have a great profile but he doesn't have the personality to answer questions. A lot of times the interview you feel will be very technical and the guy was able to answer technical things but he was not able to impress on the HR front. So the most important and the first question the interviewer asks you is to introduce yourself. What are the things that need to be included in it?. The first and foremost thing is how you speak and the second would be body language. In an online scenario, it's all about your shoulders, your eyes, and your hands.
Things to follow during the interview
One of the most important things you just need to bring is the energy that vibrates with a little bit of hand movement. A certain amount of hand movements with energy needs to be gotten. The four things that a candidate should be prepared for before entering the interview is listed below.
- Articulation
- Body language
- Knowledge
- Linking things
Encompassing everything that is listed above is something called HR answers which will define your personality. How many of you have read really good interview experiences on quora?. How many of you have seen that a guy who did his interview well has been wait-listed or not selected?. As I already told a person might have a great profile but he doesn't have a personality. He might have answered all the technical-related questions but he was not able to impress HR. So the most important thing in a personal interview is to hit the question which is Tell me about yourself. This is going to be the first question you face in any interview wherever you go. Now we will spend some time on how to structure this question.
How to start?
So now you have the question How am I going to start?. You can start by saying "Good morning or Good evening and I'm X from Y city. I completed my schooling in Z and went on to XXX Engineering College to complete Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics engineering. My family consists of four members myself, my father, my mother, and my brother. That's all about myself". So your first statement will just include the following details.
- Your Name
- Your City
- Your UG college
- You Family.
Avoid these things
Whenever you answer the question tell me about yourself you should not talk in detail about your school. From the interviewer's point of view, the person doesn't care about your school unless you have been a KVPY scholar, NTSC scholar which represents your school, or any national-level competition.
Going in deep about family members during answering tell me about yourself is a waste of time unless the interviewer asks.
Please do not try to add things about your city since a lot of people do that and fall into a trap because you might have read something very cool about your city and you want to add that statement. Unfortunately, if the panelist is from the same city and if he knows a lot more about the city than you, he will go on to further things about that City. If you don't know then the first impression will end up in a disaster. You will also create a bad impression as you try to impress them with your city. In case you have moved around the city you can just mention it.
Example
When you talk about your Under Graduate, even people with work experience can say the same. Let's take an example of a student who has studied German and French during engineering as an extracurricular course. The student has also won an inter University competition that took place in Germany and got the third rank. He/she also did an internship in sapient and later converted it into a full-time offer.
How to answer?
"I am X from Y City. I completed my schooling in the year 2020 and I moved on to Z for my bachelor's in XYZ. During my undergraduate in academics, I did a summer internship with sapient. On the basis of my work skills, I was also able to convert a full-time offer with them. Apart from academics in extracurriculars, I was the head of the placement committee where I was responsible for the placements of 500 students and we achieved a record-breaking placement with an average CTC of 12 lakh rupees. I spent some time posting my interests in German and French where I spent two semesters learning about them and I participated in an inter University competition in German where I received the third rank. I've been trying to cook but I've not been very successful at that."
Things that impress the interviewer
A PPO is a massive factor that will impress the interviewer when you include in tell me about yourself. When you say you received a PPO it goes to Showcase that the person was trusted by a company already based on his work.
You can bring aspects such as cooking in order to sound funny or be funny. Bringing out a fun aspect in your shows that you are a funny guy and people would like to have you as a part of the Community. They would think that you will be a good addition to their campus and you will bring positive energy to their class. Each and everything that you say should give a particular message to your panelist. If you have participated in a national-level basketball tournament or if you have a kvp scholarship or if you have a ngic scholarship then you can mention your school otherwise it is unnecessary.
If you're a chess champion or if you're an organizer in it you can mention it. Let me give you an example
"Apart from academics, in extracurriculars, I was the finance organizer of the cultural Fest where I was responsible for raising 80 lakhs of sponsorship with a team of 20 people. We were also able to onboard Google as our title sponsor for the particular year."
Over here, if you see I have brought in aspects of teamwork, achievement, and particular position of responsibility. It is very important that if you are able to quantify your achievement then you can quantify. When it comes to research papers, you can say that you have written a research paper and it has 72 citations in it.
Avoid technical answers
When you are talking about the internship, do not get into technicalities. Whenever you portray yourself as a good engineer you are making your candidature for that specific position weaker. The important point that I am trying to say is to Explore More sides of your personality.
Include work experience
Let's move to the third part which is going to be about your work experience if you have any. If you're a fresher then you will directly move on to the fourth part. When you answer about work experience, the interviewer wants to understand about the role in one or two lines. He does not want to get into technicalities. Suppose you're an FPGA engineer don't tell about the chips you are building and working on. Tell if you own an end-to-end Feature like you have handled a team, and the impact you created for the organization in terms of profitability, and achievements.
Once you start to tell that you got an award from the vice president or the president the interviewer would be interested in hearing such things. Instead, if you explain the heavy technicalities, the interviewer would be bored to hear such things.
Example
Suppose a candidate is experienced in Risk consultancy, fraud investigation, and general audits. To answer this in a structured manner, I have mentioned a sample answer below.
Answer
I have 5 years of experience in Risk consultancy, fraud investigation, and general audits. I am particularly responsible for general audits throughout my work. In an audit, I have audited 40 reputed companies and the clients are happy with my work.
Let's say the interviewer is an engineer sitting in front of you and he takes a deep conversation in that direction then you may not be comfortable with it.
Include Hobbies and passions
Moving on to point number four which is your passions. Try to tell what you have done in your undergraduate, what have you done in your work experience. Passion and hobby are two different things where the hobby is something you make or you do in your free time. Passion is something you make time for. So think about what is your hobby and what is your passion and then say that you are really passionate.
For example, you can say "I am really passionate about trekking, cooking, and triathlons. It is one of my lifelong dreams to trek the Seven Peaks of each continent and also to run the Iron Man Triathlon in Geneva. If the interviewer doesn't know what is meant by triathlon, then you can explain what that means. This will create a very good impression.
