Conversing your way through an interview
I.M. Soni

TO succeed in a job interview, you have to be a polished conversationist. An interview is a conversation for a special occasion. It needs a considered and calculated approach. You have to be poised and confident, not jittery.

An interview follows a structured pattern in the sense that it is not a conversation with anybody, with no strings attached. It is specialised and highly structured because its purpose is fixed. So is its time, place and the theme. The interviewers are specialists.

These factors should make the interviewee’s job easy, not difficult. But in actual practice, aspirants come to the interview with a churning stomach. This is not in order. An interview is not a life-and-death test. It is at best a friendly conversation between the aspiring employee and the prospective employer.

It is a tete-e-tete, which means a private confidential conversation between two people. It also means a short piece of furniture intended to seat two persons facing each other. In French, it means head to head!

Even the subject matters are predetermined but the candidates, being ignorant of it, get finicky. There is no need to jump overboard.

A majority of candidates start cramming subjects they had studied for exams. Questions on these subjects come off-the-cuff. They are not the crux.

The crux questions revolve round ‘personality’ — the kind of person the candidate is. They already know his/her academic performance. Herein enters the element of evaluating you as a person, not an academic. This is where candidates falter, fumble and fail.

For them, the principle should be: project the personality not academic possessions.

The persons interviewing are the hosts. They have invited you to it. This means that they are culture-bound to treat you gently, decently and in a civilised manner. They have to follow the norms of host-guest formalities. They do. But on occasions, candidates do not play the guest and pay the price—rejection.

The hosts show courtesy because they have a name and a reputation to defend. But this cannot be said of a straggler applicant who has nothing to defend. He is out to be ‘in’! This proves to be his undoing.

As a candidate, you should also know that it is an unequal match. The person interviewing you is a would-be boss — you a subordinate. Two, you are yet to be selected. So, be humble.

The interviewer must be looked upon as a judge who has the authority to evaluate, appraise the power to employ and to reject. You are almost like a person in the witness box!

This however, does not mean that the judge is going to act frivolously. He is fully aware of his duty. Like you, he too is under pressure of responsibility. A wrong appraisal means a bad choice. He has to do justice to you and to his own sense of responsibility.

Hence, it is vital that you present yourself in the most favourable light. If you do not, you suffer. The judgement goes against you. The most important pitfall to avoid is bluff. Steer clear of the temptation. Do not help him reject you.

Be poised. Be natural. Be at ease. Be relaxed. Be conversational. Be respectful. Be truthful. Be helpful. Be modest. And be disciplined.