Google Search Trends – Jobs and Interview Questions

Nimrata Kapoor

Whether it is because of a strong belief in the power of data, the ‘S’ or sensory data preference in MBTI or just good old curiosity, I decided to check out what were the most searched strings on ‘Interviews’ on Google, the most popular search engine of our times by far.

While I was doing my research primarily for India, I couldn’t help checking out the most searched interview questions globally in 2020-21. The answer ‘Harry Meghan Interview by Oprah,’ was the no 1 search answer for the search string ‘interview questions’ globally!! Truly, they hit a jackpot and Oprah proved why she is no 1. Some other findings:

• Pakistan, Zambia, UK, Uganda and Kenya were the top 5 countries which experienced breakout surges on the search string ‘jobs,’ followed closely by South Africa, Ireland, USA, Canada and Australia. India was 18th on the list.
• Maximum users from Zimbabwe, India, Ghana, Ethiopia and Jamaica were googling on ‘interview questions.’
• Google trends for India reflected the anxiety of our young demographics as they search for jobs and seek help to prepare for interviews.
• The top 5 states where users were doing breakout searches for various questions on interviews were not surprisingly Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Karnataka and Maharastra with a high slant towards questions on java, code interviews, command computing, business analysis, machine learning, Microsoft excel, automation and ranking.
• There is a surge in search for interview questions post April 25, 2021 with a mega breakout in August 2021. Perhaps it is indicative of a better hiring sentiment.
• Jobs and interview questions for most of the leading IT majors such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Accenture, Cognizant, Deloitte, IBM and Microsoft had major surges in google searches. Off campus jobs in particular were most searched for.
• The searches for government jobs by state, upsc, railways, postal, anganwadi etc has been consistently high with hardly any dip in any month and breakout surges in search. Government jobs for 12th pass is also an extremely popular search string.
• The Eastern states had breakout google searches only for jobs by specific companies. BP (Bharat Petroleum) jobs were the top search in Manipur.

The most searched for non-technical interview questions were:

• How to introduce yourself in an interview?
• HR questions for freshers
• How to write a cover letter or note
• Strengths and Weaknesses for fresher interview and MBA interview
• Telephone Interview and Video Interview

These trends are but a dipstick alternate view of job trends in India and popular interview questions. For those of us in the business of enabling careers, the focus of the general populace on campus, technical interview, government jobs and basic non tech questions is loud and clear for us to work on.

The writer is career coach, www.nimtalkingtalent.com

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