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How students should prepare for selection process

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Soma Pal
Soma Pal

Quite often, when I conduct interviews for freshers, I find that students provide 'ready-made' and 'stereotypical answers'. I get the feeling that they have been trained to answer questions in a certain way. However, when we probe more, we find the candidate to be confused, and also self-contradictory. This is a phase that all of us go through. This file shares my views on what students must consider exploring while preparing themselves for a job interview...

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Soma Pal How Students Should Prepare for Selection Process Traditionally organizations conduct tests for short-listing people and interviews for in-depth assessment. Typically, after an aptitude test, they conduct a functional knowledge test. Those who clear both, go for technical and HR interviews. However, organizations are increasingly realizing that this process does not really elicit how a person will respond to real life problems. Hence, they might do the following: ， Take a person onboard for 1-3 months, give her a job-sample in the form of a project and see how she solves it. ， Take feedback from former employers, without restricting on just the references provided in the CV ， Conduct stress interviews ， Put the candidate through short simulations To get into the right job, the things a student must do are: ， Understand her areas of intellectual interest, and not just areas of interest in the subject. This can be assessed by deliberating on the kind of hobbies, discussions, etc that the person generally finds invigorating. ， The student must do a lot of industry research by joining forums, doing projects (with or without stipend), reading journals, meeting professionals personally, etc. The objective is to understand the trends in the industry ， To develop important people skills, she must engage in technical and non-technical extra-curricular activities, student exchange programs, national and international student groups etc ， She must go beyond the mandatory academic project and make at least 5 contributions to the society/ college that showcase her talent. These could include something as simple as making a website to something more complex like managing the local chapter of an NGO. These will help to create references, and develop self-confidence, communication skills, and decision making skills. ， Make a self competency audit, read up business magazines, and industry reports ， Before going for the interview, she must have adequate knowledge about the relevant industry, business trends in the industry, the specific company¨s products and history and its competitors. ， In the interviews, she must be crisp, talk about the utility of her project in a non-technical language, focusing on cost-benefit analysis. She must also focus on how innovatively she can use their knowledge to solve problems. (Business leaders understand the language of profit better.) The best way to a student can manage the change from campus to corporate is to attempt the following: ， Be receptive to the new things. ， Remember that initially she would have to do routine, and apparently boring and clerical tasks. She must use this opportunity to develop relationships ， Form rapport with all, from the pantry boy to the head of the entity ， Understand the business keenly ， Be willing to stretch, take on additional responsibilities even if these are not mentioned in the Job Description ， Participate in the company¨s engagement activities since these showcase the her people skills ， Finally, focus on performance rather than politics. Every organization has politics and short-comings; however, instead of focusing on those, she must focus on how she can leave her job better than inherited. This will show that she is a cut above the rest.

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How students should prepare for selection process

  • 1. Soma Pal How Students Should Prepare for Selection Process Traditionally organizations conduct tests for short-listing people and interviews for in-depth assessment. Typically, after an aptitude test, they conduct a functional knowledge test. Those who clear both, go for technical and HR interviews. However, organizations are increasingly realizing that this process does not really elicit how a person will respond to real life problems. Hence, they might do the following: ， Take a person onboard for 1-3 months, give her a job-sample in the form of a project and see how she solves it. ， Take feedback from former employers, without restricting on just the references provided in the CV ， Conduct stress interviews ， Put the candidate through short simulations To get into the right job, the things a student must do are: ， Understand her areas of intellectual interest, and not just areas of interest in the subject. This can be assessed by deliberating on the kind of hobbies, discussions, etc that the person generally finds invigorating. ， The student must do a lot of industry research by joining forums, doing projects (with or without stipend), reading journals, meeting professionals personally, etc. The objective is to understand the trends in the industry ， To develop important people skills, she must engage in technical and non-technical extra-curricular activities, student exchange programs, national and international student groups etc ， She must go beyond the mandatory academic project and make at least 5 contributions to the society/ college that showcase her talent. These could include something as simple as making a website to something more complex like managing the local chapter of an NGO. These will help to create references, and develop self-confidence, communication skills, and decision making skills. ， Make a self competency audit, read up business magazines, and industry reports ， Before going for the interview, she must have adequate knowledge about the relevant industry, business trends in the industry, the specific company¨s products and history and its competitors. ， In the interviews, she must be crisp, talk about the utility of her project in a non-technical language, focusing on cost-benefit analysis. She must also focus on how innovatively she can use their knowledge to solve problems. (Business leaders understand the language of profit better.) The best way to a student can manage the change from campus to corporate is to attempt the following: ， Be receptive to the new things. ， Remember that initially she would have to do routine, and apparently boring and clerical tasks. She must use this opportunity to develop relationships ， Form rapport with all, from the pantry boy to the head of the entity ， Understand the business keenly ， Be willing to stretch, take on additional responsibilities even if these are not mentioned in the Job Description ， Participate in the company¨s engagement activities since these showcase the her people skills ， Finally, focus on performance rather than politics. Every organization has politics and short-comings; however, instead of focusing on those, she must focus on how she can leave her job better than inherited. This will show that she is a cut above the rest.