Note: This article is a continuation of the following article, ‘How to prepare for any interview | The 7 key components | Part I’.
4. About the company
This is a section often ignored, even though it shouldn't. Read up on the following:
Operations of the company -what it does, what are the key products/services that it offers, how it earns its revenues and main locations of operation
Basic facts about the company - its stock price, who heads the Indian division, who heads the branch of the office you’ve applied to etc.
These questions are rarely asked in an interview setting. Sometimes they are asked to throw a candidate out of her/his comfort zone and knowing the answers will help. It could also earn your additional brownie points. All this research and be done via google searches and reading on the company website.
5. About the job role
It is not expected that you have a proper, clear-cut understanding of what your role entails. However, you should put in, adequate efforts to try and understand that before you sit for the interview. There are multiple reasons for this, first, and the most obvious it helps you judge for yourself whether the job is right for you or not. Second, only with this information will you be able to convey to the interviewer your interest and passion for the job role you’re applying for. Additionally, the interviewer may at times directly ask you what you expect from this job or what you perceive as your roles and responsibilities on this job. To answer such questions, you need to do some digging beyond just reading the job description given by the company.
How to build this understanding? The best source is to talk to someone in the job role either at the same or a similar firm. You can typically network through your college seniors or LinkedIn to establish such contacts. Otherwise, you can read online blogs and articles to improve your understanding.
6. HR Questions
This is a very vast domain. There will be a dedicated article for this published in the coming weeks. To briefly summarize, procure a master list of HR questions (about 20-30) questions available on a large number of websites online. Prepare for all of them. Typically candidates only prepare for the top 5-6 HR questions, however, if you are sitting for a job interview, I’d personally suggest preparing for as many of them as possible. That doesn’t mean that you need to write down your answers for each of them verbatim, but just keep the broad points in mind, so that you aren’t caught off guard in an interview and don’t accidentally say something you didn’t want to.
7. Current Affairs
This is a section I personally dread. There are two ways in which this section is used in an interview.
First, you can be asked direct factual questions
Second, instead of factual questions, you can be asked for your opinions/analysis on a certain event/happening. In order to be able to give your perspective on something you need to first know the basic facts behind it
To prepare for this section you can use any of the following options - buy newspapers/use news apps / read articles or journals online / join WhatsApp or telegram groups that send daily news updates / follow news channels or their pages on social media.
Note: Pay more emphasis on the current affairs related to the job profile/industry/course your applying for.
As hard as it may be, at least for the purpose of your interview, keep in touch with what's happening around you. You can then unsubscribe your newspaper/ journals the same day you land a job, just like I did XD!
I hope you found this article informative. You can use the above 7 components as a checklist while preparing for your interviews. One more thing to keep in mind is that you should prioritize amongst these sections, and devote time accordingly. Due to paucity of time, you may have to skip preparation for a few sections or devote less time to some sections and more to others. In my opinion, sections 1,3, and 6 are absolutely necessary, don’t compromise on them. Also, section 2 if you aren’t confident in that domain.
Analogy guide for college admission interviews (undergrad/postgrad):
1. CV and CV-adjacent topics -> your profile and projects
2. Basic Thinking Ability -> Same
3. Technical Questions -> based on your educational background and course you’re applying for
4. About the company -> About the college
5. About the job role ->About the course/program
6. HR Questions ->Same
7. Current Affairs -> Same
Wishing you all the best for your upcoming interviews! Feel free to get in touch with any queries or connect for a session as well.
Stay tuned for more articles on specific sections of the interview preparation and for articles on group discussions, CV making, and many more aspects.
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