Secrets to Nab Your First Job: Fresh Graduates Guide to Real-Life Interview Questions

By Sherrill Vanden Driesen

Practical Strategies to Guide Fresh Graduates to Succeed in Job Interviews

Secrets to Nab Your First Job is written to guide fresh graduates to win the game of job interviews. Written by an experienced HR professional who has been conducting interview sessions over 16 years, the book will explain about the right ways for fresh graduates to respond to real-life interview questions that will convince interviewers they are the right fit for the job.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9789671191514

Book preview

Secrets to Nab Your First Job

Copyright © 2013 Sherrill Marie Vanden Driesen

Published by Atlas Linkz Consulting Sdn Bhd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning or other – except for brief quotation in critical reviews or articles, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

e-ISBN: 978-967-11915-1-4

Paperback ISBN: 978-967-11915-0-7

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Vanden Driesen, Sherrill

Secrets to nab your first job I Sherrill Vanden Driesen

1. Job hunting. 2. Employment interviewing.

3. Graduate students--Employment. I. Title.

650.14

PREFACE

This book was written as a platform for fresh graduates to better understand how to prepare themselves mentally in order to respond interactively to popular and tricky questions during an interview session. There are examples of both appropriate and inappropriate questions to ask the interviewer when fresh graduates are given their time to seek more information about the job and the employer.

The questions and answers written in this book are targeted to general industries and jobs where employers use interviews as a process to gauge more information about the fresh graduates. Having no or very limited working experience, it is a bit difficult to secure a job by merely showing their recent academic qualifications. Bear in mind that there are many young fresh graduates graduating every year and the competition is tough. To excel in an interview session, a fresh graduate must find that NICHE to be unique and leave a good impression in the mind of the interviewer.

Before attending any interview, a fresh graduate should be well prepared to tackle questions. It is obvious, a fresh graduate may not know all questions that would be posted during the interview session. With this book, it would guide them to know what the expectations required from the interviewers are, such as:

What are the interviewers looking for?

What are the criteria to be met in terms of attitude and communication skills, coupled with maturity and behaviour

as well?

Many fresh graduates keep failing to secure a job because they fail to see the issues surrounding them. It is easier to put the blame on the interviewer for being too harsh, strict or lack of professionalism. With this, when I conduct my interview sessions, I always enlighten their weaknesses and areas that need improvement. I do this because I CARE, whether they are unsuccessful or successfully hired. They learn something useful during the interview sessions I conduct.

I wrote this book solely based on my real-life experience being in the HR profession of 16 years and with the intention to guide the fresh graduates to increase the probability of getting hired. In my years of conducting interview sessions, I realised that many fresh graduates fail to secure a job because of their lack of preparation. They do not see the importance of the interview sessions and assumingly interact with the interviewers as their personal friends rather than professionals. Fresh graduates should understand the mind of the interviewer, assess why questions are posted as such, and what the better answers are.

In this book, I have also written explanations from the interviewer’s perspective and what the interviewer is looking for from a fresh graduate during an interview session. From these perspectives, fresh graduates would be much aware and are able to improve their ways of answering questions.

Whilst this book is targeted to fresh graduates, the questions and answers could also be useful for experienced employees who have lost touch on how to carry themselves during interview sessions.

With this, I would like to sincerely wish all fresh graduates to continue to strive their best in everything they pursue. I believe any of them can hold a management position one day, provided they have the right attitude, a positive mindset and passion in whatever they do. They are the future of our country.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Get Your Gear Ready!

What is the purpose of a job interview?

Attending a job interview is one of the crucial stages of the job search process. You arrive at the interviewing stage once your application has been reviewed, shortlisted and called upon to attend an interview session. Bravo! You have been chosen amongst many candidates for the possibility of getting hired and you should be proud of yourself!

Attending an interview session should not be taken lightly at all. You must understand the reasons why it is important for you to be mentally groomed to answer interview questions the best that you can. Let us look from the point of the interviewer and yourself.

From the interviewer’s perspective, you are being assessed on many areas and criteria required for the job. This is your opportunity to influence the interviewer that you are the right fit for the position you have applied and what you can contribute to bring success to the company.

From the candidate’s perspective (that’s you), you are there to promote yourself by conversing about yourself and your abilities. You seek details about the job and your potential employer. You would then consider your needs and evaluate what the job offers you in terms of a rewarding working experience and the potential for career advancement.

What are interview questions?

Interview questions are a set of questions drawn up as guidelines for interviewers to follow through during an interview session. These questions are normally prescribed by the Human Resource Personnel of a company.

Most interviewers may prefer to conduct a structured interview with you as the same questions can be used for all candidates. It is considered a fair and practical interview. It does often indicate