Job Interviews Are Peanuts...just believe in yourself!

By Mickey Douglas

You are called in for an interview with a corporate house. This is the first interview you are facing as you embark on your professional career.
You sit there, all alone, except for your thoughts and the folder you carry to keep you company. You look around the impressive interior décor of the office and feel rather small and insignificant. You steal furtive glances at the other candidates who have also come in to be interviewed. You are not too sure whether to talk to them or remain cocooned within yourself. Your mind plays games with you and you start to doubt your own worth, which is made even worse by the presence of the other smartly dressed candidates and the sheer ambience of the situation. You start to think to yourself, am I properly dressed? What topic would be given for the group discussion? How do I face the interview panel? What questions will they ask me? The vicious cycle of self doubt and anxiety gets to you till you are sucked into its powerful vortex of negativism.
And all the while, that hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach gets even worse!
Sounds familiar?
No sweat. These feelings are only natural, but then you should able to curb these feelings and get a control over yourself before you blow the chance of getting through the interview. And how do you do it? The answer is this book.
Through the pages of this book, you will understand why group discussions are conducted, what are some of the topics that are generally given, the different personality types you could face during the group discussion and how you should conduct yourself. You will also understand the various nuances of the personal interview and what you are expected to do. You will be exposed to how you should project a positive body language during the personal interview. The chapter devoted to question and answers will help you understand why certain questions are asked and how you should frame your answers. You will also learn how to use the powerful process of positive visualization to prepare yourself mentally to overcome the nervousness and anxiety that are generally associated with job interviews and much more.
This is a simple, straight forward book, which in a nut-shell, gives you the means to ace any job interview!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mickey Douglas
• Release date: Mar 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310389993

Mickey Douglas

Born and brought up in the state of Assam, which happens to be one of the states in the Indian sub-continent, located in the north eastern part of the country.Presently working as a Soft skills and Communication trainer with a Government department.Married with two children.

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Job Interviews Are Peanuts….just believe in yourself!

By Mickey Douglas

Copyright 2016 Mickey Douglas

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The Anatomy of an Interview

Chapter 2: How Well Do You Know Yourself?

Chapter 3: The Application Process

Chapter 4: The Phone Call

Chapter 5: Dynamics of Group Discussions

Chapter 6: Group Discussion and YOU-Part One

Chapter 7: Group Discussion and YOU-Part Two

Chapter 8: Personal Interview-Pre-requisites

Chapter 9: Facing the Interview Panel

Chapter 10: Common Interview Questions and Answers

Chapter 11: The Day After

Chapter 12: Final Thoughts

About the Author

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Preface

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." – Mark Twain.

"How should I approach a group discussion?, What questions are asked in a personal interview?" or Is there any dress code for interviews? These are few of the questions that I have been asked by fresh young graduate trainees in my training classes, who are on the verge of starting out on their professional careers but lack the know-how of the interview process or how they should prepare themselves. I have thought long and hard about this prevailing lacuna voiced by these bright, young job aspirants and wondered how I could share my knowledge and experience with a wider audience and address their concerns. So after a lot of brainstorming and reflection on the subject, I give you this book.

For starters you should know that the job market has undergone drastic changes from what it was, say, about ten years back. From the initial interview to the final selection process, the dynamics have changed tremendously. The competition is fierce. Gone are the days when jobs in the corporate sector were not that over populated with job-seekers. But nowadays with thousands of management graduates, engineering graduates as well as college graduates being churned out by various institutes, all clamouring for a decent job, the going is pretty tough. It is now an employer’s market. They now have a large pool of talented candidates to choose from and they will go for the very best. So for you to be able to compete on an even field in this ever increasing milieu of job-seekers, you will need to understand and develop certain qualities that will help you stand apart from the crowd. This book aims to do just that. The whole purpose of this book is to give you that tool, that advantage so that you will have an edge over the next job applicant. I have gone into detail about the process of group discussion and personal interview, so that you are aware of what is expected of you during these two phases of the interview process. I have also devoted a complete chapter to understanding some of the questions that are commonly asked in interviews and given you their probable answers. It is my sincere wish that these will be helpful to you in your preparation for any interview.

The design and layout of this book is very simple so that you are able to easily understand what I am trying to say. It is an easy to follow step by step process that will take you through the whole interview process so that by the end of it all, you will know exactly what it is you need to do in order to succeed in any interview. Whether you use this book as a tool to succeed or as a reference book, the choice is entirely up to you, but the one thing I can assure you of is this, the pages of this book contain material that can help you get the job that you have always dreamed of!

All the very best!

Mickey Douglas.

Chapter 1 - The Anatomy of an Interview

Okay, let’s say that you have completed your graduation or you are fresh out of a B school or even a fresh engineering graduate, ready and psyched up to take on the world and make it your play ground, what would your answer be if someone were to ask you to define an interview? How would you phrase your answer? What would you say? Do you, as a job-seeker, know exactly what this thing called an ‘Interview’ is? I bet there are a lot of you out there who really don’t have a very clear concept about an ‘interview’, while at the same time there are a few of you who have an understanding about this process. Not to worry. The purpose of me writing this book is to help you understand this very fact.

I can quite imagine the answers that would be given to the above question. Oh you have to go into a room full of grumpy looking people to answer their questions; It is to get a job; To prove oneself suitable for the position; A discussion between the HR people of the company and the candidate. The list can go on. Well, there is a bit of truth in most of these ‘make believe’ answers. But there is certainly more to it, which together we will try and understand.

I remember very clearly the day I went to be interviewed for multinational pharmaceutical company. Wow! It was absolutely an experience that I will never forget. Although this happened many years back but the feelings and emotions that I went through at that time are still very fresh in my mind. Sitting in the lounge area along with the other applicants, I really felt out of place. I’ll tell you why. All the other guys were smartly dressed in full-sleeved shirts with matching ties and trousers, while I was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt, with no tie and feeling absolutely lousy and downright small! Yeah I am from a small town in Assam, but I was in Calcutta for the interview and these guys were city blokes. And they were acting like real city slickers! Add to this the pounding of my heart, which was, as I remember, going like a trip hammer as if wanting to tear my rib cage open. Coupled with this the sickening, hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach didn’t make any thing comfortable for me on that day. I wanted to talk to the other guys there in the lounge but my throat was so dry that I was ashamed to utter any sound, I am pretty certain now I would have