Dear All,
It has been illuminating and fun reading all the comments on this forum about interview experiences and the comments. This is also professionally interesting to me as I am a Head-hunter by profession. Getting candidates into interviews and getting their feedback from both the candidate and interviewer reveals a lot about the people involved, their approach, expectations, biases and understanding of the process.
One of the most recurring themes I found on this discussion was that almost all the experiences shared (barring a few) were negative experiences. There was an undercurrent of negative emotions towards the interviewer and the process of interviews in general. We all know that interviews are the poorest form of evaluating a person for any organization. Yet, we persist with the same as there are no better alternatives. The biggest challenge per me during the interview process is poor training of the interviewer by the organization. The HR depts. of organizations need to constantly train their Hiring Managers/Interviewers on the process. The HR teams need to “create” a selection process for the organization and constantly test the same by using metrics for measuring success/failure rates. This needs to constantly tuned to their long term goals .
I have seen candidates who have come out of interviews and tell us that their interviews went superb only to be told by the interviewer that the candidates was an absolute misfit to the position and lacked knowledge and OTOH I have had candidates who come out dejected from an interview who were given great remarks by the interviewers.
What we see is that both interviewees and interviewers cant let go of their own personal biases in the interview process. The interviewers fail to set a context to the conversation. Also the interviewers view themselves on a higher plane and therefore have a superiority complex during the entire process.
Someone mentioned about the great questions asked at Apple, Google etc. Honestly we cannot get a context to their interviews or the interview process just by knowing a few questions that they ask. And here’s an eye opener to that thought too – Google now says that GPAs are pointless and they did not find a connect between the Mind-bending interview questions and the on-the-job performance http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130620142512-35894743-on-gpas-and-brain-teasers-new-insights-from-google-on-recruiting-and-hiring
Apologies for making this so long but this topic is very near to me and I can keep going on and on.
Regards,
Vipul Agarwal
Director – Zend Consulting Services
From: join_mtc@googlegroups.com [mailto:join_mtc@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Praveen Malla
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 8:57 PM
To: join_mtc@googlegroups.com
Subject: [MTC Global] How an Academic Institute interviewed me - 1
Dear All,
Dr. Suresh’s experience brings back some old memories of an interview that I attended in one of India’s premier B-Schools post my PhD. It has been 9 years since and I am happy I took the right decision of not joining academia full time.
For me the interview came as a blessing in disguise and I do not regret walking out of it. Despite being employed in a full time job in industry, I could still find time to write a book and author a couple of research papers. While I would have loved becoming a full time academician, a single botched up interview changed the direction of my career and today when I look back I realize that life had other plans for me.
I am still associated with academia albeit in different capacities and just because I am passionate about teaching, I spend a couple of hours every week teaching MBA students in Hyderabad.
*****
A couple of years back I had written a three part blog on my experience with the academic interview. Copy pasting the first part in this mail, just in case it fancies any of you. Would copy paste the other 2 parts in subsequent mails.
How an Academic Institute Interviewed Me - I
Post my PhD, even while I had a nicely paying corporate job, I felt like getting into academics. My wife never liked this idea as I had a substantial amount to pay as monthly installments against various loans that I had taken and it is common knowledge that a fresh professor’s salary would not be able to sustain anything more than two square meals a day.
I insisted just because I was on a high post the positive comments received during my PhD defense. All my examiners made me feel like a competent researcher and I was not going to allow my research interest evaporate in thin air.
I had applied to a premier management institute in India and was invited to give a demo lecture. My demo went off well with the audience rating me on the higher side of the scale. Soon after, an interview was scheduled.
Amongst the interviewees were the director of the institute, a psychologist, four experts (am not sure which areas they had expertise in) and the dean.
“Welcome Dr. Bhasa” the dean directed me to the interviewee’s seat.
After the initial niceties, the first question came from a boyish looking guy who I was later to know was the director of the institute.
“So, tell me about yourself” came the question. I am still unable to fathom why this has to be the opening line of any interview. Don’t they go through the vitas before inviting a candidate. Or do they want to gauge a candidate’s faking skills? Obviously, yes, the tell- me- about- yourself question almost always results in the candidate exceeding his line of pretensions.
My answer to this question is always kept simple and short. I prefer being dug into than giving it all away in the first go. May be bad interviewing sense. But that’s the way I am.
On hearing a two minute introduction from me, probably the director was irritated. He wanted me to waste some more time on myself so that he and his team could have recovered from the strain of the previous candidate’s interview. I asked them what more they would want to hear about me. Obviously, my poetry and short story writing skills were of no use to the profile in question, else I could have recited a poem or two.
Regards,
Praveen
*****
Praveen B Malla PhD
Managing Director
LemonBridge Research and Innovations (P) Ltd.
Ph: +91-8897853191, +91-9160286709
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MTC GLOBAL- Educate, Empower, Elevate
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