Introduction
So, you are going to attend an interview and you would like to know what are all the basic question you may need to be prepared with. If so, then you are in the right place, or else check my posts related to interview here. Here, in this post, we are not going to explain anything about technical answers; instead, this is going to be some tips and tricks for you. I hope you will like this article.
Background
Have you ever attended an interview? If you ask me, I have attended many. So with that in mind, here I am going to share some of the tips that I have learned/failed during my interviews.
Common tips/questions for any interviews
As this is a common topic, there are a lot of points you may need to think about. As I said earlier, here I am going to share only the key points which I have uppermost in my mind.
Tell me about yourself
Wow, this is one of the top questions you may need to answer. This single question has many aspects to it, so you may need to talk about various things. I am going to list down the key points you need to say about. And here, you don’t need to say about your childhood or about how many girlfriends you had so far. Haha, seriously you shouldn’t.
Say thanks for the opportunity
Saying/giving thanks for something that you have got, is not a bad idea. This is applicable to this situation as well. Now, you have got an opportunity for saying about yourself, that definitely worth saying thanks right? So you can say something like this.
“Thanks a lot for providing an opportunity to talk about myself”.
Tell your name
Next, you can start telling about yourself. It should always start with your full name. You can speak as mentioned below.
“I am Sibeesh Venu”.
Please try to avoid the sentence like “Myself Sibeesh Venu”.
Where were you born?Now, you are going to say about the place you born. Isn’t it a good idea to give a one-line description of that place. So, you need to find out whether your native has any nicknames. For example, you can say like below.
“I was born and brought up in the place called Kerala, India, which is also known as God’s own country for its beauty and culture.
About your graduation/education
It’s time to talk about your education now. Please be noted that you don’t need to discuss all of your education. Just be specific to your PG/UG/Masters etc. For example,
“I am a graduate in Information Technology from Anna University, India.”
You can always speak about your achievements in your college days, let’s say if you have scored high grades. But, remember, keep it short and no need to say all of your achievements even though you have many. Be selective.
Work experience
This is very important. This is where the employer decides whether you are apt for the role or not. You can tell about your first company and the last company. For example,
“I have around 7 years of experience in software development wherein I have started my career at HCL CDC as an intern. My current assignment is with Cognizant technology solutions where I play the role of Project Associate.”
Strength and weakness
Well, nobody is perfect in this word. When I say no one, it includes the interviewer also. So, you can definitely say your weaknesses. Just list down two of your weaknesses. If you ask me, I would say as below.
“My weakness is, trusting someone very easily which makes problems sometimes. And also, I am bit emotional sometimes”.
Now, it is time to say about your strengths, you may be having lots of strengths, but remember you haven’t got all day. So again, just be specific and find any two of them which are relevant to your current work. Let’s say if you are a software developer and you are saying your strengths as “You can swim/run faster”. In this case, these strengths have no relation to the role you have/ or you tend to apply. Instead, you can say that you are “A good motivator”, “Good team player”, “Easy learner” etc.
Family
We all know a family is everything in our life. It is always a good idea to say about your family. You can mention the number of family members, and their occupations. For example,
“Including me, my family consists of 3 members. My father, who is a retired teacher. My mother, a homemaker. Please try to avoid the word “Housewife”, which is actually not relevant, use homemaker instead.”
What is special about you
This is a tricky part, the employer is looking for an answer for comparing how good you are to the job. You can say something like this.
“I am a passionate learner, that’s one of the reasons why I named my website Sibeesh Passion. Being consider myself as a techie, I always love to learn new technologies and I usually write about them on my blog. Sharing the knowledge in the form of videos, articles, forums etc is one of my main hobbies. I strongly believe that I can learn any technologies quickly, and I am a good team player too, hence I am sure that I am a perfect match for this job”
Your goals
There should be two part for this, one is short term goal and another is a long-term goal. An ideal answer may look like this.
“My short-term goal is to place myself in a well-reputed company like yours where new technologies are being used. And my long-term goal is to become a successful entrepreneur and a successful community speaker”
Conclusion
Well, within this short span of time, you can not say everything about you. So a good idea is to make it short and not more than 3-5 minutes. In the end, you can say as preceding.
“Well, that was a brief description of me. However, if you would like to know more about me, I am glad to share that information.”
What is your day to day life at work
An example is,
“Being a senior software developer, I always take the initiative to do some extra efforts, for making the product consistent. As I am working in Agile trend now, I always do coding, maintaining, testing, CI/CD etc. I always try to be a part of code reviews where I can learn new codes/implementation from other people.”
What is your technical stack
Well, this purely depends on the technical expertise you have. So I will leave this question to you.
How was your work experience in the previous company
You should be careful if someone asks this question. You should think positive and answer this question, though you had a bad experience with your previous organization. If you have only positive feedbacks about them, very good. But if you have any negative key points, please avoid saying those, and say only the good things. There is an inner query with this question that, why did you resign from your previous company? So you can answer something like this.
“My work in the previous company was amazing, however, I had to leave from there as my entire family was moved to a different city, which is quite far.
Again, this is up to you which reason you have to say them.
Why do we hire you
Be practical and be frank with them. For example,
“I believe I can learn new things very easily. I am a good team player, and I can work independently as well.”
Do you have any questions for us
This is an important part. I recommend you to keep this questions ready before you go and attend the interview. The things you must do are listed here.
- You can check the company website
- See how they improve in their field
- You can check, as a company, did they win any awards
- How big is their technical team
- What are the best products introduced
- You can even share the feedback about their applications/work
So, by considering the above points in mind, you can ask any queries you have in your mind. But remember to ask at least 3 questions. Be interactive with the team, so that they will understand your capability to drive a team or it proves that you are a team player.
Conclusion
Thanks a lot for reading. Please be noted that these questions are some basics which may ask in all the interviews, however it doesn’t mean that you should only prepare for these questions alone. Be confident and prepare well before attending any interview. I wish you all the very best.
Did I miss anything that you may think which is needed? Could you find this post as useful? I hope you liked this article. Please share me your valuable suggestions and feedback.
Your turn. What do you think?
A blog isn’t a blog without comments, but do try to stay on topic. If you have a question unrelated to this post, you’re better off posting it on C# Corner, Code Project, Stack Overflow, Asp.Net Forum instead of commenting here. Tweet or email me a link to your question there and I’ll definitely try to help if I can.
You can always read this article on my blog
here.