Interview: You can only sell what the buyer wants

Let us face it. Everyone is nervous before an interview and it is a rare person who is not anxious during one. Just like a little bit of tension is actually good for health; a little nervousness is not necessarily harmful for your chances of success in an interview. Nervousness is normal. So just go with the flow and know that it is not easy for the interviewer either. Like any other form of communication, every type of interview is a two way street though here we will restrict ourselves to job interviews. Failure to identify the right candidate for the right job is as much a failure of the interviewer as it is of the interviewee.
So, you as an interviewee just need to remain generally upbeat and positive. The whole idea of the interview is for the organization to pick the right person for the right job. You have to just help the interviewee to get to know the real you as well as it is possible in the short duration of the interview – a task which is not easy by any means. It is not such a stupid idea when you are sometimes asked to spend some time to know yourself and practice articulating what you know about yourself. How, for example, will you describe your strengths and weaknesses; what are your likes and dislikes; what are your goals and dreams or what strategy do you have to achieve them? Is your strategy in sync with the goals and dreams? Do you have a strategy at all? Preparing yourself for a job interview is a lot about getting to know your own self and being able to communicate it to the interviewer on the day of the interview.
Sometimes candidates memorize answers to questions and rattle them off like a parrot would. In preparation for an interview there is nothing worse you can do. If a person cannot talk about himself what else can he really talk about? An interview, unless it is designed for some specific objective where a different approach is required, is a conversation and not an interrogation. The onus of keeping an interview conversational lies with both the interviewer and the interviewee. If the interviewer fails to keep it at that level, you as the interviewee should try and bring it to that level by being absolutely honest and disarming. So do not memorize answers to questions but certainly know what points you would like to cover in answer to a question. You could rehearse answering questions with your friends or even alone. Make sure you keep the tone conversational. Make sure you never memorize the exact language. Be natural. Be your self. It is ‘the you’ that the interviewer is looking for in you - the real you.
It may be common knowledge for marketing people but is perhaps the most well kept secret when it comes to cracking job interviews. It goes like this: find out what people need and help them satisfy that need. For getting a job find out what an organization or a Company wants and help them get what they want. In other words you must have the qualities that the employer is looking for in the candidate for a particular position. You can only sell what the buyer wants. So it is not just about you it is about the position. You must match your abilities with the needs of the employer. To be able to do that you must first know what is the employer looking for or what does he want. You have to find out what is the buyer buying. And the best way to do that is research the job being offered; research the company and the industry. If required ask a few questions in the interview itself. Yes you read it right. You can ask a few questions in the interview.
To crack an interview find out what the employer wants and give to him.

Grades, Knowledge Character and Success

One dilemma that continues to persist in the minds of the students is whether to focus on grades or on knowledge. What is more important getting better grades or acquiring more knowledge? Normally it should not be an either or questions as better knowledge should lead to better grades but the evaluation system in most business schools is so subjective and convoluted despite all efforts to make it more objective and simple that the students focused on higher grades do not hesitate cutting corners and go to extremes to make their grade sheet look better. The fault lies with our entire education system which encourages students to score higher marks which enables them to get into coveted institutions for higher education which in turn leads to better jobs; Even the parents pressurize their children to focus on grades instead of learning, on higher marks rather than on knowledge, ability, character, value, skills and personality.
Once Students join a professional school they must realize they are no longer preparing just for exams but for life. They will not be carrying their mark sheets and certificates with them wherever they go all the time but their knowledge, character and values go with them every where. There is no getting away from them. Every time they interact with people and talk to them their character shows through. To be successful as a manager or in any other sphere in life you have to focus on yourself and become the kind of person people will like to deal with. In business as in every other sphere in life people deal with people. If you have not learnt the art of dealing with people you will not succeed despite your high grade. You have to learn to be a caring person and care for everyone who comes in contact with you socially or for business. People don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care. Your success in life and business will depend on how well you can get along with people and how caring you are. It is the business world’s best kept secret. In fact it is not even a secret. It is so obvious that no one notices it till failure is staring them in the face.