FACE
TO FACE
An
Interview on Interviews
with
Dr.
S. V. Narayanan.
Facing
interviews and group discussions successfully is an important step in a
professional's career.
Hence, we approached Dr. S. V. Narayanan, Dean, School Of Management,
Pondicherry University, who is a distinguished personality, to give
us his expert advice on this important aspect.
The following are excerpts from his interview:
Sir, How was your first interview?
My first interview was a lighthearted one. I started with a few
assumptions about interviews, which were actually
corollaries to the assumptions that I had had as a student. One of them
was - If all the students write the same answer, then how can your answer
be differentiated. And that trick has got me my gold medal in studies.
I extended that logic to interviews as well.
Your advice to first timers?
There are three or four things that I consider usually facilitate
success in interviews. The dress you wear, the way
you sit, your table manners are all very important. You should have a cheerful
disposition always, even if you face difficult questions. Another important
point is that the students should develop fluency. Companies don’t take
too kindly to people who use too many gestures.
Two or three things have to be kept
in mind - First, the worst that could happen in an interview is that, you
will not be
selected. That should give you courage. The second thing is, it is possible
that you may not know the answers to certain questions. Many people tell
us stupid things. They say, If you don’t know the answer, be honest and
tell that you don’t know. That is a good logic for viva, but it is a stupid
logic when it comes to a campus interview. If you say, Sir, I don’t know,
they will say, Thank you very much. You can leave. We'll call the fellow
who knows. The trick is, you should be able to give some answer, which
gives a benefit of doubt that perhaps you know the answer.
Another thing is that we should never give the impression that
there is only one answer to every question. Most
questions in life have more than one answer. When even Mathematics has
options, imagine how social issues can be, or the problems of banking reforms,
which were the kind of questions posed to me. When you try to give an answer,
you must also try to say, I think there are two or three reasons, and then
you should start listing out. The trick is, while one half of your mind
is giving one answer, another half of your mind is frantically thinking
of the other reason. Try to give a multiple answer as it tells two things
- One, that you don't have dogmatic views, you are able to give more than
one alternative view. Two, while you are giving one reason you can see
the body language of the members of the committee, which will tell you
whether they like the reason or not. When the answer seems to be getting
out of hand, the trick is to split that answer into components, i.e., you
take that answer to a detour or sub-routine. The ability to classify and
systemize your answer is considered. Years and years ago, Sir Samuel Foot
was considered the greatest punster. He could pun on any word. In one of
the parties, he said, I am willing to pun on any word. They said, King.
Pun on the word king. He said, A king is not a subject. A king rules over
subjects. Everybody enjoyed it. You will find this famous repartee in many
books. But had he punned on the word king? No, he had punned on the word
-subject, but nobody remembered that.
Please remember that most of the people in the selection committee
do not have a typed out list of questions to ask
Some questions are being asked to get your answer and some questions are
being asked so as to impress the other committee members.
Another important thing is that you should greet the interviewers
when you enter and leave the room. Most people
usually forget this.
What is the attitude of the of the interview panel?
In the case of campus interviews, they are also trying to please
the placement coordinator. They really don't have
to come. But they take the trouble to come. When a person comes all the
way from Chennai or Bangalore, he has gone through the travail of travel
and therefore his expectations will be slightly higher. So they expect
the computer students to have a nodding acquaintance with hardware. They
expect you to have competence in software because that is what they have
come for.
They expect the individual to think systematically. Software
means systematic thinking. But one thing you often leave
out in software studies is the purpose of that software. Only then, you
will be prepared to design a software that will overcome the defect of
the present item. Other things they look for are the personality and appearance
aspects, so that you will be able to impress potential customers. In order
to facilitate this, you should know your subject well and have a reasonable
amount of fluency in language. Preferably, if you know more than one language,
it will be a great asset.
How much can one lie/exaggerate in an interview?
You don't exaggerate, but very often, in many interviews,
I have seen that, you are not telling the other side. It is not
really a lie, but I would say it is an incomplete truth. Since this seems
to be done by everybody, there is nothing unusual about it. Lie is when
you say what you have not done. Interviewers have interviewed many people
like you. So, they know the areas where you are likely to lie. If they
don't catch you, it doesn't mean they do not know, but they are probably
too lazy to care to catch you. We should try to avoid situations where
lies become necessary. You may be silent on a question, or give a phenomenal
smile, on the assumption that the interviewer has not listed down the question
and that he is asking some random question. If I ask you about your division,
instead of saying, I got 70% marks, which appears to be too low, what you
must say is, You know, in the papers pertaining to the industry, I have
scored more than 80%. What is the average? 60%. This is an incomplete truth.
The question was a general one, but you are making it specific. This is
accepted. You don't have to tell what is not yet asked.
What is the panel looking for in a group discussion?
A group discussion is a time based discussion on a general topic
by a group of odd number of persons on a freewheel
basis. You have an odd number of persons so that, you can see a tilt in
the discussion. It is called freewheel because, nobody guides you. They
might say, For 15 minutes, you talk on this subject among yourselves. That
means it is not directed towards the committee members, though effectively
it is being directed towards them (they are going to score). When that
happens, the things that they look for are your familiarity with the topic
and the systematic manner in which you are able to approach that topic
and the extent to which you are able to get time to talk. They also look
for your communication skills, the extent to which you are able to hold
your temper and the manner in which the people seem to tilt to your point
of view. Primarily, a group discussion is to establish the leadership quality
in the candidate.
In a G.D. everybody thinks that the more time they take, the more
marks they will get. The only thing is, duration will
make the committee members notice you. Otherwise, if you say some
two very significant points and stop, it is possible that the committee
members might have missed it. So, you are cornering the time only to increase
your visibility, otherwise, it does not make any difference.
All the warming up questions in an interview are the G.D. topics.
Here, you can have more than one point of view. But
they don't make it so controversial that it is explosive. You are expected
to be familiar with G.D. topics and they are never complicated ones.
We hope that this interview helps you to attend interviews confidently.
GOOD LUCK !
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Created by S.MANICANADAN and S.KARTHIK
(III year CSE, 1996 - 2000 Batch)
Last updated date 15th september 1998