Passion

What makes us excel in whatever we do? If we have to point out just one answer for that – it is passion.

If we are passionate about something, rest of the ingredients to make us effective in our jobs automatically follow. So we will take interest in getting the right skill sets, talk to the right stakeholders, have a change in attitude to like the task even if it is not giving the right results initially and will be undeterred by failures.

Being passionate about something ensures there is abundance of energy. We will automatically ensure that the quality of the output is of highest standard and we will not compromise on the second best.

If we go to a mall, if we see a glow on the face of the employees there, understand that they are passionate about what they are doing. They are enjoying it and work does not become a burden. Opposite of that,  if there is a morose look on their face and they are not happy that you have come there to give some business to their mall, they are in the wrong place and they will not go very far. The same experience you would have had in some enquiry counters where person sitting behind the counter seems either disinclined to give you the required information or at times can even be demonstratively hateful towards you as you have dared to ask some question. My daughter once had an experience of being shouted at by an enquiry counter person in a municipal transport bus stand when she asked if there were any buses towards our locality. He menacingly asked “Why can’t you see the time table and why do you disturb me?” The reason she had to ask was because the time table was in the local language including the numbers and she could not read the numerals and we had just moved to that city. Obviously, the person hated the job and was only there because of the salary.

We have body, mind, heart and soul. If the job only caters to the body – in that it ensures a salary so that we can get our meals, medicine, house and whatever money is required for looking after self and family, then it caters only to the body dimension. This alone cannot ensure passion. To get that, the job has to touch the soul. It should become our purpose for life. We should do such a thing that people will remember us for the contribution we have made in that job. There is a saying – If we have to become a polisher of shoes, we should aim at becoming that best shoe polisher in that part of the town, or even in the whole town, or state or the country. This is not to get recognition, but to motivate us so that our soul should touches the job and a passion is induced. If we do not enjoy that  job, we should quit it and get to somewhere where our soul is. Kahlil Gibran explains it beautifully in a poem called “Work is Love”. You can read it at

http://www.katsandogz.com/onwork.html

So, if you have to excel in your career, please build a passion into whatever you are doing. If you are convinced that this is not what you enjoy, find out what is it that you enjoy and make all attempts to move to such a role. But if that is not possible, find out the positive aspects of your current role and try and find the passion. Slowly, you will start enjoying it and passion sets in. You will then produce high quality work, will be seen as an asset by your manager and when you go home, have a feeling that you have made a significant contribution.

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman popularized the concept of Emotional Intelligence by his book “Emotional Intelligence”.  What distinguishes human beings from animals is that we are supposed to be aware of our emotions and control them according to our needs as well as the needs of those with whom we interact. A person who can do this will be successful professionally and in personal life.

Definition of Emotional Intelligence

The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. Emotional intelligence describes abilities distinct from, but complementary to, academic intelligence.”  - Daniel Goleman (1998)

IQ v/s EQ (Intelligence Quotient v/s Emotional Quotient)

Research shows that IQ can help you to be successful to the extent of  20 percent only in life.  The rest of  80 percent success depends on your EQ. This is because IQ helps in getting an entry into a job, but continued success depends on how well the employee networks and displays networking skills and social relationship skills as these have a direct bearing on leadership styles.

Significance of Emotional Intelligence in an interview

All the candidates who appear for an interview have almost similar IQ as all of them have similar educational background and has passed the aptitude tests which basically measure IQ. Interview is a time to distinguish between those with high EQ and those who do not have that. Smooth working in teams in companies requires the employees to be able to understand their own emotions and control them and also understand others’ emotions and relate to others in a compatible manner. You will have to provide examples to show your high emotional quotient as there will not be any tests to showcase that. Learn all about emotional intelligence and have your examples ready.

You can learn about emotional intelligence by watching this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qv0o1oh9f4

Attitude

Interviewer will check your attitude towards work as well as life. If you come across as someone who always complains and finds problems with things, you are likely to be rejected. So be very careful when you answer questions.

Some candidates show their dislike for certain things without knowing that they are falling into a trap. For example, if you say you do not like programming and if the interview is for programming job then no one from such companies will select you. It is possible that you did not mean it that way. But busy interviewers do not have time to dig deeper as they have many candidates to interview and finish. One small inadvertent mistake means you are out – for a silly reason.

To succeed in corporates we need knowledge, skill and attitude. Knowledge deals with what to do – the functional and domain knowledge of things to do. Skills comprise of the application of knowledge – be it on a computer or dealing with people. But these two by themselves will not be enough for success. You as an employee must have the attitude to apply and knowledge so that you are motivated to get the best out of you. Sometimes you may not have the best of teams working with you, or the best of supervisors looking after your role. It is easy to get disheartened and demotivated. But that would be a loss for you as your success. That is why interviewer checks for your attitude in interview and there are no written tests for that.

Attitude is not hereditary. It is shaped by our pass experience, education and environment. Whatever be the past, you must now take measures to change the attitude. Start practising the notion that life is not what happens to us, but what we make out of it. Do not get easily angry or sad. When something happens to you, pause for a second and determine the best course of action. Feeling low and sad about someone else’s negative behaviour towards you will affect your energy and productivity. Instead, ask the person why he/she is behaving in that manner and try and solve the issue.

So, do not be upset or irritated or show your frustration during the interview. Do not give any answer which can be considered as reflecting a bad attitude. Be pleasant and full of energy during the interview.

Responsibility

Interview is a time when you can demonstrate that you are a very responsible person.  Have examples of responsibilities that you have undertaken and carried them out to success.  Every company needs employees who are self motivated to be responsible. Blame mentality does not work.

If we have been brought up in an environment where we can blame others for failure, we may continue the same in corporate, but it will not be appreciated. We must be independent and not blame others when things do not go right. Remember what our mothers do when we children bang their head by mistake against a wall and hurt ourselves and cry? All mothers have a sure shot method of stopping children from crying when that happens. They bang the wall and blame it for causing hurt and children immediately keep quiet thinking that the wall was to be blamed. Problem arises when we continue this attitude of blaming others whenever things go wrong once we reach adulthood and start working. Then such blaming is considered as passing the buck.

You will not be considered as a responsible person if at every failure you give excuses and pass the blame to others. Winners do not give excuses, they give solutions.  When you act in a responsible manner, you do not blame others when things do not work out successfully at the end. You would have anticipated the problems and taken the right measures in advance.

Remain an optimist - come what may

Interviews happen because companies have to short list people suitable for their companies. So it is but obvious that some of the candidates interviewed will not make it in the very first interview they attend and there would be further interviews by other companies and finally one gets the job. It is very easy to get disheartened initially. When we see our friends getting the job and we getting rejected, it can be very painful. I have experienced it myself and I can empathize with those who do not make it initially. But to be pessimistic is not the right thing to do. Pessimism and negative thinking will ensure that you come across as an unsuitable candidate in the next interview and your chances further go down. Be optimistic till the end. Remember that if you have not got that job, something better is in store for you.

JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter series was a single mother living on government grants to look after her family. Desperately poor, she went to ten publishers to publish her first Harry Potter novel, but all of them rejected the novel outright. It was the eleventh publisher who took the risk and that became a best seller. She wrote six more novels and all of them became best sellers and all of them have been made into movies and today is the richest author in the whole world.

Similarly, first seventeen of Abhishek Bachhan’s movies flopped at the box office and only the eighteenth became a hit. If he had given up earlier, he would not have had the chance of succeeding at all. His father Amitabh was rejected when he went for  his first  audition as being too tall and having a funny  voice. That height and baritone voice are his specialities now and he has even patented it recently so that others do not mimic his voice and misuse it.

So never give up. Initial hurdles will come. Otherwise there was no need for an interview.

After every interview, write a journal and write what questions were asked and what your answers were. Discuss among your well wishers and experts and see if that answer could have been better. See where you lack and sharpen your skills for the next interview. Face it without any stress.  Stress will make you forget what you know. Before the interview put on a smiling face for 15 minutes. If you cannot smile take a pen and bite it between your teeth and that position is similar to that of smile and your endocrine system will secrete dopamine – the feel happy chemicals and you will start to relax. Remember that creative thoughts come to your brain only when the brain is relaxed.

Enjoy this nice video – it will motivate you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_OCmWEEkcQ&feature=related

Also please visit me on Facebook and LinkedIn. My id is cdrvijay123@yahoo.co.in

Have an impressive resume

In an interview, you must have an impressive looking resume as that becomes the basis for the questions that you would be asked. If you are appearing for interviews in companies of different engineering disciplines, it would be good to have a separate set of resumes. For example, if you are getting interviewed for a Mechanical Engineering job, have a resume which highlights your activities in that area and if the application is for an IT job, have that highlighted. One resume for all may not fit well.

To understand what should be highlighted, you must know what your job is going to be like in that company. That comes from what is known as a “job description”.  The interviewer will not  give a written job description to you, but it is in your interest to understand that based on company profile, their business and taking help from your seniors who may be working there or similar company. A look at their website would be of use in this regard.

Accurate Description of job involves

·         Core responsibilities

·         Quantifiable performance measurements

·         Reporting structure

·         Experience and technical knowledge requirements

·         Personality strengths necessary for the position

·         Corporate culture

·         Description of working environment

·         Management style required

Points to remember in resume

·         Clearly printed correct telephone number, email id – may be two email ids.

·         Use one simple font – may be Ariel or Times Roman size 11.

·         Make the headings bold and underlined

·         Do not use italics and all capitals.

·         Put all contact details – name, address, email ids, telephone numbers at the top.

·         Objective – optional. If you write an objective, you must be able to justify why you have written that.

·         Educational qualifications with year of passing and percentages from 10^th onwards

·         Skills and special abilities that you possess, with examples

·         Project work done and your exact contribution.

·         Achievements in school and college. Highlight team leading or team membership

·         Hobbies and Extracurricular activities

Honesty is the best policy when it comes to resume writing. Do not tell half truths and lies. There is so much fraud going on in resumes and interviewer can catch you if you have been dishonest. Any hint of dishonesty will forever bar you from any job in that company.

I once interviewed and selected a candidate and recruited him in my department. He had a prior experience in three companies and he gave satisfactory answers to all questions and I selected him and he joined. However, as per the policy, when the company conducted actual verification of his experience by sending verification agents to his past companies, it was revealed that instead of 2 years that he had claimed, he had worked there for 1 year only. He wanted to cover the gap in his job profile by adding that extra one year, but when it was found out, he had to resign and lose his job. As freshers also, if you tell a lie regarding what project work you have done, or what your actual contribution was, it could lead to rejection during the interview. Be truthful.

I have found a website which gives good details of how to write a resume. Please visit the site:

http://www.chetanasinterview.com/articles/1/1/Resume-Writing-Tips-for-Freshers--Experienced/Page1.html

Also please visit me on Facebook and Linkedin. My id is cdrvijay123@yahoo.co.in

Talk in specifics not on general terms in an interview

Many of us may make the mistake of telling the interviewer that we are goal oriented, hard working, sincere, humble etc – all very good adjectives, which unfortunately carry zero meaning in an interview. These are general information and if you speak on these lines, the interviewer is sure to ask you to give an example of each of these. So if you are using these words better have examples ready. For example, if you say you are hard working, do you have a case where your hard work resulted in a project being completed in time? If you say you are a team worker, you must have a ready example. Same way, if you say that you are a goal oriented person, the interviewer can ask you what goals you have set in the past one year and how have you tracked it? Have such an example ready. Lesson to remember – Do not speak in general terms, but only on specifics.

Check the youtube video for an example of what we discussed above.

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxbRWsYljyE&feature=fvw