Interview Essentials for Job Hunters & Career Changers – Learn to ACE INTERVIEWS with reliable guidance – Includes examples to confidently handle tough questions and EARN the salary you deserve!

Yes, they do. Mock interviews offer a significant amount of positive contribution towards your job interview preparation. They are not only a great way to practice your answers, but also allow you to work on your body language, attitude, and your overall non-verbal communication skills. Here’s everything you need to know about how to arrange and prepare for mock interviews. 1. What is a mock interview? A mock interview denotes an interview-like set-up where you can practice interviewing as a means of preparation before your actual job interview. It simulates a real interview, giving candidates a chance to practice the interview process beforehand so that they know where their weaknesses lie and the potential stumbling blocks that need attention. A mock interview session usually lasts for around 30 minutes and can be in the form of an in-person interview, an over-the-phone interview, or an online interview. 2. Who offers mock interviews? Your institute might have mock interview facilities as a part of the grooming process. Ask the career office of your institution whether they provide mock interviews. Or, you can visit a career counselor who offers such training sessions. When you approach a mock interviewer and make an appointment, you’ll be asked to provide information on the company you are interviewing for or the career field as a whole. If you don’t feel comfortable with paid services such as career counselors and/or professional mock interviewers, you can also arrange one yourself by asking the senior members of your family or acquaintances, or even a friend who is well-experienced in interviewing. Today, there are software and programs like InterviewBuddy that offer online mock interviews, usually in the form of a video recording with a timed blank part for you to answer. Platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor provide lists of commonly-asked questions and sample answers given by professionals across fields. 3. How mock interviews can help you Mock interviews stimulate real interviews and give the candidate an opportunity to practice common questions and answers with confidence. After your mock interview session is over, take notes. Listen to every input your mock interviewer has to offer and write them down for future references. Your actual work starts after your mock interview is over, because, now that you know your weak points, you’ll need to work on them in order to improve. Some mock interviewers also record the mock interview session, so that you can watch the playback and see what you have done wrong (or right). 4. How do you prepare for a mock interview? Since the purpose of a mock interview is to rehearse before the actual interview, the preparation for a mock interview should also be similar. Imitating the actual preparation process as much as possible will help you get the most out of a mock interview. Here are some ground rules to follow, to prepare for a mock interview. “My real job interview is 3 weeks away. I will prepare later”- Tell yourself things like this and the whole purpose of attending a mock interview goes into the drain. Instead, start preparing well in advance. Dress in formals and groom yourself really well, just like you’d do in a real interview. Keep your phone in silent mode, or better, keep it switched off. Carry a few necessary items with you, like the hard copies of your resume, a pen, and a notebook. Appear 10-15 minutes early. Drink a glass of water and try to relax. Offer a firm and sweat-free handshake to the mock interviewer. Listen to the interviewer carefully and take your time before answering their questions. Try to remain calm and composed the whole time. 5. Benefits of a mock interview Studies and surveys have shown that mock interviews can help a candidate in the following ways: They give you a visual guide of the real interview setting and enrich your experience. As a result, you feel more confident during the actual job interview. They allow you to work on your overall presentation. You can recognize and rectify your mistakes well in advance and increase your chances of cracking the important job interviews. Mock interviews can bring about valuable feedback from the career coach or the experienced mock interviewer. Experienced mock interviewers might provide you with a bunch of relevant questions which you happened to overlook beforehand. Working on their feedback will not only improve your attitude and body language but also your overall study-related preparation too. Prepare your subject-related questions from special interview preparation books that are just a click away. Vibrant’s interview preparation books like Innovative Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked and HR Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked offer exactly the kind of interview simulation you need to do well on your interview day. Practice with friends or family members using the questions in the books to understand what the real interview will be like.   All the best for your interview preparation! We hope you enjoyed this series of blogs and feel equipped with the knowledge you need to perform well in your future interviews. Find the entire list of Interview Preparation Blogs here. Previous blog in this series: Top 10 tips for Acing Technical Interviews

Introduction Preparing for a technical interview is different from preparing for a normal interview. Technical interviews have an added layer to them, mainly, the coding round that tests whether your coding skills are up to the mark. In addition to being ready for the other interview rounds, aspirants have to ensure that their technical skills are able to withstand the pressure of the testing situation. That’s why, knowing what to expect and how to prepare can help you ace your technical interview, whether you are a newbie to the field or have significant job experience. In this blog, we’ll quickly run through the top 10 tried-and-tested tips that can help you perform well in your technical interview. So let’s start right away with the first tip, which is a pre-requisite for any interview—knowing what to expect. 1. Know What To Expect Technical interviews are different from typical interviews because they are more of a testing situation than the usual question-and-answer scenario found in non-technical job interviews. In technical interviews, you’ll be actually proving your expertise and skills in a particular domain rather than just displaying it on your resume. For the first tip, you’ll have to keep the following in mind: Is it a Virtual or an On-Site Interview? Most interview processes shifted online during the pandemic of 2020, and the technical interview process was no exception. The online interview process may be different from the on-site process, so make sure you are cognizant of all the details and requirements beforehand. Who Will Be Conducting the Interview? You don’t want to be in a situation where you are unaware of who is interviewing you. Research the company beforehand and read about the profiles of the people who will be interviewing you. If it’s a smaller company or a startup, for example, you may be interviewed by the engineering team.If it’s a larger company or a big corporation, you may be interviewed by the tech team or the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at different points in time. Know What Position You Are Applying For. It goes without saying that you need to know the ins and outs of the position you’re applying for. Research the post you’re aiming for and what it typically entails, including the type of work and the skills and requirements needed for the position. Knowing this will help you answer the question ‘Why will you be a good fit for this position?’ 2. Be Prepared for all 3 Stages Technical interviews contain three basic stages: The Screening Stage. If the executives like your resume and want to take the process ahead, they will invite you to a short 15-30 minute screening process to gauge your enthusiasm and interest in the job being offered. The Remote Coding Stage. This stage is like a preliminary round that briefly tests your coding skills. This stage is usually conducted over Zoom or Skype and lasts a few hours. If you pass this stage, you will receive an invitation for the actual technical interview. The On-Site Interview/Whiteboarding Stage. This is the last and most important interview stage, which consists of a ‘whiteboard’ interview where you will be asked to solve code and identify issues, and the rest of the normal interview process. This could take a few hours or even an entire day, so it’s best to be thoroughly mentally and physically prepared for this stage. It is important to perform well in all these stages, so keep in mind what each stage will require from you and prepare from that perspective. 3. Go Through Likely Questions You May Be Asked You can research the company on Glassdoor—you’ll gain information on what type of questions to expect and what types of questions you should be asking at the end. Some former employees may have even shared their experiences of what the interview process was like. Make lists of the typically asked coding interview questions and common as well as out-of-the-box interview questions and practice with friends or family in an interview-like situation. Besides technical questions, you will be asked various questions set in real-life scenarios, like behavioral and situational questions that ask you to solve problems. Vibrant Publishers has a range of Job Interview Preparation Books on technical topics such as Core Java interview questions, as well as books like HR Interview Questions and Innovative Interview Questions on non-technical interview aspects. 4. Practice, Practice, and Practice Code There’s no shortcut to practice. Practice will help you confidently solve the problems you are presented with. W3Schools is a good place to brush up on important concepts (like Fizzbuzz and the Fibonacci sequence, which are almost always asked) and watch tutorials to revise the fundamentals of code. Ideally, you should be practicing code all the time, even when you’re not preparing for an interview in the immediate future. Don’t leave the revision until the last minute; if there’s something you feel you’re not sure of, study it until you get it right. In the whiteboard coding challenge, you’ll be asked about typical computer science algorithms like reversing a binary tree or finding the shortest path in a graph, for example, which seem simple but are difficult to code on a physical board. Remember, writing these codes by hand is a completely different process from feeding them into a computer. So make sure to practice coding on paper. 5. Get Your Fundamentals Right We’ve mentioned earlier that technical interviews are more of a testing situation than a back-and-forth question-and-answer session. So, ensuring that your fundamentals are in the right place will save you from the embarrassment of not being able to answer relatively easy questions. Take time out before your interview to review the fundamental concepts and theorems, including concepts in data structures and algorithms, trees, sorting and search algorithms, and dynamic programming, to name a few areas. These are all areas in which you will be questioned in the interview, so keep these concepts on the top of your mind. 6. Ask Lots of Questions When you are not sure what the interviewer wants you to do, ask questions. You may assume that the coding has to be performed in a certain way, but there’s always another way—and the interviewer may fail you if you proceed with your wrong assumption and come up with a solution. So ask questions until you’re sure of what needs to be done. After all, the interviewers are not interested in whether you get the solution exactly right—they want to gauge your critical thinking skills in the process of approaching a problem. Rather than guessing what the interviewer wants you to do, clarify that first—and then start mapping out the problem. If your code isn’t returning the values you require, stay calm and work on debugging it—that’s another aspect interviewers will be evaluating you on. 7. Make Sure You Have All These Skills Interviewers not only look for individuals with strong technical skills, but a host of other skills like creativity, leadership, decision-making, problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and critical thinking skills. You should also know about the impact of your work in the larger context of infrastructure, analytical, and data systems as a whole. Don’t be afraid to showcase your knowledge when you have the opportunity to do it, but do it without coming across as overconfident or as though you’re rattling things off from memory. 8. Prepare a Portfolio of Your Work If you’ve worked on projects in the past, either personally or as part of an organization, you can showcase your work in the interview. It’s even better if you have projects in your portfolio that match the requirements of the role you’re applying to. Having a relevant project (or projects) to talk about will make you stand out in the interview and leave a good impression on the interviewer. This is another aspect of technical interviews that starts much before the actual interview process. As a software developer, you will need to keep honing your skills all the time—so start working on independent projects or contributing to open-source projects to give your resume that added layer of intrigue. 9. Dress Well and Act Confident—Even if You Don’t Feel Like It Never underestimate the power of neat and formal attire. The first impression you make on the interviewer will affect the rest of your interview. Dress well and project a confident aura, even when you feel nervous or intimidated. Part of the reason why interviews are conducted is to test how well you perform under pressure. So even if your brain is tingling with anxiety, try to remain outwardly calm. Remember that the interview is not the end of the world and giving your best is all you need to do in order to succeed. Maintaining an outward composure will translate into inner calm and you will be able to perform well in the interview—and you may end up even enjoying the process. 10. Follow Up After the Interview Many candidates are not aware of this little fact. It is considered good etiquette to send a thank-you email within 24 hours of your interview. If you were interviewed by many people, you could reach out to all of them with a thank-you email. If you haven’t heard back from the organization after a week, send a brief follow-up email requesting them to inform you of the status of your application. Your tone should not be demanding or come across as desperate but should be a reflection of your interest in the job. Extra Tip: Remember, just give your best performance and be prepared to accept the outcome. If you pass the interview, it will give you the confidence to do even better the next time you go for an interview. On the other hand, a failed interview is a learning process—you’ll know what to do and what not to do the next time. All the best for your technical interview! Next in this Series: Mock Interviews: Do They Help? Previous blog in this series: Top Tips for Cracking Your First Job Interview Note: Before you go, you can check out our Series of Interview Blogs for more tips and useful information to add that extra something to your interview.

Entering the adult world is intimidating. Standing up on your own feet and joining your first job is exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Sometimes, you might have to attend a bunch of interviews to crack one and finally get the job you desire. Rest assured, it’s totally normal to flub a few interviews when you are starting out. However, if you prepare yourself in just the right manner, your chances of cracking the interview at the very first attempt will increase dramatically. In the previous blog, we looked at what you should be doing before an interview. In this blog, we present to you our tried-and-tested top tips for cracking your very first job interview.   Before the Interview: 1. Spend time on building your resume: To attend your first job interview, you’ll have to get called for the interview. And for that, you need a well-written, ATS-compliant resume. Nowadays, most recruiters use some kind of ATS to screen online job applications. That’s why, even if you have all the necessary skills and qualifications needed for a job, if your resume is not correctly composed, your application will get rejected. 2. Learn about the job and the company: After getting a call for an interview, the first task at hand is to research the job description and the company. That means, visiting the company website and studying the “About” page thoroughly, and learning every important detail about the company. Next, search the web with your job title and company name, for example: “Accounting Assistant in XYZ Corporation”, and find insights from previous employees, if possible. If you can’t find anything, learn about the responsibilities of “Accounting Assistant” in general. 3. Study the core subjects well: The next part of your preparation is studying your subjects well, i.e. if you are interviewing for “Accounting Assistant”, study your accounting books well, and be prepared for subject-related questions well. Depending on your field of study and subject, there are lots of resources available online and offline, although nothing can beat the charm of real books, of course! Check out the interview special series of books from Vibrant Publishers to know what this means. Industry leaders from various fields have contributed their time, wisdom, and personal expertise to write each one of them. These books are the ultimate success mantra that you’re looking for. 4. Try mock interview sessions: Mock interviews help you visualize the actual interview scenarios well in advance. By asking your family or friends to set you up for a mock interview, you can practice every aspect of an interview, such as how to answer the questions, the tone and volume of your voice, body language, and more. During the Interview: 1. Dress appropriately:   Abiding by the interview dress code is an important aspect of the process. Nowadays, lots of organizations prefer semi-formal or work-casual dress codes. So, if you think dressing in formals is the most full-proof way of getting it right, you might need to think again. You might be overdressed for such companies. 2. Don’t be late: It’s obvious, isn’t it? Being late for an interview is the biggest blunder you can make. In fact, being exactly on time is also not desired. Be early instead. Reach the interview venue 5-10 minutes earlier, and wait patiently. That way, you can have some time to relax and calm your nerves. You also look sincere and genuinely interested in the job when you are a bit early. Interviewers prefer that. 3. Look confident: Acting confident is critical. Whatever you might be feeling inside, the interviewers don’t need to know that. So, do yourself a favor and leave your annoying habits of nail-biting, shaking legs, or fidgeting outside the interview room. Wear a nice smile on your face and offer a firm handshake. 4. Master the correct body language: Your body language gives away a lot of things that you try to hide. So, be extra careful about how you’re presenting yourself through non-verbal communication. Here are a few tips: Smile and greet every person on the interview board. Avoid sweaty palms and feeble handshakes. Maintain eye contact and always put a slight smile on your face. Sit up straight, but relaxed. Avoid looking like a robot by making your body stiff. After the Interview: 1. Thank the interviewer: Just like you greeted every person when you entered the interview room, maintain the same courtesy while leaving, and bid good-bye to everyone. 2. Follow-up with an email: Send in a follow-up email within 24 hours of the interview. Let them know that you had a great learning experience by attending the interview, and looking forward to a positive response from them. Conclude the mail by thanking them for their time. So, these are the most essential and important tips that you should follow to crack your very first job interview. However, it is also important to remember that success or failure doesn’t always depend on you fully, and there are some external factors to it. You might be good, but someone else might be better. The recruiters might select someone from internal recommendations, or the requirements for the candidates might change abruptly. So, even if you cannot crack it in your very first attempt, don’t lose hope. In the words of Winston Churchill: “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”   Next blog in this series: Top 10 Tips For Clearing Technical Interviews  Previous blog in this series: How to Do Your Homework Before an Interview

Interview preparations are tricky. No matter how much you study, it seems that the interviewer will ask you exactly the one question you haven’t prepared for. So, here’s a checklist for you that will make your interview homework easy. Make sure you don’t miss out on anything on this list! Study: 1. Your core subjects To prepare for an interview, the first and the most important thing to do is mugging up your textbooks. There’s nothing more off-putting than not knowing the answers of technical questions. Leave no stone unturned in your preparation and go through each and every important chapter in your textbooks. You can also try out books from our interview special editions. Take a look at our range of interview preparation books here. 2. General and common interview questions There are always some common questions asked in every interview which seem to be easy, but are actually pretty tough and tricky to answer, mostly because there are no fixed “correct answers” to them. Preparing for these questions beforehand will help you perform better in any interview. Take a look into some of these tricky questions: Tell me about yourself. What are your weaknesses? Why should we hire you? Why do you want to work with us? Why did you quit your last job? Here’s a book to help you further in your preparation. You can find all such commonly asked questions and suggested answers in the book. 3. Questions to ask the interviewer Another super-tricky part of an interview is where the interviewer asks you: “Do you have any questions?” If you are unprepared for this question, you’ll definitely end up saying, “No, thank you” because that seems to be the safest option. But that’s actually one of the biggest mistakes you can commit. Whenever you’re asked this question, you should always answer positively. Here are some examples of what you can ask the interviewer: Why is this post vacant? What according to you are some of the most important skills to succeed in this job? How did I perform in this interview? Research: To perform well in an interview, you need the joint force of study and research. Use your research skills to learn as many things about the company as you can. Here are some things that you must learn before stepping into the interview room: 1. Company’s background, vision, and mission Learn about the company’s background and the key people from the “About” page of their official website. Also learn about the company’s vision and mission to understand what values are important to the company, what their long-term and short-term goals are, and how you can fit into the company culture. 2. Company’s products and services Another very important thing to know about the company is its primary and secondary business areas. Knowing thoroughly about the company’s products and/or services will not only help you answer related questions in the interview, but will also give you an idea about your future job role. 3. Recent events and news about the company Has the company been the center of media attention lately? Is it for a good cause or a bad one? You need to know both.  If the company has been in the news for some great achievements lately, and you are unaware of it, then the interviewer will think that you are not interested enough in the company. Recruiters will much likely hire someone who is more updated than you. If the company has attracted negative publicity lately, you should be aware of that too, and make an informed decision whether to join them or not. 4. The person interviewing you And lastly, you need to gather some information about the person interviewing you. The name of the interviewer will most likely be mentioned in the interview call letter itself. But if it’s not there, you can write to them and request to divulge the information. Knowing about the person interviewing you will help you prepare in advance. You can find out about the person’s background and career records from LinkedIn, and knowing these things will help you converse with him better. If you are lucky enough, you can also find out about how that person is as an interviewer, and what kind of questions they ask, from websites like Glassdoor. When it comes to success in an interview, no amount of preparation is ‘too much’. If you follow these 7 tips, you will definitely increase your chances of cracking the interview. All the best for your interview! Next up in this series: Top Tips for Cracking Your First Job Interview Previous blog in this series: Understanding the Interview Process: Stages and Challenges

The recruitment process involves multiple stages. So far, we’ve discussed how the job applicant can search for suitable jobs, the job portals available for application, and the correct procedure for applying. We’ve also had a lengthy conversation on how to craft the perfect ATS-compliant resume. But what exactly happens after your resume crosses the ATS barrier, impresses the human recruiter, and gets shortlisted? What are the different stages of the interview that come after this stage? This is where the tough part starts and your real skills in your field of work are tested to the core. Since different organizations have different policies and methods for interviewing and recruiting, this might seem difficult and uncertain, especially for freshers. Here in this article, you’ll find an overview of the interview process, its stages, and challenges, to help freshers understand the recruitment scenario in general. Telephonic/Online Screening When your resume and application are shortlisted, most companies arrange for an initial screening session with the candidates. It can either be over the phone or online. Nowadays, advanced ATS systems are equipped with additional programming which helps the recruiter conduct online screening very easily. Some organizations also rely on AI and bots to conduct the screening process. The online screening test might contain technical questions related to your field or basic and common interview questions. The point of the screening call is to have a conversation with the candidate to gauge his personality, promptness, and attitude. Here are some examples of the questions asked during the basic screening round: Tell me about yourself. Why did you choose this career? What do you like most about this job? What are your expectations from our company? Do you have any questions for us? Note: Telephonic Screening at the early stages of recruitment is not the same as Telephonic Interviews. A phone interview is similar to an actual face-to-face interview, except for the fact that it happens over the phone. If your phone or online screening goes well, within a few days, they will follow up with a second call, setting a date for your on-site interview. The On-Site Interview Process The actual interview may be a short or lengthy process, depending upon the company and its rules. When you have a single round of interview: There may only be a single round of either a one-to-one interview or a panel interview, after which the recruiters  directly move on to the salary negotiations. Sometimes the salary negotiations also happen on the same day or even during the very first meeting. The single-round interviews generally happen in case of walk-in interviews, bulk recruitments, or when companies recruit for junior-level positions. In a one-to-one interview, as the name suggests, there is one interviewer and one interviewee. In a panel interview, a small group of recruiters will be interviewing you. While attending a panel interview, it is important to greet each member of the panel individually, paying attention to each one of them, and trying to answer all the different questions coming from each of them. When you have multiple rounds of interview: Alternatively, some companies have a lengthier interview process. There might be two rounds of interviews with a GD (Group Discussion) round in-between or preceding them, and a final negotiations meeting. As already mentioned, there are no fixed orders or fixed rules for the interview process. However, knowing what the interview rounds consist of is essential. A company might have a few, or all of the following rounds, depending on their internal policies. Group Discussion In a group discussion, a number of candidates will be placed together and the moderator will announce a topic. You have to engage with the other candidates in a meaningful discussion on the topic. Group discussions are a way for the recruiters to test the candidate's soft skills, i.e. communication skills, interpersonal skills, stress management skills, critical thinking abilities, & team spirit. The topic for group discussion varies from current affairs, moral dilemmas, questions on work ethics and politics, and technical topics related to your field. Here are some common GD topics that you can expect irrespective of your field: Impacts of Covid-19 on the global economy US-China Trade War and its impacts Marketing on Social Media The possibility and impact of Third World War Data localization: Benefits and Challenges Skill Test For technical job interviews, there is always a technical round. It may precede the interviews or may be in between the stages. Even for non-technical positions, there might be some forms of skill tests to ascertain how you go about your research and work in general. Sometimes, there might be an aptitude test instead of a skill test where you can expect questions on quant, logical reasoning, and languages. Interview with the HR The first round of interviews generally happens with the HR team. The discussion revolves around your skills, qualifications, and what you bring to the table for the company. This round is more like a personality test. It will give HR a good idea about whether you will be a suitable addition to the company’s workforce. Here are some examples of the questions asked in this round: Why do you want this position? What is your greatest weakness? How would you handle a negative coworker? How do you handle deadlines? Tell me about a time when you set a goal in your personal life and achieved it. Interview with the Hiring Manager The second round of interviews generally happens with the hiring managers. Hiring managers are people who are in charge of hiring for a particular department inside a company. Sometimes, the person who will be your immediate boss or the leader of your team executes this role. In this round, your in-depth knowledge of the work will be tested. So, expect more skill-based or experience-based questions in this round. The Negotiation Round The third and final round is generally another meeting with the HR team to discuss benefits and compensation. By this time, you might be certain that you’re going to get the job, and the only thing left to do is reach a middle ground between your expectations and the company’s offer. With the worldwide pandemic panic, well-known scenarios around the job market are changing for good. It is speculated that by 2025, almost every leading organization in the world is planning to shift at least 70% of their workforce to a remote working system. Naturally, we can expect that the interview process will also embrace these changes. Thanks to apps like Zoom and Google Meet, group discussions, and interview processes are held remotely with multiple participants. But even with the changes in the mode of communication, a candidate should prepare individually for all these rounds to crack these remote interviews. Interview process in some popular IT companies (For Software Engineer/Developer roles): Microsoft Microsoft has multiple rounds of telephonic and face-to-face interviews. Telephonic interview: The first round of telephonic interview might last for about 30 minutes and common technical questions are asked in this round. Sometimes this first round may be followed by a second round of telephonic interviews, but it depends on the interviewer/ recruiting team. On-site Interview Round 1: This is a technical round and questions are expected to revolve around your expertise in coding and designing. On-site Interview Round 2: This is a face-to-face conversation round with HR and questions can vary from your education, experience, and skills to your future plans and goals. On-site Interview Round 3: Round 3 with the hiring managers combines technical questions as well as situational analysis and problem-solving in a practical scenario. On-site Interview Round 4: This is the meet-up with the director which is probably the last hurdle that you’ll have to cross. You can expect a few technical as well as HR questions in this round. On-site Interview Round 5: The final round is not a question-answer session but the negotiation round for compensation and benefits. Oracle Oracle follows a comparatively simpler interview process which consists of 3 main rounds, viz. Written examination: The written examination contains questions on aptitude, general intelligence, quant, knowledge of the English language, and a number of technical questions. Technical interview: The technical interview tests your technical knowledge in different computer programming languages and applications such as Java, Oracle, SQL, DBMS, SAP, etc, in variable complexities. HR interview: The HR round is a face-to-face round where common HR questions about yourself, your background, technical knowledge, working style, situational questions, and questions about your future outlook are asked. HP HP also follows a multiple-round structure for recruiting freshers in their organization. It consists of almost 4-5 rounds depending on the recruiting team. The basic stages are as follows: Written Examination: The written examination consists of three parts: Verbal ability, General Aptitude (Including Quant and GI), and a few technical questions. Multiple stages of Technical Interview: The technical test follows next. The technical interview can be quite extensive, held across 2-3 different rounds. The topics include Data Structure and Algorithms, OOPs, Networking, Operating System, DBMS, and more. HR Round: If you qualify in the previous rounds, you’ll be called in for a face-to-face with the HR team. General questions about yourself, your background, and your future plans are asked in this round. TCS TCS follows a 4-step interview process to recruit freshers in their organization. These are: Written examination: The written test is divided into 4 sections viz. Quantitative Aptitude, Programming language efficiency, Coding test, and E-mail writing test. Technical interview: The written exam is followed by a technical interview where your technical knowledge will be extensively tested. Interview with the hiring manager: The next stage is the face-to-face interview with the hiring managers. Expect both technical questions and general questions about yourself to be asked. Interview with the HR: Lastly, you’ll be subjected to an interview with the HR where your personality and attitude will be tested with questions on situational analysis, problem-solving, critical thinking abilities, and work ethics. So, these are the stages and challenges of interviews that you’re likely to face in the pursuit of your dream job. Although the steps and procedures are different for each organization, still, preparing for these steps individually will help you crack any interview, irrespective of the process.   Books that Can Help With Technical Interview Preparation If you’re preparing for a technical interview and need informative yet concise resources, take a look at some of our Job Interview Preparation Books below. Core Java Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked HR Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked (Third Edition) Innovative Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked Leadership Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked All the best for your interview! Next up in this series: How to Do Your Homework Before an Interview Previous blog in this series: The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Impressive, ATS-Compliant Resume

Introduction As Covid-19 spread internationally, the world saw a decline in public health and the global economy. It is therefore not surprising that, as the pandemic wanes, researchers noticed a rising trend in unemployment with almost 48 million people quitting their jobs in 2021. This is popularly known as “The Great Resignation.” This phenomenon looks like a ‘tidal wave’ as numerous surges of labor market workers are changing their jobs and taking advantage of the economy’s re-emergence. Continuing in 2022, 44% of employees are now “job seekers.” Some choose to factor burnout or lifestyle changes into their decision, but most cite the rise of ample opportunities with higher pay or better benefits. LHH’s overview of this turnover tsunami highlights that there is a desire for career development among workers of all generations. As we adapt to this new era, it is critical that we take the opportunity to make the most of our prospects. Here are our tips for finding this “safe port” for career development: Maximize the transition period Time is of the utmost essence. It is imperative to organize and set everyday goals when transitioning to your next career. Sally Thornton, CEO and founder of Forshay, recommends taking two weeks off. This will allow you to catch your breath and properly prepare for your new position. Additionally, don’t be afraid to add vacationing to your list. This is a crucial step for de-stressing and mentally preparing for the next journey. Develop your skills Next, updating your skillset will greatly benefit any long-term career development. You can ascertain whether you’re the right fit for a certain industry by seeing if your skillset matches their needs. We also need to reflect on the growing value of soft skills. These skills — such as listening, communication, or time management — are now being recognized as non-negotiable skills for success in any field. It’s not too late to start developing these skills. Research shows that, through enough time and practice, soft skills can be learned by adults. Prepare properly for the job search Now that you have the mindset and the skills, it’s time to enter the job search. Try not to put all of your eggs in one basket: explore options. Make sure that you’ve researched the companies and whether their expectations meet yours. Lastly, read through manuals that detail the questions expected in job interviews. Ensure that these match the field of the occupation and practice your answers beforehand. This will help you build a positive impression with future employers. Give yourself time to adjust After the build-up, you’ve finally gotten a new job. However, a common concern is the ‘new job anxiety’ as you settle into an unfamiliar work environment. You may find yourself questioning whether you made the right decision. Manage your expectations wisely. Create short-term goals and assess the factors for when they are or aren’t achieved. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to communicate with your new team. The adjustment period for working relationships goes both ways. Conclusion The Great Resignation may not be for everyone. However, for workers who have been thinking of a career change, this is undoubtedly the best time to maximize their opportunities. Take the chance. With the above tips, you’ll have realized that the change doesn’t have to be scary. It is merely through thorough preparation that you can find success. That’s why we, at Vibrant Publishers, strive to provide the highest quality books to help working professionals transition into other fields.. With the “turnover tsunami” and our resources, it’s easier to turn your losses into professional gains. Check out our series of enriching, easy-to-understand books for professionals: Self-Learning Management Series Test Prep Series  Job Interview Questions Series You may also be interested in: Job Search in 2022- A Complete Guide For Freshers The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Impressive, ATS-Compliant Resume   

Are you still creating your resume by copying the format from seniors/friends and changing the details? It’s high time you stop. In today’s highly-competitive job market, every online (and offline too) job posting receives thousands of applications every day. Naturally, most of the resumes end up in the trash can, and only a very limited number of selected candidates get called for the face-to-face interview process. In the previous blog, we looked at the ways one can search for a job and the popular platforms used by job seekers in 2022. Today we’ll tell you how to build the most impressive resume that significantly increases your chances of getting an interview call. But first thing first, let’s take a look into a few Frequently Asked Questions to better understand the process. 1. CV or Resume: Which one to choose? In many countries like Australia, South Africa, Parts of Europe, and India, the terms CV and Resume are used interchangeably. However, in North America (USA and Canada), these two terms denote two different documents. CV: A CV is a long, detailed description of the course of your academic and professional life. A CV can be as long as it requires to be, and records every important detail of a person’s career. In the USA and Canada, a CV is generally used for academic jobs, or when specifically asked for a CV. Resume: A Resume is a short and precise documentation of your career records and includes only specific and relevant information needed to apply for a particular job. A Resume is ideally only one-page long, however, two-page Resumes are also acceptable. In the USA and Canada, a Resume is generally used for non-academic, regular jobs. NOTE: Unlike CV, which stays put in its original form, and is only updated with added information over time, a Resume is highly customizable, and needs to be updated every time you apply for a different job role, or even when you apply for the same job titles in different companies. 2. What is ATS and why should my resume be ATS-Compliant? An ATS or Applicant Tracking System is software that helps recruiters and hiring authorities in the recruitment process. ATS is like a digital hiring assistant that helps in sorting and parsing resumes, updating and maintaining the database of applicants, scheduling interviews, and even onboarding the selected candidates. The primary function of ATS is sorting and parsing resumes. When a recruiter posts a job online, she might receive thousands of applications. Reading through all of them and short-listing the top candidates is next to impossible for a single person. But an ATS can perform this task easily by comparing the candidate’s data against the recruiter’s pre-set criteria. The comparison mostly happens based on the presence or absence of relevant keywords in the applicant’s resume/application. That’s why your resume needs to be ATS-compliant. Otherwise, no matter how qualified you are, the absence of the right keywords can lead to ATS considering your application irrelevant, and therefore get you rejected even before it reaches the hands of the recruiter. 3. How to make my resume ATS-compliant? As mentioned earlier, ATS programs use many algorithms to rank resumes in order of their quality. With ATS, one of the primary parameters of such tests is the presence or absence of certain keywords. These keywords heavily depend on the job description. So, one of the best ways to find these keywords is to study the job description carefully, point out the keywords, and include them strategically all over your resume. Another easy way to find such keywords is using an online resume optimization program. You need to copy-paste the job description and your resume data in relevant boxes and run the program. The software will automatically produce a list of missing keywords that you need to include in your resume. Some advanced programs also provide additional information to further improve your resume. 4. Is passing the ATS test enough? The primary purpose of building an ATS-Compliant resume is to get past the ATS screening. But this is not the end of the recruitment process; rather, it is the beginning. What happens when your application does get approved by ATS and hiring managers take a look at it? Surveys and studies suggest, your resume has only 8 seconds to impress the recruiter. And that’s why it’s so important to choose the right format, the right points, and the right language to build your resume. Below we’ve discussed everything there is to know about creating the ideal resume for any job. An ideal resume will look like this. You can use this template to build your own.   Resume Format: In terms of the order of resume elements, there are three formats accepted worldwide. Each of them serves a special purpose, and according to your career history, you should choose the correct one suitable for you. 1. Functional Resume Format: This is the most common and most widely-used resume format in the US and Canada. In this resume format, work experience is given preference and is therefore included in the beginning. 2. Chronological Resume Format: As the name suggests, this resume format documents your career graph in a chronological (or more commonly, reverse-chronological) order, by including academic details in the beginning. 3. Combination Format: This format is also called a freestyle resume format where the candidate places the points that he thinks are the most relevant and important in the beginning. Resume Summary: A resume summary is, without a doubt, the most important part of a resume. Amidst the pool of hundreds of resumes, hiring managers and recruiters often don’t read beyond the resume summary unless she finds the summary grasping and relevant. An ideal resume summary should not be longer than 3-5 sentences. Only the most important and relevant points should be included in this section. From academic records, to special achievements, to skills and experiences, anything can be included in a summary. You can use bullet points to make it easier to read. Example:   In the above example, the “Bad Resume Summary” fails to include the most important information about the candidate, and include less-important things like:  ‘The candidate is looking for a job in the publishing industry’, Or, ‘The candidate worked at XYZ organization previously’ This information is less important for the hiring manager. Rather, knowing the following things will be more important for the recruiter:  ‘The candidate has working experience of Digital Marketing’ Or, ‘The candidate successfully boosted the SEO performance and lead generation in an organic way through Content in her last organization’. Resume Objective: Resume objective is becoming increasingly obsolete these days. Unless you have something really important to add, it’s better to skip resume objective altogether, because faulty resume objectives do more harm than good. Contact Information: Including your contact details in a neat way is necessary. Mentioning your contact number/s and email address is enough and adding home address is unnecessary. Optionally, you can add your LinkedIn profile link, your personal website/blog page link, or your social media handles in this section. Work Experience: Mention your work experience in a reverse-chronological order, starting from the most recent experience. Mention your job title and include a brief detail about your responsibilities, and special achievements (if any) under this section, but keep it precise. In the above example, the first instance is considered an incorrect way to include work experience because: It completely omits the time-frame of the employment. It doesn’t include a brief summary of the job description. Alternatively, the second instance is considered the correct way because: It includes the time-frame of the employment (in case of employment gap, only mention 2017-2019, instead of January 2017- December 2019). It includes a brief summary of the job description. Academic Records: Unless explicitly asked for, there’s no need to include your school records in this section. Mentioning details of your higher studies professional courses that you’ve completed/currently attending are generally enough. In case of GPAs or marks/percentage too, unless you have a high-achieving record throughout, it’s better to leave them out (again, unless explicitly asked for). Extra-Curricular Activities: Since a resume has limited space, including extra-curricular activities are a bit tricky. You can always include achievements in sports and physical activities in this field, since these skills are almost always impressive. However, if you are applying for a graphic designing job, it’s better to leave out the information that you won a state-level singing competition because it’s irrelevant. But if you’re applying for a Content Writer role, your debating skills might be relevant enough to be included in your resume. Hard and Soft Skills: Hard Skills denote job-specific skills that are needed for the particular designation. For example, for the Accounting Assistant post, knowledge of Accounts, Book-Keeping, Business Economics etc, falls under the category of Hard Skills. Soft Skills denote general skills that are needed to excel at any job. For example, communication skills, critical thinking abilities, organizational skills, computer skills, etc. are not specific to any particular job but are necessary to become a good employee in general. It is important to list both your hard skills and soft skills in your resume. You can either make two separate lists for two types of skills, or mention all of them in bullet points under a single section. This section is a good place to include as many relevant keywords as possible to make your resume ATS compliant. In the example above, the first instance is considered to be the incorrect way to include skills, not only because it hasn’t distinguished between the hard and soft skills, but also because writing the skills in a paragraph looks more cluttered and the recruiters lose interest in them. Meanwhile, the second instance is considered to be the correct way, not only because it shows a clear distinction between Hard and Soft skills, but it also lists the skills in a clear and organized way that makes the resume more presentable and easy to read. The better the presentation of your resume, the more a recruiter takes interest in your writing. Languages: Include all the languages that you know and also mention the level of expertise in your resume (i.e. beginner, proficient, expert, etc.) Hobbies & Interests: Just like the extra-curricular activities section, limit this part only to those interests that are directly or indirectly related to the job in question. Cover Letter: Some candidates add the line “Cover letter available upon request”. This is completely unnecessary. If you’re asked for a cover letter, include it in your application. Otherwise, just leave it. 5. How should the resume be tailored before sending out job applications? When it comes to resumes, there isn’t any ‘one-size-fits-all’ formula that you can apply. To get the best possible result with both the applicant tracking systems and the hiring authorities of an organization, you need to modify your existing resume for each individual application. How does it help to beat the ATS? As discussed before, ATS ranks all of the candidates’ resumes in order of quality and relevance, and the prime factor in the decision-making process is the presence of relevant keywords. Now, keywords can be tricky to deal with. Sometimes, even for similar job roles, these keywords vary from one job post to another. For example: ‘Junior Accountant’ and ‘Accounting Assistant’ might denote similar positions in two different organizations, but ATS will identify them as different keywords. So, when you are tailoring your resume for a particular job posting, go with the keywords that they have used in their Job Description and replace your existing ones. This is true for all the aspects of a resume, be it the necessary skills, qualification, or experiences. When you fill your resume with significant keywords for a specific job at a specific organization, the ATS will easily recognize the relevance factor and rank your application higher, thus improving your chances of getting an interview call. How does it impress the hiring authorities? Custom-made resumes will also impress the hiring managers more than a stock resume. Different hiring authorities prioritize different aspects of a job in their organization. Understanding their priorities and highlighting those aspects in your resume will impress the recruiters more. The tailoring process: Modifying your resume every time you apply for a job seems to be a tedious task. But actually, it’s very easy. You don’t have to write your whole resume from scratch again and again, a few tweaks here and there will do. Here’s how: Select the ideal resume format: As described before, you need to choose from 3 resume formats, i.e. Reverse Chronological, Functional, and Combination format. These different formats highlight different aspects of your resume by placing them at the top. So, you need to choose a format depending on what you want to highlight. As a fresher doesn’t have work experiences yet, the reverse-chronological format is ideal for him because it begins with his educational and professional qualifications, and then proceeds to include the internship/part-time experiences (if any). On the contrary, if you happen to have significant and relevant experiences in the field you’re applying for, the Functional resume format will be ideal for you because it begins with the list of your work experiences, and then includes academic and other details. The combination format is suitable for freelancers/career-changers/people in creative fields because it doesn’t follow a strict rule of order, and can be used to highlight any aspect of the candidate’s resume (work portfolio/skills/special achievements etc.) Resume Summary vs. Resume Objective: Modern resume building techniques place high importance on resume summary. No matter which format you choose, a resume summary must be there. On the contrary, the resume objective is not considered to be important nowadays and is recommended only for career-changers. The resume objective gives career-changers the opportunity to explain why they changed their career path and what they are looking for in their future employments. Work Experience: This part will remain mostly unchanged. However, you might need to change some of the job details to match the criteria better. Example 1:  In your old resume as a Java Developer, you included the following details as your top 3 responsibilities: Develop and test new application software Design and implement Java application phases Maintain and improve existing Java application processes Albeit the job roles are similar, you find that your target job has included these points in their job description: Conduct software analysis, programming and debugging Contribute in software development activities Developing well-designed codes, etc. You can then just rephrase a few of your existing points to match the new job description in a better way. Example 2: In your old job, you required expertise in all 3 languages viz. Java, C++, and Python, so your old resume included all 3 of them. However, if your new job requires only knowledge of Java, your resume should reflect that too. In such cases, you should only include Java (and related work experience) in this field, and the extra information (knowledge of C++ and Python) in the “Skills” section as an addendum (by just adding them at the bottom of the list). Alternatively, if the opposite thing happens, i.e. your old job required only Java and the new job requires all three, although you cannot include the two languages in your work experience, you must include them in your Profile Summary or Skills section and highlight them by putting them on top. Academic records: Remains unchanged. Extra-curricular activities/Hobbies & Interests: Select only the ones relevant to your present role. Hard and Soft Skills: Rephrasing might be needed based on the criteria for the new job. Languages: Unless you speak more than 3 languages, and your job is directly related to your language skills, including the “Languages” section is best left for freshers only. As you gain experience and have much more important details to share, including the languages section becomes unnecessary. The journey from applying to a job to getting a job is a long process, and the toughest hurdle in this journey is getting called for an interview. And to cross this hurdle, a well-built resume is your only tool. Now you know how to build the perfect resume, and how to tailor them for individual applications. A perfect resume will not help you with both the AI systems and the human recruiters, and finally, you will receive the much-awaited call for the interview round. Team Vibrant Publishers wishes you all the best! Next up in this series: Understanding the Interview Process: Stages and Challenges Previous blog in this series: Job search in 2022- A Complete Guide for Freshers Books you might find useful: Leadership Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked Innovative Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked HR Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked

Welcome! If you are an aspiring job seeker looking for your dream job, this guide is for you. It is presented in the form of a series of blogs that contain all you need to know about searching for a job in 2022. In these blogs, we’ll cover what it means to write an ATS-compliant resume, understanding the challenges of the interview process, what you can do before an interview, tips for clearing job interviews, how you can perform well in your technical interviews, and whether mock interviews help. The job application process isn’t the same as it was a few years ago. In the present decade, the recruitment process largely starts online, and thanks to the emergence of numerous popular job portals and job boards, you can be pretty self-sufficient in your job hunt process if you know how to find and apply to the job(s) you want. Here’s all you need to know about how to find your dream job and apply for it. 1. Through recommendations: Getting recommended by a present employee of an organization improves your chances of getting called for the interview round simply because of the ‘trust factor’ involved in it. If you happen to have an acquaintance in a company you aspire to work for, don’t shy away from requesting them to write you a recommendation letter. 2. Through Placement Agencies/Staffing Agencies: Placement agencies can be a significant help while finding a suitable job, especially when you are a fresher or you have an employment gap. A good placement agency helps you in the following ways: They provide you with career counseling, advice on how to acquire the missing skills and qualifications for your target job, and also provide professional help to improve your supporting documents like resume and cover letter. They train and prepare you for your impending job interviews. As a part of their jobs, an interview coach from a job consultancy knows exactly what to expect in a job interview from different companies and different job roles. This inside knowledge can give you an edge over others in the interview round. Placement companies skillfully place the right candidate in the right position. As a result, you thrive and grow in the right environment. But the big question is- how to select a good placement agency/staffing agency? As discussed in the previous point, before registering with a placement agency, you should find out whether they are providing such benefits like interview training, resume optimization, and career counseling. Also, do your research about the company’s background. Has it ever been in the news for the wrong reasons? What are the previous clients saying? How was the experience of the past jobseekers? What kind of additional benefits do they provide? Apart from these, two other major things to look for are: Whether you’ll be under the direct payroll of the company you’re working for, or will it be under the placement agency. Are there any hidden charges involved? To avoid any undesirable situation, read the contract papers thoroughly before signing. When you are satisfied with all the answers to these questions, you can proceed with the registration. While applying for jobs through job portals, these are the things that you should keep in mind: Complete your profile: Fill out all the details that the portal asks for, including your education history, work experience, internship experience, workshops and training you attended, certificates you earned, publications, awards and recognition, and all other details. Be especially careful while filling out your contact details. If the recruiter can’t reach you because of a faulty digit in your contact number, it’s all for naught. A completed profile attracts more attention to the recruiter and also improves your credibility. Upload supporting documents: Upload your most updated resume on the portal. If the portal asks for other supporting documents like copies of your degrees/diplomas, experience certificates, or published copies of your work (where applicable), you should upload them. These documents support your claims and that in turn makes the recruiters more interested in your profile. Refrain from posting false claims: This goes without saying, filling up your resume and online job profile with imaginary details may seem tempting unless you end up getting caught, which might even attract legal prosecution. Be consistent and regular: Creating an account and only logging in once a month to shoot out some applications is not the way to successfully use these platforms. Logging in frequently (at least 3 times a week), updating your profile often, and keep applying to suitable jobs will help your account stay ‘Active’. Active accounts get more views and are recommended to the recruiters more by AI algorithms of these portals. Here’s a list of the most popular online job portals in the USA right now: LinkedIn is the number one and most popular job portal in the world. We will talk about it in detail later. There are several alternative job portals like: Indeed CareerBuilder Glassdoor Google for jobs ZipRecruiter Monster And the most popular online job portals in India are as follows: Naukri Monster India TimesJobs Indeed Glassdoor Job-Searching the smart way: New and Emerging Trends for 2022 20-year old Ankita Chawla (Instagram: @hireankitachawla) from Mumbai, India turned her Instagram profile into a digital portfolio by posting a series of snaps. She turned her Instagram gallery into a collage of visual content, thus showing the recruiters what she can do and not merely claiming it! She got hired within weeks by Deloitte India and is now working with them as a visual content creator.             For all the job seekers out there, this is an exceptionally good time to apply out-of-the-box thinking and leverage your creative potential to achieve professional success. Grabbing the recruiters’ attention through social media is becoming an increasingly popular trend since the last couple of years. Top recruiters all over the world are also embracing these trends with an open heart. Facebook currently allows recruiters to post job openings. Instagram is primarily popular for small businesses, startups, and freelancers to gain clients, but approaching recruiters for traditional jobs is also gaining momentum in this platform. LinkedIn for Jobseekers While talking about using social media, nothing can and will beat LinkedIn, the no.1 social media platform for professionals. Let’s look at some numbers before proceeding: Total LinkedIn users across the world (2022): 740 million Total active users: 310 million Total users from the US: 180 million Total users from India: 82 million Why should you have a LinkedIn profile? LinkedIn is one of the largest and best job boards in the world. You can be assured that almost every position that opens up in an organization gets posted on LinkedIn first. This is true across the world. You get access to a pool of jobs that’s impossible to find anywhere else. Business leaders, influencers, recruiters, everybody uses LinkedIn to connect and communicate with their network. By following the right people, you get to be among the first ones to know about an opening in your favorite company, or about some changed criteria for a job you are targeting. LinkedIn is the favorite place for industry leaders to convey their thoughts and ideas- ideas that often determine the current trends and patterns of the industry. By being on LinkedIn, you stay up-to-date with your areas of interest which pays off really well in the interviews. LinkedIn not only helps leaders and influencers to express their views, but also does the same for you. You can also put out relevant content on LinkedIn and showcase your knowledge and expertise to the world, and build your own brand. Before hiring someone, recruiters often check the candidate’s LinkedIn profile to know more about him. This gives you a chance to impress them even before you enter the interview room. In fact, you can also do the same and find out about the person interviewing you. Knowing about your interviewer’s professional background helps you in the interview process as you can then have more meaningful interactions with him, and connect to him in a better and more effective way. How should you use LinkedIn for job search? To get the most out of LinkedIn, you should do the following things: Let recruiters know you’re open: Make sure you keep your ‘Career Interest’ status as “Open” so recruiters know that you are available for hire. You can also use your LinkedIn profile headline to write about the same. Let recruiters know you’re open: Like your profile on job portals, your LinkedIn profile also needs to be up-to-date and completely filled up all the time. Include all your professional history, add a professional photograph and a suitable header image, and most importantly, write your profile summary wisely. Be active: Use ‘LinkedIn insights’ to connect with recruiters and people from your own industry. But don’t just stop there. Post your thoughts, experiences, ideas, and creations regularly. Don’t just put a Like on other people’s posts, rather, put out your thoughts and comment something meaningful. Being consistently active on LinkedIn increases your visibility. Again, increased visibility means better exposure, and a better chance to get noticed by recruiters. So, no matter what platform you are primarily using for your job search, having a well-built LinkedIn profile is desirable. In recent years, renowned companies have become increasingly accommodating to new and innovative ideas to recruit employees. Calling upon video portfolios, using virtual reality and AI assistance in the recruitment process, contacting candidates via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, picking up candidates based on Quora answers, the recruitment world has seen some real out-of-the-box approaches recently, and surely, these trends will continue well into the future years. So, make the best use of your internet connection and build up your brand in the best innovative way that you can think of. Soon, you’ll be the one to be approached by companies and recruiters, instead of the other way round! Team Vibrant Publishers wishes you all the best! Next up in this series: The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Impressive, ATS-Compliant Resume Books you might find useful: Leadership Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked Innovative Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked HR Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked