Tips For Team InterView

Whether you are searching for jobs, looking for career avenues or climbing the corporate ladder, you can't escape team interviews these days. The problem is that such interviews don't have a pattern to them. They come in different forms. You could be facing your prospective team members. Or you could be up against the top brass—HR vice-president, the section head, the operations chief. Or you could also be sent to a recruitment assessment centre for multi-parametric evaluation (psychological tests for pressure-handling abilities, team-player skills and so on).

Remember you might be interviewed by different panels. Don't give a stock answer to all of them. They'll be comparing notes.Repackage your skills so that they sound different. If you're showcasing project X as your major achievement in your present job before one team, talk about project B before another interview panel.A technical team will tune in to techie talk; an HR team would rather hear about your interpersonal skills.

FINE-TUNE INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Interviewers are people after all. Look for the personality type underscoring each interviewer.Then try and connect with each one of them without getting personal. Usually the best way to make contact is to project values that you feel you can share with your interviewers.

Precautions to Take-up before you enter the Interview Room

       For your first few interviews your background is important - your
school, the medium and the place you studied in, all serve to give
the interviewer an idea about you. Carry a copy of the bio-data that
you have already sent, and the interview letter. Keep the extra copy
with you, just in case. Show the interview letter to the

receptionist/interviewer to establish your credentials, but keep this
letter with you. This gives you, for your future reference, a time
and date record of your interview, gives the official address of the
company for further correspondence and clarifications, and may give
you the name and designation of the person you are to report to.
Carry everything you need for the interview in a neat folder - do not
have loose papers cascading to the floor because you are desperately
hunting for the degree certificate, while the interviewers drum their
fingers impatiently. And don't carry your papers in a plastic or
cloth shopping bag either: invest in a good folder, plastic or even
leather.
      Incidentally, don't feel shy or hesitant about calling up the office
and getting details about location, landmarks/bus routes/other
information to help you reach the venue of the interview. Again, if
it is not a "mass" interview, where lots of people are being
interviewed on the same day, and you do have a genuine difficulty
about reaching on the scheduled day/time, many employers will re-
schedule if you ask them nicely enough. The reverse is also true: a
good impression is created if you take the trouble to inform the
interviewer that you can/will not attend the interview. If you are in
the same town go and "case the joint" - see where the
office/interview centre is, and how long it will take you to get
there.
      Always arrive at least fifteen minutes before your scheduled time -
that gives you time to catch your breath in case you climbed the
stairs too fast, allows you to compose yourself and not be too
nervous, and to check out the competition. If the interview is in the
offices of the company itself, this also allows you to get a "feel"
of the company. See how comfortable you feel, how efficient the
interview process is. Says a lot about what the rest of the company
is.

How To face The Interview

1.Are your work practices similar or different from ours?
(If Experienced)
2.Describe our (products/services).
3.Describe our company for me.
4.Describe our corporate environment for me.
5.Describe your work (methods/processes) in comparison to ours?
(If Experienced)
6.Do our competitors do things that we should be doing?
7.Do you have any concerns about working here?
8.Do you have any questions about (our/this) company?
9.Do you know how long we have been in business?
10.Do you know what products we make?
11.How could you have prevented your (judgmental) errors?
12.How do you think our company determines success?
13.How does you present employer communicate with others in your
deprtment? (If Experienced)
14.Tell me how you found out information about (our/this) company?
15.Tell me what you know about (our/this) company?
16.Was there anything your company could have done to be more
successful?
17.What about our company do you like best?
18.What about your present employer (do/did) you like best?
19.What advantages do you think our competitors have over us?
20.What advantages do you think we have over our competitors?
21.What are the greatest challenges that this company faces?
22.What concerns do you have about this company?
23.What direction do you think this company is headed in?
24.What do you dislike about our company?
25.What do you know about (our/this) company?
26.What do you know about (our/this) operation?
27.What do you know about our competitors?
28.What do you know about our customers?
29.What do you know about our products?
30.What do you know about our products or services?
31.What do you know about our stock?
32.What do you know about our web site?
33.What do you know about the way our company (works/operates)?
34.What do you know about this position?
35.What do you think are the challenges facing this company?
36.What do you think are the greatest challenges facing this company
in the near future?
37.What do you think it takes to be successful in a company like
ours?
38.What do you think it takes to be successful in our company?
39.What do you think the atmosphere here is like?
40.What is the financial stability of your last company?
41.What questions do you have about our organization?
42.What would make someone successful in our business?
43.What is the (best/worst) thing you have heard about (our/this)
company?
44. What is the (best/worst) thing you have heard about
(our/this) department?

GD Do's

1. Be as natural as possible. Do not try and be someone you are not. Be yourself.
2. A group discussion is your chance to be more vocal. The evaluator wants to hear you speak.
3. Take time to organize your thoughts. Think of what you are going to say.
4. Seek clarification if you have any doubts regarding the subject.
5. Don't start speaking until you have clearly understood and analyzed the subject.
6. Your body language says a lot about you - your gestures and mannerisms are more likely to reflect your attitude than what you say.
7. Language skills are important only to the effect as to how you get your points across clearly and fluently.
8. Always be polite.
Brush up on your leadership skills; motivate the other members of the team to speak and listen to their views.

Why Group Discussion

The reason why institutes put you through a Group discussion and an interview, after testing your technical and conceptual skills in an exam, is to get to know you as a person and gauge how well you will fit in their institute. The Group discussion tests how you function as a part of a team. As a manager, you will always be working in teams, as a member or as a leader. Therefore how you interact in a team becomes an important criterion for your selection. Managers have to work in a team and get best results out of teamwork. That is the reason why management institutes include GD as a component of the selection procedure.

About Group Discussion

GD is a methodology used by an organization to gauge whether the candidate has certain personality traits and/or skills that it desires in its members. In this methodology, the group of candidates is given a topic or a situation, given a few minutes to think about the same, and then asked to discuss the it among themselves for 10-15 minutes