My Experience of Attending a Job Interview

As one wants to build a career in the Information Technology industry (as is the case with me), one
has to submit resumes to countless organizations and attend many face-to-face interviews.

Some of these interviews are helpful ones and others less, but all provide a learning curve about how
to perform better in the next meeting and also about what not to do in the future. This learning
experience helps a great deal while preparing for a new job interview. The one thought that always
comes to my mind is to give a winning performance on the day of the discussion. The other important
question that engages my mind is how clearly to highlight the work that I have done in my previous
organizations and to provide concrete examples of how I brought value to former organizations.

Let me describe my interview experience with a multinational organization and the interaction with
the interview and selection team.

I was actively looking for a job in a leading multinational organization and came across a vacancy with
a leading communication technology organization. I applied for the job as I felt it best matches my
work experience, skill, and career goal. After a few days, I received a telephone call from a recruitment
agency enquiring if I want to apply for the position. I quickly agreed and provided all the required
details to the recruiter. The recruiter informed that once my profile is short-listed, the next step of the
interview process will be communicated.

I was again contacted after a few days and was informed that I have to attend an interview via video
conferencing. At first, I felt a bit surprised. Though I attend video conferences almost every day with
my team lead and geographically dispersed team, I had never before interviewed through video
conference. After the initial period of surprise, I turned all my attention to preparing myself for the
interview.

The interview was scheduled at the organization’s R&D centre located in a technology park. As I had
attended other discussions at the same technology park, I did not have difficulty finding the location.
On the day of the interview, I reached the venue twenty minutes before the scheduled time. After
going through all the procedures of entering the facility, I eventually reached the R&D centre, 5
minutes after the scheduled time. It took some time for the security personnel at the front desk to
take me to the interview room. Straightaway after settling down in the interview room, the video
conferencing system was switched on, and I saw the first interviewer on the screen.

The interviewer began with a general introduction and then describing briefly about the products and
services delivered by the organization and the specific product for which the job applicant is being
hired. This introductory description of the organization and not merely jump starting with a question
and answer session made me quite comfortable. The clarity of the video and the audio of the virtual
interview environment was terrific and gave a real-life feeling of meeting the interviewer in the same
room.

Next, the interviewer asked me to briefly describe myself and my work experience. I started by
explaining about my work and the skills that I developed in my current organization, followed by my
experience in the previous organizations. Then I was asked a series of questions about my technical
experiences, challenges I faced, the problems I encountered while working with a specific product or
team, and how I handled these impediments, about my career objective, etc.
In the end, the interviewer asked me to put forward any question I had about the organization or the
team for which I am being hired. The discussion was excellent and helped me in understanding more
about the organization and the hiring team.

The interviewer then transferred the call to the hiring team members for the second round of the
interview. After the initial introduction, they moved straightway to asking me questions and informed
that some of them might seem similar to the previous interview round. They first asked me to describe
one of my achievements. Next, they asked me a series of questions about the various situations I have
faced during my work experience and how I handled them, and some behavioral problems.

One of the hiring team members asked me to talk about the best teammate I have worked with and
also the worst. One of the team members then asked me the reason for applying for the position. The
conversation with the hiring team members was very enlightening and helped me in understanding
the day-to-day activities of the team and the processes being followed. At the end of the interview
round, they detailed in short about the next interviewer, who was a team lead and his domain-specific
knowledge.

The next interviewer started the interview by asking if I needed a small refreshment break, as I had
been attending the interview rounds without a gap. I informed him that I was fine and would like to
maintain the flow of the interview. Next, he explained to me about his role, the teamwork,
collaboration, and processes. He asked me questions about my experience, followed by behavioral
questions about how I handled different situations, daily challenges. I tried to provide him, as clearly
as possible, information about the type of work I had done in my previous organizations and the
various problems while completing my work.

The next round of question was related to specific tools and processes I have worked within the
current and previous organization. After answering all the questions, he thanked me for attending the
interview and informed that in the next couple of weeks further steps would be communicated. In
return, I thanked him for taking the time to interview me and also requested him to convey my thanks
to all the other interviewers for doing the interview.

In the very end, he asked me if I saw any employee working near the interview room and I knew the
process to stop the video conference session. To both these questions, I answer in the negative. He
explained to me the specific button to press on the remote to stop the video conference. Following
his steps, I stopped the session, signed my exit time in the visitors’ register at the front desk and left
the R&D Centre.

This was my experience of interacting with the hiring team of a multinational organization. I tried my
best, using all the present and previous work experience, social skills, technical knowledge, and
communication skills to provide the answers to all the interview questions.