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I: Suppose I have many things like a good degree, many certificates etc. but when I
go for an interview, inspite of all this I'm not successful, I fail but the people who
pass if I compare with them, they are less qualified than me. Then where do you
think I lack?
Sameer: That's difficult to say but maybe you are lacking in Communication Skills.
That could be the simple thing. You have a lot of knowledge and you may even
know how to do the work but when you are sitting in front of the interview panel,
you may not be able to put across to the panel that you are competent for the job.
And hence most people are terrified of interviews. And the solution for that is
also that you should practise facing an interview. This is a functional skill like
riding a cycle is a functional skill, swimming is a functional skill, the same
way, communication is also a functional skill. Functional skill means that the more
we practise that skill, the more proficient we get at it. Hence, my advice is that
wherever possible, like when you are in college, make presentations, go for
interviews. These days if you open the newspaper, there are so many job ads. Go
for interviews, just for fun. Here I'd like to share a story. Kedar *** is one of my
students. When he met me, he was a graduate, had a good job and in the class,
he gave the speeches and won awards. He told me, all this *** speaking and all
is good Sameer but I am very scared of facing interviews. What should I do? I
asked him what did you do to increase your confidence in public-speaking? He
said by practising them. I told him, then practise giving interviews too! He said
what does that mean? I asked him when do you want to do your next job? He said,
"According to my planning, I'll change my job after 2 years." So, I told him to go and
give 100 interviews in 2 years just for fun and then for the 101st interview, you'll
have enough confidence. He took a newspaper, opened it and went for the
interview. After that when he met me in the week after, he told me that a very nice
thing happened in the interview. I asked him what happened? He said, "I went
there and saw that all the candidates were in a lot of tension. i had no tension. I
didn't need the job. I was sitting absolutely relaxed. But as the time for my
interview started approaching, I thought why should I take this as a practise
interview, why shouldn't I take it seriously. Then I started feeling tense.
Because as I realised the seriousness, my throat dried up. Then I went inside. When
I went inside and sat, there were four people in front of me. And soon as I went
inside I told them that I was feeling sacred, give me a glass of water and then
we'll start the interview. They gave me a glass of water, I gulped the water, I told
them give me 30 seconds and then I told them now please ask your questions.
After that I answered the questions whose answers I knew and for those
questions whose answers I didn't know, I told them sorry but I don't know the
answer. After the interview got over, the lady sitting in front of me told me that we
can't say that your knowledge was more than the others but we really liked your
confidence. Would you like to join our company?" And he said that the job that
he was going to get after 2 years, (I think he got around 60% increment), he
changed his job within a week.
I: It wouldn't be wrong to say that Self-confidence did the magic for him..
Rashmi is on the line from Chembur.
Rashmi: Hello. I want to ask one question but before that I want to say something. It
is true that we should allow children to blossom. My mother has allowed her
grandchildren to blossom so beautifully that they are so good at drawing, they
make small machines at home, they've become real experts. Work done under
stress can not be excellent but as time passes, we can learn several new things
if we put in effort. But in many offices, like for instance my children are now
grown up, I find that there is a lot of pressure on their work front. But that
work doesn't get done excellently. Is their HR department or whichever other
department trained to make people work under pressure. Then, doesn't the quality
of work get affected? Isn't it possible to get work done without pressure?
Sameer: What she says is absolutely right but the fact is that the work pressure
these days is so much that in very few companies they think about what should
the quality of the work, how it should be. In fact, the answer to this is that the
culture of every company is different. There are some companies whose culture
is so good that they make their systems to ensure that their employees progress.
They also consider how to ensure that work becomes fun. But this differs from
company to company. In some companies the culture is very bad. There
performance is given so much importance that there is a lot of pressure
on the employees and hence, whether the work gets done properly or not, no
thought is given to the mental state of the employees. Hence, you should think
whether....This is a negative effect of globalisation that these days even people
aged 35 - 40 years are getting heart attacks, But the answer to this is only one
that you should do your work properly so that you can select the job you want to
do. Instead of the job selecting us, it is more important for us to select the
company. If we get the company of our choice, we may be able to get work
freedom. Otherwise it is difficult to get that work freedom.