 Now, welcome to a session on interview skills. That again is extremely important. Moving on to the interview skills, again how to initiate is an important aspect. All of us falter even I would have faltered during my younger days. First and foremost, we must tell our students in order to relay their fear because they feel that the life hangs on a particular interview. I think IIT Bombay right now the placements are going on and I know the students must be undergoing a lot of pressure. So, what happens is when we take a lot of pressure because what is at stake is not just a few laps but at times a crore also for their placements. However, if we are stressed about a particular interview, will that not be reflected on our face? If we are super-duper intelligent and we know we can crack anything, any question then it is fine, nothing matters. Google and Microsoft will come, pick the brains, they do not need anything, they know they can train you. But otherwise they will also have to train you but otherwise they would want a good mix of brain and behaviour. And the moment you walk, the moment the participants walk in, the interview we walk in, the scaling begins, the marking begins. First hesitation is if there is a lady, how should we welcome, how should we say good morning or good afternoon or whatever? Wish the lady, wish the other gentleman as well or some people ask me, should it be good morning all? That does not look good, we should avoid saying good morning all. A mere good morning would serve the purpose, again make full use of your eyes, look at everybody and then modestly say a good morning. Wait for them to ask you to sit down and then sit down and then the grilling might begin. We have to tell our students it is not an elimination process, if not they spend something else. Let our lives not hang on that particular interview because only one of them would be slated and the person who gets slated in need not necessarily be the best. It is how you perform on that day and what was the requirement as well. So, we must take that into account, we must always remember that you are tested on what you know and how well you know. One thing that I would want every student to remember is the interviewer, the professor, the people in the corporate house, they have been there, done that. So, do not try to outsmart them, you may keep a few information to yourself but do not post any false information or do not try to be over smart, do not beat around the bush. Any question here please? The topic is an extremely exciting one and is one which has, we need the help of the inputs that you are giving us right at this moment today because this is a problem which our vernacular students of the vernacular medium face to go about the GD and the PIs. So this has been extremely helpful for us and madam, we have taken all your points and we are working on them madam, on our students and everything. Thank you so much. Would you have any questions here? Would you have any questions? I would like to ask you one question that is regarding this confidence building measures that we would like you to digress on, like what would be our initial kind of beginning with people who come from extreme rural backgrounds madam, this if you could throw some light on this aspect, yes. Involve for the GD and the PI what we could do is first and foremost you would need to put them in a group, this has to take a long duration, this would be like a long duration thing. We need to put them in a group wherein they can interact with a couple of students who would be patient with them. I do that here, I normally attach them to some of the students who are ready to willing to help. So with them they talk in English with, because somehow English is their preferred language, they talk in the language and they try to improve upon their grammar. The next thing that we do, we have those mock simulated sessions on GD and interviews. So out there again they are made, they are forced to talk and because it is a simulated atmosphere, the other students also wait for the person to talk. They have strong points, they are made to talk and personally I do not mark them there on their grammar. The grammar does not have to be impeccable at that particular juncture. It will come naturally and you know with time, but at the same time if the person has developed a confidence he will definitely listen to you when you say that your grammar needs to improve now. You have to pay more attention on grammar now. So if he has come up to that level, we have to bring him up to a level that he faces a crowd and irrespective of the grammar he can talk for four to five minutes. If you achieve that you can then work upon the grammar aspect of the thing. I hope that we initially have to break the inhibitions that they have, that is not to open their mouths. Let them talk like this inhibition has to be worked on. Yes, it has to be worked on and you allow, you ask them to come and make a presentation for the topic which you are going to take. Ask the person to come grilled with it, give him a topic like for my class if it is something to do with body language or listening skills. I would ask them to make a presentation on listening skill, a five minute presentation on listening skill and that does not have to be a PPT. That has to be an oral communication, an oral presentation. So the person works for a week, he takes help from the other people, he practices it in front of the mirror, he records it and then comes and makes a presentation. I have had an occasion, it was an executive MBA class. It was a 20 hour program spread over five days. I am quoting it because that is the highlight of my career. And the person came, the very first five minute he comes and says madam I am sorry, I cannot talk in front of a crowd, I have never done that, I am quite inhibited. We said okay we will see, my classes are always very interactive. I would force them to talk in the class. The fifth day they had to make a presentation and when he made the presentation post that it was not I who gave the feedback, it was the peer group that said we never knew you could speak so well, what made you speak so well. So it is just that many a times if you are the role model for your student, it will definitely help and boost his confidence. He said madam those five minutes that you gave me on that particular day, I felt the five minutes that I spoke with you on that particular day made me think that I could do it. Okay? Yes, madam. Thank you. Yes, madam. So initially the peer has to help. Peer is, peer group must come in. You have to bring that in because we are there for an hour or so. Okay? Thank you. One double zero eight, over to you. Ma'am we have generally seen the tendency in Vidarbhae students that they are lacking or they have the fear in their mind particularly about these group discussion and interview scales. So how, which role that we faculties have to take to take out their fear factor. That is the major problem for us ma'am. So please guide madam on this issue. What I have personally done and which has been fruitful is something which I mentioned earlier also. First and foremost the peer group has to come in. Secondly, engage them in your routine classes. Thirdly, a tutorial for them would definitely a one to one session for them would definitely help them. You will have to take that particular pain, the group of three to four of them or four to five of them, whosoever there are, you will have to take them personally and guide them both in grammar and communication. You will have to sit and or you will have to request a peer group and review what is being done over a week. First thing, one, just a minute please. Make them read aloud that really helps. Ask them to at least for half an hour newspaper beat newspaper beat the course book beat a novel whatever ask them to read the books and ask them to watch English news. That enriches both. Yes. Ma'am we we heard your lectures during that assignment duration. Your videos were fabulous and are very informative. Thank you. Ma'am my question is the first question in most of the interviews is tell me something about yourself. So according to you what should be the right approach for this question? Let me give you an example. Let us suppose I am sitting in an interview and you are my interviewer. All the centres are my interviewers. So tell me something about myself about yourself. I am Leena Jha and I am a business communication consultant. I work for IT Bombay, I work for corporates, I work for hospitality industry and I love swimming, I love writing poetry. I have done my masters from JNU and I have done my PhD from Bihar University and the lectures that I give I really enjoy them. That is my passion. So that was one way of introduction. That was my introduction to you. The second one could be I am just going to read out. Give me a minute please. I am going to read out. I am going to give you the elevator. You would have come across the elevator pitch. I think it is to Hanna I think. Sirna Murthy, Professor Sirna Murthy would have talked about the elevator pitch. You have to combine the elevator pitch with the interviewer skills. So what do you do now? I am going to tell you, I am going to tell you another kind of introduction. I am a business, the interviewer knows that I am Leena Jha. He has seen it. I do not need to say that I am Leena Jha again or I am Dr. Leena Jha again. So I am a business communication consultant and have been associated with IIT Bombay since 2008. My master's from JNU and my PhD from Bihari University sensitized me to the polarities in academic institutes. My work with the corporates and the hospitality industry as well as the students sensitized me to the issues that were there amongst the student and the working force. My interest lies in building up confidence amongst my participants and perhaps the extracurricular activities in which I am interested that is swimming, dancing and a bit of badminton. And the creative side of mine wherein I write poetry perhaps gives me the focus with which I interact with my participants. Finished. Which was better, the earlier introduction or this one? First let us take this is a very important question so excuse me this is a very important question. So please how should you prepare your introduction, how should you allow your students, how should you let your students or guide your students to prepare the answer for the first question is this. Have, it should be a power packed introduction. The student must write it beforehand, he must know it beforehand, it is not necessary for him to memorize it, he should know it beforehand and he should feel it beforehand because that is what sets the pace for the interview. What I do with my students most of my students especially those who are the weaker ones I ask them to write there the answer to this first question, show it to me, correct it with him and then give it to him. So the three questions, tell us something about yourself, why this organization and what are your strengths and weaknesses must be prepared properly. Now we can move on to your question please or your query. What is more important in an interview, technical knowledge or communication skills? One cannot do with the other, both of them are extremely important, somebody who says that communication skills can see you through the interview, I don't feel so. You need to have the practical knowledge, you need to have the knowledge about your subject and the way to present it as well in order to scale an interview. At the same time please teach your students, we need to teach our students to gauge the market and the company as well. As I said as I mentioned earlier, Microsoft if Microsoft comes it has already known whether he has to take you or no, they normally come by name. So for a Microsoft interview the communication skill may or may not be very important, it is only the knowledge that is important. But for a form that has come for a marketing segment, over there communication skills will be very important. You may falter on some of the questions, but if you are honest enough to say, I have done that but I can't remember it right now and then you have seen other questions properly, you have answered other questions properly, chances are you would be selected. So over there communication it would depend on the firm that has come to interview you. So you have to be cautious, you have to teach the students to be cautious as to which firm they are applying and what position they are applying. We need to talk about all these things, we need in an interview. It is not just one factor which affects the communication or the knowledge part, it is the requirement of the company also. So when we are saying, when we are in a communication, it cannot communication needs a feedback. There have to be two parties and we have to, we cannot go talk with the other person, other party, the interviewers. So we have to assess as to what they want and on that our decision should be based. Thank you. What are the various types of interviews? Okay. What are the various facets of interviews? What is the structure of an interview? What are the various levels of interview? Okay. When you please ponder on this, I am deviating here but what is the decorum of a group? What is the structured group discussion? What is the semi-structured group discussion? What is the unstructured group discussion? Can you please ponder on all these questions such that we will make a lot of each and every point on the questions which I posed. Thank you very much. Leisure, I think we have discussed everything. Whatever you asked, we have discussed everything. And as far as the decorum of a particular interview is concerned, it's very difficult to say what should be the decorum of a, you must have been in an interview parallel. We have something called stress interview as well. We have something called normal interview. We have things wherein looking at the students, we don't follow a particular pattern. We cannot tell our students that you would follow a particular pattern in an interview. No, because you do not know the interviewer. And what kind of they do not announce that we are going to have a stressed interview, we are going to have a very structured interview wherein we are going to ask you all these questions. So we have to prepare the students for all the eventualities. And there is a bottom line to everything. We have to give them a base model. Be it a group discussion or be it an interview, we have to give them a base model. For a stress interview, I often say we take stress interview, especially when the student is absolutely genius, brilliant. The moment we figure out that this student is brilliant and we want him in, we shift our gear and we move on to the stress interview part just because we know that his mannerism is fine under normal circumstances. We know he is intelligent. So let's try how he would function in a stress interview. So we need to tell our students that if the interviewer is being outrageous, hold yourself for a few minutes. See where he is driving at, what he is driving at, because he may have shifted to the mode of a stress interview. So out there, you would feel that it's bordering on insult. Yet maintain it unless and until it gets too personal. Maintain that decorum, face it, take a deep breath, answer what you feel like, what comes to your mind for that particular question. Ignore the tone of the interviewer out there because if it is at all a stress interview, the chances are if you have answered the questions well, you will be selected. Normally the stress interview happens if you have either been over smart or you are good, very good. As you said, what should be the structure of an interview? Normally, first the three questions come, then they would ask you what you are comfortable with and then perhaps the last leg as we already have in the slide, the parting bit. For the middle part, as we have said, if the interview goes beyond 15 to 20 minutes and you feel that they have also relaxed, you could also relaxed and lean back a little bit. That was again in the slides that you have seen. And for the last leg, it should be a cordial goodbye, it shouldn't be a handshake. We must tell our students that it shouldn't be a handshake, it shouldn't be a euphoric kind of a, if you think that it has been an excellent interview, you just go and say up, thank you. It should come from the interviewers because at times it is a signal that you are already in. If the interviewer shakes hands with you, that is a signal that perhaps 80 percent chances you are already in. So, let that be a deciding factor out there. If you round it up, both the group discussion and the GD, we have to be assertive, we have to be alert. There are times when our students are not alert in an interview also, it's as though they have just come for the interview, maybe they have mugged up throughout the night and they have just walked in for the interview. So, the dresses which I have not been able to concentrate on in my slides, they have to be dressed amicably, accordingly. If they are going for a mid-day interview, perhaps long hair and you know, all sorts of dresses might work out, but if they are going for a formal interview, they should be careful that they are not wearing a sports watch on a suit, that they are wearing proper shoes, the appearance also matters, that if they are wearing specs, they should not be bright purple and yellow. We need to take care of those things because the kind of people we want in our organization, we decide that also. I have a lot of choice if I come from a firm, even in IIT Bombay, I have a lot of choice. So, over there, somebody that fits into my category will be my choice. And therefore, we need to talk about these things. The best, safest bet nowadays is suit, go in your formals, do not wear dark shirt and if you are wearing a dark shirt, see that it is properly coordinated with the tie and the suit. Do not have a lot of rings in your hands because you will invite questions on those also. The next issue is a tricky phase, the interviewer who has been sitting for ages since 9 o'clock in the morning would want something different to ask and so by giving those rings, by giving a sports watch or something, something in congruers would always be another question for you. Sir, we have gone through the process of group discussion, now we are discussing about the interview. Yeah. This is the part you have decided the topic, so one has to decide the topic and after that it is the freedom of the participants, it is the freedom of the group, they will present their view and in three minutes group leader emerge, the group leader emerge by itself Yes. Who knows the concept, who can handle the situations and he emerge by itself, as far as the beginner is concerned, he start initiate the process only, initiator can be the group leader but it appears after few minutes, now group leader also facilitate also, he can facilitate for example, one of the parts somebody is not speaking, then he can ask the participants to come forward. As far as the result is concerned, the conclusion is concerned, group leader take the lead to produce the conclusion depending on the view produced by all the member of the group. As far as the team and group discussion are concerned, according to me these are the different things, team means we have to speak in the same tone, but in a group, we have the different views, we present our own views, for example we talk a team, a cricket team, we have a group and we have to talk about our teams, we always talk in favor of our teams, we will always have view for our team, but in a group we are different we have to put our own views, hence the majority of the majority, the view that is of the majority of the group member, that will be the conclusion and that will group leader itself conclude that way. Now in case of intrus, we are talking about the intrus, in an intrus one has to present himself in all respects, what we have in myself, when I speak it reflect about me, what my concept should be clear about the topic, because when we go for intrus, then the subject matters and other things are specified, I am a man of physics and at least we should know about the physics, the basic concept of the physics, so as far as there was a problem of a medium from the rooted area, why don't we initiate the students of that area to talk there in mother tongue, we are calculating the culture of the group discussion, not the language, first we will initiate them to talk in terms of their mother tongue in a group discussion, we can allow the topic of their problem of their ablaze, for example, interest of the youth in the ablaze towards for example, if I allow the topic of the ablaze, I will allow them to talk in the mother tongue, at least they will come to know the basics of the group discussion and then they can be switch over from language from their mother tongue to English language. So, our interest is to understand about the discussion and not the language, these are the things that I want to incorporate in these ideas which I have gone through. Thank you very much professor, thank you very much for your insightful observations, there are two points which I would like to make out here, the team always emerges from a group discussion, we cannot have a team unless and until we have had a group discussion, as you said the team has to speak in a voice, but there are voices of dissent, a group discussion has taken place, a team has been allotted when they speak in a in unison, it is only after they have had proper group discussion and then they come up with a particular point, then they come up with a particular decision to which the entire group or the entire team has to talk about they become team. However, many a times it so happens that people may not agree with the team's decision, there may be two voices in a team, but they all go ahead with the decision to which the majority of the team agrees to, so there are two, I normally say I had mentioned in group discussion that you must come up with your point, you must come up with your stand simply because when it emerges as a team, only one procedure will follow, they all have to adhere to a particular thing, now if that particular decision fails, they will fall back upon your stance upon your decision. So what happens when a decision has been taken, you have to work as a team and you have to move ahead with that particular team giving you 100 percent. Now the second question, the second thing which I wanted to say was regarding the interviews, so you said it has been observed that we need to give them, we need to ask them to talk in vernacular language, believe me I have tried that. What happens is they are all very comfortable having a group discussion in the vernacular language, however with the paucity of time we have to bring them into the English world because that is the competitive word too soon than we would love to and that is why I said do not concentrate on the grammar when they are participating in a discussion, concentrate on the points, build their confidence by saying whatever point they have raised is good, once that confidence comes up and they can hold a discussion with you for five minutes, a one on one with you for five minutes that would be the time when you could actually start taking care of the grammar. It will definitely work. Thank you very much once again for your insightful suggestions. Ma'am there was this one question I was thinking about that when we ask our students to discuss their weaknesses the general tendency is that they feel a little reluctant and they try to cover up their weaknesses in a way as though it were the most positive aspect. I mean I would like to share one of the answers that one of the students once said. He said I get so engrossed in my work sometimes that I compromise at a personal front so that is one of my weaknesses and I'm working it out by trying to learn how to balance work and personal life. So I usually tell them that it's nothing wrong if you just tell them that you have a weakness because recognizing it kind of does have the job. So I just wanted your views on that. I do concur with your view that was the tendency you know that was something which started almost a decade back that line of thought which you said and it has been following ever since then to present your weaknesses as your strength. You've already presented your strength now when you present your weaknesses however what I would like to suggest is when you present when we ask our students to present their weaknesses we should also ask them to be prepared as to how they are working to do away with it. So if it is getting you know a little excited about certain things what is he actually doing? So if it is like you know I get too engrossed in work or I get excited or maybe I get angry so are you practicing yoga? You know they should be ready for a question from the interviewer and I personally myself believe that honesty is the best policy. So perhaps now if you wish to present one of one such weakness by which you think your interview could be in geo-party in that case perhaps you could practice this particular policy of you know hiding it, shying it away with something. Some of them do mention and I am not a very organized person. Yes okay fine you're not a very organized person so how will you how will you fit the next question would be how will you fit into this organization? Yeah I usually tell them that just tell them that I may not be organized but I do know how to prioritize work so I kind of take care of it. Yeah it is fine it would depend on it would depend on the personality one thing again answer to these questions depend upon the personality of the student also. Yeah if we if we make them learn certain answers you know it just doesn't go with the personality and we know that the person is has been tutored into answering it. So we really do not want a robot we must not create robots out there. So it's very hard work for us professors you know in order to identify the personality and make them aware of their own strengths and to portray them in the interviews but then we have to take that on us upon us. That's why the peer review really helps because then we have one question being answered by more than five to six students so those are different perspectives coming out they are able to relate to some and they don't really identify with the other that's how they're able to frame better answers for themselves. Very true and for my for my classes you know presentation whether I have an executive group or I have the MBA students for everything I have a presentation and the feedback comes from the peer group. So when it comes from the when the feedback comes from the peer group you may be taken aback but at the same time everything is being video recorded. So what they do is they go back they identify those that feedback and then work upon it. So since we have these kind of technologies today we must make use of it record it show it to them many times the students come and ask me to read a particular passage so that they can record it. They record my classes and then they go back listen to it. Certain pronunciation we have we have those mother tongue influence in so many cases. Now I don't mind it that much I really don't mind it that much but then some of the companies may think that we need to have a clear tongue. For that we have to do away with the mother tongue influence over there recording also help go to Google you can get the pronunciation from there give them a class on fun it takes and help them look up the the pronunciation of certain words in the dictionary. So that way also students from the vernacular medium would definitely benefit. Madam does it not depend upon the company for which you are being interviewed? That is what we have been talking about for a marketing interview your preparation has to be different. For a purely brain interview your preparation has to be different. So we have to for a for an academic interview it has to be different. So we cannot that is why we can just give you a baseline the rest of the research you have to what do you know about the organization that is one of the question that features in the interview. So unless and until you know about the about the organization you cannot prepare for the interview. We cannot say okay this is a straight-jacketed thing work on these things and you would scale the interview. No certainly not I have myself been there it has been a stress interview for me long back in my career and when it bothered to proper insult I just picked up my bag and walked out when they saw and started working out when they saw that I was working out I was called in again very respectfully offered tea also post that. It depends on that is why I said for a stress interview maintain try controlling yourself we absolutely calm but if it comes to ethical or ethnic kind of a thing very politely and very droidly a droidly tell them we could move on to more scholastic or academic questions. Okay why did I bring this point because there could be a question when during the stress interview the interviewer might also go far. Okay so over there let the interviewer know that I'll take this much but I'll not take more than that. So that would also be if it is a if it is that high level of an interview I think the interviewer would also be happy to know that he has somebody who has self ego self respect as well. So the interviewers interviews are of various kinds because we have so many people so many kinds of people taking an interview the bottom line would be as we have been talking the bottom line would be you know for the students be prepared be properly dressed where they smile on your face don't look nervous and if you are flustered if you are nervous doesn't matter go if there is water request for some water sit there hold yourself calm take a deep breath be prepared with your first answer do not rattle it post that if they give you the choice which is your what would what would you want us to ask you on. Anabha should be tell them this was my strongest point let them ask a question they may not ask you a question on that in that case take your time and answer you know we are stressed our students are stressed because they feel they have not got that particular job or they may not get that particular job but one wrong choice from the interviewers is going to cost a lot of money to the organization they are also spending a lot and that is why these varied kind of interviews people come to me students come to me and say it's not shot to the other I had spoken so much I was the most vociferous of the students out there and yet I did not get in because when you are being so aggressive because you are tutor to be aggressive by some of these coaching institutes because you were tutor to be aggressive you lost count of the points that you are making or that there may have been some brilliant points that were raised and you did not team up with them okay and the nature of the job would have been team spirit so we have to be very careful during those interviews and at the same time we have to be thinking out of our boxes. Yeah the question from our centre is it was said in the beginning that interview is an assimilation process but not an elimination process but practically is it so because when the corporate houses come for an engineering college they usually conduct attitude test first then group discussion and then followed by interview so it is usually an elimination process only though actually we say that it is not an elimination process but an assimilation process it ends up with an elimination process only. I would respond to that I would definitely respond to that many a times what happens that we that our students go for a sit for a particular interview because of the package their mindset may not be in concurrence with the with the industry they are vouching for and that is why perhaps they don't make it the cut. I will give you an example what happens today in today's world our generation has moved up the next generation has moved really fast they go for the package they sit for the companies which they sit for the companies which give them the maximum package they sit for those interviews they do not take into account whether they have the aptitude for it or not the mark shows that they have the aptitude but whether they have the attitude for it or not gets a shape in the interviews tell me one thing if those people are selected will they be happy out there in the interviews is money everything no the attrition rate today suggests that people students specially leave the leave the organization within six months also a mechanical engineer an electrical engineer gets into TCS and then what happens he has to do with dole out all those computational things he has never done done that so some of them would definitely leave if they don't like it and that is why I said it is an assimilation process out there they want you to go for the companies the kind of job which not just matches the attitude and your financial things but your attitude as well I know of several students and they have made brilliant marks in life by not just going for the biggies the best of companies and that is why again I would reiterate that it is an assimilation process it is not an elimination it is just that you cannot yourself think what you have to do in future they perhaps through the interviews do the job for you just stop looking it looking at it as an elimination process start thinking of it as an assimilation process that will hurt the students less my question is at the end of interview many times candidate is asked question whether you want to ask any question do you have any question to ask us that is the interviewer sometimes ask so students get confused whether to answer whether to ask any question and if any question to be asked what type of questions to be asked to interviewer this is something which again requires I think you would have come across my slides where I have said rears and research know something about the organization so if you have known something about the organization it will be easier for you to frame a question towards the end of it if you so wish to what you can ask is different what you should not ask is the pay band that is something with some of the students do ask and they should not okay because it is you know very early at a very early stage so that should not be done unless and until you have something valid to question please do not question just politely graciously say no thank you so much if you go through the slides I have mentioned out there you should be gracious enough if you really like something about the interviewer maybe you have messed it up but if you have really liked something about the interview the way it has progressed do compliment the interviewer about it after all they are also human and they would like to be complimented on their style and you know on imparting some knowledge to you so that is something which could be done friends it's been wonderful interacting with you I have learned something I hope you may have gathered something from me as well one of our very venerated professor had said that effective communication which is also known as soft skills or technical skill is actually life skill and I go by him hundred percent it is life skill and we must tell our students that fine group discussion and interview skills need to be mastered in order to get into that particular organization you have set your heart for hearts upon at the same time they would be with you throughout your life when you would be negotiating some terms with your spouse with your children with your parents at that particular juncture also these are going to benefit you so these are not mere communication skills they are life skills these are life skills and therefore we should not single-mindedly work on them as part or aspects of selection process we should bear the mega picture the bigger picture how group discussion helps us how interview skills the aspects the tenets of interview skills would benefit us in our lives we are nearing our schedule time it's been a real pleasure interacting with you much that I would have liked to take all your questions the time does not permit me so I have been told that you could post your questions and perhaps I could get the chance to be with you once again through the questions thank you so much for being with me thank you so much for being with IIT Bombay