How should I say/answer more efficiently and effectively?

It’s the most common question being asked to me by freshers, that sometimes they’re not able to say what they meant and able to express their knowledge at best. If you feel the same way, I would suggest to take a pause and reflect on your thoughts. You need to calm down and clear your mind.

If you could, you should anticipate questions beforehand and try practicing those. You’ll get to know much better when you record your answer and replay to analyze yourself first. This would give a lot more than what you’ve expected. Try it and thanks me later.

The main question here is effective communication. A language is just a tool to communicate, to express yourself. Effective communication is when you’re able to make others understand what you actually meant. I know that would be a learning journey, can’t excel overnight. But got to start somewhere, right?

You could try teaching your juniors/siblings so that you can enhance your communication skill.

How should I introduce myself?

In many interviews, this would be the first question an interviewer would ask you irrespective of the type of interview (technical, managerial, etc.).These would be the key questions as to which direction your interview goes. Either you could take your interviewer on a ride or let them.

First, you need to understand the type of interview you’re in and what amount of time would you like to give it to the self-introduction.

I suggest you prepare 2 versions, one for 2 min and another one for more or less 30 sec.

For 2 min long introduction:

Identify 5 major points of you that you wish to highlight. Start with your current situation and form sentences around those 5 major highlights. For e.g. I’m associated with Barclays for the last 2 years as a Senior Developer and am responsible for

For 30 sec long introductions:

Identify 3 major highlights and build your sentence strictly around that very precisely. You need not divert from your points.

For e.g. I’m a tech enthusiast and a technical forum writer which makes me passionate about the technology around us and …. (align other highlights like so).

You could also end with a note that will make them remember you for long (on a positive note, obviously). For e.g. I’m always very much enthusiastic about the latest technology and have published few Technical Papers too.

Give your interviewer a chance to analyze and make yourself more interesting.

From my personal perspective, I prefer not to include much information from my resume, as they already have my resume with them. And nobody gives a fish about your percentage in degree when you’ve reached till the personal interview. The percentage is for shortlisting of your resume, that’s it.

Why everyone wants coders?

NO, not all wants coders. If you feel so, start exploring other companies with different profiles or simply ask you TPO (Training Placement Officers). There are plenty of IT firms that are looking for DBAs, networking, and hardware engineers.

If you don’t like to code or not good at it, I personally suggest having a basic understanding of algorithms, database concepts, and designing. That would be more than enough to get you started.

Although, coding is just a way to implement the algorithm, nothing more. Even big IT firms out don’t put a restriction on the language while interviewing. They allow the candidate to choose the language whatever they feel like. The main question is to think about the efficient and effective algorithm, your solution capabilities. That’s what matters the most.

Having said that, coding will always be there in every segment, as DBAs and networking profiles also include writing scripts.

Is it necessary to disclose the name of the company where you did your internship?

Well, If I would be in that position, I would love to flaunt all the hard work that I did during my internship. That would be a personal choice, I would say.

If you’ve done some nasty things at your internship placement, then it’s better to keep it away from your resume. ;)

In a nutshell, it is all okay to let your new employer know about your past experience.

How to communicate your weakness?

First thing first, you don’t need to be really honest about this question during your interview. You don’t go and say, that my weakness is that, I don’t like to work much.

What the main intention here is to know whether you are self-aware and what are you trying to do to overcome it.

So, you have to give a lot of thought to prepare for this question. Be self-aware and find something that you know exists within you for e.g. workaholic (as per research the most common and obvious answer). Try not to use the obvious one, until you can back your answer up with some facts and figures.

What I used in my last interview was, I take time to open up and get bored easily with repetitive work. Not telling you what I said next to back my answers up, so go and find your own.

Just be self-aware.

Mukul Kumar Chaundhyan