How To Be Confident In Interviews

For facing any interview, we should be prepared in the following main fields for being confident during any personal interaction for a job or admission to any institution:

• Theoretical knowledge of our subject
• Practical / applied knowledge on our subject
• Basic information about the employers / institution
• Activities of the employers / institution
• General awareness
• Knowledge on current affairs
• Mental preparedness

Let us discuss the main fields in a bit more detailed way:

Theoretical Knowledge of Your Subject:

We should remember that for being confident during all types of interviews we should to be well prepared and through in our subjects. Scoring good marks in exams does not mean that we are well prepared in our subjects. We should rather be clear in the basic concepts of the subject. Only by cramming the definitions and formulae and dedicated answers to specific questions will not help us in the least; because, we might find ourselves caught unawares, if the board members resort to cross-questioning.

let me cite a crude example of a virtual piece of interview for expressing ourselves, yet more clearly:

• For a question- what’s 10 divided by 2 is…?
• We usually reply- 10 divided by 2 is 5.
• If they put us a cross-question- what do you mean by dividing the number 10…? Is it cutting the number in pieces, as if you cut an apple in to 2 pieces with the help of a fruit knife? 
  (The board member diverts your attention from the real concept of division… they would give you a piece of paper and ask you to explain on paper if you can…)
• Instinctively, you might make a circle representing an apple on the paper and cut it along its centre and draw another two resultant semicircles alongside. 
  (Inadvertently, here, you divided a unit into two divisions)
• You should rather drawn 10 small circles for 10 apples on the paper and then could have divide the bunch into 2 equal bunches of 5 each… for explaining 10 divided by 2.

Practical / Applied Knowledge of the Subject:

Your bookish knowledge is not going to help you If they ask questions on practical or applied field; because there would be likelihood of asking yet more cross-questions for evaluating our expertise in your knowledge in the subject.

Let us take an example of the term ‘centre of gravity’. If the board members ask about centre of gravity, applied on different and diverse applications, we might get confused if we do not know the real concept of this term. They may put forward its application from designing motor vehicles to the action of lifting a weight by humans.

They might ask- what is the role of ‘centre of gravity’ played while designing the ‘ground clearance’ of motor vehicles.

Here we have to be proficient in explaining the relation between ‘centre of gravity’ and ‘ground clearance’ and eventually their resultant effect on the ‘stability’ of the vehicle, while moving straight and on turning sideward or turning around.

It would be relevant to mention here that the lower the centre of gravity of a vehicle the more will be the stability of any vehicle. The height of the lowest part of any vehicle from ground is called ground clearance. Luxury vehicles have lesser ground clearance and cross-country vehicles like jeeps have higher ground clearance.

Basic Information about the Employers / Institution:

The frequently asked questions in personal interviews are-

• Why do you want to join this organization?
• How do you think yourself fit for a job with this organization?
• Tell us something about you… whatever.

Most of the interview boards ask these questions invariably; because, they want to know whether you have thoroughly studied about the employer or the institution that you are going to join and assessed yourself for suitability for the job. They are also interested to know whether you have capabilities, orientation and aptitude for the proposed job and you would be able to give the optimum output and work with higher efficiency on having employed in the organization. 

General Awareness:

The common trend in conducting interviews by various organizations, in the job market is in the diversified fields like ‘general awareness’. The questions asked in this field are from different subjects other than that of your profession. By asking such questions the employers usually test you whether you are aware of the problems of your day-to-day life. The questions asked in this segment are just unexpected ones and might be something like the following:

• Why separate electric circuits are provided in house wiring for 15 Amp and 5 Amp load?
• Explain the difference between Watts and Volts?
• What do you think might be the basic difference between Virus and Bacteria?
• Why are there 3 / 4 / 5 gears in motor bikes / vehicles?

Mental Preparedness:

Your performance in different characterizations like confidence in presentation, your gestures, posture, speech, responses, diction and basic cool depends on your mental preparedness. It has nothing to do with your psychology; it is rather more important for you to learn various correct actions in these departments. 

Eventually I would conclude that-  “we should be well aware as to what exactly we are supposed to do and what all is expected by the employer from us .”

Just read the following:

• You should look confident- and not overconfident or subdued
• Have a cheering face- and not ear-to-ear smile or gloomy
• Make intermittent eye contact with board member- yet not looking aggressively into their eyes nor peeping through corners of your eyes
• Be confident and loud enough while speaking for the member to hear comfortably
• Address the members as ‘Sir”; and not as ‘gentleman’ or by their first names while speaking
• Never start your sentence with ‘well’ or ‘OK’
• While speaking, take your own time; don’t make haste to finish your sentence.
• Break your sentence in 2-3 pieces and use your own casual and usual pronunciation and accent
• You should know the difference between ‘Pronunciation’ and ‘Accent’
• Don’t use slang just for trying to be funny and don’t speak ‘Hinglish’ words like funda, psycho, etc
• Keep making controlled and decent gestures with your hands, head and face expressions
• Don’t be loud in gestures
• Listen the question asked by the member; carefully
• Never hesitate to ask it again if you miss any piece of his speech and don’t understand him
• Never try to dominate, outsmart or outclass the board members
• Be down to earth simple and decent