How to prepare for Campus Interview

Date: 21-Jan-2010

A number of companies visit campus each semester to interview seniors for professional entry-level positions that start after graduation and current students for career related internships. Are you getting ready to leave your college and you are anxiously getting ready for your job search. Campus interviews can be nerve-wrecking for any student. Review the interview schedule, research company profiles, submit your resume to companies for consideration and sign-up for interviews.

There are many books as well as internet resources teaching Students on how to do job hunting and how to write resumes.The problem is, those books usually cater exclusively to those who have been in the working force for a while, and the college graduates or those seeking a job for the first time are for the most part ignored.This website will provide you with some tips for the upcoming college fresher’s. The interview tips given below are by experienced HR Experts. We hope that all of you will benefit from at least one of these interview tips.

Find out the nature of the Campus interview.

Companies who do on-campus interviews fall into two categories: Those who have specific positions open and are looking to fill them, or those who are merely collecting more resumes. Unfortunately, it is often impossible to find out before the interview which category the company you are interviewing with falls into. Therefore, you need to find out which category the company you are talking to falls in. This can be accomplished easily by asking the interviewer whether there are specific positions the company is trying to fill. After all, if all the company wants out of the recruiting trip is some nice resumes, there is no need for the interviewee to sweat too much during the interview. The general rule of thumb is that generally the bigger the company is, the more likely the company is simply looking for resumes to put into its database.

Know the Company before you attend the Interview.

Spend time to learn about the company spend minimum 30 minutes on their web site. If the company is a publicly-traded company, find out its recent news. During the interview, the interviewer would not expect the interviewee to know everything about the company, but the interviewer would expect the interviewee to know the basics of the company, such as the industry the company is in. In fact, there is nothing that turns off the interviewer more than having someone walking into an interview with no idea of what the company does. For example, if you are interviewing with Tata Motors, you should know that the company is in the car manufacturing business.

Be Energetic during Campus Interview

Interviewers, whether they are from HR or from the department you'll be working, want to recruit people who are energetic. Imagine for yourself: Would you rather have someone who is always on the go or someone who looks sleepy all the time? In addition, if a person does not show much energy during the interview, the interviewer will think, " if this person cannot get excited about an interview, how is he or she ever going to be excited about the job?" .There is one area where being energetic really pays off: Many interviewers start with the question, "Tell me about yourself." If you cannot enthusiastically talk about yourself for at least five minutes or so, the interviewer will wonder if you'll be interested in your future job for much longer.

Dress well when attending Campus Interview

We find many candidates been hurt by not properly dressed for the interview. Dress well to show professional courtesy. The interviewer is dedicating his or her time for this interview, and he/she would expect the candidate to give the interview at least an equal weight. A well-dressed candidate leaves an excellent impression and projects the image that he or she really cares about this interview. This rule applies even if you are interviewing for a company known for its casual dress policies.

Utilize career fairs at other schools.

Every college's career center will want to say that it is attracting the best companies to campus. This is simply not possible, as companies have limited recruiting resources, and they will pick and choose only the colleges they feel would produce the most number of qualified candidates. What should you do if the companies you are interested in are not coming to a career fair in your college? In this case, in addition to attending your college career fairs, consider going to another college’s career fair if you feel your college career fair does not attract enough good companies. Typically career fairs are open to everyone, so do not worry about that you do not attend that particular college. Chances are good that nobody will check ID at the door, and the recruiters will always be happy to talk to you.

Be able to describe your Project thesis work in 5 minutes.

This applies to the Masters and Ph.D.  Candidates who have completed a thesis. The tendency for the interviewee here is to get into too much technical detail and hence spend too much time. The interviewer, however, will not be able to remember, or even understand, most of the technical details, so it's wise to leave the nitty-gritty details out. Instead, be prepared to mention what is so great about your thesis work and what you learned from it. Remember, the interviewer will remember whether you have the ability to make him understand your thesis in a short period of time, and the level of importance of your work.

Admit Your Mistakes/ When You Don't Know Something

It is usually a mistake to pretend to know something that you do not, because chances are that the interviewer will follow up with questions regarding that exact topic. If the candidate cannot answer these follow-up questions, it tells the interviewer either a) the candidate does not know his/her stuff, or b) the candidate lied about knowing the topic. Either way, it is a big turn-off.

Be prepared for behavioral questions.

Behavioural questions are the ones that are open-ended, the ones designed to find out about your experience. This type of questions, common during mid-level interviews, these types of questions have been on the rise for on-campus interviews as well. An example of the behavioural questions is, "Tell me a time when you were under extreme pressure during your college life, and how you handled it?" .Preparation makes a big difference in how you'd perform in answering this type of questions. Also, before you walk into the interview, think about the different situations that you have gone through earlier. Think about how you completed your college project, your part-time job, or any other situation you can think of. This way, when the interview questions come up, you won't need to come up with the example right then and there.

Do not get discouraged during Interview

After several interviews without an offer, it is easy to get discouraged. It is important to remember that all you need is one job offer. After all, you have only one body, and therefore will only have time for one full-time job. Having said that, it doesn't mean that you should sit back and continue doing what you have been doing. Perhaps you didn't get to the next round because you weren't prepared? Perhaps you didn't dress properly? Perhaps you were unable to answer some basic questions during the interview? Think about what happened during the interview, and make sure you rectify whatever that went wrong. Better find someone who is already in the work force to give you a mock interview, and see what the feedback is.

Build your vocabulary first, then with quantitative section, reasoning, analytical writing and so on. But the thing is you must do it well and thoroughly. Practice Quantitative Techniques, Verbal & Non Verbal reasoning, do follow Puzzles from Shakundla Devi. Look for Synonyms and Antonyms. Also prepare for Logical questions

No company is bad to work, but a personal suggestion at the beginning don’t look how big company you get but important is what knowledge you get at the beginning, and mind it at the time of campus.. Companies are least concerned if you are technical good or bad they just check your mental ability and confidence level and the most important is your communication skills, so be confident and prepare well. Check out the companies you're about to attend. Then collect all the previous placement papers of those companies. Then practice for those type of questions. Mostly you'll have objective type of questions where in you have to select the answer from given options. Practice well on Aptitude part as it carries more importance.

Note : If you have anything interesting to share related to your career e.g. my story, interview tips, news etc. mail it to admin@rangrut.com

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