Twenty years ago, after completing my BA, I was in a state of dilemma of what I should do next, should I pursue further studies, do an MBA or enroll myself for a professional computer diploma course.

When I was still trying to figure all this out, my sister and I decided to give an interview for a call center agent position in an international BPO (Business Process Outsourcing Company). When we turned up for the interview, there were over a 100 applicants for the position.  Some experienced; a few, like us, completely new to the corporate world. At first, we felt, we were a tad bit over dressed in formal trousers and shirt; whereas most of them were in casual in jeans and t-shirts. They were academically superior, studied in renowned universities and secured scores better than us, but we still decided to give it a shot.

We went through multiple grueling interview rounds, including a psychometric test, reading capability test and group discussion. Each round had eliminations and I observed that most of the applicants faltered in the group discussion round.

• Some spoke in a robotic or melancholic tone of voice, sounding extremely dull and lacking enthusiasm.
• Some were very nervous and blurted what they had memorized in one breadth, without any pauses, making it impossible to comprehend the message.
• A few spoke really well with flowery vocabulary, but with an evident tone of arrogance.
• Others blindly emulated their chain of thought and simply conveyed the same message with minor change of words.
• A few rambled on, and missed out in conveying their point of view completely.
• When it was my turn, I decided to tread with caution, follow my instincts, say what I believed about the topic and convey it in short 2 or 3 sentences.   

After this round, we were only a handful left for the final 1 to 1 interview round. We were asked some really tricky questions, answers of which I did not have and I admitted to it honestly.

Luckily, that night, we both sisters walked out with an offer letter. We were elated; we landed our first job, our first step to financial independence.

 Conclusion:

I was raw and unprepared when I went through these interview rounds. Experienced a gush of emotions; was tempted to follow the footsteps of the impressive ones, but at the end stood my ground and followed my instincts, which gave me an edge over them. Whenever in doubt, dress formally, conservative sense of dressing never harms anyone, if you do not know something, be honest and admit it, its better than embarrassing yourself and most important good manners never go unnoticed. So go out and Be Yourself!

Dear Readers,

This is the first of many blogs that I intend to write to document and share the learning I have acquired over the years of my professional career.

I’d love to know your thoughts on the blog, your interview experiences etc.

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Thank you for reading and have a blessed day!