HR Interview: How to Prepare

When it comes to Human Resources Management, the personality of the candidate is guaged at the HR Interview with a rather simple, logical set of questions. And the key to success is mainly your honesty in answering the questions from your own experience and knowledge. You don't have to cover a big syllabus or master textbooks to prepare for the interview. Let us divide the questions into sets:

Personal Information

"Tell us about yourself." This is probably the first question at an HR Interview where they would judge the following:

1. Your language fluency and presentation style

2. Your family background and attitude towards family, etc.

3. Your priorities, values and beliefs.

It is a good practice to make yourself clear about your personal life before you start to think about who you are sitting in front of the panel. Details like your family, how long you have been married (if married), number of children (if any), your parents whereabouts, your brothers and sisters, etc. and a little info about your schooling, college with dates, values of faith or religion, etc. could be organised in a step by step manner, to summarise in about 2 minutes, it would be enough.

Career Objective

Be specific about your career objective and the objective of the interview. "In what way is this job going to help you in your career objective?" could be the most likely question. If you are not convinced about the positive impact of the job, you are sure to lose the job too.

Your Current Position

If you are going for a job change, prepare yourself to explain in a step by step manner what you were doing in the previous job. You may list down the major responsibilities in a few sentences and get specific to those which are related to the position you are applying for.

Reasons for Leaving

This could be a sure question if you are looking for a job change. "Why do you want to go for a job change?" Be sure that the same reason will not apply for the position applied, because you have more chances of getting rejected if the reasons were not something appealing to the board. And be sure never to give a bad picture about your previous employer, however bad they may be. Give your reasons of inability to continue there - not a generalised negative statement against a corporate. It could backfire very badly.

Your Expectations

Employers get weird answers to this question - "What are your expectations from us?" A huge increase in pay (say, 100% hike) may not be entertained. Be careful not to read out your home grocery list for the list of benefits you expect. However, be careful not to say "Yes" to even those that may hurt in the long run, like 14 hours a day or stipend-only kind of setup. Be prudent.

Joining Time

Be clear when you would be able to join them. Be realistic giving sufficient time for decision making, settlements, etc.

Hopefully, these are most commonly asked questions. However, a little extra information like the profile of the companies (your past and the one where you have applied), general knowledge and current affair in politics, sports, etc might also come up during the discussion.

You might as well know that most of the HR Managers are tired of interviewing candidates, and if you can really keep them engaged with your answers, not leaving much of silence waiting for them to dig out information from you, you have better chances of getting the job. If the interview lasts for longer, the chances of you getting appointed are higher.

One key preparation would be to pray to God. As the Word of God says, "Victory comes from the Lord", it is He who decides the result - however bad you may do your interview or however well you may perform. So, if you can please the Heavenly Master, you will be able to choose the right employer instead of them finding you as the right candidate. Wish you success and God's richest blessings!