The big day bang - Interview its your day!!

Dear All,

CAClubIndia – This place is my Virtual Guru I must say. All the knowledge sharing here is really making this journey of my career very smooth. All the contributors, members and the administrators of the club my sincere thanks for being there for me always. I have always thought we are always at the receiving end, why can’t we give our small part to the club. And after a long time finally I have come up with something. Trust my contributions continue forever.

And this article is dedicated to all my friends who waged series of wars to win the battle of becoming a Chartered Accountant and who did their articleship in small towns and villages. Salutes to each one of you.

I hope I don’t hurt any of your sentiments and views for your next important step in your life. The suggestions here are purely out of my experience and may help some who are struggling to move ahead. Of course our lives are not tailor made, each one view and experiences life in their own way. May be any of these thoughts might help you some day.

If any one of you got struck with this article by any chance of its attractive headline, I give you a disclaimer that this article is not about the whole lot of technical stuffs and how to answer how to behave in an interview etc., because Google can give you some of the best articles and guidelines regarding the above. There is something we fight every minute every hour every day – traffic? Disease? Siblings? Parents? Spouse? Boss? Naaaaaaaaaaa…

It's our MIND buddy. I wish to give life to the epic drama of MIND here.

First of all FEAR. What if I mess up with the interview? What if I’m not selected for the job? What if?

Fear is only an outcome of screening of possibilities in the mind.

Tip 1 >> I would tell you if your mind starts visualising all the nerve crunching scenes of an interview, allow it to do. Just visualise all the worst scenarios. After a point, the mind will be thirsty of thoughts or you would have reached your interview panel by the time. Come on if you say no to any thought you have no option it becomes a chain of thoughts, just go with the flow of your thoughts don't work against them.

Tip 2 >> Only the fear of failure makes you struggle, Isn’t it? We have always been advised to “THINK POSITIVE”. I’m deviating a bit from this concept. Tell to yourself that you don’t need this job. (This is practically difficult if the interview is for your dream company or you are financially responsible for your family. If you have slipped down many good opportunities for no reason, you could try this) the attachment to a job would create unusual pressures to many that they fumble in those important hours. With this thought your mind becomes open and receptive to whatever happening at the interview place. This attitude doesn’t mean that you can handle your interview in a haphazard manner; you are going to give your best with a free mind and will…simple isn’t it?

Second---How to impress?

Ahnnn my strand is only honesty can impress. If it doesn’t impress you, maybe this job or organisation is not for me, it doesn’t mean I’m unfit. Don’t prepare anything for your HR questions? What are your strengths, weaknesses? Am saying just go through your strengths and weaknesses in your mind. Don’t say anything to impress that which is not your strength or weakness. Because it may cause more trouble than being honest.

Where do you see yourself in five years? – Man can you tell what will happen in the next minute. Whatever wherever the career takes you, you would be there. In one of the interviews I said, “I don’t have any big career objective, I always love to give my best wherever I am and that will take me to the best place I deserve”. If you really have a vision for you, kudos..do tell in an understandable manner..

Remember being honest is being yourself. It is as easy as that,,

Third --- Techincal interview

Any Chartered Accountant cannot be a master of all subjects. During articleship we would have worked in various areas but we would not have gained expertise in any particular field. The same goes with the exams we would have studied eight subjects or more. But we become an expert with what we are interested and what we repeatedly do. What we saw so far is just a speck and the universe is still unexplored. Learning and Unlearning is definitely a life time process.

So if by any chance you are posed a question which you have not prepared or which is not your area of interest

Tip 1>> You would have definitely read somewhere. Tell them a very short summary of what you have known about it. Tell them clearly that you have a basic theoretical knowledge of the particular concept and you haven’t worked on it yet. Or the particular question is completely an alien thing; tell them you do not know. Man it takes a great deal of courage to tell that you do not know. Do it if you want to.

Tip 2 >> You can’t tell do not know to all the questions right. One of my friends was asked to draft a Schedule VI financial statement for the company. It happens most of the time at the interview that mind gets point blank and we would be searching for words to speak. We would know about it but we would not be able to produce the same at the required time. The clever girl asked, “Give me your previous years’ financial statements, I can draft one”. I don’t know if this approach is right, but I felt great. It is far better to find ways to respond, than to say “I don’t know”. After all we are Chartered Accountants and we are ace learners. Our learning curve is always at its peak than any other professionals. We know things it’s just that we haven’t been worked on it.

My final say is go with an open mind and an attitude that this is going to be another great day for learning; you will surely come out of the interview with a satisfied heart. Whenever fear strucks me, I would always repeat these sentences I saw in a motivational video. “You live your life twice. Once in your mind and another in real. Mind is full of drama and the real is “REAL”. I would face a brave death than to train my mind with what is not”.

Make it your day…

Thanks a lot for your patience.

Inspirations: Divya, Mark