Hi everyone,
Recently i had attended an interview where i was taken aback by some of the quetions that were asked to me, some of them are,
"why HR?"
"why Recruitment?"
"why Hyderabad?"
"you dont know the local language, how can you expect
yourself to survive in the city?"
Can anyone please provide me some tips as to how to answer these questions. Thanking you, Sanjeev
From India, Hyderabad
Recently i had attended an interview where i was taken aback by some of the quetions that were asked to me, some of them are,
"why HR?"
"why Recruitment?"
"why Hyderabad?"
"you dont know the local language, how can you expect
yourself to survive in the city?"
Can anyone please provide me some tips as to how to answer these questions. Thanking you, Sanjeev
From India, Hyderabad
Hi,
Don't get baffled by such questions. Even if they appear to be offensive, treat them kindly as Interviewer's curiosity!!
The "why" of anything a man does, shows his motivation or purpose to do that thing. If you specifically say, "I want to do recruitment", then the interviewer may want to legitimately find out your motivation behind your specific choice. Nothing wrong about it! Nothing wrong about your choice either, so long as you can offer cogent reasons (that may not satisfy the interviewer-and that is a different matter). Your answers reveal if you have thought of future when you make specific choices.
What happens often is that a candidate's first priority is a job and he is willing to not worry about the job contents. He feels that if can demoinstrate definitively that he likes the job with all its concommittants, then the interviewer may be pleased and may award the job to such a candidate. For example, a rather uninitiated candidate invariably says that he likes to "meet people", while being interviewed for a sales function. While this may be true feeling, it will not get you the job necessarily.
The interaction during the interview needs to be steered carefully and skillfully even by the candidate for success. But more about that later!
In your case the interviewer was merely trying to find out the reasons for your liking any specific function. We have to learn to handle such questions tactfully and that is a matter of training and experience!
Clear?
Regards
samvedan
September 20, 2006
From India, Pune
315Don't get baffled by such questions. Even if they appear to be offensive, treat them kindly as Interviewer's curiosity!!
The "why" of anything a man does, shows his motivation or purpose to do that thing. If you specifically say, "I want to do recruitment", then the interviewer may want to legitimately find out your motivation behind your specific choice. Nothing wrong about it! Nothing wrong about your choice either, so long as you can offer cogent reasons (that may not satisfy the interviewer-and that is a different matter). Your answers reveal if you have thought of future when you make specific choices.
What happens often is that a candidate's first priority is a job and he is willing to not worry about the job contents. He feels that if can demoinstrate definitively that he likes the job with all its concommittants, then the interviewer may be pleased and may award the job to such a candidate. For example, a rather uninitiated candidate invariably says that he likes to "meet people", while being interviewed for a sales function. While this may be true feeling, it will not get you the job necessarily.
The interaction during the interview needs to be steered carefully and skillfully even by the candidate for success. But more about that later!
In your case the interviewer was merely trying to find out the reasons for your liking any specific function. We have to learn to handle such questions tactfully and that is a matter of training and experience!
Clear?
Regards
samvedan
September 20, 2006
From India, Pune
Hi Samvedan, thanks for your reply. You have justified as to why a recruiter comes up with such questions and the need for candidates to answer those questions tactfully, but i wish you can help me with some good examples as to how to answer those questions.
thanking you, Sanjeev
From India, Hyderabad
thanking you, Sanjeev
From India, Hyderabad
hey dont worry
If any one asks you questions like these
Just answer with confidence
Tell them why u want to join this industry( ur own reason )
Basically they just checking your confidence level
dont worry
From India, Mumbai
If any one asks you questions like these
Just answer with confidence
Tell them why u want to join this industry( ur own reason )
Basically they just checking your confidence level
dont worry
From India, Mumbai
Hi,
Look, you know your reality best!
Its no use trying to bluff your way through an interview!
I will suggest answers to the questions stated by you, but the naswers will be mine (based on my reality) and you may not be able use these answers fi they do not represent your reality. Therefore your answers should reflect your reality. I am doingthis exercise only so that you will be able to frame your responsesto these and similar other questions in the interviews. Here goes......
Why HR?
I have always been comfortable in dealing with people in various situations. That led me to acquire formal training in this area and that has enhanced my comfort levels in dealing with people. Being the only animate resourse there are ulimited possibilities of getting the best out of people and the challenge in attempting to do that attracts me.
(If any of these fit your reality you may structure your answers accordingly!)
Why Recruitment?
It is virtually impossible to know the entirity of a human personality at any given time. Human beings are growing and changing all the time. They are learning newer skills to transform their destinies. They are constantly responding to the environment they are put in. Under these conditions, recruitment assumes great responsibility towards the organization as also the people that you want to make a part of the organization. All one's understanding of human personalities and organizational environment now and as it may transform in future, is challenged when you make a decision to recruit someone. I will enjoy such challenges. Right recruitment will mean that I have rendered useful service to the organization. Other functions also offer such and perhaps even greater challenges, but I find, at my present stage and age, the challenges of recruitment will be greatly satisfying.
(If any of these fit your reality you may structure your answers accordingly!)
Why Hyderabad?
If you do not know the local language, how do you expect to survive in this city?
(Why don't you try to answer these two questions and mail me so that I may be able to know hoe you have understood your reality and how well are your answers are reflecting your reality?
Give it a try please and gain the confidence to handle such questions better.
Regards
samvedan
September 20. 2006
From India, Pune
Look, you know your reality best!
Its no use trying to bluff your way through an interview!
I will suggest answers to the questions stated by you, but the naswers will be mine (based on my reality) and you may not be able use these answers fi they do not represent your reality. Therefore your answers should reflect your reality. I am doingthis exercise only so that you will be able to frame your responsesto these and similar other questions in the interviews. Here goes......
Why HR?
I have always been comfortable in dealing with people in various situations. That led me to acquire formal training in this area and that has enhanced my comfort levels in dealing with people. Being the only animate resourse there are ulimited possibilities of getting the best out of people and the challenge in attempting to do that attracts me.
(If any of these fit your reality you may structure your answers accordingly!)
Why Recruitment?
It is virtually impossible to know the entirity of a human personality at any given time. Human beings are growing and changing all the time. They are learning newer skills to transform their destinies. They are constantly responding to the environment they are put in. Under these conditions, recruitment assumes great responsibility towards the organization as also the people that you want to make a part of the organization. All one's understanding of human personalities and organizational environment now and as it may transform in future, is challenged when you make a decision to recruit someone. I will enjoy such challenges. Right recruitment will mean that I have rendered useful service to the organization. Other functions also offer such and perhaps even greater challenges, but I find, at my present stage and age, the challenges of recruitment will be greatly satisfying.
(If any of these fit your reality you may structure your answers accordingly!)
Why Hyderabad?
If you do not know the local language, how do you expect to survive in this city?
(Why don't you try to answer these two questions and mail me so that I may be able to know hoe you have understood your reality and how well are your answers are reflecting your reality?
Give it a try please and gain the confidence to handle such questions better.
Regards
samvedan
September 20. 2006
From India, Pune
Hi,
You can try these answers also -
Why HR?
Right from birth I have been longing to be in HR. Now there is a chance. I am born to be in HR. So, you can't ask me why. I am sure you came to this profession by sheer accident. That's why you want to know why people are choosy.
Why Recruitment?
I am not familiar with Labor Laws, Payroll processing, OD or any hardcore HR job and such stuff. Recruitment is very important, because unless you recruit people you won't have people to manage with or work with. Moreover, that's very easy job. I can be contacting consultants, browsing job sites and releasing recruitment ads etc. In the process, I stand a chance to be recruited by a better company.
Why Hyderabad?
Because your company is in Hyderabad. I don't mind if you shift your office to Secunderabad. I will then be in Secunderabad and I hope you will not ask me 'Why Secunderabad?'
How will you survive without knowing the local language?
I am more concerned about my growth than my survival. Just for survival you don't need local language or indeed any language at all.
Jeeva.
From India, Bangalore
You can try these answers also -
Why HR?
Right from birth I have been longing to be in HR. Now there is a chance. I am born to be in HR. So, you can't ask me why. I am sure you came to this profession by sheer accident. That's why you want to know why people are choosy.
Why Recruitment?
I am not familiar with Labor Laws, Payroll processing, OD or any hardcore HR job and such stuff. Recruitment is very important, because unless you recruit people you won't have people to manage with or work with. Moreover, that's very easy job. I can be contacting consultants, browsing job sites and releasing recruitment ads etc. In the process, I stand a chance to be recruited by a better company.
Why Hyderabad?
Because your company is in Hyderabad. I don't mind if you shift your office to Secunderabad. I will then be in Secunderabad and I hope you will not ask me 'Why Secunderabad?'
How will you survive without knowing the local language?
I am more concerned about my growth than my survival. Just for survival you don't need local language or indeed any language at all.
Jeeva.
From India, Bangalore
Hi Samvedan, thanks for all the pain you took to answer those two questions. You are absolutely right when you say that the answer should be based on my reality. I did my MBA from The Oxford College of Business Management in Bangalore, after finishing my 4th semester exams i have come to Hyderabad for job hunting. I left Bangalore because i was not comfortable staying there, my native place also happened to be far away from Bangalore and i had very few relatives over there, this sometimes made me feel lonely. That's what made me to choose Hyderabad as a place to stay, as its nearer to my home. The interviewer was curious as to why i have left Bangalore after finishing the course, I thought i would look silly if i say that I was missing my home. Now dont you think I am going to lessen my chances if I say that I was missing my home, as it would be looked upon as my weakness?
From India, Hyderabad
From India, Hyderabad
Hi,
I personally do not find anything wrong in your wanting to be closer to your home, but some interviewers maugh not appreciate this.
See, you have a right to choose a place where to work, but when you get into a conflict between such a choice and the requirements of the career, the interviewers/the seniors, if you are employment, could draw adverse inferences as to whether you are the type who could sacrifice a career for the sake of personal preferences!
You still can get over this predicament by being tactful without falsification.
Suppose you say something like, " I am willing to go where my career will take me, though for the next couple of years, for the compulsions of family situation (at this stage "invent" some rational looking yet appealing reasons) I have to be here (the name of the place) and after that I am willing to move etc."
This kind of a response conveys to the satisfaction of the interviewers, generallu that there is nothing wrong with the candidate's preferences.
In life you manage situations with the help of facts and tact and by and large you will get on!
Cheers!
Regards
samvedan
September 20, 2006
From India, Pune
I personally do not find anything wrong in your wanting to be closer to your home, but some interviewers maugh not appreciate this.
See, you have a right to choose a place where to work, but when you get into a conflict between such a choice and the requirements of the career, the interviewers/the seniors, if you are employment, could draw adverse inferences as to whether you are the type who could sacrifice a career for the sake of personal preferences!
You still can get over this predicament by being tactful without falsification.
Suppose you say something like, " I am willing to go where my career will take me, though for the next couple of years, for the compulsions of family situation (at this stage "invent" some rational looking yet appealing reasons) I have to be here (the name of the place) and after that I am willing to move etc."
This kind of a response conveys to the satisfaction of the interviewers, generallu that there is nothing wrong with the candidate's preferences.
In life you manage situations with the help of facts and tact and by and large you will get on!
Cheers!
Regards
samvedan
September 20, 2006
From India, Pune
Hi Samvedan,
Have rarely come across such helpful answers to the queries put by interviewers.
However, candidates must be prepared to respond to other questions when the interviewer wishes to explore the answers given (as above) more fully; this may be hard to do unless the candidate does considerable introspection (at home before the interview) as to how he/she should answer such additional questions should they be asked.
Ideally, the candidate should put herself/himself in the interviewer's place, and think, 'if the candidate has answered xyz, then what else should I need to know to discover how genuine his/her answer is ...';
and then prepare his/her answers accordingly.
It's not easy, but if a candidate can take the trouble of proper preparation, he/she'll definitely impress the interviewer!
Jeeva,
Your suggested answers are great - they will certainly ensure the interviewer will never offer you the position, but at least they will make him/her laugh his/her guts out!
Keep it up!
Jeroo
From India, Mumbai
Have rarely come across such helpful answers to the queries put by interviewers.
However, candidates must be prepared to respond to other questions when the interviewer wishes to explore the answers given (as above) more fully; this may be hard to do unless the candidate does considerable introspection (at home before the interview) as to how he/she should answer such additional questions should they be asked.
Ideally, the candidate should put herself/himself in the interviewer's place, and think, 'if the candidate has answered xyz, then what else should I need to know to discover how genuine his/her answer is ...';
and then prepare his/her answers accordingly.
It's not easy, but if a candidate can take the trouble of proper preparation, he/she'll definitely impress the interviewer!
Jeeva,
Your suggested answers are great - they will certainly ensure the interviewer will never offer you the position, but at least they will make him/her laugh his/her guts out!
Keep it up!
Jeroo
From India, Mumbai
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General Guidelines in Answering Interview Questions.doc