How to Attend Phone/LIVE/Virtual Interviews and Nail your answers

How do you attend interviews over phone or how do you attend interviews over virtual calls like Zoom or Teams? How do you attend in person interviews? There are a lot of nuances and strategies towards it and people don't really get it. Lot of times what happens is without any preparation or without any kind of knowledge and awareness and being mindful of what is happening, they took their own strength. That is why the trial and errors are happening. A lot of rejections are happening. Still, people were not able to find any kind of a design jobs even though they have a good portfolio, resume skills or even experience. This podcast is going to give you the clarity on how you can exactly crack this interviews using the power of the techniques. What I'm going to be telling you, okay? So please take a lot of notes. I would recommend if you have notes taking in front of you for this particular podcast, it's going to really add lot of value. With that, let's jump into this topic. Guys. Welcome, guys, welcome, welcome. Thank you for staying tuning in with me in this podcast. So before we start this podcast, I ask you three questions. You can write it down. If you have the three answers firmly for these questions, this will have an advance. In this particular podcast you will have an advancement in the information like as I'm telling, if you are resonating, it will be able to build up in the last. So at the last of this podcast you will have an excellent confidence on how you can crack any interview over phone or virtual or live. Okay, so first is you have to write about yourself for just few minutes, like maybe three minutes or maybe two minutes. You can just write about yourself. Okay, you can pause this podcast and do it. Second, you can write about one interesting thing which has happened in your last 30 days, which is very interesting. Maybe you could have done something new. Maybe you could have tried some bungee jumping in the last 30 days. I don't know. Like you can write about something which is very interesting, which you happened, which you did in this last 30 days. Okay, anything new which is apart from the normal regular. Second. Okay, the third, you can write about the biggest success in your life. Okay, you can take a minute and write it down. Pausing this podcast. And the fourth thing, what are you really proud of in your life so far? If you have written this 4. Just keep it guys. Okay, so now let's go to an important thing when it comes to phone call. Interview now. Okay, so the typical thing what happening is this is the initial screening process which normally many recruiters do. The first thing, what people check you is your confidence? Is your. Is your tonality good? Is your communication better? So it is actually a lot of advantages there. So both parties cannot see. It's actually a very quick screening process. It's not a one hour call or maybe a multiple rounds and all. It's like an initial screening call. So if any mismatch is there, recruiters will also communicate and you will also know. Let me tell you. The best way to actually focus is to focus on your clarity in your communication and also to give lot of communication tone. Like let's say hi, how are you? Yes, I'm Jagdish. Thank you for calling me and it's good that you picked my profile and then you are giving me a call back. Thank you sir. How. How may I provide with this interview? Can we continue in the phone or zoom. So you can ask this kind of a question through showing your enthusiasm. Because enthusiasm is what is they'll be checking and also your confidence when you sounded like this. They're more confident that you are very good to come for virtual or even live interviews. You can tell that. So this shows your interest also, right? So the thing is what is their expectation will be? Are you really pointing the answers towards the question what they are asking? The clear communication of your skills. That's what people will be expecting in phone calls. Nothing big guys, why they are calling you. They want to understand what skills you have and how you are precisely answering that and how you are fit for that role. Simple. If you are able to give that clearly over a minute this becomes a great input for you. Okay. So now what you can do is write down all the four answers together like a story and try to answer this question. Like let's say if somebody is calling you over a phone, right? Hey. Hi. So and so we have an interest in your profile or your portfolio or your resume. We wanted to have a short call interview with you. We wanted to really understand about you. If somebody is asking put please make sure you write these four points what you did so far. And then you try to practice it multiple times. Five to six times. Try to answer this. Hey. Hi. I'm Jagdish. So and so. I'm coming from Tamil Nadu. I have five years of experience working in design. I have a great more than 45 projects in my portfolio. And I have did a project which got a national award. So because of this I'm really interested to take care of one of your project which is having a similar interest of what I did which is a medical product device. So if you are providing a chance of interview, it would be great for me to talk with you. You know what? Recently I have did a very good medical project which has got a significant improvement in clients conversion rate of their medical products to 30 percentage higher. This is a big achievement. Recently I made. So I'm. I'm really excited to work in any kind of a challenging role which you have. So can you tell about your role clearly? I already read your description, but can you be little more specific so that we can have the interview forward? See, I talked about for a minute, but I grab that attention over a call by telling about myself, by pitching my biggest usp, by asking a question so that that person is also very curious. So this is how you can do this is about the phone call. Now let's go to the second part of this podcast which is virtual interviews. Virtual interviews are very, very similar to in person guys. If you are able to show that body language, even when you are in front of the person or not, your communication will reflect that. If you are sitting and sleep, if you are sleeping and talking like let's say if you're lying down and talking, definitely your communication will be very different. You will have that lethargic tone you will have no matter whom you talk to. That is why body language is very important when it comes to in person interview. Or, or maybe virtual interviews or remote interviews, anything. It's actually no problem. It's very important, okay? So please be very comfortable with tools like zoom, like teams, like Skype. Please make sure you are finding where is the start call option, where the end call option, how you can switch on your camera, you can keep your virtual backgrounds. Make sure you keep a very good lighting in front of you. Make sure you keep a very good virtual background. If you have a very poor background, you can put a white cloth or green cloth, you can create some good ambient because virtual background works really well when you have a plain homogeneous color background. So you can set up all these things and be ready for the virtual interview. You need to be very good in preparedness, okay? The big advantages is it's actually a distance, right? So you don't have a big initial live interaction like that. It's only till the chest you can able to show yourself, right? So a lot of people can take the advantage of it. A lot of people will perform really bad when it comes to live interviews because they will have to show them in the office, right? So the way in which they walk, the way in which they talk, the way in which they look so people will be sometimes really fearing a lot. But that's not the case. In virtual interviews. You have a great advantage. So why don't you use it? The thing is lot of technical issues will also happen. Softwares will not work and that particular app will crash. And then your lighting will be bad. So please be prepared for all this virtual setting and ensure that you have a very good Internet. Also you have a broadband Internet. Let's say you have a very good 5G connectivity. Let's say you need to have a backup. Also, if your 5G connectivity goes off for some reason like power cut, rain this, that your Internet in your mobile should work at least 4G which is good, right? This is a very important preparedness, guys. And also make sure you are centered in the camera you send. Your eye contact should be directly good. And then you are having a very good. What you call your back should be straight. Your eye should be front. It should have the chest level of your. Whether it's a boy, girl, you can have a. Whether it's a men women, you can have a chest level of camera. So that it's really good. Make sure you're groomed properly. Make sure you're dressed properly. Make sure you don't put any different different colors. It's like a plain highlighted colors. One single solid color would be better. Best don't put any kind of a gradient this. That this will show up very bad impression. So these kind of things could be taken care. When it comes to virtual interview, when it comes to live, this is very important, guys. Because live interviews, lot of people are missing out because they don't know that. Let me tell you one thing. How you do anything, how you do everything. Lot of times the problem is people think virtual interview is different. This is different. No, that's not the case. The point is, if you are able to present yourself in a virtual camera, the same habit will come in your live interview also, right? Nothing magic will happen. Nothing else will happen. Like if you go to that virtual room. If you go to that interview room, you will get a gyan or something, no? So that is why whenever you are attending virtual interview or phone call or live, your body language should be the same. How you sit and talk to a person. How you really provide an eye contact when you are going and meeting a person. Maybe in the live you can handshake. Maybe in the virtual you can say hi, right? So something like that, you can say hi. You should be very brisk towards that. You should show hi, how are you. Your first statement should Be very loud, very brisk, very enthusiasm. Lot of people don't know when they go for live interviews. That enthusiasm is the way in which you can sell yourself, nothing else. Your design skills come secondary. Your enthusiasm and your energy and your happiness shows up. That is why you need to be very happy whenever you're attending interview. I always tell my students lot of time. Know my students are very, very dull. Why you should feel like you should take a moment to think what makes you really happy and feel that moment and then you go and talk. See, whenever you're naturally happy, you tend to attract a good vibe around you. You tend to attract a good vibe around your person whom you talk to. Whenever you're sad, even if that person is not sad, what will happen is you will attract that person through that sadness and you will build up that only. So always bring that happiness, enthusiasm, energetic. Whenever you're talking to person. It applies for all the three interviews, right? So whenever it comes to live interview, you will get a very good immediate feedback also. And you should have a very good clarity in your communication. You should have a problem. You should. You should be able to crack out any problems. Like let's say if you're. If your travel time is bad. Like let's say if your tiredness is there and then if your scheduling changes, don't show anything in the live interview. Because people can sense that more, more, more in life. Okay? So this kind of a hindrances will happen because physical interviews normally will not happen like what we think many times it will be late, it will be during the lunchtime, it will be during the late evenings, it will be the distance of your office will be very huge. Your travel time, your traffic, your everything will matter. So you should not show anything in front of that. You should be able to understand what that person is expecting. And you should show your body language in a very positive way so that you establish that trust and connection with them, right? It is very important to showcase your cultural fit also because people, when they are asking you to come for live interview, they wanted to see how you are able to fit culturally. People will expect that kind of a mingling nature. How you work in a live environments and how you can able to work even remotely. Also you should showcase both. So I can tell you now the third part of this podcast. What are the kind of common questions you will be getting when it comes to phone call? You will get a questions like can you tell about yourself? How do you. How do you hear about this position? What is the interesting things about you what is one unique selling factor, what you have when it comes to a virtual interview? They'll ask you to show a project, they'll ask you to show your resume. They'll ask you to work on a real time environment like a project, like a task. They will ask you to solve and they will ask you how you can work in a remote environment because you are attending virtual interviews, right? So they also expect that. And they'll ask you what are the challenges you faced and how you overcome when it comes to real time interview, which is live interview. They will ask you about your leadership skills. They'll ask you about how you handle different type of stress and pressure. How do you able to mingle with your, with our company and culture? So a lot of times what happens is people ask different, different questions. And let me tell you one thing is very important. If you are able to showcase your energy and enthusiasm by properly answering this kind of questions, definitely that will showcase a greater confidence in that person as well. Okay? So remember all these things, what we discussed for phone, for virtual interview, for live interview, your body language, your tonality in your communication, your clarity. And then you should show lot of happiness and enthusiasm because that will only give you or get you lot many things. Guys. See there are a lot of questions which is there like let's say ajagdish, what will I answer if they ask you if you're a fresher? What if they answer what is your expectation in salary? It's fine. Whatever they may ask, that's immaterial. This particular podcast is giving you a confidence. Whatever they ask, you can use these methods and techniques to answer. Okay? You should show your energy, you should introduce yourself clearly and whatever you written about yourself know in the first part of this podcast, you can able to practice that again and again and again so that you're very confident about your script and then your pitch. So that whatever question they ask, you can able to answer it very, very confidently. That's the reason I asked you to write it down. Because you cannot answer something on your own spontaneously. There you have to be little bit prepared also about yourself, about your strength, about your weakness, right? So it is very good to start a very good interview with that kind of a confidence and enthusiasm. See guys, whether it's a phone interview, whether it's a virtual interview, whether it's a live, it's all about how you're understanding that person. Okay, to close this podcast, I'll give you three golden tips how you can able to nail any interview. The first question is Always have a habit of asking questions politely because I always tell my students people who ask questions, they drive the conversation. Whenever you're doing any user survey or interview or anything, or maybe in the what you call the field study, wherever you're going in your research projects and design, you should be the one who should be asking questions and driving the conversation. What happens is you will exert a more control same. You can apply for interview process as well, right? Recruitment process as well. So people who ask questions, they get a clarity, they get dressed the conversation. This is the first golden tip. Second golden tip is before you answer question or before you stop somebody, or before you even ask a question to somebody, give five seconds of gap. Like let's say if that person is asking you, how are you, Jagdish, take a pause. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hey, hi, I'm fine, doing great. How about you, right? If somebody is asking you, can you exactly tell me about your project? See, I've given you exactly three to five seconds at least. Minimum three to five seconds you should give. Okay, why Jagdish, that gap is there. Let me tell you guys, if you give a gap when somebody is talking, what happens is sometimes people will recollect what they're trying to say, right? You should allow them fully. If you allow other person to talk fully, that person will be really satisfied and happy with communicating to you. If you keep on interacting or if you keep on asking some kind of a questions without even a gap, that person will not feel very comfortable talking with you. This is a very, very important tip. Nobody knows it, guys. Only very few people knows this art of communication. Listening and giving a gap and a pause is a very, very important thing. Talking to person, right? If they're asking you, can you tell about your skill? Hey, I know, I know sketching skills. I know research skills. No, just pause for a moment. Okay, I am really good in sketching. I'm really good in communication. And if that person is asking you a question, okay, allow them. Okay, Jagdish, if you are saying communication, what exactly you mean? Communication? Can you tell about your examples in your research project, in your design project about communication? Don't again rush for answers. Wait. Chances are if you give a gap for five seconds, that person will even ask one more question or that person will add one more point to that question because he has still not completed his statements. He may be still articulating, he may be thinking, still allow them. Okay, Jagdish, what I mean communication is, can you tell exactly how you present Your projects again. Don't rush. Wait. Okay, Jagdish, in that presentation, can you show me exactly how you made your wireframes and prototypes? See, three questions are coming now. Because the moment you allow that person for five seconds. See now you're getting more clear on his question. He wants to check your communication. He wants to check your presentation ability. He wants to check your prototyping and wireframe skills. After that five seconds is over, if that person is still asking anything then you can say, yes sir, I exactly understand your question. And then you can show this is the wireframes which I presented. See, are you able to now understand where is the login page? Where is the home page? Where is the solution? How the person will able to navigate? This is my solution, sir. See, that person will be really happy. Because you understood exactly what is requirement and then you answered it. The moment when you start talking initially you will just like that present all of your project. When somebody is asking you to present something, right, you will not even understand or ask question. So asking question and giving a pass is a very very important skill. And the third important skill, if you're going for a virtual or physical interview or any kind of a phone interview is actually listening very very carefully. Do not ask them. Like let's say if you have not really understood, ask them one more time. Can you please repeat it, sir? Or you can ask even more politely, sir, what do you exactly mean? Like let's say if somebody is asking what's your salary, sir, what do you exactly mean? If such as somebody is asking can you explain about your project, sir, what do you exactly mean? So they'll. They'll tell you more clearly. Okay, I'm asking you Jagdish to explain your project in few minutes shortly. See, more clarity is coming. Right? Sir, can you explain? Can you. Can you just tell me what do I. What do you. What does you exactly mean by that? Like let's say if they're asking you can you relocate to Bangalore? They're saying sir, what exactly you mean relocate to Bangalore? Can you just explain? Jagdish, we are expecting this role who can work in Bangalore full time immediately. Can you come? See, more clear clarity is coming the moment you rephrase that question. This is the third important tip, guys. If you listen closely, only you will be able to rephrase that. The art of using this kind of a techniques like let's say questioning, pausing and rephrasing it. This entire thing will flip for your sight. You will attend the best interview. You will showcase Your best performance, you will be able to make that person really comfortable and happy. Because the moment, if you are allowing that person to talk and understanding the question and answering it appropriately, 99.9 percentage, you will be selected. There is no chance that you will not be selected unless until if you don't follow this. Okay, so the closing of this podcast I will, I will give you an activity guys, okay? Because if you're listening to this podcast, nothing will change. You will have to write about yourself and you have to prepare these three questions. What I told you, right? How you can tell the script in 5 minutes. How you can tell the script in 3 minutes. How you can tell the Script in 1 minute. If you are able to use the same format for phone, for virtual, for live, then you will be able to practice it again and again so that you can crack this out guys. So if you have taken the notes for it, please share it with me. Or if you are putting any kind of a videos, you can share that Google Drive link with me so that I can do a live audit for you. Okay? I can do it only for few participants, but if you are that one, luckily whom you are, if you. If you are able to put that video or any kind of a notes, you can check out there is something called what do you think about this podcast? You can write down there. I'll be more than happy to help you because if more comments are falling, I cannot help for everybody. For few initial comments, I'll be giving you a personal audit of how you did your interview, how you have talked about yourself, where you've gone, personal audit and suggestions for you. Okay? And also you can write about what you think about this podcast honestly, if you need any improvements, okay? Because podcast is normally about one way, but I believe two way communication is important and I really expect from you that how you are able to understand the content what we discussed. Okay? So thank you so much guys. Thank you for listening to this podcast. All the best for your interviews and everything. Please crack it. And if you need any kind of a personal support, you can reach out to this particular episodes guys particular Design for Change podcast. I'll be more than happy to help you. Okay? Thank you so much guys. Take care. All the best. Bye bye.