From: jnle@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (C.N.M.T.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Re: [MISC] Interview Tips?
Date: 15 Apr 92 18:58:23 GMT
Reply-To: jnl@ihlpe.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs - Windy City, IL USA


+--------------- Tran Cuong Nguyen Posting for a friend -----------------+
| 
| Cha`o ca'c ba.n,
| 	To^i la` Tru+.c , graduated ta.i Uni of Wollongong (Australia) 
| hie^.n -dang tha^'t nghie^.p. Tho+`i buo^?i ba^y gio+` muo^'n ti`m vie^.c
| thie^.t la` kho'. To much competition and so litle of opportunities. 
| Khi qua -duo+.c cu+?a a?i -da^`u tie^n (short list) thi -de^'n interview.
| Tho^ng thu+o+`, ne^'u qua -du+o+.c ca'i interview thi` co' hy vo.ng. Nhu+~ng
| ai -da~ tu+`ng -du+o+.c interview -de^`u bie^'t nhu+~ng ca?m gia'c -do' ca? .
| Ho^` ho^.p, run, u' o+' no'i 0 ra lo+`i, etc... Ne^'u chua^?n bi. ky~ tru+o+'c
| thi` co' the^? thoa't kho?i . 
| 	Cho ne^n Tru+.c muo^'n la^.p 1 ca'i list -de^? chua^?n bi. khi -di
| interview, va` cu~ng -de^? cho netters -dang kie^'m (hoa(.c sa('p su+a? kie^'m) vie^.c
| Hy vo.ng nhu+~ng ba.n na`o co' kinh ngie^.m -do'ng go'p the^m. Ngu+~ng ca'i
| nhu+ standard questions & and suggest answers (for comp science jobs),
| technique, tips, advice etc...all welcome.
| 
| Here is the some typical questions:
| Q: What is your strength/weakness ?
| Q: What do you see yourself in 5/10 years ?
| Q: Do you know about systems life cycle?
| Q: What is databases ?
| 
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+


I have been working in the software engineering field (CS major) for
11 years and have interviewed many college graduates over the years
and here are what I use to judge the potential candidates:

  1. YOUR RESUME, EDUCATION BACKGROUNDS, GPA, ORGANIZATION PARTICIPATION...

     - Your resume must be neat, well-organized (easy to read) and be
       free of spelling mistakes.  A poor-written, poor-organized
       resume shows that you are NOT an effective communicator.  This
       factor is very important to lots of companies.

     - Your education backgrounds tell me if you have the background
       needed to learn or do the job required that my group is looking
       for.

     - GPA tells me if you are serious in what you learn, chances are
       if you don't take things seriously in school work (at least a B 
       GPA=>3.0/4.0) then you may not take work as seriously either.

     - Organization participation shows us that you like to get
       involved with people & things at a higher level than just
       personal work, TEAMWORK is highly valued in any big corporation.

   2. YOUR APPEARANCE

      As an interviewee, you should impress the interviewer, but do
      not overdo it as some interviewers (they are as much people as
      you and I) may think that you are nothing but the outside.
      Your neatness shows that you care about yourself thus you tend
      to care about what you do at work.

   3. YOUR CONFIDENT LEVEL

      Confident level is probably the MOST POWERFUL tool you can use to
      impress the interviewer regardless of your backgrounds/appearance.
      High confident level must be applied to both your KNOWLEDGE and
      SPEAKING to give you an edge over other candidates.  A person
      with high confident level shows me that he/she CAN perform
      the assignment, take risks, start his/her own initiatives to
      get things done. 

      - YOUR KNOWLEDGE: know exactly what you are talking about, do not
        make things up as you go along, people interviewing you knows
        if you are faking it or not.  Know what the companies you are
        interviewing with are looking for, the products that they
        make/sell.  Your research into the insight of the companies
        will pay off as they will tend to think that you are serious
        about considering a career with their companies.  When they
        ask you a question, reply with confidence.  Do not just answer
        "I don't know" when they ask you a tough question.  The art
        of interviewing is ASK the question when you don't know.  For
        example, if the interviewer asks: "Have you ever heard of our
        software product XZY?"  You should answer: "No, but it must be
        exciting!  Could you tell me a little bit about it?"  As you
        can see, you just return the fast curve ball back to the other
        side of the court and it makes the interviewer thinks you ARE
        interested in their product and may make a good contributor
        if you are offered a job.

      - YOUR SPEAKING: speak slowly, calmly, clearly and to the
        point.  If you speak too fast, they may think you're just a
        talker and not a doer.  Use proper terminology as much as
        possible, it shows you can distinguish differences in a highly
        technical field, thus you have depth and not just breadth.
        It's also important that you use proper English when speaking.


These are basically what an interviewer may look for from a candidate.
If anyone would like to receive an article on how potential employers
screen resume', let me know.  If there is enough interest, I'll post
it here.  It was a very good article I save from "misc.jobs.offered"
newsgroup.  Hope the above information helps.  Good luck to all who
are looking for jobs.  Keep your faith.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|       @  @  @  @              John (Tua^'n) N. Le       C.N.M.T.   |
|       @  @@ @  @              AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL USA   |
|    @  @  @ @@  @              Email: UUCP:      ..!att!ihlpe!jnl   |
|     @@   @  @  @@@@              INTERNET:     jnl@ihlpe.att.com   |
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