“Interview Jargons:  “Hard button, hot point, Hot button, Turn offs, Side line etc.”

Being an HR professional, honestly I never understood the very purpose of this question? Many a times, I put this thought across my friends who are in assessment centers and in interview panels.

But the super-progressive views on BEI or CBI were no match for the residue of a tradition that expects people to have a weakness & strength point.

At times it’s like a death blow to many interview candidates.

I have seen people covering weakness points with strengths and goofing up with “google-answers”

Probing More

I have decided to take this out from the jargon-box of Human Resources.

I have started asking people, what will you draw from these weakness points?

1. How many of you have rejected or selected candidates on the basis of this point?
2. How many of them (points) were really pertinent to the position/role/culture?
3.  How many of the points which people said- you have thought can trouble the team or the productivity?

What we find?

Most of the answers were vague. Not enough -statistical data facts to make a conclusion. Even at times they have said- I have seen this in interview guide, so I thought to ask this!

How we made it effective?

Making it short, we have facilitated our interview panel to reframe these questions. Instead of asking people weakness; we made them to think through these lines

1. What steps or plans you have taken to improve an area which you have thought will help you in future?
2. How you have measured the results and what were the root causes of the same?
3. Can you cite a plan which you have facilitated to helped your colleague to further work on his strengths or his area of development?

Results:

People came up with brilliant answers rather than typical “google-ones”. Someone have moved from last minute doer, using “google keep” sharing tasks with his team; someone started thinking about the value of his questions, before dumping all sorts of questions to the clients – which irritated his team & troubled the time factor; someone took help of Evernote to de-clutter his thoughts & actions, to focus on his daily tasks etc.

Re-framing questions changed the entire paradigm. We thought from a value perspective. It helped the candidates to open up & see it as an opportunity rather than threat. It generated new ideas & insights for us. Also it helped us to facilitate rational thinking & to draw logical conclusions towards the position competency.

–         BEI : Behavioral Event Interview

–         CBI-Competency Based Interview

The post Demystifying- What is your weakness appeared first on Anson Mathews.

Same way, a CV is a selling document; it sells your Expertise , Scholastics , Competency sets , skills and achievements to a potential ’employer’, it will also give them a picture of what kind of employee you would be. So when writing your CV, step into the reader’s shoes; ask yourself “what do they want to read?”.

The one who drafts the CV in line with the Job Descriptions has got a better Talent Visibility !!

Some Quick Facts :

1. A recruiter spends max 5 to 10 “seconds” on a CV.
2. 95% of the ”Eligible” CV is rejected due to the fact of “Cluttering/ Bad Structuring”
3. Most of the job seekers overlooks on sentences , not on “key Words”.
4. Cover letter should discus about why the candidate wants to meet the recruiter ; but most of the times unfortunately it’s a summary ditto of the CV itself.
5. Grammatical Mistakes & Spelling Errors… Huh !!this one can nail you during interview.

Before CV Preparation :

1. Download some sample CV’s from Google.
2. Focus on the Market which you are looking for.
3. You may use LinkedIn to get an idea about the recruitment trends of the country.
4. You must utilize your strong Research skills to learn about the typical JD’s of the position you are looking for.

Creating your Success Story :

Your Success Stories are those Experiences you had in the past. Remember to make it in a chronological order and it must be conscripted in increasing level of responsibilities/span of control .

• Ensure your success stories cover a variety of levels and functions.
• Don’t forget to include traditional/vertical paths as well as unique paths.
• Feature about your specific accomplishments during the stint.
• You have stretched yourself with senior management exposure
• You have taken discretionary efforts for creation of an initiative, or program
• You have assumed significant responsibility and accountability during the stint
• You are open to challenging and leading-edge work

CV Drafting :

Ideal Length :Even though debates are still on about the length of CV , you can draft a CV of 2 – 3 pages long depending upon your experience.

Header ( Not the document Header & Footer): Adding your Name, Communication Details as a Header with case-sensitive formatting will help you to save the space. You should not add anything more than “Your Name , Communication Options , A tag line of which describes you” in the header.

Career Objective: Instead of adding a summary of what you have done, it is always better to add what exactly is your CAREER ASPIRATION.

Your CV must reflect what you want to be in “Future” along with what you were in “PAST “ !!

The post What-makes-a-good-CV appeared first on Anson Mathews.

The manager had a typical way of working. He closely monitored his subordinates and interacted with them every now & then. His point was the recent training he has got  on coaching skills taught him about the significance of hand –holding the juniors who are in the learning period and flooding them with the feedback. Eventually, the frustrations had pushed my friend to join another organization.

The discussion has triggered some thoughts which I think are prevailing with most of the Gen-Y Managers.

1.Following the subordinates every time!! Everywhere!

I don’t think anybody likes to add their boss on Facebook or Instagram in this century where the whole internet conspire your plans, page content with your history of searches. Doesn’t matter, whether you party with Kim Kardashian or you had a vacation to Uzbekistan with your school girl friend. I think Germans are seriously planning to ban employers from contacting employees after office hours, just as it’s already forbidden to contact employees on vacation under German law.

Huh!! I wish I had a German boss

How interesting it is that when you ask for a day off stating that your grand-mother is ill and after few days your friend tags you in the beach party the same day you took the day off! On the way back to home, you hear a whistle which indicates a new comment on your post. Our somewhat Pavlovian response is to pick up the device, see who the comment is from and read it.

Your boss has commented – “Whoah …whoah!”

2.The urgent task phenomenon!!

You are a line manager and you have got an urgent task!!

Whom will you delegate it to? Of course, the smarter one! This is an increasing phenomenon in managers as they progress on the ladder; to meet the deadlines they tend to delegate the task to the ones who completes it faster rather than to skilled one. The inspirational talks on  aligning the tasks with the guy’s career aspiration aspirations ,eventually get faded on papers.

If you are a Line manager and you have some smart employees under you; don’t just add responsibilities to them without empowering them.  Cross check that the tasks & assignments you are assigning to them are superior in nature to what they are doing now.

3.Adding JD with more bubbly words without adding a zero to your pay -cheque!!

If you want to enhance their job, make them as a LEAD of project. Consult with your HR to give a raise; else explain them the bigger picture of how the task can add value to the company & expose him as well to the wider community of senior leadership.

Don’t enhance or enrich his job with add-on responsibilities without rewarding him properly.

Wait!! Even domino’s pizza asks you to pay extra for  cheese or top –up!

4.The story of FY promises which are not in your hands (of course that are not even in HR’s hand)

It is the same old story of crying kid & moon. You offer the Moon to the Kid when he screams out on the top of his voice. No doubt your wife will bang you to the wall if you make the kid to cry for a min more.

Here only change is that you offer many things without any reason. Kind of statements like “When you do this, you will get this”   (Masala & animates stories are even used to get the guy in).  When you make a promise you make him sit on the same chair of exit interview!! The guy completes the job and will be waiting for your offerings and of course you had many promises to make & tasks to complete which will make you moving on to the next. You know clearly that during PM, you can tell him about the recent policy changes HR had and restructuring of the company as an excuse for your unkept promises. End of the story is – the smart guy chooses the chair for an exit interview session.

5.Creative!! Boy but that’s not professional, we have an SOP in place.

Freedom of creation!! Gen-Y likes to bring on creative solutions. They might be thinking from all perspectives and bringing the solutions which can withstand the business requirements. But often the creativity is discouraged in one sentence. SOP!! You need to follow this method.

Asking silly/insane/ irrelevant questions are the other ways of discouraging the creativity. MNC’s has a way of working and one needs to follow that. Especially for managers who are in the mid-of their middle management career stage; trying something different is a big No-No. Creativity for them is like oxymoron: Somebody has to tell them they are not here to manage creativity, but to encourage the same. Smart guys need intellectual challenges – vertical problem statements and an environment which is dynamic in nature; not stale, boring with monotonous operating procedures.In the end, what it takes to keep a guy with you is to engage him, without disturbing his private space; to coach him without micro managing him and to recognize him not at the cost of an exit interview.

The post You May Lose the Smart Guy appeared first on Anson Mathews.