Malaysia - When first impressions matter

The job interview is the first step for a young graduate before being gainfully employed, and he needs to convince his prospective employer that he is the right candidate for the job.

THIS is a first in a series of articles on employability for young people.

This article will focus on what fresh graduates need to look out for during an interview with a prospective employer.

Scene One: Interviewer walks into the room, and takes a look around at applicants – mostly fresh graduates – seated at the office foyer. He has been assigned to hire a marketing and sales executive for the company.

Scene Two: Interviewer calls out the name of one of the applicants and she walks in.

She is dressed in a blouse, jeans, sneakers and carrying a backpack.

She politely greets the interviewer and shakes his hands.

She sits down and before she rummages through her bag for her documents, she takes out a tumbler.

Scene Three: During the interview, the applicant is asked about the company.

She admits that she doesn’t know much about the company and flashes a smile.

She also tells the interviewer that “selling products” is what the job requires of her.

Scene Four: She offers a few more monosyllabic answers and the interviewer, clearly unimpressed with her, waits for her to leave before he makes known his observations to the rest of his peers in the room.

He regrets that she is not up to the mark as a candidate — despite her impressive exam results!

The scenarios mentioned above are very typical and experienced by many companies and young graduates seeking employment after earning a diploma or degree.

Prevailing attitude

It presents the prevailing attitudes of fresh graduates, their demeanour, their level of preparedness and everything else that will make them stand out – or otherwise – in the job market.

Quite often, many of them are clueless about what their potential employers want or expect of them.

If this is the situation, then the applicant’s best bet would be to walk into the room exuding confidence.

An interviewer is more likely to sit up and listen to a person who speaks with confidence, even though he may tend to talk too much, then to sit in awkward silence with a candidate who gives monosyllabic answers.

Don’t expect empathy from the interviewer to get you through this interview because his main intention is to hire the right person to do the job.

I have often heard my clients who are senior managers in their respective organisations utter in disgust at the attitude of the “young workforce today”.

“They feel that society owes them a living and feel they have the right to come into a room and ask about their expected salary,” says one manager.

“They also demand that they should have adequate work-life balance and they make no qualms about wanting to know about the company’s annual leave policy.

“All this when they cannot even describe to me in more than a sentence what they think the job entails,” another manager told me.

Hence, knowing basic information about the organisation and knowing what the position entails will be one good way when starting out at an interview.

In the case of a person applying for the job of a sales and marketing executive, he is not only expected to know that he is required to sell but to believe in the product the company is selling.

Plus points

Enhanced persuasive skills, good communication, confidence and sincerity are qualities required in all fields.

These may seem intangible but are in fact the cues that the interviewer is hoping to catch.

An experienced interviewer will already know from the resume the basic details like whether the candidate is organised or not, whether he has an eye for detail, or is sloppy.

What he will be looking for are the behavioural aspects of the individual which may not come out clearly in the resume.

Do your homework. Not knowing about the company in the Internet age is an unforgivable sin.

Even if you take two minutes on the way to the interview to surf the organisation’s website, it will make a difference.

Questions about an organisation are a staple for interviewers because it reflects the work attitude of the applicant; whether he is lazy or lacks interest in the job he is applying for.

This perception is also formed by the way an applicant dresses.

Even though jeans and T-shirts are a norm with the younger generation, we must first and foremost remember that most of the hiring is still being carried out by the generation before them.

The general rule is that it is better to overdress than to be underdressed for an interview.

A client who is the managing director of a multimillion dollar company complained to me that it was disrespectful and rude for young employees to wear their caps indoors and sometimes have their sunglasses pulled up on their head like a hair band.

Self assessment

As for me, I am of the view that one must be prepared to put in some effort when applying for a job.

This means doing a self assessment to see how you can equip yourself before “battling out” for a job.

First, you would need to brush up on your communication skills to market yourself.

Monosyllabic answers will not help to sell your skills and a job applicant needs to know as much information as possible about the company he is seeking a job at.

Don’t forget that first impressions count.

If you are not sure of how to go about this, just chat with someone you know who works in the human resources department of a company, or works as a senior manager and ask them what would set a good first impression.

PAUL KAM

The Star


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