Guide to crack Startup interviews.

                    

Getting an interview call for your dream job is another step in the right direction. However, it is not the end of the road as you still need to crack that interview.

In this blog, we look at some important interview skills,some common questions with answers that can help you ace the interview and get the job.

• Apply for the job with both the Resume and the Portfolio

The key difference between a portfolio and a resume is that a portfolio is more detailed and has multiple pages, whereas a resume is only one or two pages long . A portfolio contains relevant videos, web pages, photographs, and graphs to show a person's skills and abilities. Remember: Portfolios are only used for certain jobs (jobs where you can showcase your work).

(There is no need to learn coding or pay anything to create a portfolio. Many free websites provide templates that you can use to create and host your portfolio. My personal favorite is dorik.io , which provides number of templates+ hosting services for free. I've made a simple portfolio using the same, harpreetsra.dorik.io)

Note: It is very important to match the skills and projects in resume with the job description.

Once your Resume/Portfolio gets approved,you will get a call and will be asked the first question that 95% of the companies asked

• Tell me something about yourself/Introduce Yourself

Remember this will be your first time interacting with the staff.You only have one chance to leave a first impression when you meet someone for the first time. There are a few tips that you can use to stand out differently from other candidates. . Don't just start straight with the introduction, always greet the other first.You can divide the introduction into different segments like personal information,Education Information, Experience, your personal traits/what are you looking for,Outro.

For personal information, you can start with your name,place where you live and family members.It should not take more than 15-30 seconds. For education information, you can start with your primary and secondary education and then move towards higher education.Then comes the most important part: experience. Don't just give the names and duration of the companies you've worked on, try to explain the responsibilities you had.The other person can counter-question you on this segment about how you helped your previous organization to grow? Why did you leave that organization? What did you learn from your organization? etc. So be prepared with the answers.If you are a fresher and have no experience at all, then I suggest you have some projects that you can host somewhere and you can tell the interviewer about that. Once you've done with introducing yourself,you can always end up with a quote and a simple thank you. Below is the simple introduction template that you can mold in your own ways. 

Template

Good morning/afternoon. First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is XYZ. I was born and brought up in XYZ. In my family, I have parents and an elder brother.

As far as my qualifications are concerned, I've done my primary and secondary education from XYZ School and I've completed my degree/pursuing my degree from XYZ college in XYZ field.

As my experience accounts, I did an internship at XYZ company as an XYZ(your designation,like SDE,HR,graphic designer). There I was responsible for developing the products and publishing it to the desired stores.After that, I've done full time in XYZ company as a XYZ (designation),there i was responsible for creating products, fixing bugs and errors. Apart from that, I do have some of my personal projects hosted on the XYZ  site and I have participated in various competitions/hackathons/jams.I've also done some freelancing projects for XYZ organizations.In my past experience I've worked alone as well as lead a team of 5 so I'm flexible when doing so.

Not only am I passionate about engineering & technical skills, I'm also inclined towards creative activities such as sketching. I am self-motivated,responsible,hard working, well organised and i believe these are my biggest strengths.

Right now I am looking for a career option where i can apply my technical skills along with my creative approach. I think life is not about finding yourself, but it is all about creating yourself and I think your organization can help me to develop more of my skills.

That's all from my side,thanks again.

There are some common follow-up questions that 75% of the interviews asked. I've tried to cover a few of them with the answers.

• How did you get into this industry/Why did you choose this industry only?

Try to answer this question to make it look like you not only have the experience but also the passion.You can use some kickass dialogues from different movies to have a stronger impact.

For example, if you're applying for any site-engineering job you can reply with "you know when a layman walks on the street, he can only say "oh what a structure,what a building,what a car" but only an engineer can say, I can make it better".

If you're applying for any technical job, you can reply with " I was always fascinated by how these apps/games work, so and once I got into the technical side, I was so overwhelmed and I tried to explore more and more and end up being a professional developer."

• Suppose you stumble upon a problem and you don't know how to tackle it, what will you do in that scenario?

This question is asked when the interviewer wants to check your thinking process or your determination, you can again reply with Will Smith's dialog, "I'm the type of person, if you ask me a question and I don't know the answer, I am gonna tell you that I don't know the answer but i know how to find the answer and i will find the answer." 

• What is your expected salary?

Always gives a salary range."In general, I’m looking to make around 10-12 LPA in my next role given my experience and expertise in XYZ. However, compensation isn’t the only thing that matters to me and I’d love to learn more about the job, the company, and the work environment here."