An informational interview with HRs
I am working with my six fellows on a project assigned at Amal Academy. This project was about conducting an informational interview with the HRs of renowned organizations to know their points of view regarding the essentials of the recruitment process. We were given five days to work on this project. For this purpose, we prepared some questions for discussions and finalized two HRs. We talked to one of them live and conversed with the other one through the telephone.
Let’s begin with what happened precisely and how we carried out this exciting thing. We searched for HRs through LinkedIn and sent them duplicate emails about our activity and asked for their precious time. To my surprise, they responded us in a very welcoming way, and they were very keen to know about us, and we coordinated with them for timings and venue.
Adil Qureshi (HR- Sendoso, Lahore, Pakistan)
We searched for the organization, the company’s culture, mission, goals, and history. We met Adil sb. in his office and introduced ourselves. We found him helpful and very friendly. He started with the story of his journey through life. He elaborated his efforts, confused attempts, strength stories, and choosing his career. He shared the work experiences as HR at Bahria Town, Ubisoft, RegBits, IT industry, and now working with Sendoso. Interestingly, he was connecting dots by highlighting the happenings in the past years of his life. He concluded his story by sometimes saying when everything seems to be finished; there comes a ray of hope inside you that gives you a spark to move forward; you need to believe in yourself and be passionate about your goals.
After that, we jumped into the discussion about the recruitment procedure. He said that there needs to be some collaboration among hiring authorities at the employer’s end, especially when more than one party is involved. He talked about the succession plan. Important points were:
In the hiring procedure, the CVs are screened initially, and employers look for the CV keywords. The exciting and engaging CVs made employers more curious about material printed in a cover letter.
Next, for an interview, employers evaluate a person based on the following things.
They look at how passionate and skilled a person is. Adil Sb said that he goes for situational questions for this purpose and asks the Interviewee how he/she would respond to a specific situation they may face on the job. These types of questions draw out analytical and problem-solving skills and how a person handles problems with short notice and minimal preparation.
· Recruiters love to ask weakness stories in addition to strength stories. They want the employee to discuss his weakness and how he is working to fix the specific problem.
· Recruiters can quickly figure out the fakeness of the person through his body language. If the person is not natural, his body language will not be supporting his words.
· Recruiters observe the confidence, gestures, eye contact, firm handshakes while interviewing a person to look for work ethics a person is equipped with and technical knowledge.
· For physical preparation, Adil Sb. Added that your clothing must suit you and avoid burdening your body with what it is not comfortable with.
· Trend of thankyou email is quite in, but the issue is that interviewers usually aren’t that much receptive to the feedback they receive. They become defensive that may affect their performance.
Regarding the thankyou email, Adil sb added that showing gratitude from employees’ end compels the recruiters to give them constructive feedback.
Lastly, Mr Adil Asked about our academic backgrounds, scope in fields, and future goals. He gave us his visiting cards, and we had some photographs with him at the end.
We sent him a Thank-you email, and as a result, he showed his interest to meet other fellows at Amal academy and discuss career development.
Samera Irfan (Consultant GM Samsons Group of Company)- A telephonic conversation
One group member talked to her on the telephone and gave a brief introduction to our activity. She was eager to help us through this assignment and spoke to us through email due to her busy schedule and time limitation.
She answered the questions wisely based on her experiences. The key points are the following:
· Interviewee should showcase his skills and abilities, which make him special and unique and achievements in his introduction. The duration shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes.
· The weakness and strength stories help to know the key traits of candidates and improvement areas. It becomes easy to match the adaptability-related features of the Interviewee.
· Main skills recruiters are looking for in job seekers are those required to fulfil the job effectively, along with few management skills necessary for adding efficacy in existing and future roles.
· Recruiters ask questions behind questions to assess the candidate’s behavioural side, passion, and willingness to execute the job efficiently.
· Interviewees rarely send thankyou emails to recruiters.
· The future aims and objectives, personal goals, body language, spirit, positive attitude, and energy help determine the passion.
· Synchronization of words with the expressions shows that a person is passionate about the job
· When an interviewee is faking .things, his body language is not in line with the replies, and usually, he will try to avoid giving detailed answers to the questions.
· Suggestions regarding fully prepared/equipped for an interview: A person should know the Job Description, the specifications required for executing the job effectively, and the cultural values of the organization.
This meaningful conversation with both recruiters provided us with better insights into recruitment procedures, recruiters’ mindset, and their expectations from applicants.
Major Take-aways:
- Quantify your accomplishments on your CV
- Skill summary is essential for making your CV stand out
- Be careful about your body language during an interview
- Be open to feedback, don’t be defensive
- Show passion
- Show gratitude
- Don’t fake things
