The very mention of this word gives one the Heebie-jeebies. It won’t be such a terror, if you follow these tips.
As I’d said earlier, many interview questions originate from what you have stated in your résumé.
You may have observed interviewers looking at your testimonials before asking questions. In the short interval between two interviews, the interviewers try to get an idea about you as a person even before you appear before them, by glancing at your résumé.
Interviewing is a really boring business. Believe me, I’ve been on the other side of the interview desk too many times and I hate it. What questions to ask is one of the issues that we solve by looking at assertions in your résumé.
So be careful while providing information in your résumé. If you are making tall claims not backed by experience or knowledge, you yourself are presenting the interviewers with a long rope to hang you. This is like the saying in Malayalam – ವಡಿ ಕೊಡ್ತ್ತ್ ಅಡಿ ಮೇಡಿಕ್ಕುವ (വടി കൊടുത്ത് അടി മേടിക്കുക) viz, Giving someone a stick go beat you.
But then, every threat is an opportunity. Résumé can be the ruse to prod interviewers to ask questions that you want them to ask.
You can state your areas of specialisation, hobbies, sports and extra-curricular activities etc and then prepare thoroughly on these topics so as to be ready to slay them if they ask questions relating to those topics.
If you have said that you play basketball, you can read up about the big names of the game, latest results of important tournaments and be ready to answer any regular questions that may pop up during the interview.
Now let’s look at the fear factor. Fear is an amorphous thing that expands to cover your entire brain and paralyses you. So it is essential to learn how to banish fear.
I always maintain that fear of an event is much greater than the eventuality itself. Let’s for instance, think of the night prior to the morning you wrote the first paper in your tenth standard board exams.
Most of you felt that the world would end the next day, right? But it didn’t! Did it? You are still here and reminiscing about that night, you must be telling yourself, what a silly fool I used to be!
Likewise, before an interview, you work yourself into a frightful mental state thinking about what would happen if you weren’t to be selected. And this fear paralyses you and you will perform badly in the interview.
The tragedy isn’t failing to clear the interview. The tragedy is, not being able to give it your best shot. ‘If only’ you keep harping after the interview. The saddest word in the English dictionary is a two letter word – IF.
So how to overcome fear? Simple. Crystallise the disaster scenario and accept it! Now you have banished fear because you’ve told yourself, ‘it’s OK if I don’t make it. Let me give it my best shot’. And you’ll certainly make it. In fact, you’ll be amazed by your performance in the interview.
You are unemployed and are facing your first job/placement Interview. Will your status change if you fail? No! And the world isn’t going to end immediately after the interview. Once you accept this fact, fear won’t be an amorphous demon. It will be a harmless li’l imp who’ll make you laugh, and won’t scare the wits out of you.
This again is a long discussion. So I will continue in my next post.
Raja P Areyada
Retired Banker. Expertise in International Finance, Payment systems, Treasury automation, Trading platform development & deployment, Information security, Risk Management, Financial Inclusion, IT software development.
Wide array of interests including Philosophy, Quantum Mechanics, Macro Economics and Parapsychology.
Great insights! Really liked the point about using the resume strategically to guide interview and the reminder that fear is often bigger than reality. This article provides a thoughtful, experience based perspective that makes the interview process feel far less intimidating. By explaining how resumes shape interview questions, it encourages candidates to be both honest and strategic in what way they should present. The discussion on fear is particularly powerful, showing how anxiety often does more harm than failure itself. The simple idea of accepting the worst outcome helps shift focus from fear to performance.
Overall, it’s a practical and reassuring piece that can truly boost confidence and helps candidates give their best in interviews.
The Malayalam proverb mentioned giving someone a stick to beat you is a perfect analogy for overstating claims in a resume.
Please read the sentence ‘Giving someone a stick go beat you’ as ‘Giving someone a stick to beat you’.