Tellephonic interview

[Arulmariappan Ramasamy]

I have two years experience as Java Programmer. If interviewer ask, tell about yourself? how do i answer? Please help I have telephonic interview.

[Rajkamal Pillai]

My readings tell me that "Tell me something about yourself" and similar IS a really dumb question from the part of an interviewer.

1. Whatever detail about the interviewee that is relevant to the job would be available on his resume.
2. The interviewer did not have time to go over the resume which he definitely must do beforehand before starting an interview.
3. He is not aware of the requirements or he does not have an interview plan or he lacks information about the job requirements.

(All the above points are mine own and hence hence arguable.)

In any case you (interviewee) should have gone through the company and job profile and should be aware of the details about the interview (in best case this would be rather vague).

Present yourself or your candidature mentioning the skills that you have picked up over the years which would enable you to perform better in the role/position advertised for.
I do not touch my personal side unless directly asked for.

Note: ALWAYS remember that you are selling yourself and be clear and precise.

Cheers,
Raj.

[Jaikiran Pai]

Raj Kamal wrote:My readings tell me that "Tell me something about yourself" and similar IS a really dumb question from the part of an interviewer.

That's definitely not a dumb question.

Raj Kamal wrote:
1. Whatever detail about the interviewee that is relevant to the job would be available on his resume.
2. The interviewer did not have time to go over the resume which he definitely must do beforehand before starting an interview.
3. He is not aware of the requirements or he does not have an interview plan or he lacks information about the job requirements.

Resume doesn't tell everything. The interviewer is giving you a chance to introduce yourself better during the interview. There's nothing wrong in that. Infact that's a good way for the interviewer to know more about what you have worked on and how you communicate. It can even sometimes help him/her identify certain candidates who haven't really being truthful about themselves in their resumes.

[Matthew Brown]

It's also a relatively gentle way of starting the interview, letting the interviewee settle down and talk before hitting them with more searching questions.

[Maneesh Godbole]

Arulmariappan Ramasamy wrote:I have two years experience as Java Programmer. If interviewer ask, tell about yourself? how do i answer? Please help I have telephonic interview.

I would suggest improving/brushing up on your communication skills.

[Tim Moores]

You should tell him what you think he should know about you. Since it's an open-ended question it's a good way to ease into the interview, and tell things that may not come up in the question-and-answer part, or which may not be obvious from your CV.

[Deepak Bala]

"Tell me something about yourself" and similar IS a really dumb question

I disagree. Professional resumes are limited to 2 pages. You cannot abridge several years of experience into those 2 pages even if you tried. This question is also a great ice breaker and can be used to gauge communication skills.

Bring out your strong points. Tell them about how you designed / programmed system X and how many users it serves. Talk about the problems you solve everyday and what you do on a daily basis. You can pretty much say anything that can help highlight your skills that other parts of the interview could not capture.

[fred rosenberger]

It is a great way to see how well you communicate. It's an easy question to answer, with no 'right' or 'wrong', and so nobody should worry about that. It allows the interviewer to see if you can form a complete sentence, if you pause and say "umm...err...well...".

if you give one or two word answers, that would make me pause. Much of what we do is talking to customers, to other developers, to management...if you can't speak intelligently on an easy question, how are you going to explain a technical process to your boss?

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

One thing an opener question like that is used because it allows the interviewer to understand the interviewee's style of communication. People communicate in different styles:- Some people are to the point whereas some are verbose; some people stress on facts, whereas other take interpersonal relationships into account; Some stay quiet until they have enough information, whereas some go into a conversation with strong opinions; Some people enjoy argument whereas some people will give in just to avoid an argument.

It's not that one method of communication is better than the other (although in certain cases, the interviewer might be looking for a particular communication style because it fits the job or the team dynamic) It helps the interviewer to drive the interview much more smoothly if the interviewer knows what the interviewee's style is.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Raj Kamal wrote:My readings tell me that "Tell me something about yourself" and similar IS a really dumb question from the part of an interviewer.

1. Whatever detail about the interviewee that is relevant to the job would be available on his resume.

And sometimes there is too much detail. I routinely receive 5-10 page CVs. Even if I read every word, I may not decide what is most important the same way the candidate does. And it's much more likely I didn't spend half an hour reading every word. There are a lot of words!

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

Speaking of Telephone interviews, does anyone besides me consider them hell-ephone interviews? :p

It's a technical interview!. Give me a whiteboard, man!

[Rajkamal Pillai]

I did excuse myself beforehand when I mentioned
"(All the above points are mine own and hence hence arguable.)"
;-)

Anyways, I find it hard to believe that someone who has taken the pains to put any information, false or otherwise, on his resume would not be prepared enough to present the same when asked to speak on it. I do agree that it is definitely a good ice-breaker and tester on communication perspectives, though.

From the way I look at things before taking an interview the interviewee as well as the interviewer have done their homework.

Interviewee: How to present himself as the best candidate for the position.
Interviewer: How to assess whether the candidate is the best choice for the position.

The best any interviewee can do is to answer the questions to the best of his knowledge and try to convince the interviewee how and why he is best equipped for the role. The interviewer should on his part work along with the interviewee to help and guide him bring the best out of him.

(I agree this is utopian thoughts but going by these guidelines everyone ends up winning).

Cheers,
Raj.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

Raj Kamal wrote:
I did excuse myself beforehand when I mentioned
"(All the above points are mine own and hence hence arguable.)"
;-)

Anyways, I find it hard to believe that someone who has taken the pains to put any information, false or otherwise, on his resume would not be prepared enough to present the same when asked to speak on it.

Yeah, if I had a dollar for every person I interviewed who put things in their resume that they hardly know.. Beefing up your resume is sadly common practice, and the way you find that out is by questioning about things that are on their resume.

In an ideal world, people's resumes would be 100% accurate and would give an 100% accurate description of where their personality, strengths and weaknesses are. In that world, you wouldn't need interviews. You could hire people by just looking at their resume.