Behind the glass wall: Interview experience

It was a lazy Thursday afternoon, eagerly looking for Friday and the weekend, manager walks up to my desk and say that I have to take technical interview for a candidate who is already waiting in lobby. I was also told that it is not for our team but the vacancy is in some other team. I got the resume(CV) of the interview candidate, glanced through it. Sidenote: Resume is an important part when you are looking for a job or attend an interview, pay utmost attention to your resume. It might cost you a job!

I saw that the guy(candidate) has done his engineering graduation from IIT(most prestigious institution in India), then worked in reputed MNCs on various projects and overall has about 4 years of experience. I got some basic idea of the guy I would be interviewing and moved towards lobby where he is actually waiting. Greeted, then moved into a conference room to start the interview.

Started with basic intro questions, moved on to some technical questions based on whatever he has mentioned in the resume. He was confident, answered more than asked, some show-off to project knowledge into other technologies etc. Things sounded good but not right from the beginning, he was able to answer but certainly something was missing. Asked about code, algorithm and he was able to write down things on paper, most of them are able to answer verbally but hesitate to write code on paper/whiteboard, whether it is right or wrong he was able to write something on paper.

When asked deeper into the technical stuff, he was plainly admitting to not know of, which is actually a good trait. You don't make up things if you don't know, interviewer will easily figure it out.

After a good 30-40 mins, the interview was over. Its time for me to decide and provide feedback, either to reject or send him to the next round of interviews(which is non-technical managerial round). I was sceptical, he was able to answer but certainly something was missing.

I asked myself one question, then made a decision. Rejected the candidate despite his well-educated background from reputed college, experience in MNC, technical knowledge blah blah blah. The main reason for rejection is the 'attitude', certainly the behaviour speaks louder than your knowledge. Even if you are a knowledgeable person with money, power etc but with bad attitude then someday it will make you fail. That guys' answers were overshadowed by his attitude, so I was feeling something was not right though he was able to solve technical problems.

At the end we were looking for a team player, who is can work well with others and contribute to the growth of others(in team) and the company. Technical knowledge alone won't help in achieving success. Person with bad attitude will ruin the team and may be the company itself.

Your attitude, behaviour, communicative skills could be a real deal breaker in job interviews. I can happily recruit a person with good attitude, though s/he is less knowledgeable but willing to learn(and demonstrates potential) rather than a person who thinks s/he knows everything and show-off bad attitude.

Image to grab some attention. Actual image of my place of work. Image source

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This article is part of 'Behind the glass wall' series, where I share my real-life professional experience.