Careercubicle

Lucky you! Being offered multiple job offers! This sounds like every job seeker’s dream- not only are you offered one job but offered multiple jobs at the same time! But this dream can be nightmare if you cannot decide on which job to take up. Mental paralysis may set in. It is like going to a superb restaurant and ordering your dish from the multitudinous fare in the menu and when the dish finally arrives you look longingly at the dish in front of the gentleman in the next table and ask yourself “Why didn’t I order that! Have you missed out on something better? Was your choice wrong? All these doubts creep into your mind.

In such cases you need to do some homework. The following points will help you to zero-in on the final choice of the job offer:

• Evaluate what is most important to you. Money? Short working hours? Proximity to place of work? Quick rise up the ladder?
• Thoroughly investigate the whole package: You need to have full knowledge of your complete employment package. Benefits, vacation time, sick leave/health insurance, education re-imbursements, leave travel concessions, vehicles or vehicle allowance etc.
• Make sure you understand the job itself well. Get to know the company’s working ethos and policy especially its culture and whether it is family-friendly etc..Pally up with an insider and get to know more about the company and evaluate whether it suits your temperament.
• Listen to your family members: Use your wife (or brother or parents) as a sounding board and explain to them your dilemma and what you are getting into. They can clear your mind and strengthen your gut feeling about the job offer you finally decide.
• Go after what you want: The mantra is that the final decision of the job should be “perfect except for......”.If the “except for” list is less, then it could be a good choice.
• Keep a solid relationship with the companies that you have turned down.

With the advent of highly specialized job skills in newer and newer sectors of industry and business, the standard time tested method of interviewing sometimes takes a back seat and a new method has evolved. There are two such types of interviews viz. Behavioural interviews and Case interviews.

Behavioural interview is an employment interview during which a job applicant is asked to demonstrate his or her knowledge, skills, and abilities, also known as competencies. The applicant must tell about specific experiences when he or she demonstrated these competencies. The purpose of a behavioural interview is to allow the interviewer to determine whether a candidate possesses the competencies to perform a particular job.

A case interview is a job interview in which the applicant is given a question, situation, problem or challenge and asked to resolve the situation. The case problem is often a business situation or a business case that the interviewer has worked on in real life. After the applicant is given information about the case, the applicant is expected to ask the interviewer logical and sequential questions that will enable the applicant to understand the situation, probe deeper into relevant areas, gather pertinent information and arrive at a solution or recommendation for the question or situation at hand.

So it is obvious that in both cases the job seeker needs to prepare properly his interview sessions. The following points need to be noted and worked on. This list is only by way of examples and there would be many others which you can think of:

• Be familiar for the job for which you are being interviewed. Research the company.
• These interviews are broad, two-way discussions. So be prepared for discussions rather than answering a set of questions
• Read the job description thoroughly to identify which personal attributes and behaviours are likely to be key success factors for the job.
• Keeping in mind the company’s philosophy prepare two or three examples for each personal attribute that will best illustrate your suitability
• Draw from a variety of experiences that demonstrates your skills and abilities.
• Your approach to the case and the insights you reach will give you an opportunity to demonstrate your problem-solving abilities and help the interviewer get a sense of your potential.