Interviewing scheduling

1. When you begin your job search, categorize the companies into 3 tiers:

   1. “Companies I am not interested in joining, but have openings relevant to me” -- Tier 3.

   2. “Companies I wouldn’t mind joining which currently have openings” -- Tier 2.

   3. “Companies I absolutely DREAM to work for and are currently recruiting” -- Tier 1.

2. Apply and interview with your Tier 3 companies first. This way, even if you don’t perform well answering the technical questions or behavioral questions, you have nothing to lose, since you didn't plan on joining them even if you got the offer anyway. With these companies, you can practice your interviewing skills as much as you want. If you do well and land an offer with them, great! This will boost your confidence and improve your “marketability” -- you can basically negotiate a better offer if you get another offer in the near future because you already have an existing offer. The more demand you have, the better you can negotiate your offer.

3. Interview with Tier 2 companies next. With the confidence gained from interviewing with Tier 3 companies, you will do better with Tier 2 companies. If you land an offer, great! You can accept this offer since you wouldn’t mind joining these companies. If there’s no offer, don’t worry, keep interviewing; something will work out.

4. For most of the students, Tier 3 companies in the IT industry are Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Uber, etc. These companies have long and stressful hiring processes, and students need a good amount of prior practice to be able to crack these interviews. So save them toward the end of your job search. Practice from interviewing with Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies will help a lot. You will be able to deliver your answers more confidently. You will have understood the pattern of questions that are asked in the technical interviews. So, you will be at ease. Offers from Tier 2 companies will help boost your offer during negotiation if you get an offer from a Tier 1 company.

5. Beginning your job search by interviewing directly with a Tier 1 “DREAM” company first is not recommended. If you land an offer, that’s great! Just keep interviewing with more Tier-1 / Tier-2 companies and evaluate your best offer. But if you don’t get an offer -- First, you have to hold off until a “waiting period”, usually 3-6 months to reapply. Second, you get demotivated due to this rejection and your confidence worsens.

6. Be proactive in your job applications. Respond to recruiter email and LinkedIn messages as quickly as you can. If you don’t get a response from a recruiter, write polite reminder emails as needed. People are competitive, so if you are not fast enough, the position may get filled.

7. Use tools like Grammarly (via browser extension) to correct your grammatical mistakes while writing emails or LinkedIn InMails. Use simple words, shorter sentences, and active voice speech in a concise and succinct manner.

8. Students who are not familiar with virtual interviewing should practice with classmates or friends. Have a Zoom call or Google Meet call with your friend and practice 1-on-1 interviewing mutually.

9. Set up a clean interview environment:

   1. Your laptop camera should be at your eye level.

   2. Your face should be well lit, so face towards a light source or a window.

   3. Your background should not emanate light into the camera, that’ll make your face dark.

   4. Your background should not contain “Not Safe For Work (NSFW)” items or “politically incorrect” items. A plain wall is the best background.

   5. You should have a stable internet connection.

   6. You should have low background noise; use headphones with a mic for the best clarity.

   7. Have a notepad ready for taking any notes during the interview.

10. Almost all interviewers ask the candidates at the end of the interview if they have any questions they would want to ask. This is a great opportunity, not just to learn more about the team or the company, but also to show them your enthusiasm and to end the interview on a positive note. So, don’t forget to ask questions to the interviewer. Here is a list of some great questions that you can ask: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/interview-question-do-you-have-any-questions