Question 16
Read the following exchange between an interviewer and an interviewee and answer the given subquestions:
Candidate: Good afternoon, sir.
Interviewer 1: Good afternoon. Please take your seat.
Candidate: Thank you, sir. (Takes his seat in a calm and dignified manner, and smiles slightly and respectfully at the interview panel. The candidate’s demeanour is welcoming and he appears as if he is ready to communicate.)
Interviewer 1: _____
Candidate: I hail from Bishnoi district in Madhya Pradesh. I did my primary education at Aligarh Muslim University City School. I moved to Noida and graduated in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Currently, I work as a project engineer in Tata Motors. I was also a part of the team that developed the Tata Nano within record time and for minimum price.
Interviewer 2: What would you identify as your biggest weakness?
Candidate: Sir, I am very insistent on ensuring that my work is perfect. So I tend to spend a little too much time going through the minutest aspects of my work to check whether my expectations of quality have been met. I have found out through experience that working as a team and delegating responsibilities where necessary can be extremely helpful in both balancing my own idiosyncrasies and in producing output of the best quality.
Interviewer 1: What would you then identify as your greatest strength? Because you seem to think of your biggest weakness as an enabling rather than a disabling quality.
Candidate: (Smiles) That is true, sir. I do indeed think of my weakness as a quality that can be leveraged and managed to enable the best results. I am careful not to let perfectionism get the better of me. My greatest strength, I believe, is my ability to meticulously organise my work. _____ I can easily assume a bird’s eye view of the project at hand and focus on how resources may be optimally utilised within a stipulated time frame to guide the project to a fruitful end. I can therefore effectively analyse the constructibility of a product under design and execute the product into being. An old quote I once heard spoke of execution as the three-dimensional expression of meaning. In that sense, I would say that my greatest strength is my ability to express three-dimensional meanings succinctly and effectively.
Interviewer 2: Very good. What can you tell us about your current job? _____
Candidate: I greatly enjoy working with the people in my current company. We share an easy camaraderie and I also appreciate the fact that the management takes the effort to know their employees well and to build personal connections with the employees. _____ I think of it as a wonderful entry level opportunity for someone seeking a door of access into the corporate world, and I have benefitted immensely from it, but I would like to explore avenues for further advancement as I go ahead in my career. It is the conviction that your company will recognise my capabilities and allow me opportunities for growth that motivated me to appear for this interview. Interviewer 2: I see. _____ How can an engineer help tackle it?
Candidate: Sir, in my opinion, the most pressing issue facing our country at the moment is self- sufficiency in food, or lack thereof. It is a problem that lies at the root of several other problems like unemployment and the urban-rural income disparity. We, as a nation, are yet to find a way to make our agricultural sector reap the full benefits of our industrial advancement. I think that an engineer can play a pivotal role in harnessing scientific techniques to give a fillip to the agricultural sector and thus, not only to improve the farmers’ quality of life, but also help the nation attain self- sufficiency in food production. An engineer can provide a crucial connecting link between an agriculturalist and an industrialist.
Interviewer 1: _____
Candidate: If I am selected, I shall have to serve a notice period of one month, and I will thereafter be able to join your company with no further delay.
Interviewer 2: Thank you, Mr. Tabraz. That will be all for now. _____ Have a good day. Candidate: Thank you. Wish you a good day ahead too. (Exits after righting the position of the chair that he has vacated.)
Read the responses of the candidate, his behavioural attributes or aspects concerning his demeanour as given in List A and match them to the qualities they exemplify.
| List A | List B |
|---|---|
| [1] I can easily assume a bird's eye view of the project at hand and focus on how resources may be optimally utilised within a stipulated time frame to guide the project to a fruitful end. | [a] Ambitious and eager for growth |
| [2] Thank you, sir. | [b] Confident in one's own ability |
| [3] It is the conviction that your company will recognise my capabilities and allow me opportunities for growth that motivated me to appear for this interview. | [c] Polite |
Thank you, sir.
Ambitious and eager for growth
Confident in one’s own ability
Polite