Vinod Kumar (Blog home)

For some strange reason, I seem to love writing on this very subject. I did write over Pinal’s Blog on what are my thoughts on preparing resume, preparing for interviews and a lot more. That is quite a long post that talks about the things one need to take care and mostly takes a call from a Do’s – this post is about Don’t that I felt are equally important as one prepares for interviews. What are some of the Don’t that come to your mind? Having taken interviews, do you see potential candidates making these common mistakes? How paranoid are organizations when it comes to evaluating candidates on these dimensions?

These are my top 8 Don’t I see folks making mistake:

1. Don’t Dress Casually

This can be a double edged sword. Being casual in your approach and wearing Jeans with T-Shirt can be a dooms call for most companies. Try to be neutral and dress professionally, don’t try to overdo it too. You don’t want to be seen as a odd man out. The first impression needs to be the best.

Never wear a backward baseball cap to an interview unless applying for the job of umpire – Dan Zevin

2. Don’t badmouth current employer

This is a tough one – a lot of times you will be quizzed on why you want to leave the current employer. The industry is really small, be careful not to badmouth them. Doing so you are likely to reduce your chances of getting this job too. So be diplomatic and subtle in answering the same.

3. Talk just enough

Know your limits here. Too less can catch attention, at the same time talking too much and rambling on and on can also catch attention. Try to be crisp, to the point and try to answer the question asked.

4. Don’t Give wrong answers

There is no excuse to authentically giving an wrong answer :). I know you have no intention to give the wrong answer, if you are guessing – say it is your genuine guess and then explain your answer with your assumptions. Have seen people think it is a crime to say “I don’t know”. Well, in my personal opinion there is nothing wrong in saying that – but if you keep saying just that in your interview then you lost the plot anyways :).

Interviews are not interrogations, those must be your inner views.

5. Respect the interviewer

This is a critical step – acknowledge and give the respect the interviewer needs. As part of this, make sure to switch off your phone. Donot ever, never take calls when you are inside an interview. Even better, switch it off before you enter the room.

6. Not prepared

Be it presentation or interviews – there is no excuse for not being prepared. The first step is to know the company you are going to, what is the role, what can you expect, what is their culture, who will be interviewing, what is the company recent results, why you wanna join this company etc. I have seen candidates stare at me when we ask – “Tell me about yourself”. In such situations the interview ended even before it started.

You not only choose a job, you choose your manager too.

7. Be punctual

Donot ever be late to an interview. As I said before, it is better to be 15 minutes early than a minute late. It very much echo’s point 5 above – you do respect the time of the interviewer. Bring no excuses – period.

Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late – William Shakespeare

8. Not Following up

Your interview is not over as soon as you get out of the door. Make sure to follow up and thank the interviewer for the opportunity. Getting a job or not is secondary, try to make an impact on the people who interview you. If the folks think you are not the correct person for the position open, they might have you behind their mind for a future position for sure. So leave an lasting impact.

These are my top 8 Dont’s when attending an interview. Would love to hear your experiences and anecdotes.

One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.

Life these days are always a hurry and we tend to get into the situation that we forget some of the basics. It is said in management that on your way up make sure to keep people happy because when you come down they will be good to you. Though this concept is so true, life is demanding that we forget how others have helped us. I thought this will be a great way to bring the basic behavior into a blog post. When was the last time you said a thank you to your colleague or manager or subordinate or some random person at work? When was the last time you said a thank you to a friend?

Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone – G.B. Stern

Thank You while interviewing

This will be a special case scenario. How many of you have taken the time to send a thank you note to the HR / Manager who interviewed you? It is courtesy if you can do the same. A thank you note can always add a special consideration and be mild in your communication and avoid overdoing the same. What are your options for communication?

1. Email
2. Phone Call
3. Handwritten note
4. Text Messages
5. Linked in communication

Though these are the most opted way of communication, I use the same order of preference too. Be professional in your communication especially via email and phone calls. It is just a small note to the person who took time in interviewing.

To say thank you, is in recognition of humanity – Toni Mont

Being Professional while thanking

There is no perfect way or a prescriptive mechanism to say thank you. Here are some tips I thought was worth sharing.

1. While emailing or over phone call, be concise in your message and don’t try to ramble or write essays. No one has the time for these :).
2. Don’t procrastinate and delay in your communication. Do it as soon as it is over.
3. In an interview case, restate the qualities you bring to table as an reminder to interviewer. Also make sure to recollect a point or two from the interview itself to add as an reminder.
4. A perfect thank you message brings a smile to readers or even better makes the reader feel special as they read.
5. Don’t try to ramble or play with words. Get an second opinion with a friend to check if the words are out of place.
6. Do a spell check, but also make sure spell checks don’t change the meaning of sentences.
7. Be polite in your communication. Don’t forget to have a proper subject in your email.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it – William Arthur Ward

Final words

I am a big fan of hand written letters. Trust me, when was the last time you did write one? In my opinion hand written messages are more personal and has bigger impact when delivered correctly. What are your thoughts? What are you comfortable doing?

My role involves meeting multiple customers and this it is so much fun to learn from so many of you. In this blog post let me pen down some of the awesome learning I have made over the years on what successful businesses and successful people have taught me. This learning can never be enough and I look forward to the same learning experiences in the years ahead too. So hope you will love this post and do let me know what did you learn from this post.

Here are my top 25 things I have learnt from my customers during lunch times:

1. Businesses are about making people happy, not about just making making money.
2. Businesses wins hearts first being honest, the business may not come in the short term but eventually come later.
3. Only way customers will care for you is when you care for them first.
4. Strategies help you build your runway, execution helps you take off.
5. Motivating people is easier when you believe in yourself and are self motivated.
6. You save more when you spend it at the right time.
7. Just because social media is free doesn’t mean we will get constant flow of results.
8. You passion must speak in whatever you do. Do it with conviction.
9. More than competing, cooperating helps grow your business.
10. You might be quitting when you are nearing success. So keep going till the end.
11. The owner doesn’t pay your paychecks, it is the customer who pays for you.
12. Always keep the a room free – the room for making process / product improvements.
13. Social Networking can help you boost your business but you must create a personality to drive the same.
14. Know to say Thank You and Apologies without apprehensions. These can be a great way to start a conversation.
15. Discover the happiness within you if you plan to making customers happy.
16. Constantly network and open your wings to discipline yourself in this.
17. Businesses must have the willingness to learn and adapt accordingly.
18. You might face failures instantly, but success comes gradually. You need to keep chipping away slowly.
19. Let your product / services speak more than you.
20. Think big, think globally. Act locally.
21. Value the little things and give importance to less important people too. There will always be times when you will need them.
22. Work harder, plan accordingly and once you made up your mind. Never consider the possibility of failure.
23. Don’t fall for data. Sometimes data doesn’t tell you if you are doing the right things.
24. Be professional while doing business.
25. << Let me leave this space to learn from you >>

The loads of lunch table conversations have taught me so much that I found all these to share. I am sure you would have learnt some from your leaders in your respective companies. Do feel free to share with me the same. Would love to learn the same from you.

We have discussed about various generic leadership behaviors over this blog. But I thought it is worth mentioning this particular form that we miss out from our day-today lives. There is always some characteristic leadership behavior in each one of us. We need to acknowledge, explore and surface the same at the right time at the right place.

Think about a sports team that you follow. Can you see how certain individuals have greater influence over the group but they are not the designated leaders? Can you name a couple of them? I am sure you can now think of a dozen of them. Now these individuals are called as informal leaders. Just to put it on records – Informal leaders are people who don’t hold any leadership position but actually have an authority or responsibility of managing a group, with the group having utmost respect for the individual.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been – Henry Kissinger

Informal Leads in Organizations

Every single organizations do have such bubbly and influencing individuals who can cast a spell and take the lead. How many of us have taken a lead to scribe meeting notes voluntarily? When a project crisis hits, how many of us raise our hand to take the challenge? When things don’t work well within the organization, how many of us stand to say the same on behalf of others? These are for sure some basic characteristics of an informal leader.

Organizations do notice these behaviors and there will always be some natural transition to become an ace leader in the long term.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you – Max DePree

Gets people together

A formal leadership role has certain apprehensions and certain restrictions. With informal leadership this is not the case. Assume there was a new employee who joins your department. Though HR and Managers do some decent job of introducing. The informal leader always takes initiative in getting acquainted with the new kid. They get to chat with them to tell where the cafeteria is, where the rest rooms are, what are the eating joints near by, offers help to find a new place for them, where are the resources for new hire, what are the dos and don’ts of company, who is the network admin, introduces to pantry boys, where the printer is located etc. The role of informal leaders is to make the new employee comfortable with the team and get started with his job faster. After day one, they make the new hire feels acknowledged, included, heard and respected.

The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way – Henry Miller

Pillar of Support

Though there aren’t official informal leadership roles, such individuals are never thought as barriers to progress or a obstacle to any activity. The never die attitude and a positive intent to help keeps them always the most sought after people in the organizations. It is critical that these individuals compliment and support the actual leader and not cause any actions that will conflict with those who have formal leadership roles. Supporting the formal leader is one of the primary tasks and if done properly, they will get their opportunity to move up the ladder in the future. Find the leader in you today !!!

The best example of leadership is leadership by example – Jerry McClain

This is a small concept on leadership. I am sure you would have seen many of these informal, non-intrusive leaders in your organizations. Do feel free to drop me a line if you will look for becoming an informal leader in the future or not? If you are one of those informal leaders, do tell us about your experience.