Sales and Marketing on social media.

Be it social media or any other medium, first we need to look at the crux of the subject.

Selling on social media is not a rocket science. It is just another platform which is evolved over the time with the progress of technology and innovation.

To sell or promote something, one should know how marketing and sales process works in general.

Back then, we followed traditional marketing for sales. Now we depend on digital marketing as well.

Traditional marketing –

Billboards, banners, pamphlets, paper ads, tv ads, radio ads, door to door marketing were a part of traditional marketing.

The idea is to promote the product to the masses. You may target large number of people, but you never know who your actual audience are.

Whereas in digital marketing, you have an advantage of targeting cult audiences who are most likely to become your customers with the help of detailed targeting and demographic options.

This helps you in curtailing unnecessary costs spent on ads. You will also save time and energy.

Digital Marketing –

In today’s world, everybody has a social presence. We spend most of our time on social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc.

Selling or promoting any product/service through any digital platform is called digital marketing.

All you have to do is to identify your prospects through groups, communities, pages, common interests in order to connect with them and create a sales pitch. This is one way of finding customers in organic way without even spending a single penny.

Another way of finding prospects is through Ads

Example: Facebook ads, Google ads, YouTube ads, Instagram ads etc.

For instance, Facebook ads manager is one of the most powerful and sophisticated advertising tools widely used by many companies to sell and promote their products.

With the help of FB ads

These exclusive and advanced features bring quality leads which are most likely to convert.

Google ads is another great option where you can place ads on search engines and get tremendous results. It is vast and costly too. However, it’s a topic for another day.

Hope you understood the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing. Now let us address the elephant in the room.

A good salesperson is equipped with the following qualities.

Your job becomes easy if you know the anatomy behind marketing and sales process. Good luck!!

The short explanation of Farm Bill 2020. A clear view in layman’s terms.

The new agriculture bill is passed by the parliament of India on 27^th September 2020 and the three acts are collectively known as Farm Bill 2020 or Farmers Bill 2020.

1. Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020

After the enforcement of this bill, unlike in the past, a farmer can sell his crop anywhere in the country without any restrictions.

In what sense?

For better understanding, we must look into the past.

In the past, farmers used to sell their crops only in their local APMC’s

(APMC) – Agricultural Produce Market Committee is a place or market yard where a farmer can go and sell the crop to retailer at certain price or at (MSP)minimum support price. All districts of all states in our country have set up their own APMC’s which are functioned by the respective state governments only.

(MSP) minimum support price is a norm set by the Indian government to safeguard farmers.

How MSP protects the farmers? – when the demand for a crop goes down, the price also goes down. In this case, farmer will not get a good price which he deserves and besides that he had already put his hard work, time, and money to develop the crop & bring it to the market.

When retailers and open markets do not offer a good price for any peculiar reasons or in extraordinary situations, government will pay MSP to the farmer and buy crop from him directly. So, farmer gets a minimum profit for his agriculture produce.

Retailers are like middlemen between farmers and consumers who purchase crops directly from the farmers in APMC’s and distribute to other places like wholesale markets and other vegetable vendors. Retailers must hold a licence from the state government to do these activities in APMC’s.

Present

Now according to the new bill, a farmer can sell his crop not only in local APMC but also in other APMC’S which are available across the country i.e., interstate and Intra state. The new bill also allows farmers to sell their agricultural produce outside the market yards like Warehouses, factory premises, cold storages etc. without having to pay market fee or cess.

They can also trade directly with corporate industries without any involvement of APMC’s and Middleman. This is a full stop for Brokerage and corruption.

And facilitating electronic trading system so farmers can buy and sell the agricultural produce through electronic devices and internet. 

This results in…

a) Scalability – Allowing farmers to go an extra mile b) Prohibition of unnecessary market fee and cess, c) No corruption through middleman d) Setting up new e commerce platforms.                                                                                                        

2. Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020

This bill is also known as ‘Contract Farming Bill’ emphasizing contract farming, first of its kind.

The new model is about setting up a legal framework between farmer and buyer.

Any corporate company or wholesale dealer can directly approach the farmer and make a deal without the involvement of retailers or middleman.  

Example: This bill enables marketplaces like DMart, Bigbazar, Ratnadeep stores and otherCorporate vendors reach out to the farmers directly and buy crops from them.

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Since there is no middleman, brokerage and corruption involved, a farmer will have multiple options in the market. He can sell wherever he wants and demand the good price.

Upon mutual understanding, farmer and buyer will make an agreement in terms of crop quantity, quality, rate, and timeframe etc. The agreement is made prior to the production of the crop.

Therefore, contract farming will be game changer for farmer, making the room for going beyond the boundaries.

3. Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020

The ECA (Essential commodities Act) is introduced in 1955 and is just modified now by removing certain items from essential commodities list.

From the name itself, we can understand that Govt of India accumulated a few commodities under this category which are essential. This includes foodstuff, drugs, fuel (petroleum products) etc.

Govt can anytime remove existing items from the list and add new items depending upon the situations. The idea is to regulate the production, supply, distribution of these items in order to make them available to consumers at affordable price.

Since it is agriculture bill, union govt has removed food crops such as cereals, pulses, potato, onions, edible oilseeds and oils, from the list of essential commodities.

Indeed, these commodities are essential in our daily life. But by removing these foodstuffs from essential commodities leads to high demand, less supply.

Simple math, when demand is greater than the supply, there will be a shortage and price go higher.  

so, there will be a price spike in the market for such commodities. This is to boost the income of farmers who produce these commodities.  

As we discussed earlier, this is not a permanent amendment. Govt can anytime add them again to essential commodities list OR revise the act in extra ordinary situations like war, famine, and natural calamities to bring down the cost and make them available for everyone.

 Example: On 14^th March 2020 Union government added face masks and hand sanitizers to essential commodities list to make sure these products are available at fair price and right quality during the pandemic. By July 1^st, 2020 govt has removed masks and sanitizers from essential commodity list.

Purpose of the farm bill is to safeguard and protect the farmers, by empowering them with new methodologies and creating opportunities to boost their income.  

That is all for the 2020 Indian Agriculture Reform.

Empathy in personal life and professional life

This article helps you to understand the importance of empathy in personal life and professional life.

Empathy!

As per google, empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”.

That precisely means empathy is the ability or a way of reciprocating to someone’s feelings be it good or bad. It makes people feel better, and comfortable when things are going in wrong direction for them.

You can also empathize with people who are exuberant and extremely happy. So, the opposite person will understand that you care about their feelings too.

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Empathy in personal life

We offer empathy to so many people in so many ways in our daily life knowingly or unknowingly.

A few situations that we can relate to…

We feel sorry for a friend who could not make it to the final round of an interview.

We feel sad for a friend who is ruled out of exams for not paying the fee in given time frame.

We feel happy for our brother who has got an admission in a great university.

We feel happy for our children’s success at school or college level.

We not only just feel, but we empathize. We go to them and do share our feelings. Indeed, we tell them how actually we felt for those situations and shed some positive light because they are the closest people in our lives. We know this personal touch will instil some confidence in them to go fight and to flourish.

That is exactly what empathy is ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’.

Here are some examples of empathy statements that we often use.

Hey, I am so sorry that you had a bad experience!

I’m disappointed as much as you. This should have not happened to you! hope things will get better!

I’m incredibly happy for you brother. You deserve it!

I m happy for your success!

So on and so forth. This is how we empathize in personal lives.

The statements we choose to use when reacting to somebody’s pleasant or unpleasant situations are called empathy statements.

Empathy in professional life

We empathize with people in personal life very naturally depending upon the situations. Whereas in professional life, empathy becomes necessary and sometimes plays an important role to satisfy the opposite person.

Example: Customer service

Customer service is a responsible profession where end to end coordination is required. People are disappointed and get easily pissed off if they are not satisfied with a product or service.

If you observe customer service agents, they are polite and composed while speaking to the customers and responding to their queries be it a phone call or face to face.  They know that the customer/client is not happy for some reason.

Acknowledging the customer issue, empathizing makes a huge difference.

Imagine that you are a customer who purchased a brand-new phone from a mobile store 1 month ago, and went back to them in a while complaining about the damage.  What kind of response do you expect from them?

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Response 1 Is this phone still under warranty? If so, we will repair it. Please leave the phone here, come back after a week to collect it.

Response 2 I am so sorry that you had a bad experience with this device. I know how it feels but not to worry. I will help you in this regard. Let me check if this device is under warranty period. Sir, good news! it is still under warranty so your phone will be repaired at free of cost. I assure you about that.

Here, the situation is same, and the solution is same but the Response2 stands out because acknowledging the customer pain with empathy is what we see here. This makes you (customer) feel comfortable and assured.  

Don’t you expect the same being a customer?

Every problem has a solution in this world but the approach matters. Even a disappointed customer or an irate customer can become loyal to you if the approach is correct.

That’s the power of empathy and so is the reason empathy plays an important role in corporate field especially in customer service-related jobs.

Just FYI, there are three types of services available.

1. SAS (Software as a service)
2. PAS (Platform as a service)
3. IAS (Infrastructure as a service)

In today’s generation, most of the products and services have a support team to assist their customers 24/7, 365 days. (Television, computer, Mobile phones, vehicles, real-estate, food and beverage, healthcare, clothing, internet etc.)

Just imagine about the number of agents working round the clock, the amount of time, and efforts it takes to put a smile on the customer face. Despite all the energy spent, they feel happy when you are happy, and they struggle when you struggle. They empathize with you through out to make you comfortable and happy. 

This personal touch is called empathy and it is powerful which cannot be replaced with any artificial intelligence or automation tools forever.

World is beautiful and still it is what it is because of its harmony. Positive people, positive thoughts, and positive emotions makes world a better place.

Empathy is a positive and pure emotion just like gratitude which can have an impact on other lives. 

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Hope you figured out the importance of empathy in personal life and professional life.

Bonus tip: If you are somebody who is willing to be a professional in customer centric domain now or in near future, remember these 3 golden rules.

Connect –>Engage –> Resolve

1. Connect – Greeting/wishing the customer
2. Engage – Acknowledge the issue, empathize with customer, and figure out the problem.
3. Resolve – look at the possibilities and provide the best solution.

If you like this information helpful, please comment below and let us know your thoughts.

What is SEO and SEM in Digital Marketing? How it works?

If you are new to digital marketing concepts this information will amaze you because the anatomy behind every single user search in google has lot to do with SEO and SEM.

Concentrate!!

First and foremost, what is digital marketing?

Any product or service that we sell through digital platforms/channels is called digital marketing. Example e commerce websites like Amazon, flipkart etc.

Now let the cat out of the bag.

Google is the no 1 search engine on the planet. It records some million number of searches per minute across the globe. It shows how people are dependant and reliable on google for everything. In daily life, we search google for everything under the sun.

Let’s say a user is searching for “best shopping malls in Hyderabad” google fetches lot of search results with required information for the keyword “best shopping malls in Hyderabad”. Look at the picture below. 

In the same way, people search google for tons of information on various topics be it food, clothing, healthcare, education, travel, etc. People refer to all search results and eventually pick one.

This is how companies, business owners and entrepreneurs are selling their products and services by optimizing their content, and by making it compatible with search engine. This is digital era.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) comes into the play. SEO is a technique used by webmasters to bring organic traffic from google to the websites where they would like to sell their products.

Another example: “Best IELTS Online Coaching in Hyderabad”. Look at the picture below

From the picture, you can see desiplatform’s article is ranking in 1^st page of google for the keyword “Best IELTS Online Coaching in Hyderabad”.

We know that people are searching with this key word. Especially the students who are willing to go abroad for higher studies. Therefore, desiplatform did its research on the keyword and its volume and listed out the names of few online training platforms in the form of an article. As a result Desiplatform gets lots of organic traffic for this article.

HOW?

SEO Analysts does a lot of keyword research so they will know what people are searching for and what keywords they are using for the search. Accordingly, they write SEO content on websites, landing pages, and submit them to google through a tool called google search console also known as web masters tool.

Therefore, when a user is searching with any keyword, google fetches the results for those keywords only. This is how SEO works.

Optimizing the content according to the user requirement and therefore applying SEO techniques like keywords, link building, on page seo, off page seo is called search engine optimization. It is so depth and a topic for another day.

SEO is to get organic traffic from search engines to the websites or landing pages. Hope you understood what SEO stands for.

What is SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) also brings organic traffic from search engine but you will have to pay for it. Especially when a keyword has lot of competition, it gets difficult to rank in google 1^st page.

To put it in a simple way, when SEO technique is not working due to the competition SEM comes into the picture. Please refer to the picture below (“Best Data science training in Hyderabad”) search results.

The Keyword “Best Data science training in Hyderabad” is an example for SEM. It is an Ad. You can see clearly that we pointed it in red circle.

You can find the difference of SEO & SEM search results from the pictures we shared.

SEM articles are shown as Ads because SEM is a paid version. Mostly Big companies or new companies who wants to sell or advertise their products are likely to go with SEM. They don’t mind spending more money.

Google AdWords is a separate tool for placing ads in search engines like google and YouTube (SEM Purpose).

Google Search Console or Web Master Tool is used to get your site or article indexed with google search engine (SEO purpose).

Hope you figured out the difference between SEO and SEM. Let us know if you have any questions in the comment box.

If you find this interesting, go and join a full-time digital marketing course and learn from best mentors. Digital Marketing is in full swing and it is the next big thing!

Is sales just a numbers game? Is there an approach to understand and look it in a bigger picture?

We often see that a larger section of people and professionals claim that sales is just a numbers game and all about transactions. Maybe it is partially correct, but it is imperative that one should always look sales from wider perspective.

Why?

Sale is a long-term game. It is something beyond your theory.

Just because you launched a brand-new product or service into the market, that does not mean customers will throng into the stores to buy your products and avail your services.

It would be a wrong assumption and illogical without understanding its magnitude.  It takes some time to get there.  

The basic things to keep in mind:

1. First, it depends on the Niche that your product or service belongs to.
2. Knowing your Audience
3. The Value which you create through the product.
4. Most importantly it depends on how you Position yourself and your brand in the market.

These are the core elements which go hand in hand and lead to sales eventually.  

Niche is a category or subcategory that your product or service belongs to.

Automobiles, Hardware, Software, Beauty, Fitness, Healthcare are some of the examples for Niche service/products.

Don’t try to be a jack of all trades instead stick to the one niche.

Niches are the Riches!

Audience

Your niche product or service will define who your target audience are.

You cannot sell a BMW car to a mediocre person. It is a stupid thing to do because people below the poverty lines, they hardly get to make their ends meet. You cannot expect them to buy luxury products. Therefore, it is important to know who your target audience are.

Sales becomes easy when you have a clear idea about what you are selling and to who you are selling. Agree?

Value & Brand Image (Positioning)

Once you define the target audience, start creating value for them through your products and services.

Creating value is making customers happy through your products/services by solving their problems. Maintain the quality and consistency so they will trust you forever.  

Consumer behavior is always a reflection of your service. They reciprocate with you and the value which you created returns with multiplied down the lane.

This is how you position yourself in the market as a good brand over the time.

Microsoft and Apple are great examples.

They stand out from the crowd because they have built great products and created value to the customers, maintained it for years.

Marketing, advertising, strategy everything works if all these 4 elements are aligned properly.

After all sales is a long-term game.

Therefore, make sure you have a good understanding of Niche, Audience, Value, and brand image.

P.S. In this competitive world, we easily get obsessed over few things and then we start comparing everything with our contemporaries in the market. You want quick results, and success immediately. When it does not happen, you will lose confidence and become sensitive.

As a result, you will get attracted to wrong people. Every Tom, and Dick will teach you how to do the business.

There is nothing like a successful blueprint. You will have to create your own sunshine. You must experience it on your own and learn the things.

And now tell me what is sales according to you? If you find this piece of content useful, let us know your thoughts in the comment section!  

What is herd immunity? Does it help to fight covid19?

Herd immunity or herd protection in simple terms is nothing but when a larger section of people in a community or country gains resistance power to fight any infectious, contagious diseases like covid19 epidemic.

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When majority of the people get exposed to such diseases and develop antibodies in their blood to survive, chances are less that they spread virus to other people. It helps in flattening the curve.

To put in a nutshell, the idea is that the higher proportion of the population should be exposed to the virus and survive by developing antibodies in their blood, so they will not get effected again. Therefore, they do not transmit virus to others.

As of now, its an assumption that virus will not attack again on those who are already survived it. At the same time, we have not seen such cases so far.

How it works?

In this scenario, we need at least 70%-80% of the population to be immunized.

Once, 70%-80% of the population is immunized to the disease, through social distancing and by taking some preventive measures we can save remaining 20%-30% population.

This helps in easily isolating the unaffected ones from effected people and it lowers the burden on health care system as well.

Herd immunity can be achieved in two ways.

1. Naturally 2) Mass Vaccination

As we already discussed that we need 70%-80% population to be immunized naturally to break the chain.

According to WHO(world health organization) and Stanford, through their recent studies and extensive surveys on countries like Sweden, Germany, France, China etc. it is clearly noticed that only 2%-3% of population are having antibodies in their blood to fight the disease naturally.

That’s definitely not a good sign.

In this regard, no country can afford to experiment on herd immunity without having a vaccine.

Especially in hugely populated countries like India we cannot go for herd immunity without a medicine or vaccine in the place.

Imagine that there is no medicine for covid19 and if virus is attacking back on those who already survived. That could be the worst thing that can happen to our planet because it spreads like a wildfire without any control. There is no way to stop it.

Mass vaccination has helped us to fight many diseases like polio, hepatitis etc. in the yesteryear’s.

As of now, this is vague because covid19 is first of its kind.

So, its advisable to cope up with the situations slowly in daily life by maintaining social distance (physical distance), take necessary precautions to stay hygiene until we get a medicine or vaccine.

Definitely, there is a hope for some light at the end of the tunnel as entire world has encountered many epidemics in the past and able to come out successfully.

Physical and Mental health both are important to deal with uncertainty.  It’s important for us to be positive, united and maintain a good harmony at tough times to bring the best out of the worst.

This too shall pass.

Feel free to share your opinions!

Most people face this situation in their career. Indeed, it’s an important factor to consider.

Rather than just filling the gaps on resume, one should really focus on how to deal with it in job interviews because that is where the challenge begins, and it can make or break the deal.

So, this article is more inclined towards real time scenarios and by the end of this post, you will figure out a way to tackle the situations when you go for an interview.

The best way to deal with employment gaps in interviews is as follows.

Don’t forget that you are exploring a long-term career so be careful and responsible.  

To deal with employment gaps in interviews, let us see the reasons for employment gaps:

There are good chances that you might fall under categories below:

1. A Novice. A person who has not done anything yet and completely new to a particular field AKA Fresher.
2. Quantum jumps (one field to another): Example, you have been working in customer service field for some time. Later, you switched to IT field because of your passion over the time.
3. Flip (Businessman to Employee): Let us say that you are a businessman for some period but later you shut it down due to loss. Therefore, you must leave everything and start a career in any field which might be completely new for you.

We will discuss how to deal with the situations at each stage. First let us talk about some reality in the market.

What you need to understand is covering up the employment gaps in resume just for the sake of it will not help you to succeed in the long run. Maybe you can experiment and succeed but it is temporary. You may also get into trouble down the lane.

You are just stopping yourself from growing in the future. You may look good on the paper but upfront you will face challenges.

Especially when you discover great opportunities, you must prove your talent. You might come across situations where everybody will be noticing your real talent i.e. the actual you. Since you have never been in that zone, it’s a big red flag for you and might end up loosing miserably. What you really bring on to the table will move the needle.

People will like you for what you are! This comes from being honest and having Authenticity. There is no shortcut for success.

For all three categories, one thing is common and important to cross this bridge.

Skill!

Learn the skill. Skill gives hands on experience, real-time problem-solving & thinking abilities, and skill gives confidence. Confidence is the Key!

1. A Novice

Presentation matters! Being honest with the interviewer and explaining about your past, present situations and let him/her know that the gaps were for some peculiar reasons. Explain what made you to apply for the job at this point.

Since you learned a skill, prove them that now you are equipped with everything that is required for the job. Show your certifications & courses.

Most importantly, let the interviewer know that you are willing to start career as a fresher & flexible for changes. Once you are confident and able to prove them that you are a good fit for the requirement there should be no issues.

On another note, apply for jobs in start-ups because start-ups are great places for freshers. They don’t bother about how much experience you carry. What really matters to them is the skill, willingness to learn, and adoptability to a culture. They have always opened the doors for fresh and new talent. They need people who are full of commitment.

Once you bag some experience from small and medium enterprises, you can focus on career growth and target big companies.

Everything depends on how you communicate. Develop your communication skills. Attend the interviews regularly. There is always a room for improvement.

2.Quantum Jump – One Field to Another

It is quite a challenging task to switch from one field to another because you must start everything from scratch. Everything is completely new.

Embrace new skills and knowledge.

As usual once you learnt the skill that is required for the job, you must apply it by practicing regularly. Be consistent.

Ex: If you choose to be a software developer, develop your own project. Find some local clients and try to solve their problems. Get projects from them. You can develop a website for your friend’s business, neighbours or closest resources who may be looking for some help in this regard.

Or

Work on private projects, may be do some freelancing work. There are lot of platforms available where you get short term gigs.

You can add them all in resume, share links and portfolios with the interviewer and tell them that you have got hands on practice and experience while handling those private projects.

If you are genuine and providing the proofs, your experience will be considered though you did not work for any company. It depends on the way you negotiate your skills.

There are so many people in the market who does this. They started on their own and positioned themselves in the market and finally landed in their dream jobs. If they can do it, you can do it. Stand out from the crowd.

3.Flip – Businessman to Employee

If you are a businessman in the past, the kind of a job which you choose upfront really matters.

It is recommended to choose a job which is related to your previous business because you might already have relevant experience and got lots of expertise from the past.

It’s a great opportunity to tell client that you have indulged in multiple responsibilities like brand building, market research, administration, accounts management, marketing etc.

Show them the case studies. Any client would love to hire experienced consultants because of various reasons. Experienced candidate has multiple skills, quick learner, flexible to the changes, adoptable to the new culture and they execute well and deliver results. Most importantly experience add value to any new venture.

It is an added advantage of choosing a relevant field.

If you want to choose something different, follow both (category 1 & 2).

So, the best way to deal with employment gaps in interviews is to learn the skills, practicing, embrace the new change, being true to yourself.

Respect the work and work will take care of you.

We took a few possible examples to make this article understandable to everyone who face this situation.  We believe any candidate who wants to deal with employment gaps can relate to these three categories and sort out the problem. Feel free to share your opinions.

Job Interview Experience in Hyderabad

Did you ever attend a job interview in Hyderabad? Or elsewhere?

What it is like to attend a job interview in hyderabad no matter if you are local or a non-local guy. What are those common things that connects all of us?

Let’s take a quick tour! The memories and experiences are never going to shade away from our lives and will remain fruitful because, those things kept all of us on our toes & are the reason for what we are today.

Undoubtedly, thousands of people attend job interviews in hyderabad every day because hyderabad is the second largest & most happening city in the country which emerged as a hub for employment opportunities in both govt & private sectors.

There is always a need for skill and talent everywhere therefore requirement is plenty across different platforms.

Two Categories

1. Fresher’s who graduate from colleges & try for new opportunities.
2. People who already bagged some experience are probably looking for a job change. 

If we are talking about interviews in Hyderabad we cannot ignore software and bpo jobs especially in MNC’s.

Preparation

Preparation starts a day before the interview itself. If you are a newbie, probably you will make sure to plan certain things in advance like location, travel time, dress code, resume preparation and carrying required documents etc.

You wanted to sleep early on that day so you can wake up early in the morning and turn up for the interview. Unfortunately, you will sleep late night and wake up early.

Now the day has come and it’s a big day

Congratulations! You have finally reached the location and entered into the building after completing all prerequisites and formalities that security guard has to offer you at the gate.

If you are in time, an empty chair is waiting for you or else 150-200 people will stare at you as if you are a scape goat that has just arrived.

You already had butterflies in stomach but pretend to be cool, confident & composed.

Everybody is waiting for HR to come and call out the names for 1^st round interview.

Amidst all the gossips, discussions, whisperings going around, hr comes out of the blue and call your name & by then half of the crowd is already disappeared 😉

This will let you walk more confidently into the interview room and that moment you feel like defeating half of the crowd without even doing war.

1^st round can be anything HR round, online english test, aptitude, psychometric, jam, group discussion etc. It differs from company to company.

Whatever, you will complete the 1^st round and come out of the interview room and realize its already mid noon.

Hiring managers, Interviewers went for lunch. You don’t know where to go.

Some companies have canteens so candidates can grab some lunch or snacks during the break. If not, you have to sit idle for longtime until they get back to you with some feedback.

Everybody can’t afford to eat in canteen.

Forget about canteen, some places don’t even have washrooms for the candidates who attend interviews.

However, you have managed yourself to wait for few hours. HR announced the results.

Things are clear that if you are rejected, you will have to leave for the day, if not, stay back for the next round. Half of your energy is already dropped.

Nevertheless, you feel like it’s worth the wait because you are shortlisted for next round in the process.

Again, you have been told to wait for a while until they call you for 2^nd round.

Now you look at the watch and it’s already 4.00pm.

Later, they called you for 2^nd round and it took some time to finish and come back.

The sad part of the interview process is you have to wait till the end though you have done with your part just because they reveal the results of all candidates in a one go.

You can’t think much about it. You will not get irritated anymore.

Now you don’t even bother about time because you are used to these circumstances from morning.

For no reason, you suddenly look outside of the window. Its already dark!

Your inner voice says “What the damn happened between sunshine and sunset today & where am I “?

After all, you will have to settle down again and keep your calm.

This time, HR asks you to take a pre assessment test or whatsoever because you have cleared the 2^nd round & that’s the good news! Well done!

This went smooth and bit faster than expected.

Finally, you were informed to leave for the day and come back on next day for two more rounds possibly.

This gave you a tremendous satisfaction for various reasons:

Your dedication and efforts turned out as positive results. Of course, you have come a long way.

Now, you stand apart from the crowd. At least from the people who couldn’t make it to next rounds.

You are still in the play but it is still there…

On the way back to home

On the way back to home, lot of things are going through your mind. Now you are more serious about the interview than ever before and wanna give a serious thought about next steps because you are just few steps away from getting an offer.

You can prove the world and shut the damn mouths of people who belittled and underestimated you and for all that, there is one bloody chance.

You have prepared your mind to go through whatever it takes to perform well and clear the next rounds at any cost.

Next Day

You are more energetic, more confident and of course fear of failure is there around some corner but the fire in your belly is dominating all the negative vibes and pushing you forward.

You started off with a positive energy. Parents wished you good luck and these all things have set some expectation for the day.

Mostly, final round interviews were scheduled in the afternoon time.

This time you reached the office by 12.00pm and entered your details at the reception. The HR representative just passes by you. As soon as you noticed it, you ran to her to show your face so, she will know that you are present for the interview and all set for further rounds.

Meanwhile, you see a group of people wearing id cards are roaming here and there.

Quickly you realize that they are the company’s employees.

Getting a job in the company, wearing id cards, walking around the floor, having conversations with peers, quick-quick bytes in the canteen, travelling to and fro in the company cab, doing all this stuff has registered strongly in your mind because this is all the love you have for the corporate job.

You know very well that you are up to the par and this can become a reality if everything goes well today.

The time has come. HR called out few names and gave heads up that they are going to send the candidates for the next round one by one.

Now you are aware that you are not alone. There are 10 more people with you in the race which is quite comfortable and relaxing for that moment but, the sad part is you have to compete with them.

The current scenario made you all come together under one roof though you are complete strangers to each other. This is a quite common thing that happens at interviews.  

You all formed into a group and started preparing for interview.

Someone has whispered that there are more than 10 openings for this job role.

Somebody else gossiping “This round is crucial and if we cross this bridge, the next round is a cake walk. It’s going to be very formal and all about making an offer.

You are listening to every shit around there but your mind is going through a revision because your inner voice said..

“You are almost there. Stay focused, be confident & just knock it out of the park.

It’s been already more than one hour.

Now it’s your turn, there is an adrenaline rush started in your body.

One To One Interview

Interviewer asked you to sit and go ahead with self introduction.

He made you very comfortable by asking general probing questions which made you to open up and talk more.

You felt its going smooth and interviewer is really a nice guy to deal with.

Abruptly, he took a quantum jump into the technical round and started shooting questions which came as a surprise to you. He went on and on and over, kept asking questions with more pace.

Looks like interviewer is on fire. You felt when he is going to stop.

Most of the questions were expected and you knew answers for them but couldn’t perform to the level that is required.

You have no idea about what you went through in last 10-15 minutes. It’s been a roller coaster ride and the experience was terrible which left you clue less about the outcome.

Interviewer smiled at you and shook your hand. That puts an end.

You are unsure about the result but, one thing is for sure that if something unexpected comes up as a feedback, it’s going to hurt you badly.

Result Time

Everybody in the group finished the interview and waiting for results.

One thing in common among all, that is fear of failure which really bothers you besides the excitement.

Somehow, it is felt like that you are on the fence. Anything can happen and be ready to face it.

Without further delay, Now HR called out few names from the list…

2 mins silence

This time, you didn’t hear your name. World turned upside down for you.

It’s hard for you to believe the situation and it is staggering to see all sincere efforts are going in vain. Indeed, you got a mild heart attack for a while.

Yet, you took the courage to digest the hard reality and move on..

It definitely takes sometime to recover and get the motivation to attend interviews all over again at other companies.

Yes, this happens quite few times. At least it happened with me.

Give me a hell yeah if you have faced this situation.

Let’s see other side of the coin. What if your name is there in the list ?

Probably, HR will congratulate you and make you sit for another hour or two for final round of interview. It is most likely that they say” HR is not available at this point, you can come tomorrow or the other day, we will notify you.

You will go for final round on other day and its 99.9% that you will secure the job because it’s going to be a casual meet with HR and it’s all about making a deal.

That’s it for Interview experience in Hyderabad from my side.

If still they filter the candidates and unable to make a decision or quash the process for peculiar reasons, they are the worst people on the earth.

Take my word – I faced this in some companies.

My take on this whole experience is that the hiring process in india should change. We should understand that people can’t afford to take rejection after going through lengthy interview process and screenings.

It takes a lot to attend interviews like money, travel time, mental preparation, and coping up with society, family, neighbors because job is not only a need but also has become a social status unfortunately.

Do we really need long weeks & months to conduct interviews and make decisions?

Please don’t waste other people’s time and play with their emotions. What goes around comes around.

If you are an HR, you are blessed but remember someone gave you a chance.

Of course, talent matters. I’m not saying to hire every tom, dick and harry. Choose the right fit but optimize the process. Make it efficient and quicker!

Please leave your comments, opinions and feel free to share your experiences as well.

                                          Naresh(Employee at present and previous Job aspirant)

Would you like to read another relevant article’ how to deal with employment gaps in interviews’ ? If so, Please click this link 🙂