Ezine

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Putting yourself in the other person's shoes

Hi,
I guess this is an often repeated phrase, please put yourself in the other person's shoes and see if they pinch then it probably hurts the other person too. Well said! But to be honest how many people actually practice that? Most people rarely bother to put themselves in the other person's shoes and more often than not they just don't care.
Let us discuss interviews for instance, now most interviews that I have attended, start with the question, "tell me something about yourself?" The next question that follows is why BPO's? Now what do they expect as an answer, it is the best job in the world! Or I love staying awake through the nights?

I do recall attending an interview where the handsome interviewer( that is the only thing I recall about him! his questions spoke nothing about his knowledge) asked me, why have you applied when I advertised for MBA's ? I replied, Sir, you had already seen my CV, my qualifications and work experince and this is the second round, why have you called me?
I never got any reply to that!!
I would love to ask all the HR's of this world what do they have in mind when they are hiring?
If a person is exceptionally qualified chances are he/ she got selected in the campus interviews itself and perhaps is drawing a fat salary from day one, for the rest of us mere mortals, we have to keep answering the same question 500 times, tell me something about yourself!!
More musings some later, I have to brush up my interview skills...

1 comment:

  1. I hate job interviews. One time I looked down mid-interview and realized there was a speaker facing me. The interview was being piped into another room. I saw that speaker and I thought, "Well, who else is listening?" I choked. I couldn't speak. I was so offended and freaked out. I kept staring at that thing and trying to figure out where the cord going across her desk lead to.

    One time I hadn't researched the company at all. I was pregnant and I knew I just wanted a job for 6 more months. They asked me what I knew about their company. I said "You have a great location. You're right across the street from the Thurber House. I love Thurber."

    I never bothered to do the writing assignment they gave me. They kept calling me asking me for it. I thought I blew the interview but they wanted to hire me. I never followed through. I hated the location. Right in downtown. Who wants to drive through that traffic every freaking morning?

    If you lie during an interview you feel obligated to pretend it was true if they hire you. Who can be bothered?

    One interview they asked what my weaknesses are. I didn't say, "Oh, I love internet porn." It wasn't that bad. It was pretty bad though. I said "I am a perfectionist." I could barely get in the elevator on the way out. My nose was longer than Pinocchio's.

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