my telephonic interview experiences

[royen]

I would like to share my experiences of a few telephonic interviews I went through.

Interview 1 and 2 were scheduled by a consultant in Australia. He just jumped on me out of the blue and told me that he had interesting openings and if I would be interested. I wouldnt have asked for more so he arranged two interviews for me.

Interview 1.
I was interviewed by 2 guys. They told me resume was impressive and they wanted a developer/lead with a similar profile.
Interview went on as usual and I pretty much answered all their queries.
Questions were 100% technical and none on behavioral. The had presumed that i knew 'X' tool but when I said that I am still learning that and do not have knowledge on 'X' tool but I have worked on the underlying technology of which 'X' tool is made up. They were really upset.
I think I blew the job offer at this point. Well nevertheless, the guys were really good technically. The position was for Brisbane.


Interview 2.
This was for a company in Sydney and they wanted very good integrators(IT). I had some solid integration experience and thought that I was a perfect match.
The interview turned out to be more of Behavioral than Technical.
questions asked were:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why Australia?
3. Tell me 5 things you love about your job?
4. Tell me about your management experience?
5. Why leave a big company back home and settle for a small company at here in Australia?
6. If we are to offer you a position, by when do you think you can join?

Well I think I have answered these questions fairly reasonably but since I was not well prepared for the behavioral questions, I think I might have lagged the edge over this scenario.


Interview 3.
Armed with the experience of the previous 2 interviews, I prepared well both technical and behavioral. This time this was from a NZ based company. I was interviewed by 2 architects who were a pleasure to speak with and I felt very comfortable in the discussion.

Questions asked were:
1. My current project. It was of interest to them as they were working on the product which I was leading.
2. About myself. (I made sure that I asked them what is the position/technologies they were looking for)
3. Greatest Strengths
4. Greatest Weakness.
5. Management Style(ratio of how much IT:non IT)
6. consulting experience.
7. Salary expectations
8. How much time I would require to join.

To be honest, I really felt very confident in the third interview as no body had asked me salary expectation prior to this. Only problem with the 3rd one is that I dont have sufficient consulting experience. I am from a big IT product development company and I am into core product dev. So the weak link might be this one.

I got the 3rd reference from a networking portal and not through any consultancy.
FYI, all the above jobs were not posted in any job site. So according to me, networking is very critical in these times.

Hope this helps and I wish everybody luck.
( I have got around 7 yrs of experience and have skilled independent 175 visa)

[amaslam]

Thanks Royen, really good info. I wonder why the Interview 1 guys were so upset. Maybe the recruiter should only send those with exact skill of tool X.

Originally Posted by royen

I would like to share my experiences of a few telephonic interviews I went through.

Interview 1 and 2 were scheduled by a consultant in Australia. He just jumped on me out of the blue and told me that he had interesting openings and if I would be interested. I wouldnt have asked for more so he arranged two interviews for me.

Interview 1.
I was interviewed by 2 guys. They told me resume was impressive and they wanted a developer/lead with a similar profile.
Interview went on as usual and I pretty much answered all their queries.
Questions were 100% technical and none on behavioral. The had presumed that i knew 'X' tool but when I said that I am still learning that and do not have knowledge on 'X' tool but I have worked on the underlying technology of which 'X' tool is made up. They were really upset.
I think I blew the job offer at this point. Well nevertheless, the guys were really good technically. The position was for Brisbane.


Interview 2.
This was for a company in Sydney and they wanted very good integrators(IT). I had some solid integration experience and thought that I was a perfect match.
The interview turned out to be more of Behavioral than Technical.
questions asked were:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why Australia?
3. Tell me 5 things you love about your job?
4. Tell me about your management experience?
5. Why leave a big company back home and settle for a small company at here in Australia?
6. If we are to offer you a position, by when do you think you can join?

Well I think I have answered these questions fairly reasonably but since I was not well prepared for the behavioral questions, I think I might have lagged the edge over this scenario.


Interview 3.
Armed with the experience of the previous 2 interviews, I prepared well both technical and behavioral. This time this was from a NZ based company. I was interviewed by 2 architects who were a pleasure to speak with and I felt very comfortable in the discussion.

Questions asked were:
1. My current project. It was of interest to them as they were working on the product which I was leading.
2. About myself. (I made sure that I asked them what is the position/technologies they were looking for)
3. Greatest Strengths
4. Greatest Weakness.
5. Management Style(ratio of how much IT:non IT)
6. consulting experience.
7. Salary expectations
8. How much time I would require to join.

To be honest, I really felt very confident in the third interview as no body had asked me salary expectation prior to this. Only problem with the 3rd one is that I dont have sufficient consulting experience. I am from a big IT product development company and I am into core product dev. So the weak link might be this one.

I got the 3rd reference from a networking portal and not through any consultancy.
FYI, all the above jobs were not posted in any job site. So according to me, networking is very critical in these times.

Hope this helps and I wish everybody luck.
( I have got around 7 yrs of experience and have skilled independent 175 visa)

[mrmsml]

Good information royen. Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by royen

I would like to share my experiences of a few telephonic interviews I went through.

Interview 1 and 2 were scheduled by a consultant in Australia. He just jumped on me out of the blue and told me that he had interesting openings and if I would be interested. I wouldnt have asked for more so he arranged two interviews for me.

Interview 1.
I was interviewed by 2 guys. They told me resume was impressive and they wanted a developer/lead with a similar profile.
Interview went on as usual and I pretty much answered all their queries.
Questions were 100% technical and none on behavioral. The had presumed that i knew 'X' tool but when I said that I am still learning that and do not have knowledge on 'X' tool but I have worked on the underlying technology of which 'X' tool is made up. They were really upset.
I think I blew the job offer at this point. Well nevertheless, the guys were really good technically. The position was for Brisbane.


Interview 2.
This was for a company in Sydney and they wanted very good integrators(IT). I had some solid integration experience and thought that I was a perfect match.
The interview turned out to be more of Behavioral than Technical.
questions asked were:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why Australia?
3. Tell me 5 things you love about your job?
4. Tell me about your management experience?
5. Why leave a big company back home and settle for a small company at here in Australia?
6. If we are to offer you a position, by when do you think you can join?

Well I think I have answered these questions fairly reasonably but since I was not well prepared for the behavioral questions, I think I might have lagged the edge over this scenario.


Interview 3.
Armed with the experience of the previous 2 interviews, I prepared well both technical and behavioral. This time this was from a NZ based company. I was interviewed by 2 architects who were a pleasure to speak with and I felt very comfortable in the discussion.

Questions asked were:
1. My current project. It was of interest to them as they were working on the product which I was leading.
2. About myself. (I made sure that I asked them what is the position/technologies they were looking for)
3. Greatest Strengths
4. Greatest Weakness.
5. Management Style(ratio of how much IT:non IT)
6. consulting experience.
7. Salary expectations
8. How much time I would require to join.

To be honest, I really felt very confident in the third interview as no body had asked me salary expectation prior to this. Only problem with the 3rd one is that I dont have sufficient consulting experience. I am from a big IT product development company and I am into core product dev. So the weak link might be this one.

I got the 3rd reference from a networking portal and not through any consultancy.
FYI, all the above jobs were not posted in any job site. So according to me, networking is very critical in these times.

Hope this helps and I wish everybody luck.
( I have got around 7 yrs of experience and have skilled independent 175 visa)

[royen]

Originally Posted by amaslam

Thanks Royen, really good info. I wonder why the Interview 1 guys were so upset. Maybe the recruiter should only send those with exact skill of tool X.

Hi Amaslam, I think its the consultant who might have confused both of us. For example , yesterday again I got a call for tool 'Y' because my resume sounded very much like tool 'Y'. Luckily I had a good friend/colleague working in tool 'Y' whom I recommended.


I could understand this because my company is kind of buying other companies like crazy. So they have redundant names unfortunately.

Anyways, I now make sure that I clarify that my resume matches their expectations. I tend to mail them what technologies/tools they are looking for in a candidate, and only then I proceed.

[anj1976]

thanks for sharing royen..

[anj1976]

Hi again,

u said networking sites, which ones are these? Are we talking about linkedin or the like? I was telling my husband about your interview exp right now, thought might as well ask this also

cheers
anj

[royen]

Originally Posted by anj1976

Hi again,

u said networking sites, which ones are these? Are we talking about linkedin or the like? I was telling my husband about your interview exp right now, thought might as well ask this also

cheers
anj

Yes exactly. I was talking about Linked-In. What I did is search the linked in for people with similar set of skills in Australia. And directly pinged them whether they have any openings in their companies or not.

So it is a kind of benefit both ways, even if you dont get any openings, you would get a connection. And from them you could know the market know how, and their working projects/technologies. Atleast this is what I followed and its my opinion.

[andreaz]

thank you very much for this

[royen]

An update.
I have finished the second round of interview 3 and am awaiting results. The guy mainly asked questions regarding the work I am currently doing and also some of the questions were repeated. I tried to prove that I was the best match. I was told to wait for 2 weeks.

Also I have two more interviews lined up one for tomorrow with a Melbourne based company and on monday and the position is Sydney based.

This time it was the recruiters(requirements were for their own consltancy) who checked my linkedin profile and called me directly.

One interesting pattern is all these jobs were permanent jobs and not contract ones.

I m keeping my fingers crossed at the same time I m being upbeat that surely I ll make it.

Will keep you updated regarding the latest developments on my side.

[eva-usa]

Hi Royen,

Thanks for sharing all information. I am just curiose, u r working on which technology platform in IT? & are you pinging people directy on linkedin?

Will keep you updated regarding the latest developments on my side.[/QUOTE]