Tips to Prepare for a Government Job Interview

Preparing for a Government job interview is not extremely difficult, you just need to be meticulous and organized. You might be raising your eyebrows to the previous sentence, but hang on to understand how. Since you are reading this article, it automatically indicates that you have already qualified the written or online examination held for the government job. Now that is half the battle conquered. Give yourself a pat in the back since you have already surpassed thousands and in many cases, lakhs of candidates aspiring for the vacancies. Now onto the interview part. You need to keep in mind a few guidelines that you should observe to ace the interview. We have discussed a few of them here.

Research

Get to know about the bank or organization that you are aspiring for. Go online. Go through whatever information you can get about the organization. You do not want to go for the interview with zero knowledge. Get to know about:

• The various positions in the organization.
• Roles of different designations.
• How many branches that organization has?
• The recent developments and information regarding the organization.
• Whom does the organization serve?
• Who occupies the executive positions of the organization?
• The history of the organization.

If you know someone working there or retired, you could ask them about the information you need, to add to your knowledge. You should go through the newspaper as well to find out any latest news that you can get. Remember to be thorough about whatever information you get to assimilate, so that even if you miss out on any event or question, you would at least know everything about the ones that you have gone through.

Get to Know about the Post You are Aspiring for

You should have a basic knowledge about the duties of and expectations from the designation that you have applied for. This acts as an added bonus for job interviews since your interviewer might ask you about that. And being able to answer the question would work as a good impression in your favor and definitely boost your chances to land the job. You would be expected to have the necessary skills and abilities for the position and you might be asked to demonstrate a few as well. Therefore, be prepared for anything.

Get Your General Knowledge Straight

Any government job calls for questions about general knowledge. You have already encountered some of it in the online exam you appeared for. Brush up on the recent events. You could have a discussion with a friend or your dad about politics, sports, business, entertainment and so on. Discussions help to gain different perspectives and help you to know about further details that you might have missed. Be up to date about the current affairs so that you can carry on the conversation once somebody pops the question about any such topic in the interview.

Work on Your Communication Skills

You cannot continue a conversation without a good communication skill. So you would need to practice on that. You do not want to end up tongue-tied when an interviewer asks you a question. Be smart to come up with answers and confident to make your answers work. Now generally more than one person would be interviewing you, it might not be a one-on-one session. So you would be bombarded with questions from different directions. You would need to be alert and be able to communicate with each one of them to make your point. Your body language should not come off as over-confident or desperate or nervous since that would be a huge negative point to your job prospect. Remember to be yourself. Work on your English language skills as well since the medium of your interview is quite likely to be English. Remember to:

• Listen to your interviewer. Pay attention to the questions before answering.
• Greet your interviewers when you enter. Good manners create good impression.

This would build a good impression in the interviewer’s mind.

Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Figure out your strengths and your weaknesses. Once you figure them out, you would have a clear idea about the areas you need to improve on. Now what you should do is, work on your weaknesses and try to improve your strengths more. This would boost your confidence a great deal. Also, if at the time of interview you are confronted with a question that you do not have a proper answer to, then you can do this. Try to exhibit a proper attitude while conveying the fact that you are not completely aware of it. Do not say whatever comes to your mind. That will act as a weakness in your part in the interview. Let your interviewers know that you do not know the answer. Be humble and modest. Flaunting and exaggerating doesn’t help.

Do not panic. Dress up properly for the interview. You appearance makes up for one of the factor in choosing you for the job. Look smart and feel confident and do not forget to carry all the important documents that you might need to produce at the time of interview. Be calm and compose yourself before the interview. You would do just fine. (Check related courses)