Power Interviewing Tips for Landing your Dream Job

I am now out of the job market for quite sometime. I enjoy leading Taragana. I enjoy everything I do there.

However not so long ago I too was in the job market - interviewing and evaluating job offers. And let me tell you it was lots of fun. It is an intellectual game to me, a mental wrestling with the interviewer (yes, I am an INTP).

I had very high success rate with high quality and high paying jobs, despite limitations like being on H1B and without having computer science major. I developed some simple strategies which contributed to it.

In the following paragraphs I will provide you some insights based on my personal experiences which you can hopefully adapt to your interview strategy.

I am probably one of the few people who truly enjoys giving interviews. It is like a game to me and I know the rules well. So its fun playing and winning.

My core strategy for interviewing is very simple. I know my own weaknesses and I know my strengths in more detail than I would ever care to reveal. If you don’t know yours then today is a good time to start.

How to know yourself?
You should take, if you have not already, Myer-Briggs personality profiling test to identify your personality type. It provides some insight and some validation into your being. Also you can identify some of the things you have been subconsciously doing all along.

Spend some quality time alone sorting out your priorities and goals. Know yourself.

For example my current strength is in software architecture, design and development. I enjoy solving complex problems. I am very much on top of latest technologies in my field.

My weakness is doing repetitive work. So I try automating whenever possible. My other weakness is being a perfectionist. No, I am not making this up. Being a perfectionist has its disadvantages.

However it was not always as simple. When I was first in the job market there were several technology or tools which I was not aware of or didn’t get the opportunity to work with. My core strength however was always problem solving. Being an INTP, I also love arguing for logical conclusions to problems.

Any interviewer worth his salt looks for problem solvers. It is a mindset. If you are not a problem solver currently you can easily be one. Start thinking like an engineer. Preface every thought with - “How can I solve it?”. And then solve it. Whenever you think like bitching - think how you can solve it. If you cannot solve it with the best of your efforts then accept it and move on.