Common Mistakes by Singapore Students in Interviews
We have a serious problem in Singapore. Our students, be them foreign or local, are not equipped with the correct attitudes for any kinds of interviews. For the staff working in career centres/business schools/training centres from the various tertiary institutions, here are a common list of mistakes by Singapore students.
Sometime back, I met a friend who graduated from a local university and she is currently working for one of the top management consultancy firms. To my surprise, she told me that she used her junior college as her point of reference (which is the top one) instead of the local university she studied in her CV. According to her, her top JC brand name is likely for her to find a job in a multi-national corporation than using the local university. In addition, she told me that all the students from all local universities are usually eliminated from the first round of their interviews as compared to their counterparts from the other countries. As an educator, I see this as a serious problem, but I did not believe what she said. So, I called up a few of my friends who are all working among various big multi-national firms and to my surprise, they also gave the same view independently. Here is an interesting comment that I like to share with you during my reunion with my overseas friends, who are all working for big multi-national companies from McKinsey to Goldman Sachs. They have issued the same complaint to me since they all know that I am into entrepreneurial education. This goes in the following: “All (Pick your institution) students are eliminated within the first round of the interview. We try our best to salvage these guys but they do not respect the interviewers and they have no idea about the job that they are looking for.”
For the career centres who are helping our students to find jobs in tertiary institutions, there is a need to improve the professionalism of the students before they go for their job interview. Our students seem to take the world for granted when it comes to interviews. Whether they are local or foreign students, they share a common problem in going through interviews. It’s too simple to outflank them using very simple strategies of interviewing someone. Some students don’t realize that easy and unpredictable questions are means to show how they react under pressure.
Whether you want to work for a startup as an entrepreneur or go to a big MNC, it is important to take note what most students operate. The most difficult in any enterprise, be it entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship, is to hire the wrong people. If you are experienced in hiring good people, there are methods which an interview can sieve out the best and the worst among people. Here are three important lessons that all students should take note during an interview:
- Dressing and Body Language: Whether you are going to a professional or student interview, it is important that you dress professionally or appear to be calm and composed even in the midst of difficult questioning. I have a student who we systematically broke him down during the interview, and he is shown to be incapable against pressure, despite how beautiful CV is. A mainland Chinese student from one of our local universities went to a top-notched consultancy for an interview. The student had a first class honours for his degree under his belt. He was rejected immediately on two accounts: (i) he was dressed in t-shirt and jeans and (ii) he could not communicate ideas and thoughts to his potential employers. I am not singling out mainland chinese for their poor accent, but Singaporeans are also suffering from the same problem. Believe it or not, speaking in singlish accent is cited as one of the factors for job rejection. Oftentimes, a lot of local students think that their first class honours will get them top-notched jobs but they did not realized that they were eliminated by the following factors: (i) bad dressing, (ii) lack of sophistication and not out-going and (iii) lack of attempt to make someone understand them by their accent.
An investor friend of mine made the point that there are three things that a business person will look at you before even meeting you. You are first judged by how you present your curriculum vitae by the things you write, your appearance by how you dress and then whether you are worthy of investment by your performance. You should make eye contact when replying to your interviewers.
- How to promote yourself without demonstrating arrogance: I have seen smart and capable students, but they all fail in one simple accord: they made their arrogance so obvious that they turn people off. A lot of people don’t realize that some people are turned off by their causes. Let me illustrate this with two examples. Both students A and B are given the same question, “We are looking for someone with leadership qualities. Can you tell us why we should take you for the job?” Student A answered, “I am that person. I have commanded more than ten people in so and so entrepreneurship society. Therefore I am ideal for the job.” Most likely, student A will get the job in some parts of the United States. Student B replied in the following manner, “I am keen to take up the job. As for leadership appointments, as a student leader, I have enjoyed working with people and I like to think of everyone to be part of the team and have a part to contribute to our cause.” Student B did not explicitly said that he was a good leader, but he demonstrated that he was both a good leader and team player in his appointment
- Value Proposition: Do you have a value proposition for your interviewers or do you have an unique selling point for your interviewers? Oftentimes, I see most students do not show any form of interest to contribute back to the university. Think about this, if you do not want to give something back to your school, why should your school send you for an overseas program? Both local and foreign students suffer from this problem. Sometimes, we should be thinking about filling up our quotas but if these students do not care about the organization, why should the organization give them opportunities to grow. Even if you are going for a job interview, you must have a value proposition for your employer to hire you.
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It is important for Singaporean students in tertiary institutions to realize that the world do not owe them a living. It is paramount that when you attend a job interview, you remember that you have to respect the people who hire you. Therefore, dressing up properly and finding out about the company mission and culture are key factors that will distinguish you from the rest. Perhaps, that is why most employers prefer to hire students who studied in overseas because these students understand how to humble themselves before the real and cruel world.
This article is contributed by Dr Bernard Leong, Co-founder and Manager of SGEntrepreneurs.com - the voice of Singaporean Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs in Singapore in the form of a blog. When not penning his thoughts on entrepreneurship down for SGEntrepreneurs.com, you can find him as an Adjunct Professor for the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre. And as all true entrepreneurs, SGEntrepreneurs also welcome angel investors with open arms: If you want to drop us some of your spare change, or are interested in sponsoring us, drop us a note at editor@sgentrepreneurs.com
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