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2009-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

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TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2009-02-11T05:22:00.000-08:00

How does the inode map to data block of a file?

Posted:

Inode has 13 block addresses. The first 10 are direct block addresses of the first 10 data blocks in the file. The 11th address points to a one-level index block. The 12th address points to a two-level (double in-direction) index block. The 13th address points to a three-level(triple in-direction)index block. This provides a very large [...]

Discuss the mount and unmount system calls ?

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The privileged mount system call is used to attach a file system to a directory of another file system; the unmount system call detaches a file system. When you mount another file system on to your directory, you are essentially splicing one directory tree onto a branch in another directory tree. The first argument to [...]

How do you create special files like named pipes and device files?

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The system call mknod creates special files in the following sequence. 1. kernel assigns new inode, 2. sets the file type to indicate that the file is a pipe, directory or special file, 3. If it is a device file, it makes the other entries like major, minor device numbers. For example: If the device is a disk, major device [...]

What is a FIFO?

Posted:

FIFO are otherwise called as ‘named pipes’. FIFO (first-in-first-out) is a special file which is said to be data transient. Once data is read from named pipe, it cannot be read again. Also, data can be read only in the order written. It is used in interprocess communication where a process writes to one end [...]

What are links and symbolic links in UNIX file system?

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A link is a second name (not a file) for a file. Links can be used to assign more than one name to a file, but cannot be used to assign a directory more than one name or link filenames on different computers. Symbolic link ‘is’ a file that only contains the name of another file.Operation [...]

How do you change File Access Permissions?

Posted:

Every file has following attributes: owner’s user ID ( 16 bit integer ) owner’s group ID ( 16 bit integer ) File access mode word ‘r w x -r w x- r w x’ (user permission-group permission-others permission) r-read, w-write, x-execute To change the access mode, we use chmod(filename,mode). Example 1: To change mode of myfile to ‘rw-rw-r–’ (ie. read, write permission for user [...]

What are the Unix system calls for I/O?

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open(pathname,flag,mode) - open file creat(pathname,mode) - create file close(filedes) - close an open file read(filedes,buffer,bytes) - read data from an open file write(filedes,buffer,bytes) - write data to an open file lseek(filedes,offset,from) - position an open file dup(filedes) - duplicate an existing file descriptor dup2(oldfd,newfd) - duplicate to a desired file descriptor fcntl(filedes,cmd,arg) - change properties of an open file ioctl(filedes,request,arg) - change the behaviour [...]

Brief about the directory representation in UNIX ?

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A Unix directory is a file containing a correspondence between filenames and inodes. A directory is a special file that the kernel maintains. Only kernel modifies directories, but processes can read directories. The contents of a directory are a list of filename and inode number pairs. When new directories are created, kernel makes two entries [...]

What is ‘inode’?

Posted:

All UNIX files have its description stored in a structure called ‘inode’. The inode contains info about the file-size, its location, time of last access, time of last modification, permission and so on. Directories are also represented as files and have an associated inode. In addition to descriptions about the file, the inode contains pointers [...]

How are devices represented in UNIX?

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All devices are represented by files called special files that are located in/dev directory. Thus, device files and other files are named and accessed in the same way. A ‘regular file’ is just an ordinary data file in the disk. A ‘block special file’ represents a device with characteristics similar to a disk (data transfer [...]

What does the following command line produce? Explain each aspect of this line ?

Posted:

$ (date ; ps -ef | awk ‘{print $1}’ | sort | uniq | wc -l ) >> Activity.log First let’s dissect the line: The date gives the date and time as the first command of the line, this is followed by the a list of all running processes in long form with UIDs listed first, [...]

What is the most graceful way to get to run level single user mode?

Posted:

The most graceful way is to use the command init s. If you want to shut everything down before going to single user mode then do init 0 first and from the ok prompt do a boot -s.

Write a command to find all of the files which have been accessed within the last 30 days ?

Posted:

This command will find all the files under root, which is ‘/’, with file type is file. ‘-atime -30′ will give all the files accessed less than 30 days ago. And the output will put into a file call December.files.

What is the main advantage of creating links to a file instead of copies of the file?

Posted:

The main advantage is not really that it saves disk space (though it does that too) but, rather, that a change of permissions on the file is applied to all the link access points. The link will show permissions of lrwxrwxrwx but that is for the link itself and not the access to the file [...]

What is LILO?

Posted:

LILO stands for Linux boot loader. It will load the MBR, master boot record, into the memory, and tell the system which partition and hard drive to boot from.

What is CVS? List some useful CVS commands.(Asked by Silicon Magic Corp.people)

Posted:

CVS is Concurrent Version System. It is the front end to the RCS revision control system which extends the notion of revision control from a collection of files in a single directory to a hierarchical collection of directories consisting of revision controlled files. These directories and files can be combined together to form a software [...]

What is NFS? What is its job?(Asked by Silicon Magic Corp. people)

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NFS stands for Network File System. NFS enables filesystems physically residing on one computer system to be used by other computers in the network, appearing to users on the remote host as just another local disk.

In Unix OS, what is the file server? (Asked by Silicon Magic Corp. people)

Posted:

The file server is a machine that shares its disk storage and files with other machines on the network.

What are the techniques that you use to handle the collisions in hash tables?(Asked by Silicon Magic Corp. people)

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We can use two major techniques to handle the collisions. They are open addressing and separate chaining. In open addressing, data items that hash to a full array cell are placed in another cell in the array. In separate chaining, each array element consist of a linked list. All data items hashing to a given [...]

What is the major advantage of a hash table? (Asked by Silicon Magic Corp. people)

Posted:

The major advantage of a hash table is its speed. Because the hash function is to take a range of key values and transform them into index values in such a way that the key values are distributed randomly across all the indices of a hash table.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2009-02-11T05:20:00.000-08:00

Is the Process before and after the swap are the same? Give reason?

Posted:

Process before swapping is residing in the primary memory in its original form. The regions (text, data and stack) may not be occupied fully by the process, there may be few empty slots in any of the regions and while swapping Kernel do not bother about the empty slots while swapping the process out. After [...]

What are the events done by the Kernel after a process is being swapped out from the main memory?

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When Kernel swaps the process out of the primary memory, it performs the following: Kernel decrements the Reference Count of each region of the process. If the reference count becomes zero, swaps the region out of the main memory, Kernel allocates the space for the swapping process in the swap device, Kernel locks the other swapping process while [...]

What is a Region?

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A Region is a continuous area of a process’s address space (such as text, data and stack). The kernel in a ‘Region Table’ that is local to the process maintains region. Regions are sharable among the process.

What scheme does the Kernel in Unix System V follow while choosing a swap device among the multiple swap devices?

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Kernel follows Round Robin scheme choosing a swap device among the multiple swap devices in Unix System V.

What is a Map?

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A Map is an Array, which contains the addresses of the free space in the swap device that are allocatable resources, and the number of the resource units available there. This allows First-Fit allocation of contiguous blocks of a resource. Initially the Map contains one entry – address (block offset from the starting of the swap [...]

What is the main goal of the Memory Management?

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It decides which process should reside in the main memory, Manages the parts of the virtual address space of a process which is non-core resident, Monitors the available main memory and periodically write the processes into the swap device to provide more processes fit in the main memory simultaneously.

What is major difference between the Historic Unix and the new BSD release of Unix System V in terms of Memory Management?

Posted:

Historic Unix uses Swapping – entire process is transferred to the main memory from the swap device, whereas the Unix System V uses Demand Paging – only the part of the process is moved to the main memory. Historic Unix uses one Swap Device and Unix System V allow multiple Swap Devices.

What is the difference between Swapping and Paging?

Posted:

Swapping: Whole process is moved from the swap device to the main memory for execution. Process size must be less than or equal to the available main memory. It is easier to implementation and overhead to the system. Swapping systems does not handle the memory more flexibly as compared to the paging systems. Paging: Only the required [...]

What is IPC? What are the various schemes available?

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The term IPC (Inter-Process Communication) describes various ways by which different process running on some operating system communicate between each other. Various schemes available are as follows: Pipes: One-way communication scheme through which different process can communicate. The problem is that the two processes should have a common ancestor (parent-child relationship). However this problem was fixed [...]

How do you execute one program from within another?

Posted:

The system calls used for low-level process creation are execlp() and execvp(). The execlp call overlays the existing program with the new one , runs that and exits. The original program gets back control only when an error occurs. execlp(path,file_name,arguments..); //last argument must be NULL A variant of execlp called execvp is used when the [...]

What is an advantage of executing a process in background?

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The most common reason to put a process in the background is to allow you to do something else interactively without waiting for the process to complete. At the end of the command you add the special background symbol, &. This symbol tells your shell to execute the given command in the background. Example: cp *.* [...]

How would you kill a process?

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The kill command takes the PID as one argument; this identifies which process to terminate. The PID of a process can be got using ‘ps’ command.

What is ‘ps’ command for?

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The ps command prints the process status for some or all of the running processes. The information given are the process identification number (PID),the amount of time that the process has taken to execute so far etc.

What is a Daemon?

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A daemon is a process that detaches itself from the terminal and runs, disconnected, in the background, waiting for requests and responding to them. It can also be defined as the background process that does not belong to a terminal session. Many system functions are commonly performed by daemons, including the sendmail daemon, which handles [...]

What Happens when you execute a command?

Posted:

When you enter ‘ls’ command to look at the contents of your current working directory, UNIX does a series of things to create an environment for ls and the run it: The shell has UNIX perform a fork. This creates a new process that the shell will use to run the ls program. The shell [...]

What Happens when you execute a program?

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When you execute a program on your UNIX system, the system creates a special environment for that program. This environment contains everything needed for the system to run the program as if no other program were running on the system. Each process has process context, which is everything that is unique about the state of [...]

What are the process states in Unix?

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As a process executes it changes state according to its circumstances. Unix processes have the following states: Running : The process is either running or it is ready to run . Waiting : The process is waiting for an event or for a resource. Stopped : The process has been stopped, usually by receiving a signal. Zombie : The [...]

What is a zombie?

Posted:

When a program forks and the child finishes before the parent, the kernel still keeps some of its information about the child in case the parent might need it - for example, the parent may need to check the child’s exit status. To be able to get this information, the parent calls `wait()’; In the [...]

How can a parent and child process communicate?

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A parent and child can communicate through any of the normal inter-process communication schemes (pipes, sockets, message queues, shared memory), but also have some special ways to communicate that take advantage of their relationship as a parent and child. One of the most obvious is that the parent can get the exit status of the [...]

How can you get/set an environment variable from a program?:

Posted:

Getting the value of an environment variable is done by using `getenv()’. Setting the value of an environment variable is done by using `putenv()’.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2009-02-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

What is the advantage of packaging over xcopy in .NET ?

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With the help of xcopy we solve the problem of DLL HELL and com dependencies when we make xcopy of project all the dll, dependencies, assembly are updated automaticalyÂ it’s a powerful feature ofÂ .NET

What is the difference between DataTable and DataSet?

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Data table is a collection of record’s that consist the single table Whenever dataset is collection of data table and it is provide interface between database and datatable 1 dataset consist multiple table.

What is the size of .NET object?

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Each instance of a reference type has two fields maintained by the runtime - a method table pointer and a sync block. These are 4 bytes each on a 32-bit system, making a total of 8 bytes per object overhead. Obviously the instance data for the type must be added to this to get the [...]

What is the significance of delegates. Where should they be used? what are the situations where we require them?

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Delegates are used as pointer to hold the controls actually i used the delegates when there is problem in VB.Net 2005 where each control is already threaded, to use my personla thread on these control i used delegates Ex: Private Delegate Sub dd() Dim d1 As New dd(AddressOf c1) Dim t1 As New Threading.Thread(AddressOf thread1) public sub Thread1() r1 = Me.Label1.BeginInvoke(d1) Me.Label1.EndInvoke(r1) end sub Public [...]

Explain about MCAD?

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The Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) credential provides industry recognition for professional developers who build powerful applications using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and Web services on the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 and Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1

What is the difference between manifest and metadata?

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Manifest and metadata are 2 parts of assembly architecture. Manifest is used for storing AssemblyName, AssemblyTitle, publicKey. Metadata contains Namespaces, Classes

How do you search within a 2-dimensional array using VB.NET? How can I know that a value already exists in the array?

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Dim arr(1, 2) As String arr(0, 0) = “Sandip” arr(0, 1) = “India” arr(1, 0) = “Jon Doe” arr(1, 1) = “US” Console.WriteLine(arr.GetUpperBound(0).ToString()) [...]

How to convert mm/dd/yyyy to dd/mm/yyyy.

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DateTimePicker1.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Custom DateTimePicker1.CustomFormat = “MM-dd-yyyy” DateTimePicker1.Text = Now MsgBox(DateTimePicker1.Text) DateTimePicker1.CustomFormat = “dd-MM-yyyy” DateTimePicker1.Text = Now MsgBox(DateTimePicker1.Text)

How can i retrieve records of a column having certain criteria and display the records in a list box?

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dim con as sqlconnection con=new sqlconnection(”server=visuall;database=urdbname;uid=sa;password=urpassword”) con.open() dimquerycommand as sqlcommand dim reader as sqldatareader querycommand=new sqlcommand(”select * from emp”,con) reader=querycommand.executereader() while(reader.reader()) listbox1.items.add(reader(0).tostring() & ” ” & reader(1).tostring() ) end while

What are the benefits of using Class Library?

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Simple!. Why do we have public library? Because once a book is written, many people can subscribe to it, and re-use it again and again. Right? In the same way once you create your own class libraries which have multiple functions and procedures, they can be published for your own use, as well as others rewriting [...]

RESUME TIPS

2009-02-11T05:12:00.000-08:00

Resume Tips

One of the most important factors for landing a job is your resume. It is often the first impression that a potential employer has of you. Therefore your resume must capture the employer�s attention. Within 30 seconds. Because he is normally flooded with resumes. Remember your resume does not get you the job. It is the interview that gets you the job. The resume gets you the interview call.

Here are some helpful tips regarding resume writing:

DOs

Keep it concise. But mention all details relevant to the job. Your work experience must be mentioned in detail along with all machinery, tools, systems etc. that you have handled or are familiar with.
Leave spaces between your experiences for easier reading.
Use a logical order or arrangement to make it easy to follow and read
List your education first.
Always mention your telephone number for easy accessibility.
Avoid verbose language, poor grammar, spelling errors, overuse of the
same adjectives or verbs.
Keep description clear and to the point.
Use a laser printer and traditional type fonts like Times-Roman, Arial
or Palatino. Align your resume properly. Headings should advisably
be in bold type.
Qualify and quantify what you have to offer to the organization.
Include as much work information as possible. The information must be
regarding the job applied for.
Avoid personal information like height, weight etc.
Print your resume on conventional white paper.
Be honest. Never lie or pad the truth about your job duties or over
stretch your accomplishment.
Keep the resume employer centered.
Be prepared to back up all your resume notations with proof at the
time of interview.

DON'Ts

Do not clutter up your resume with too much unnecessary information.
Do not lie about your experience or accomplishments. If the boss
finds out that you have fabricated your experience and accomplishments,
after hiring you could be sacked.

INTERVIEW TIPS

2009-02-11T05:05:00.000-08:00

Lot of patchwork is normally done by the candidate before appearing in any interview, albeit to no avail. We do the legwork just for you to facilitate with a complete and up-to-date research tool for appearing in any interview. We are medi ator between client and candidate in providing
services to both.

Here are some helpful tips regarding appearing for interviews:

>> Entering in the room
Enter in the room with due permission of the interviewer. Shake hands firmly and wish the interviewer as per time of day. Radiate your confidence with smile. Dress conservatively. Be always on time. Be a stickler for promptness while answering the questions with aplomb. Spontaneity is the buzzword. Remember the interviewer' s name.

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>> Body Language
When the interviewer tells you to sit or gestures you to sit down then do so after thanking him. Look alert. Sit up erect. Maintain eye contact with the interviewer all the time. Speak with confidence and assurance. Interviewers like candidates who are not shaky but are enthusiastic and responsive.

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>> Straight Answers
Answer questions openly, spontaneously without holding back and beating about the bush. Yet be direct and to the point, avoiding long, drawn-out explanations. It never pays to present answers made up of miscellaneous or incongruous ideas.

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>> Keep it Simple and Straight:
If put on the defensive (e.g. "Why do you shift jobs so frequently?" Why are you changing now?") answer as simply and succinctly as possible. Keep smiling.

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>> No carping
Don't dwell on carping and caviling at faults of manner of previous or present employer.

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>> Be courteous
Do not smoke or chew gum during interviews. It shows the disrespect towards interviewer. Do not ask direct questions about salary or other benefits at the beginning of the interview. Do not slouch in the chair, tap your feet, play with eyeglasses, pencil, or fidget nervously.

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>> Learn about the company
Do your homework and learn as much as you can about the company and the job requirement.

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>> Start from the basics
Prepare and rehearse common questions and answers. For example - What was the nature of your job? What special skills did you acquire? Were any special goals were set for you? What was your day was like on your job? What were your strengths? Weaknesses? Why are you considering leaving your present job? Why are you interested in this company and how can you contribute?

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>> If you have it, flaunt it
Ergo, stress your achievements. For example: Processes developed, sales records achieved, systems installed, absenteism reduced, product or production improved, etc.

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>> Leave the door open
Never tell the interviewer that you are not interested in the job. Leave the door open. The first interview is not the place to turn down an offer. Do not tell about interviews you have had or plan to have.

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>> Ask for the Job
If you are favorably impressed and know all the details of the position, then ask for the job.

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>> Say thanks while concluding the interview
While concluding the interview, thank the interviewer for the time and consideration given you. Ask when you should meet again to discuss the position further. It often takes several interviews to obtain the job offer. Ask for a business card and give yours in return.

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>> Don’t be anxious
There should be no room for anxiety even if you need the job desperately. (The company wants someone who is a winner and in demand.) Don't give the impression that beggars can never be choosers. Ask questions about the position -- show your serious and genuine interests in the duties and responsibilities of the position.

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Besides the interviewer is no less perplexed over the knack of interviewing.

Modern industry is highly complex and work life in general, has generated an increasing awareness of interdependency of tasks / roles and the need to understand the individual’s preferred / dominant patterns of behavior, particularly in relation to people and in groups.

Knowledge and skills assessment alone have been shown up to be inadequate in predicting success in roles / organizations. This is further aggravated by the fact that presence of knowledge / skills is no guarantee that they will be deployed as desired.

Personal Interviews as a tool for Selection and internal sourcing, while being the most popular, promises much but often suffers on many counts.

Not enough interviewers are trained in the art of interviews. They are not prepared in advance; the process is often led less by the interviewer’s ability and more by his confidence in his judgment of people. They tend to play pop psychologists.

Not enough time is invested in the process to look for evidence and consistent patterns of behavior, extrapolations, assumptions and conjectures are made about how a candidate is likely to be / behave from limited data about the candidate. Interviewer’s own world-views, biases and prejudices (personal stances) affect his judgment. Focusing on what a candidate "knows" to the near exclusion of a good probe on "what" a candidate has done, "how", and the nature of his interfaces with others and the world at large.

Standardization of interview items and sequence, rigor in established benchmarks for responses and appraisal of responses is shunned as tedious, impractical and at best insipid and monotonous. The bottom line is: Comparisons are difficult and choice making is largely subjective, the "feel good" factor dominating the decision.

It is now well established by research that an individual’s values, motives, traits and other components that constitute the core of personality have a more enduring influence on patterns of deployment of energies and
behaviour. Factoring these in decision making on selection, fitness and development planning thus makes sound business sense.

Assessment tools developed by experts to profile aspects of personality provides a reliable basis for data generation about individuals and is time / cost effective! Professionals help in the absence of relevant training to interpret results of these tests is a useful step.

CANDIDATES CALL OUT FOR THE BEST

2009-02-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

IN THE WAKE OF THE CURRENT FINANCIAL DOWNTURN, POTENTIAL CANDIDATES NEED TO MAXIMISE THEIR CHANCES TO GET THE BEST JOB AND EMPLOYERS TO GET THE BEST TALENT

Now more than ever, companies are becoming extremely selective when evaluating potential candidates. They are keen to test as many candidates before making an offer to ensure they get the best and most deserving. “Not only are companies becoming more selective, but with many more people looking for jobs, the competition is fierce,” opines Naveen Manjunath, managing director, Professional Aptitude Council (PAC) India.

“The key is to find ways to stand-out from the crowd,” - Naveen Manjunath, managing director, Professional Aptitude Council (PAC) India

Differentiate to gain…

Potential candidates need to understand that most people look very similar on their resume, so the key is to differentiate themselves. For example, candidates should look for opportunities to lead groups in their community, mentor young people in their community, and increase their training and certifications.

“In the current financial downturn, applicants must have the ability to restructure their CVs as per the requirements of the positions they apply for. Keeping in mind the current recession, an applicant should also keep the expectation level reasonable,” says Parminder Kaur, head – HR, Tricom India, a non-voice BPO company.

Tapping global opportunities…

While it is true that potential candidates need to maximise their chance to get the best job, how can they tap the best opportunities available worldwide? “There are many online mediums that play the role of a mediator between the aspirants and big companies. These mediums provide a platform for the companies to connect with prospective candidates,” adds Kaur.

To enable people to remain globally wired, PAC has created two communities – ‘Bright Sparks Society’ for students and the ‘PAC Honour Society’ for experienced professionals. This allows candidates to secure global credentials and rankings, attend speaker and networking events, and participate in training and education series.

“Since it is an internet based model and free for potential candidates, they stand to gain from it,” explains Manjunath.

During recession, companies come down in numbers of job positions and so a candidate ought to have high calibre and multi-tasking skills. Needless to say, it is important that a candidate in a slowdown scenario should focus on differentiating himself/herself from the r est. After all, those who stand from the rest of the crowd and don’t follow a “me-too” approach are the ones who last!

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

2008-12-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

wHAT ARE YOUR your qualifications

Posted:

Your next weapons are your qualifications. So, if you have good professional/ educational qualifications, write about them after your skills.

Write about your achievements ?

Posted:

Your achievements during your last jobs communicate that this is what you did for your last employers and this is what you can do if they hire you. So, write your achievements immediately after your skill set in your CV. Use some figures wherever possible. For eg, if you were responsible for recruitment in your [...]

ON WHAT skills you HAVE TO Focus

Posted:

If you have switched jobs very fast (less than one year), keep the focus of your CV on the skills acquired rather than the jobs you have done. This can be done by listing your key skills on the front page immediately after your career summary.

Do you get bored of repetitive work?

Posted:

The agenda of this question is to know if you can stick to a role for a significant period. To answer this question you cay say that, you understand that each job has an element of repetition but you enjoy doing your job and will give it your best.

What does growth mean to you?

Posted:

This question can arise from the answer to your last question. You can answer by saying that growth according to you is broadening your experience and acquiring new skills.

What will you do if you get another job offer with a higher salary?

Posted:

The purpose of this question is to know if you have a tendency to switch jobs for a couple of thousand rupees. You can answer by saying that the money does attract everybody but you will try to analyse the growth prospects in both positions. If your present job can offer you the growth you [...]

Why have you switched so many jobs?

Posted:

This can be the most direct question on this subject. While answering this question you can say that: “I wanted to broaden my work experience and to achieve it I had to move out of the company”. Continue with an example explaining your logic behind it and the success you achieved with it.

What are the Job Search Tips ?

Posted:

* Don’t put all your eggs in one basket * Try many methods of job search * Start early for interviews * Learn how others have been successful in their job search * Learn how to think beyond your specialisation areas. * Plunge into action

What things we have to Follow ?

Posted:

* Send the thanking letter to the company the same day * Specify in the letter the point that was discussed * Thank the Placement Agency, if any * Thank your network source, if any

what will do During The Eye Interview

Posted:

* Maintain eye contact * Be attentive, listen carefully, and lean forward * Don’t lean on the table, and don’t slouch * Don’t toss your files across * Hand over your file-right side facing them * Don’t laugh or giggle but smile gently * Be polite. use the words “Please” and “thank you” * Don’t argue but can orally acknowledge

what will do While Entering The Interview Hall

Posted:

* Enter confidently, not arrogantly * Shut the door gently * Smile and greet the interviewers * Shake hands only if they offer their hand

what is Waiting Hall Behaviour

Posted:

* Maintain Decorum * Mingle with others politely * Avoid smoking, chewing, flirting, gossiping, defamatory comments * Greet others present * Switch off the mobile * Relax and visualise

what are Behavioural “Unfavourable” Aspects

Posted:

* Lack of personal or career goals * Lack of enthusiasm and confidence * Not owning up responsibility for mistakes * Self-justification, aggressiveness * Lack ofemotional maturity * Negative and cynical attitude * Over-reacting to questions * Lacking sense of humour * Complaining about various things and previous employers

Why Do Candidates Fail In An Interview

Posted:

* Poor grooming * Discourteous and ungraceful body language * Poor manners * Poor diction * Vague responses * Unappealing resume * Monetary benefits-centric approach * Lack of punctuality * Poor waiting hall behaviour

Do you have any questions for me?

Posted:

Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? are example

Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.

Posted:

Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.

What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

Posted:

Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.

Describe your work ethic.

Posted:

Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.

What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?

Posted:

Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.

What qualities do you look for in a boss?

Posted:

Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-12-01T03:24:00.000-08:00

Can you explain singleton pattern?

Posted:

There are situations in a project where we want only one instance of the object to be created and shared between the clients. No client can create an instance of the object from outside. There is only one instance of the class which is shared across the clients. Below are the steps to make a [...]

Can you explain shallow copy and deep copy in prototype patterns?

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There are two types of cloning for prototype patterns. One is the shallow cloning which you have just read in the first question. In shallow copy only that object is cloned, any objects containing in that object is not cloned. For instance consider the figure ‘Deep cloning in action’ we have a customer class and [...]

Can you explain prototype pattern?

Posted:

Prototype pattern falls in the section of creational pattern. It gives us a way to create new objects from the existing instance of the object. In one sentence we clone the existing object with its data. By cloning any changes to the cloned object does not affect the original object value. If you are thinking [...]

Can you explain builder pattern?

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Builder falls under the type of creational pattern category. Builder pattern helps us to separate the construction of a complex object from its representation so that the same construction process can create different representations. Builder pattern is useful when the construction of the object is very complex. The main objective is to separate the construction [...]

Can you explain abstract factory pattern?

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Abstract factory expands on the basic factory pattern. Abstract factory helps us to unite similar factory pattern classes in to one unified interface. So basically all the common factory patterns now inherit from a common abstract factory class which unifies them in a common class. All other things related to factory pattern remain same as [...]

What are design patterns?

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Design patterns are documented tried and tested solutions for recurring problems in a given context. So basically you have a problem context and the proposed solution for the same. Design patterns existed in some or other form right from the inception stage of software development. Let’s say if you want to implement a sorting algorithm [...]

For a pipeline with ?n? stages, what?s the ideal throughput? What prevents us from achieving this ideal throughput?

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With “n” stage pipeline the throughput should be “n” instructions. As the pipe stages can’t be perfectly balanced ( time to perform task in a pipeline stage), furthermore pipeline does involve some overheads.

Cache Size is 64KB, Block size is 32B and the cache is Two-Way Set Associative. For a 32-bit physical address, give the division between Block Offset, Index and Tag.

Posted:

64k/32 = 2000 blocks 2 way set assoc- 2000/2 = 1000 lines-> 10 bits for index 32B block-> 5 bits for block offset 32-10-5= 17 bits for tag

How do you handle precise exceptions or interrupts?

Posted:

Like java have a feature for handling exception handling “prime catch”.the exception like divide by zero,out of bound.

The CPU is busy but you want to stop and do some other task. How do you do it?

Posted:

Arise a non maskable interrupt. Then give jump instruction to required subroutine.

what is the difference between interrupt service routine and subroutine ?

Posted:

Subroutine are the part of executing processes(like any process can call a subroutine for achieve task),while the interrupt subroutine never be the part.interrupt subroutine are subroutine that are external to a process.

For a pipeline with ?n? stages, what?s the ideal throughput? What prevents us from achieving this ideal throughput?

Posted:

What is a Snooping cache?

Posted:

Snooping Cache is the CACHE CONTROLLER hardware which is used to overcome the problem of “CACHE COHERENCY”.

What are the components in a Microprocessor?

Posted:

its a general purpose register. its components are one processor along with external ROM, RAM, etc

Convert a number to its two?s compliment and back

Posted:

say for example 5 is a decimal no converts it into binary format is 0101 base 2 invert this binary value 1010 add 1 with this ans we will get 2’s complement of this given no is 1011

What is the difference between primary & secondary storage device?

Posted:

In primary storage device the storage capacity is limited. It has a volatile memory. In secondary storage device the storage capacity is larger. It is a nonvolatile memory. Primary devices are: RAM / ROM. Secondary devices are: Floppy disc / Hard disk

What is called Scratch pad of computer?

Posted:

Cache Memory is scratch pad of computer.

What is NV-RAM?

Posted:

Nonvolatile Read Write Memory, also called Flash memory. It is also know as shadow RAM.

What is a compiler?

Posted:

Compiler is used to translate the high-level language program into machine code at a time. It doesn.t require special instruction to store in a memory, it stores automatically. The Execution time is less compared to Interpreter.

What are the basic expansion card types?

Posted:

ISA and PCI, ISA can be used only on XT, AT and ATX boards. The industry now considers ISA obsolete.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-12-01T03:18:00.001-08:00

What is the use of fflush() function?

Posted:

Suppose we read a sentence using scanf e.g. “My name is ABC” in a string. Printing this string using a printf statement prints “My”. Go for another successive scanf. It reads from the input stream… which still is having “name is ABC”. Hence pritning the string this time shows “name”. Solution to this is a fflush statement after first printf. This [...]

Explain how performance of algorithm is analysed?

Posted:

The performance of an algorithm is analysed by the time complexity as well as its space complexity though both the complexities are trafe-offs between them. If time complexity increases then space complexity decreases & vice-versa. Also the best & worst cases of the time complexities are considered while determining the efficiency of the algorithm

Is it possible to implement trees using arrays ? If yes, how?

Posted:

Yes, it is possible. Here is an example of implementing a binary tree: Consider an attay : a[n]; Place the root in first position. and let the current position to be i = 0; place left node at the position: 2i+1 place right node at the position: 2i+2. Repeat these steps.

What does abstract data type means?

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If for a particular collection of data only the structure of data and the functions to be performed on the data is defined but the implementation is not defined,then such a collection of data is called Abstrct data type.

A list is ordered from smaller to largest when a sort is called. Which sort would take the longest time to execute?

Posted:

I am not sure about the answer.But I think the answer is “Selection Sort” whose order is O(n^2) irrespective of the elements order.I guess all other sorts somehow depend on the order of elements

What is binary tree?

Posted:

A binary tree is a tree which has every node has exactly two links i.e left and right link

What are the parts of root node?

Posted:

A root node contains data part and has link part. i.e links to its child. if it is binary tree it has two links i.e left child and right child

How many different binary trees and binary search trees can be made from three nodes that contain the key values 1, 2 & 3?

Posted:

for binary search tree, no of trees, (2^n)-n… here 8-3=5 trees… u can draw n see… for binary tree, no of trees n(2^n)-n here 3*5=15… replace node in each bst with other two values and see

Stack can be described as a pointer. Explain.

Posted:

Because stack will contain a head pointer which will always point to the top of the Stack. All Stack Operations are done using Head Pointer. Hence Stack ca be Described as a Pointer

What do you mean by: Syntax Error, Logical Error, Runtime Error?

Posted:

Syntax Error-Errors in coding which do not follw language syntax format. It can occur by human mistak in typing & due lack knowledge of language .EX - Ram are a boy. error correct- Ram is a boy. Logical Error- Here is correct, program will execute properly but not give answer correct. [...]

What does abstract data type means?

Posted:

What is the average number of comparisons in a sequential search?

Posted:

f(n)= 1.Pn + 2.Pn + 3.Pn +…+ N.Pn where Pn = 1/N f(n)= 1.1/N +2.1/N + 3.1/N+….+N.1/N = (1+2+3+….+N)1/N = N(N+1)/2N = (N+1)/2

Which one is faster? A binary search of an orderd set of elements in an array or a sequential search of the elements.

Posted:

binary search if of order log n where as sequential search is of order n binary search is faster

What is a data structure?

Posted:

Data Structure means how the data is organised in memory

How is it possible to insert different type of elements in stack?

Posted:

you ca implement stack with union datatype… u may think of structures.. but struct use storin of all values and mem allocated for all in each.. but in union only one at a time… this is right i think

Parenthesis are never needed in prefix or postfix expressions. Why?

Posted:

Basically Parenthesis indicate the operations which need to be carried out first ie according to the BODMAS rule..SO in case of postfix or prefix expression they are actualy conversions of the orginal standard equation.Where the brackets have already been taken into consideration,,,and the formed prefix/postfix expression is the correct order of expansion of a given mathematical [...]

What are the parts of root node?

Posted:

A root node contains data part and has link part. i.e links to its child. if it is binary tree it has two links i.e left child and right child

How would you sort a linked list?

Posted:

using merge sort. http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/algorithms/listsort.html

What is the average number of comparisons in a sequential search?

Posted:

f(n)= 1.Pn + 2.Pn + 3.Pn +…+ N.Pn where Pn = 1/N f(n)= 1.1/N +2.1/N + 3.1/N+….+N.1/N = (1+2+3+….+N)1/N = N(N+1)/2N = (N+1)/2

What do you mean by: Syntax Error, Logical Error, Runtime Error?

Posted:

12 CV SINS THAT CAN KILL YOUR CAREER!!

2008-12-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

Fancy degree, check; great grades, check; references, check; but still wondering why you didn’t get a call back from a potential employer? Well, one reason could be your resume. Trust us, the number of bizarre resumes we’ve seen is incredible. Your CV is what represents you in the job market, and if you’ve got the tone wrong, then baby you’ve got a problem!

1. Spelling or grammar errors: The biggest turn off. These errors project you as lazy and uninterested. Run spell check, ask a friend to read it, ask mom to read it too just to be triply sure, but presenting a resume with errors can lead you into embarrassing situations.

2. Convoluted language: In a bid to sound intelligent don’t use language so flowery that your prospective employer would need to hire Shakespeare to get what you are trying to say. Use basic, simple language; it is the skills that be impressive.

3.Missing out on contact info: So how exactly do you think the company is supposed to get in touch with you? Believe it or not, some people get so lost in the nitty-gritties of making a resume that they completely forget to add basic details like their phone number and email.

4. Jazzy fonts and glossy paper: A resume is a formal document. Keep it official, and don’t make it look frivolous. Use a font like Times New Roman in a point size 10 or 12 and keep the colour black. The formatting should be consistent.

5. Physical characteristics: Unless you are applying to a modelling agency or for a porn movie, this is utterly useless and irrelevant information.

6. Photographs: Not that big a blunder this, but don’t attach mug shots of your beautiful face unless asked for.

7. Boasting: It is a good thing to play up one’s good characteristics and strong points, but don’t blow your own horn.

8. Reasons for leaving previous job: It’s better to discuss this in person. Also make sure you don’t bitch out your previous organisation. Sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many get caught in that trap.

9. Irrelevant information: Passport number, number of ex-husbands, children etc. Do they need to know that? Even hobbies, ones that are totally unrelated should be kept out.

10.A super long resume: The maximum length of your resume, regardless of the number of years you have worked, should ideally not be more than two pages.

11.Weaknesses: Mention subtly if asked. Don’t go on and on about them on your resume. You want to get hired, right?

12. Giving false information: Don’t think you can get away with lying about things like gap years, reasons for quitting, your salary etc; because most companies these days, have ways of finding out about what went wrong or why you took year(s) off. Come out to them about your failures when asked in an interview. Of course, we trust you to be tactful by highlighting your postives and achievements. But don’t fudge information, if nothing else, they’ll be impressed by your honesty!

12 RULES TO SURVIVE YOUR FIRST JOB

2008-12-01T02:55:00.000-08:00

2 Rules to survive your first job

So you've spent the past few years being the life of every party, the couch potato in every home and the back bencher in every class. But now you've finally decided (or maybe others have) that it is time you got your act together and learnt how to earn a real buck. It starts way before your bed time, has a dress code different from a hot pink racer back and you can't 'bunk' work because you just don't feel like being at your desk! Don't know how to survive your first job? Take a deep breath, open your eyes wide and memorise these 12 commandments like they've dropped right from the skies for your survival. These tips are certified to make your new work life A breeze.

1) Always be punctual
I, will be punctual.' Write it in stone and plonk it in the middle of your dressing table so you never forget it. Most offices allow an extension of upto 10-15 minutes in the morning, but making it any later than that can go against you and mark you as the non-sessions, uncommitted and perhaps even inefficient. It doesn't matter if you plan on spending five hours extra after work. Most employers' judge you (and your professionalism) based on what time you've made your morning entry in the register.

And your future in the organisation may also depend on that as no one wants a tardy employee. Says Tamara Wilhite, author of Humanity Edge, Natural Talent and Geronimo Redeux, "Time at work correlates to ones paycheck. This is true when someone else is charging us by the hour. However, we often do not correlate our own lost time into money. Procrastination can be costly." According to Anne Watson, author of The Definitive Job Book: Rules from the Recruitment Insiders, "Punctuality is the courtesy of kings..Get there early and find out the lay of the land… Have yourself announced 10 minutes early, not half an hour early or five minutes late. Arrive composed, calm, focussed and ready to sparkle."

Don't be an optimist but realistically assess the time you will take and then add 10 minutes more to allow for unexpected delays. Carry reading material or music with you wherever you go so that if you do reach early, you can keep yourself busy with some form of entertainment!

2) Appropriate clothing
As much as you may hate having to ditch your skinnies for a formal pair of trousers, it's important to remember that what you wear actually does say a lot about you. Says Eunice Lawton, author of Body Language and the First Line Manager, "When we first meet people, we briefly look at their overall image before focussing on their face."

"The first thing we usually notice is the clothes they are wearing… The way you dress, your choice of style and your posture will all give out messages to others about the way you view yourself and the way you wish to be viewed." Stick to basic and tasteful cuts in clothing like collared shirts, A-line skirts, basic jeans and shirts.

It would be wise to start off with something conservative until you figure out what is appropriate to wear. Says career planning professional author of The Everything Get-a-Job Book and The Everything Practice Interview Book, Dawn Rosenberg McKay, "Look around you to see how others are dressed. For instance, if you work in an advertising agency and aspire to be an account executive, don't dress like the art director, whose job allows a more casual style." Since your first week may be both emotionally and physically tiring, plan what you're going to wear ahead of time so you can relax when you get back from work instead of stressing yourself over what you will wear.

3) Respect deadlines
When you're in college, dates for submitting in class assignments and project deadlines can extend to up to more than a month and perhaps the only thing that matters is the daily attendance. But once you've stepped into office, forget all that! Remember that at work, you are always being tested to assess if you are contributing to the organisation or not.

Says McKay, "Your performance at work impacts the organisation as a whole, your bosses, and even your co-workers. You are one spoke in the wheel that makes the organisation run. If that spoke is broken, your employer will just go out and replace it." That means that if a deadline has been assigned to you, make sure you meet it.

If you feel that the workload is too much for you to handle, either ask for assistance or as a last resort, ask for an extension, but not later than a day or two. Most employers are willing to help newcomers, but only as long they see you are making an effort. Do not log on to check your latest mail or post on your blog as most computers are connected and your boss might see how you're not doing the work assigned to you and instead taking forever on the job at hand.

4) Avoid office politics
Life would be great if you could enter office everyday and leave without having to worry if someone's trying to pull the rug from under your feet. But everyone's trying to get a step ahead of everyone else, so you'd be best off not getting into murky waters straightaway by getting involved in office politics. Or at least not initially!

Look out for clues about how the business works under the surface and which players succeed by publicly supporting the boss. At the same time, keep an eye out for the office cynic as well as anyone who may try to be too friendly with you until you have a proper idea of the underlying tensions and equations. By being too close to one group, you could alienate yourself from others, especially if they're not popular in other parts of the company.

According to a Bloomsbury publication, Steps to Success -- Tackle Office Nightmares, "Keep your own counsel during this period and work according to your own values; don't try to change your values to match those of the organisation; under pressure, your own values will reassert themselves forcefully." Proving that you are an honest worker will go well with you in the boss's eyes as well as will keep any potential gossip-mongers at bay long enough for you to make a network of allies for yourself. Make it a standing rule for yourself to be courteous to everyone, right from the higher-ups to the guards at the entrance.

Additionally, while you may be a star outside the office, once you're at work, leave your ego at home so you don't create any rivals. This is because unlike informal group settings, you may be meeting your colleagues for up to more than 40 hours a week and making enemies in such an environment can put you in quite a spot.

5) Try and integrate
Unlike social situations where you have the freedom of deciding who you would like to spend time with, in work situations you don't have the luxury of deciding who you want to develop business relationships with. Learn to be at least cordial with everyone (you're free to think what you want about them). Says R. Kannan, author Taking Charge of your Career, "To increase your feeling of belonging and to develop better relationships with your company, seek assignments that enable you to work with colleagues other than the group you always work with. Pitch in and help others who are in a job overload, if you have the time.

You'll develop a reputation as a team player." Creating work friends and allies is always an asset as it'll not only make work a lot less dull, but can also come in handy when you need to bail out from work early or can't finish your task on time. Another smart way to build rapport is to match your non-verbal behaviour with that of the person you're speaking to.

According to Eunice Lawton, author of Body Language and the First Line Manager, "Be aware of how they position their body and take up a similar stance. If you copy them exactly, it will look too obvious, so use a similar kind of body language." While you may consider this to be manipulative or plain silly, it actually works because it helps the other person feel comfortable with you without knowing why, a level of comfort being key to building relationships with other people.

6) Stay positive
Agreed, no one likes being a small fish in a big sea, but when you have no choice, your next best option (after wanting to kill your boss and take over the company) is to keep a positive attitude. Says Kannan, "Having a positive attitude towards one's job and towards life in general are among the most important characteristics of successful people… A positive attitude is not coincidental. Successful people know how to create positive motivations for themselves."

Mind your P's and Q's and ensure you greet everyone graciously. Do not complain continuously about your boss, an office mate or your previous job as it will only make others uneasy and uncomfortable about your constant whining. Be open to new tasks -- it will help you understand your own strengths and weaknesses. In fact, as Kannan says, treat your new job as a training ground.

Most importantly, learn to accept criticism in the right spirit. If your work is criticised, try not to be defensive; rather look at it as a form of feedback. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything new that interests you. "The challenge is to find ways to get more involved in things that matter to the organisation whilst motivating yourself," he says.

7) Feel free to question
If you don't understand something, ask. If you want to try something new, ask. One of the good things about being a newcomer is that you can gather as much information about peoples' working styles, the company's policies and your work profile, without sounding cheeky or conniving as it is expected that you won't know how everything works at the said organisation.

According to Andrew Finlayson, author of Questions That Work: How to Ask Questions That Will Help You Succeed in Any Business, "Questions are an act of here and now. They force you to be a part of the conversation, to exchange ideas, while sharpening your mind to focus on what is wanted. They are the devices we use to shift through each day's conversation, to catch up with what is going on, and to cut through the clutter."

However, he says that before you ask, make sure that you are addressing the right person and whether the person has the time to help you. Use the person's last name if you want to create a formal environment and don't beat around the bush but come to the point and make it sound like it's something worth answering. In fact, Finlayson believes that asking questions is also great for building relationships with others. Being able to help gives others a sense of importance.

8) Pick a mentor
Most organisations have that one person you can look up to, respect and expect to help you, who you can call your mentor. Explains Katherine Hansen, author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Network Your Way into the Hidden Job, "A mentor is that one person who can guide you, help you, take you under his or her wing, and nurture your career quest. A mentor is often in a position you'd like to be in and has the clout and connections to guide you to a similar position."

Mentors can also provide institutional knowledge about your employer, your industry and the politics involved in both. Says Neil Fiore, an executive coach in Berkeley, California, US, "Mentors allow you the benefit of their experience to see around corners and anticipate what is coming at you so you can make better decisions." So what should you look for in a mentor?

Find someone whose advice you respect and who is supportive and willing to offer constructive criticism. You can choose someone from your own place of employment or outside it-or both; some people have more than one mentor. At the same time, consider your goals in choosing a mentor-think about what characteristics you're looking for in him or her. It's a good idea to choose someone working in the same functional area as you are, as well as someone who shares your values as it will make it easier for you to relate to the person without feeling that you're going against your principles. However, it would be good to test the waters first by asking for advice and questions.

9) Volunteer for work
Be the one who volunteers for something, like doing a coffee run or getting papers from the next room. Since you're either at the bottom of the rung at this point of your job or too new to impose your own influence, the next best alternative you have is to win people over by showing your willingness and enthusiasm for the job.

This way you will be able to network and make contacts with people at various levels. In fact, author of Office Politics, Rebecca Luhn Wolfe believes, "Making friends at the top can boost an ordinary career to an exceptional one, with the help of lots of hard work of course.

Those at the top can help move you faster, as well as strengthen your relationships at all levels." While this isn't a sure shot path to a raise, it definitely will help you to get to know your co-workers as well as win favours from them. Try and be the last to lunch in the early days of your joining, be the first back, and one of the last out of the door at night.

Show your new colleagues that you're committed and mean business but are also looking to integrate yourself as one of the team players. However, as experts at www. monster.co.uk warn, "Take a second before you commit to saying anything when you are new. You'll be nervous anyway which will heighten your anxiety and your eagerness to please your co-workers. So consider your responses and actions. It's better to be tagged as cautious and thoughtful rather than rash and impulsive while at work."

6 things to do if you are the New Boss

'We' Are Family
Thank Sister Sledge for making this song and then repeat it in your head like a mantra. Unless you joined as the new chief by capturing everyone in a war, you don't posses the right to put yourself and your convenience first in every situation. Using inclusive language such as 'we' and 'us' will help foster a feeling of collaboration.
Lead By Example
Come in on time, be organised, stick to deadlines and be courteous. And then see how your employees follow your steps like little goslings!
Be Sensitive To Corporate Culture
Resist the urge to change everything, right from the colour of the walls to office timings the minute you join. Develop a level of comfort with your staff before you start imposing your views.
Show Trust in Your Team
By this we don't mean sharing your relationship problems and bank details with them. Make them believe that you have faith in their capabilities and they'll put more effort and pride into their work.
Spell Out Your Expectations
Your employees are not mind readers, nor do they know your style of working. Make your agenda and expectations very clear at the outset so there is no confusion later on.
Know Your People
Make a concerted effort to learn about your workers and what their responsibilities are. The better equations you develop with them, the easier it will be for you to work.

10) Stretch your imagination
One of the good things about being new to an organisation, and especially if it's your first job, is that you have no experience. And no, we're not kidding! Since you've had no formal training of how to perform different types of tasks specific to your organisation, you can afford to try new ideas and methods graduates is so that they can work on the host of fresh ideas from young minds and then mould them according to their company values.

Experts at www. wikihow.com, say, "While you may have lots to learn, you also bring a fresh perspective and you probably bring experience from other companies or jobs. Try to turn that into fresh energy, new ideas and initiative that will make you stand out among your new colleagues".

If your boss gives you only vague guidelines on how to do a project, and you don't get much help on asking, start analysing and creating your own techniques that will help you understand what works for you and what is acceptable by your boss. Most bosses withhold information to test their employees' breaking point as well as to help them develop their own critical thinking techniques, which is good for you in the long run.

In fact, as Charles E. Watson, author of book What Smart People Do When Dumb Things Happen at Work says that new recruits should give up their childish notion that the boss must tell them how to do every aspect of their work. "Learn to spend spare moments thinking about the questions you had and developing your own solutions. Most importantly, you need to start experimenting. Many people fear failure so much that they refuse to try, thereby crippling their ability to learn from trial and error," he says. Show that you're made of sterner stuff and get those grey cells wizzing.

11) How to handle hostility
It's all very well that you're putting in hard work and trying to win people over. But what if you're faced by hostility from insecure colleagues? Obviously you would want to impress your boss, finish your work on time and volunteer as much as you can-but this could also be perceived as a threat by others!

However, that doesn't mean you should paste yourself to the wall so that no one notices you! Say Milo Sindell and Thuy Sindell, authors of Sink or Swim, "First, try to bring to the surface the reasons behind the attitude. Ask questions to understand what's really going on. Second, change the conversation. However, there may be times when you may have brought the situation onto yourself without even realising it! Experts at www.monster. co.uk say, "Even if you're already experienced in your role, don't assume you can simply do what you did before in the same way. Keep your eyes and ears open."

12) Do nat argue
We may sound like your mom when you were 10, but she knew something back then that will definitely come in handy now. One of the most useful talents you can acquire, apart from standing on your head and doing the Macarena, is the fine art of taking a good chewing out by the boss. Firstly, you are new to the job, and there may be a bleak chance that the boss knows a bit more than you do.

Secondly, your boss does not have a personal hatred for you (unless you stole her lover or Dior bag) so even if you do get a slap on the wrist, don't take it as a personal attack. Says Watson, "The wrong way to acknowledge a reprimand is to give excuses, to argue, to defend your actions. The right way is to lower your head, accept the tongue lashing, apologise, and promise not to make the mistake again.

" Most supervisors would rather not tell-off their employees if they don't have to. And since you're anyway new to the job, you're best off not offending your seniors by hurting their ego. However, this does not mean that you have to cower down and lap up everything said to you. Experts at www.ivillage. com believe, "The more confident you are, the less rudeness and arrogance will be able to penetrate your defences.

A lot actually depend depends on how you react. If harsh words have you cowering and doing as you're told without a murmur, that will show you're easy to intimidate." If you feel something is out of context or unacceptable, try a smiling, 'I beg your pardon' as if you need clarifications. When asked to repeat something, it often makes the questioner reflect momentarily on what they said and check its appropriateness.

6 unwritten rules at office:

Keep the ringer low
Unless you're advertising for your wedding cum party band, it's best to keep the ringer on low or on vibrate mode. Yes, we know it has an MP3 player.
Limit face booking
The day you become a big star and are paid only to write your comments on what you think of penguins mating in Antarctica, you can surf the net the whole day long.
Find a place
Everyone loves the thought of burnt tobacco being blown into their face. NOT. Take your nicotine fix away from people who may not like smoking.
Mind the volume
If you enjoy listening to music on your iPod or taking breaks to talk with your best bud, keep it soft. Remember, you're not being paid to make others deaf.
Be polite
A simple smile and a warm 'hello' will not only make the other person's day, but will also boomerang good karma to you. And we can all do with a bit of that!
Ask before borrowing
Some people love their stationary more than life itself. Ask them before taking any of it away.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-12-01T02:39:00.000-08:00

What are the integration differences between SP

S 2003 and the various Office versions?

Posted:

SPS webpage can detect you have installed the Office 2003 and run local dll to implement some SPS function, e.g. multi-file upload only works when you have office 2003 installed. Integration with Office XP is gone. You will get guys telling you that you can integrate with SPSv2 if you install a backwards compatible document library - [...]

Can SharePoint compare two document versions?

Posted:

“In Word 2003, you can compare documents side by side. Open two documents. Then, from the Window menu of one of them, select the Compare Side By Side command. If you have only two documents open, the command will automatically choose to compare them. If you have three or more documents open, you’ll have to [...]

What are the various Sharepoint 2003 and Exchange integration points?

Posted:

This is a button on contacts or events lists that lets Outlook 2003 add a pst file named Sharepoint Folders and it links to the data on the site. It’s read-only, but you could make the home page for that PST be the Sharepoint site for easier viewing. The link to outlook feature seems more [...]

What is SharePoint from a Users Perspective?

Posted:

From a Users perspective SharePoint is a way of making documents and folders on the Windows platform accessible over the web. The user visits the SharePoint Portal web page, and from there they can add documents, change documents & delete documents. Through this Portal, these documents are now available for discussion, collaboration, versioning and being [...]

What is SharePoint from an Administration Perspective?

Posted:

Administering SharePoint mainly consists of setting it up, which is much easier than you expect, adding the content, which can be just dragging and dropping in whole directory structures and files, and then organizing the files better by giving them categories or other metadata. This is done either through the Web interface or through the [...]

What is SharePoint from a Technical Perspective?

Posted:

Technically SharePoint illustrates neatly what Microsoft’s .net strategy is all about: integrating Windows with the Web. Microsoft has previously made accessing stuff on a PC easier, (Windows) then on a network (NT) and now on the web (.NET). SharePoint is an application written to let a user access a web accessible directory tree called the [...]

What newsgroups are available?

Posted:

There are two, * microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver and * microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver.development.

Why do the workspace virtual directories show the error “stop sign” symbol in the IIS snap-in?

Posted:

If World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) starts before Microsoft Exchange Information Store (MSExchangeIS), “stop sign” symbols appear under the Default Web Site folder of the Internet Information Services console in Microsoft Management Console (MMC). There is a dependency between the local paths of the SharePoint Portal Server virtual directories and the MSExchangeIS. You must start [...]

How do I open an older version of a document?

Posted:

Normally, all previous versions are located in the shadow, so if you right click a published document from within the web folders, go to properties and then the third tab, versions you can view older versions. If you want to do this in code: strURL = "url of the last published version" Set oVersion = New PKMCDO.KnowledgeVersion Set prmRs [...]

How Does SharePoint work?

Posted:

The browser sends a DAV packet to IIS asking to perform a document check in. PKMDASL.DLL, an ISAPI DLL, parses the packet and sees that it has the proprietary INVOKE command. Because of the existence of this command, the packet is passed off to msdmserv.exe, who in turn processes the packet and uses EXOLEDB to [...]

What are the actual advantages of SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) over SharePoint Team Services (STS)?

Posted:

SharePoint Portal Services (SPS) has MUCH better document management. It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc. STS does not have these features, or they are very scaled back. SharePoint team Services (SPS) has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content sources. STS cannot. STS is easier to manage and much [...]

Why Sharepoint is not a viable solution for enterprise wide deployments?

Posted:

Document management does not scale beyond a single server, but scales great within a single server. For example, a quad Xeon machine with 4GB of RAM works great for a document management server that has about 900,000 - 1,000,000 document, but if you need to store 50,000,000 document and want to have them all in [...]

What would you like to see in the next version of SharePoint?

Posted:

A few suggestions: # SPS and STS on same machine # Tree view of Categories and Folders # General Discussion Web Part # Personalization of Dashboards # Role Customization # Email to say WHY a document has been rejected for Approval # More ways to customize the interface # Backup and restore an individual Workspaces # Filter for Visio # Better way to track activity [...]

How is SharePoint Portal Server different from the Site Server?

Posted:

Site Server has search capabilities but these are more advanced using SharePoint. SPS uses digital dashboard technology which provides a nice interface for creating web parts and showing them on dashboards (pages). SS doesn’t have anything as advanced as that. The biggest difference would be SPS document management features which also integrate with web folders [...]

Does SharePoint work with NFS?

Posted:

Yes and no. It can crawl documents on an NFS volume, but the sharepoint database or logs cannot be stored there.

In a development environment, you must reset IIS every time you recompile assemblies.

Posted:

Licensing issues may arise due to the global availability of your assembly.

Create a custom policy file for your assemblies. For more information, see “How do I create a custom policy file?” Recommended approach.

Posted:

This option is most secure. An assembly can operate with a unique policy that meets the minimum permission requirements for the assembly. By creating a custom security policy, you can ensure the destination server can run your Web Parts. Requires the most configuration of all three options. Install your assemblies in the GAC Easy to implement. This grants Full trust to [...]

How can I raise the trust level for assemblies installed in the BIN directory?

Posted:

Windows SharePoint Services can use any of the following three options from ASP.NET and the CLR to provide assemblies installed in the BIN directory with sufficient permissions. The following table outlines the implications and requirements for each option. Option Pros Cons Increase the trust level for the entire virtual server. For more information, see “Setting the [...]

What does partial trust mean the Web Part developer?

Posted:

If an assembly is installed into the BIN directory, the code must be ensured that provides error handling in the event that required permissions are not available. Otherwise, unhandled security exceptions may cause the Web Part to fail and may affect page rendering on the page where the Web Part appears.

Will SharePoint Portal Server and Team Services ever merge?

Posted:

The products will come together because they are both developed by the Office team.

RARE QUESTIONS

2008-11-18T21:10:00.000-08:00

Reverse a linked list.

Posted:

The answer is that you need to store all possible configurations of the board and the move that is associated with that. Then it boils down to just accessing the right element and getting the corresponding move for it. Do some analysis and do some more optimization in storage since otherwise it becomes infeasible to [...]

Give a very good method to count the number of ones in a “n” (e.g. 32) bit number.

Posted:

Given below are simple solutions, find a solution that does it in log (n) steps. Iterative function iterativecount (unsigned int n) begin int count=0; while (n) begin count += n & 0×1 ; n >>= 1; end return count; end Sparse Count function sparsecount (unsigned int n) begin int count=0; while (n) begin count++; n [...]

Given only putchar (no sprintf, itoa, etc.) write a routine putlong that prints out an unsigned long in decimal.

Posted:

I gave the obvious solution of taking % 10 and / 10, which gives us the decimal value in reverse order. This requires an array since we need to print it out in the correct order. The interviewer was not too pleased and asked me to give a solution which did not need the array

Consider a number 235, where last digit is the sum of first two digits i.e. 2 + 3 = 5. How many such 3-digit numbers are there?

Posted:

There are 45 different 3-digit numbers. The last digit can not be 0. If the last digit is 1, the only possible number is 101. (Note that 011 is not a 3-digit number) If the last digit is 2, the possible numbers are 202 and 112. If the last digit is 3, the possible numbers are 303, [...]

How long would it take you to count 1 billion orally if you could count 200 every minute and were given a day off every four years?

Posted:

Assume that you start counting on 1 January 2001. 9 Years, 187 Days, 5 Hours, 20 minutes As you can count 200 per minute, to count 1 billion you require = 1,000,000,000/200 minutes = 5,000,000 minutes gy majors, & 62% are business majors. If there are 200 students, how many of them are majoring in both [...]

At University of Probability, there are 375 freshmen, 293 sophomores, 187 juniors, & 126 seniors. One student will randomly be chosen to receive an award. What percent chance is there that it will be a junior? Round to the nearest whole percent

Posted:

Divide the number of juniors (187) by the total number of student (981), & then multiply the number by 100 to convertto a percentage. Hence the answer is (187/981)*100 = 19%

Jack and Jill are playing cards for a stake of $1 a game. At the end of the evening, Jack has won 3 games and Jill has won $3. How many games did they play?

Posted:

They played total of 9 games. Jack won 3 games and Jill won6 games. If Jack has won three games and Jill has won $3, she lost adollar for each loss, therefore she has won 6 and lost 3 to make $3 and he won the other 3 that she lost

A man got 30 aples in 1 Rs.Now he want 20% of profit on it. How many apples He should Sell in 1 Rs.??

Posted:

24.(logical xpln) assume 100 rs & 30 apples.i.e 3.33/ apple. for 20 % profit i.e 20 rs, each apple 2 b sold at 4 rs. but he has to sell it in rs 100 therefore no of apples shud b reduced. to earn 20 rs =3.33*(6) approx.therefore 6 less apples thus 24 apples

A circle of a playground is to be fenced at circumference.The cost of the fencing is Rs.150 per sqm. what is the total cost , if the diameter is 70?

Posted:

Rate should be Rs 150 per meter (not sqm). (Rs 150 / m) * circumference = (Rs 150 / m) * pi * diameter = (Rs 150 / m) * (22/7) * 70 m = Rs 150 * 22 * 10 = Rs 33000

Posted:

Could you please explain me how you got 6 as your answer. I could do it in a minimum of 11 races. There has to be atleast 5 races to select 15 horses. The 15 horses then compete among themselves and best 9 horses are chosen. The 9 horses then run in groups of 5 [...]

Find out the smallest four digit number which is divisible from 1 to 10?

Posted:

1050. I multiplied all the prime numbers from 1 - 10 and then found its(210) smallest 4 digit multiple which is 1050

I can take a bca student instead of you then why should i hire you

Posted:

You can get a uneducated person for 1/4 to 1/10 of salary why don’t you hire him. Answer is quality, understanding, future value addition etc.

Two trains at speed 60 km/hr comes in the opposite direction. At a particular time the distance between the two trains is 18km. A shuttle flies between the trains at the speed of 80 km/hr. At the time the two trains crashes what is the distance traveled by shuttle?

Posted:

Here the realative speed is 60+60=120kms/hr…. The distance between them was 18kms when the shuttle begins to fly in between them….. To cover 18 kms with a relative velocity of 120 kms/hr the time would be 18/120,ie,=3/20 so shuttle can fly ((3/20)*80) kms before the two trains crashes,so the answer is 12 kms…

You’ve got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?

Posted:

Break the gold bar at 3 position then u will get 2(1,2),1(3),4(4,5,6,7) combination gold bar and break at middle in 4 segment (4,5,6,7)in middle so that there will be 2 segment combination(4,5)and (6,7) at 1st day the owner gives 1 the 2nd day he gives 2 and takes 1 and 3rd day he gives 1,4th [...]

You have 8 balls. One of them is defective and weighs less than others. You have a balance to measure balls against each other. In 2 weighings how do you find the defective one?

Posted:

Take 3 and 3 balls in each of balance and keep other 2 aside.If there is any defective ball in 3 balls either there will beunbalance.if so take those 3 balls aside which has no defective ball.

Given a rectangular (cuboidal for the puritans) cake with a rectangular piece removed (any size or orientation), how would you cut the remainder of the cake into two equal halves with one straight cut of a knife?

Posted:

Join the centers of the original and the removed rectangle. It works for cuboids too! BTW, I have been getting many questions asking why a horizontal slice across the middle will not do. Please note the “any size or orientation” in the question! Don’t get boxed in by the way you cut your birthday cake [...]

Can you tell who is the Doctor and the Engineer?

Posted:

Mr. Bajaj’s wife and mother are not blood relatives. So from 3, if the Engineer is a female, the Doctor is a male. But from 1, if the Doctor is a male, then the Engineer is a male. Thus, there is a contradiction, if the Engineer is a female. Hence, either Mr. Bajaj or his [...]

The question is how much distance did the last person cover in that time. Assuming that he ran the whole distance with uniform speed.

Posted:

The last person covered 120.71 meters. It is given that the platoon and the last person moved with uniform speed. Also, they both moved for the identical amount of time. Hence, the ratio of the distance they covered - while person moving forward and backword - are equal. Let’s assume that when the last person reached the [...]

Three friends divided some bullets equally. After all of them shot 4 bullets the total number of bullets remaining is equal to the bullets each had after division. Find the original number divided.

Posted:

Assume that initial there were 3*X bullets. So they got X bullets each after division. All of them shot 4 bullets. So now they have (X - 4) bullets each. But it is given that,after they shot 4 bullets each, total number of bullets remaining is equal to the bullets each had after division i.e. X Therefore, the equation [...]

You have to draw 3 concentric circles with a line passing thru their centerwithout lifting hand.

Posted:

Start the line complete one circle move inside circles along the line and then draw second circle. Like wise rest.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-11-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

How can MYSQL functions be available with PHP?

Posted:

MYSQL is not available as a default feature it must be created by the user. You can use –with-mysql=DIR function to make available SQL on your system. Compiling PHP functions with MYSQL will increase the support and functioning of the language. MYSQL should be installed where there are extensions of PHP.

Explain about the connective abilities of the PHP?

Posted:

A huge advantage for PHP is its connective ability. It uses huge number of extensions to interface with huge pool of libraries such as XML, graphics and encryption. Programmers can create their own extensions and compiling them. They can load their own programs by using the dynamic loading mechanism.

Explain about the advantages of using PHP?

Posted:

There are many advantages of PHP they are 1) Easy and fast creation of dynamic web pages and a developer can also embed these dynamic functions into HTML. 2) A huge community resource which has a ton of information before you. 3) Connectivity ability lets you to connect to different interfaces and predefined libraries. 4) Execution is very fast [...]

How to change the principal password?

Posted:

Principal password can be changed by using kadm5_chpass_principal command. If you also want to specify the new password for effecting a change to the principal password it should be as Bool kadm5_chpass_principal (resource $handle, string $principal, string password). This changes the password to password.

Explain about the casts allowed in PHP?

Posted:

Type casting acts and functions similarly as it performs in C. The casts allowed are Integer, Boolean, float and double, string, binary, array and object. Casting and support was added in PHP 5.2.1. A variable can be enclosed in double quotes instead of casting it to a string.

Explain about Type juggling?

Posted:

PHP uses Type juggling similar to the way Perl uses. Variable is defined in the context in which it is used. It doesn’t require any explicit definition for a function to perform its duties. For example if a string value is assigned to a variable it is defined as string.

Explain about Booleans in PHP?

Posted:

A Boolean type states a truth value whether it is true or false. These statements are case insensitive. An operator returns a Boolean value and this value is passed onto the control structure which executes the statement. If an argument is required it is automatically converted.

Explain about PHP looping?

Posted:

Looping statements are used in PHP to execute the code for a developer defined number of times. PHP has these following looping statements they are while, do while, for and for each. Foreach is used to loop a block of code in each element in an array.

Explain about mixed and callback functions?

Posted:

Mixed function indicates that the function may contain multiple types but it doesn’t form a necessary condition. Functions like call_user_func() or usort() accept user defined functions as parameter. These functions are not only simple but also object methods which includes static methods.

Explain about null?

Posted:

Null represents a variable with no value inside. There doesn’t exist any value for type Null. Null is defined to be null if and only if it is assigned a constant null, there is no value set, it is set to be unset(). This is the case insensitive keyword. There are also two functions they [...]

Explain about resource?

Posted:

Resource holds reference to an external resource and it is a special variable. These are created and used by specially defined functions. Resource holds defined and special handlers for opening files. Converting to a resource makes no sense at all.

Explain about converting an object?

Posted:

When an object is converted into an object the stance of the object is not modified. A new instance of the class is created if a value of different type if converted into an object. Incase the value is null at the time of conversion the new instance will be empty.

Explain about array uintersect()?

Posted:

This function is very useful in PHP. This function compares array values in a user defined function and it returns the array. If assoc() is added to the function it compares array keys. This function can also be defined as array uintersect uassoc().

What are the different opening and closing tags available in PHP?

Posted:

There are four different types of tags available in PHP they are * PHP short tags * ASP style tags. Generally the first two tags are widely used because they are portable.

How to enable parsing?

Posted:

Parsing is an important concept if you want to run your code appropriately and timely. PHP parses all the code present between the opening and closing tags, it ignores everything present out of the closing and opening tags. This tags allow PHP to be embedded between many documents.

Explain about the installation of PHP on UNIX systems?

Posted:

PHP can be installed on UNIX in many different ways there are pre defined packages available which can ease the process. Initially it can be controlled by the command line options. Help can be obtained from./configure help command. After installing PHP modules or executables can be configures and make command should help you in the [...]

Explain about PHP?

Posted:

Personal home page language is used to create dynamic and interactive websites which are very efficient in delivering client needs from the server side. This language is widely used. It is used on various operating systems with Apache modules. This can be directly embedded into HTML code.

How do you register a portal?

Posted:

portal registry is a tree-like structure in which content references are organized, classified, and registered. It is stored in a set of tables within a PeopleSoft database made specifically for hosting portal registries. Portal registries contain folders and content references. Folders are similar to nodes on a tree and can be nested to create a [...]

Where do you set Peoplecode trace?

Posted:

Peoplcode trace can mean setting peoplecode trace for record peoplecode or for app engine(on execute). For getting the trace for peoplecode(record level), need to go to options and select various levels of trace by checking what level u wat( Stack, every instruction, list the program, etc) and select the destinationfile to which the generated trace needs [...]

what is PSCAMA(Peoplesoft Application messaging at…

Posted:

PSCAMA contains fields common to all messages. The tag repeats for each row in each level of the section of the message. The sender can set PSCAMA fields to provide basic information about the message. For example, to indicate the message language or the type of transaction a row represents. When receiving a message, your PeopleCode [...]

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-11-17T22:54:00.000-08:00

What Are the Special Characters You Need to Escape in Single-Quoted Stings?

Posted:

There are two special characters you need to escape in a single-quote string: the single quote (’) and the back slash (\). Here is a PHP script example of single-quoted strings: This script will print: Hello world!It’s Friday!\ represents an operator.

How To Run a PHP Script?

Posted:

A standard alone PHP script can be executed directly with the PHP Command Line Interface (CLI). Write the following script in a file called hello.php: This script can be executed by CLI interface like this: \php\php hello.php You should see the “Hello world!” message printed on your screen.

Where Are PHP Configuration Settings Stored?

Posted:

PHP stores configuration settings in a file called php.ini in PHP home directory. You can open it with any text editor to your settings.

How To Download and Install PHP for Windows?

Posted:

The best way to download and install PHP on Windows systems is to: ► Go to http://www.php.net, which is the official Web site for PHP. ► Download PHP binary version for Windows in ZIP format. ► Unzip the downloaded file into a directory. You are done. No need to run any install program.

How To Check Your PHP Installation?

Posted:

PHP provides two execution interfaces: Command Line Interface (CLI) and Common Gateway Interface (CGI). If PHP is installed in the \php directory on your system, you can try this to check your installation: * Run “\php\php -v” command to check the Command Line Interface (CLI). * Run “\php\php-cgi -v” command to check the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). If [...]

How To Download and Install PHP on Windows?

Posted:

PHP is one of the most popular languages to develop dynamic Web pages. It supports all major database servers, including: MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, mSQL, Sybase, etc. If you are developing a Web application that uses PHP and needs to access MS SQL Server, you should go download and install PHP to your local machine [...]

Do you have any questions for me?

Posted:

Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.

Posted:

Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.

What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

Posted:

Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.

Describe your work ethic.

Posted:

Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.

What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?

Posted:

Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.

Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.

Posted:

Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.

What qualities do you look for in a boss?

Posted:

Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.

How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?

Posted:

First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.

Do you think you are overqualified for this position?

Posted:

Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position.

If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?

Posted:

Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.

Do you have any blind spots?

Posted:

Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.

What have you learned from mistakes on the job?

Posted:

Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.

Describe your management style.

Posted:

Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.

Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?

Posted:

This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.

LATEST TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-11-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

Write about the following instruction :

Posted:

Offset of the first instruction of procedure is in two memory addresses in DS. It replaces the contents of IP with contents of word memory locations in DS pointed to by BX.

Write about EVEN directive in 8086 ALP.

Posted:

It forces the address of the next byte to be even. 8086 words can be accessed in less time if they begin at even address.

While handling the interrupt instructions in 8086, What are the internal operations may be carried out by the stack?

Posted:

(i)SP =SP-2 , stack ß Push flag reg. Contents, IF =0 , TF =0 (ii) SP=SP-2, Stackß CS Reg. Contents, Address of Interrupt pointer = Interrupt type * 4 , CS Register Contents ß Second word of Interrupt pointer (iii) SP=SP-2, Stackß IP, IPß First word of Interrupt pointer

Define LAHF and SAHF instructions in 8086.

Posted:

LAHF : Load the 8085 equivalent flags into the AH register. SAHF: Store the AH register into the low order byte of the flag register.

What is the use of TEST instruction in 8086?

Posted:

Test instruction is the same as the AND instruction except that ite does not put the result anywhere. Like the CMP instruction , it is used only to set the flags.

What is Emulator?

Posted:

Emulator is a mixture of hardware and software .It is used to test and debug the hardware and software of an external system such as the prototype of a microprocessor based instrument.

Define EXTRN directive in in 8086 assembly language?

Posted:

The EXTRN directive is used to inform the assembler that the names or labels following the directive are in some other assembly module.

Write the use of Assume directive in 8086 assembly language using one example?

Posted:

Assume CS: code_here, DS:data_here It tells the assembler that the logical segment code_here contains the instruction statements for the program and should be treated as a code segment. It also tells the assembler that it should treat the logical segment data_here as the data segment for this program.

Define EQU directive in 8086 assembly language?

Posted:

It is used to assign a name to constants used in the programs. Consider the statement ‘corr EQU 07H’ , this would tell the assembler to insert the value 07H everytime that it finds the name corr in the program statement.

How the execution time of an instruction is calculated?

Posted:

Execution time of an instruction can be determined by multiplying the number of clock pulses needed to execute the instruction by the clock period.

Write the use of Z bit in opcode?

Posted:

It is used by REP instruction. Z bit helps to control the loop. It will be repeated the number of items indicated by the CX register or until Z bit dose not match the Zero flag whichever occurs first.

What is the use of V bit in opcode ?

Posted:

It is used by shift and rotate instructions to determine the number of shifts. V bit is set to 0 if the shift count is to be 1. V bit is set to 1 if the CL register contains the shift count.

What is the use of D bit in opcode?

Posted:

D bit: It is used in double operand instruction. It is used to indicate whether the register specified by REG is the source operand (D=0) or the destination operand (D=1).

Write about the following instruction : LES CX, [3483H]

Posted:

Copy the contents of memory at the displacement of 3483H in DS to CL, contents of 3484H in DS to CH, and copy the contents of memory at displacement of 3485H and 3486H in DS to ES Register.

Write the difference between CBW and CWD instruction in 8086.

Posted:

CBW : Convert a byte to a word, sign extend AL Register into a AH Register. CWD : Convert a word to a double word ,sign extend the AX Register into the DX Register

Define Segment Override Prefix.

Posted:

Segment Override Prefix : To permit exceptions to the Segment Register usage, a special one byte instruction called a segment override prefix is available . It is of the form :

What is Unpacked BCD Format ?

Posted:

Unpacked BCD Format : In Unpacked BCD, there is only one digit per byte and because of this,unpacked multiplication and division can be done. Binary operations act on signle bytes and the results are adjusted. For Division , the adjustment is done before the binary division.

What is AAS instruction in 8086 ?

Posted:

Adjust Result of ASCII Subtraction This instruction adjust the binary result of SUB or SBB instruction.

What is the use of Directives in 8086 ?

Posted:

Directives in 8086 give directions to the assembler during the assembly process but are not translated into machine instruction.

What is Programmed I/O ?

Posted:

Programmed I/O : It consists of continually examining the status of an Interface and performing an I/O operation with the Interface when its status indicates that it has data to be input or its data- out buffer register is ready to receive data from the CPU. .

TACKLING CAMPUS INTERVIEWS

2008-11-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

Tackling Campus Interviews

As a large chunk of students are already placed in various leading IT and allied industries, its almost dusk over the placements for the 2008 passouts, its dawn for the 2009 (passouts) placement season. Let me give you a brief write up of how to tackle campus interviews from the little experience I had during this fruitful season.

Let us start with the procedure of how various companies have their recruitment procedure -

The first step is the Aptitude Test – This includes all kinds of elementary maths and simple logical reasoning. The next phase which is generally augmented with the test is the Technical Test. Software companies (and even purely Electronics based companies like L & T) have a C test. Its mostly of the kind “what would be the output of..” or “ find the error”. Wipro Technologies had a paper which contained a few general things also (questions generally found in technical quiz e.g expand MIME). There is a considerable amount of screening in the first phase.

The short listed candidates are let through either Group Discussion followed by Interview sessions or directly the Interviews. ( Most companies have GDs - exceptions include Wipro Technologies, CTS, Elxsi etc.) The Interview is again of two kinds. First, the Technical Interview wherein our technical abilty is tested and in the second stage, known as the Personal Interview or more generally the HR interview, is mostly a stress interview. Things in your resume are validated in this round and the amount of confidence and communication ability is taken into concern. Once you clear this – “You are Placed” .

Now that the procedure of placement is clear, Lets optimise our preperation so that we really donot need to struggle through the various phases.

Basic Ground Work to be done includes – having a general idea about various companies & the kind of work they do. I wouldn’t always suggest that we should choose our First Job, all that it matters is a relevant job for our BTech. But in a situation that you are looking at your second (alternate) job, I would say, be very choosy.

Getting equipped for Aptitude and Technical Rounds - If I begin listing the names of books required for the aptitude, that would be very long. Generally its basic maths (maths upto X class level) that is tested and being an engineering student, it shouldnt be a problem for us. But speed is all that matters. Most companies have a high cut off for their test and also take into regard the negative marks. So be careful. The only way of improving speed is by practice. I had prepared my aptitude from IMS books for CAT, that was much more than enough. The other favorite books include Shakuntala Devi, RS Agarwal etc. With improved aptitude , the next look out matter is English. It is an uphill task for normal guys to crack this section, but yet again paractice will help. GRE English by Barrons is the most preferred book.

There is also a certain style that each company follows, they do not easily drift from that. Solving previous papers of the compnies (availble in plenty in net – chetanajobs. com, freshersworld. com etc ) is a very good thing to do. Even in the english section, it is not easy to memorize the 5000 odd words in Barrons, this is where old papers help. (This is to be done at the begining of the placement season, doing it way ahead might not be useful).

The next section is C, Yashwant Kanitkar’s Let us C is a good book to learn from the ground level. It is to be understood that the C we learn in our academics is absolutely not sufficient. Structures, Pointers and File operations are important. For the “debugging and output” section, Exploring C by Yashwant Kanitkar is the best book. Most companies have their C part from this book.

Beginning with the preperation for Interviews - We basically need to tell them which subjects are we strong in. Please give only relevant subjects. For a computer student OS, Data Structures, DBMS and Software Engineering are the most expected ones. When you say it is your favorite subject, they expect us to be proficient enough in these subjects. So study these papers conceptually with a “practical orientation – real life situations “ in mind. Although we dont mention these subjects, questions will be asked from them. Mini Project is the next important thing in this round. We are expected to make them understand what our project is in 4-5 sentences. The next obvious question is “what is your role in this project” or “explain your project according to s/w life cycle”. So be prepared. A good project certainly leaves a good impression in the interviers mind- so choose good projects ( with good application and industrial flavour ).

Finally we have the HR interview - Stress questions are asked and we are made to commit mistakes. All it matters is how confident and cool we are. General questions include “describe yourself” , “ hobbies / interests” , “strenghts / weaknesses” , ‘ what do you know about our company / why do you want to join us”, “short term / long term plans”, “do you have any questions to ask us”. Prepare good answers for all these questions and make sure that your answers are brief enough and well structured. Keep in mind that they are ultimately testing your communication skills and attitude through these questions.

Academics – 75 % + with no back logs will qualfy you for almost every test everywhere. Remember good academics is an added advantage.

Resume- your resume reflects your personality. So try being unique while preparin your resume. Also please mention thing which are very much true. If you mention that you like reading, most probably the immediate questions are – which is the last book you have read/ what is the story/ who is the hero in that, there is every chance that the person sitting over there has also read that book – so no bluffing.

Dress Code – Be neatly dressed preferably in uniform. Full hands shirt gives a better look. It is good if we have a new pair of uniform for these interview(s) to be attended. Be Clean and Tidy- no long nails ,hair well combed and a fresh look on your face.

Make it a point to browse the company web site and learn a few things about it. It can be used to answer a few questions in the HR round also it implicates that we are serious about that company and have put some amount of ground work for this interview.

Keep your mind cool and stay calm. Do not hurry with your answers and decisions. Keep a positive attitude. Being different or eccentric will never help you. Think as both a team leader and a team player. All that it matters is how we present ourselves – so make sure that you are at your best. Take suggestions from seniors and others in the industry, it helps a lot. Having GDs, simulating Interviews, taking mock tests etc are the other improvisation techniques to be adopted.

There is a very important factor that also plays a considerable role – FATE although its next only to hardwork and determination.

ALL THE BEST !!

GOD BLESS YOU.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-11-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Write a C function to print the link list in reverse order

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A: void Display_List_Reverse(struct node* current) { if (current==NULL) return ; Display_List_Reverse(current->next); printf(”

Implement a breadth first traversal of a binary tree

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The breadth first traversal of a binary tree can be accomplished by making use of a queue to store the elements from the tree that need to be printed next. Assuming a node in the binary tree is defined as follows: struct Node { int value; Node* left; Node* right; }; Here is an [...]

Given an N x M two dimensional array of integers where all rows and columns are sorted in ascending order, write a function that can determine if a certain value exists in the array.

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A: The obvious brute force solution would involve checking each item in the array to see if matches the desired value. This does not take advantage of the fact that the rows and columns in the array are sorted. The trick is to find a way to eliminate rows and columns from the array and [...]

What is the effective way of Device Independent Bitmap files management?

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A: Memory-mapped file is the best choice for device-independent bitmaps. MMF allows to map the file to RAM/SWAP addresses and to let Windows handle all load/unload operations for the file.

Set the highest significant bit of an unsigned integer to zero.

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(from Denis Zabavchik) Set the highest significant bit of an unsigned integer to zero #define zero_most_significant(h) (h&=(h>>1)|(h>>2), h|=(h>>2), h|=(h>>4), h|=(h>>8), h|=(h>>16))

How do we test most simply if an unsigned integer is a power of two?

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A: #define power_of_two(x) ((x)&&(~(x&(x-1))))

Compute the discrete log of an unsigned integer.

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A: #define discrete_log(h) (h=(h>>1)|(h>>2), h|=(h>>2), h|=(h>>4), h|=(h>>8), h|=(h>>16), h=(0xaaaaaaaa&h)>>1+(0×55555555&h), h=(0xcccccccc&h)>>2+(0×33333333&h), h=(0xf0f0f0f0&h)>>4+(0×0f0f0f0f&h), h=(0xff00ff00&h)>>8+(0×00ff00ff&h), h=(h>>16)+(0×0000ffff&h)) If I understand it right, log2(2) =1, log2(3)=1, log2(4)=2….. But this macro does not work out log2(0) which does not exist! How do you think it should be handled?

Compute the number of ones in an unsigned integer.

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A: #define count_ones(x) (x=(0xaaaaaaaa&x)>>1+(0×55555555&x), x=(0xcccccccc&x)>>2+(0×33333333&x), x=(0xf0f0f0f0&x)>>4+(0×0f0f0f0f&x), x=(0xff00ff00&x)>>8+(0×00ff00ff&x), x=x>>16+(0×0000ffff&x))

Reverse the bits of an unsigned integer.

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Reverse a singly linked list recursively. The function prototype is node * reverse (node *) ;

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node * reverse (node * n) { node * m ; if (! (n && n -> next)) return n ; m = reverse (n -> next) ; n -> next -> next = n ; n -> next = NULL ; return m ; }

Given a singly linked list, print out its contents in reverse order. Can you do it without using any extra space?

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Start reversing the list. Do this again, printing the contents. tags: microsoft sw programming

Write an efficient C code for tr program. tr has two command line arguments. They both are strings of same length. tr reads an input file, replaces each character in the first string with the corresponding character in the second string. eg. tr abc xyz replaces all a by x, b by y and so on.

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A: a) have an array of length 26. put x in array element corr to a put y in array element corr to b put z in array element corr to c put d in array element corr to d put e in array element corr to e and so on. the code while (!eof) [...]

Given a linked list with the following property node2 is left child of node1, if node2 <>

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O P | | O A | | O B | | O C How do you convert the above linked list to the form without disturbing the property. Write C code for that. O P | | O B / / / O ? O ? determine where do A and C go

Make the pointer aligned to a 4 byte boundary in a efficient manner

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Assign the pointer to a long number and the number with 11…1100 add 4 to the number

Write a program to remove duplicates from a sorted array.

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int remove_duplicates(int * p, int size) { int current, insert = 1; for (current=1; current <>

An array of pointers to (very long) strings. Find pointers to the (lexicographically) smallest and largest strings.

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Scan array in pairs. Remember largest-so-far and smallest-so-far. Compare the larger of the two strings in the current pair with largest-so-far to update it. And the smaller of the current pair with the smallest-so-far to update it. For a total of

An array of integers. The sum of the array is known not to overflow an integer. Compute the sum. What if we know that integers are in 2s complement form?

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If numbers are in 2s complement, an ordinary looking loop like for(i=total=0;i<>

Given an array of length N containing integers between 1 and N, determine if it contains any duplicates.

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[Is there an O(n) time solution that uses only O(1) extra space and does not destroy the original array?]

Given an array of integers, find the contiguous sub-array with the largest sum.

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Can be done in O(n) time and O(1) extra space. Scan array from 1 to n. Remember the best sub-array seen so far and the best sub-array ending in i

Besides communication cost, what is the other source of inefficiency in RPC? How can you optimize the communication?

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Context switches, excessive buffer copying. Optimize by communicating through shared memory on same machine, bypassing the kernel.

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

2008-11-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

What is Document Type Definition?

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Document Type Definition is also called as DTD in short. This defines the document structure and standards to be followed in an HTML document.

What is index document?

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Most of the we host we have require index.htm / document because it is a standard for the host-server to look for the document and deploy it. It is the default document to be displayed in the web, in this way. Website is standardize upon their deployment.

What are HTML elements?

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HTML documents are text files made up of HTML elements and HTML elements are defined using html tags. This is my first homepage. This text is bold The HTML element starts with a start tag, then the content of the HTML element This is my first homepage & lastly HTML element ends with an end tag: [...]

What are web standards?

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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), along with other groups and standards bodies, has established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. These technologies are called as ‘web standards’. They are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on [...]

How many parts are present in HTML documents?

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A basic html document consists of You can include no.of functions,tags inside body or head element.

How is color of background or text changed in HTML?

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This is a paragraph.

What is the option for making a new paragraph in HTML?

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Paragraphs are defined with the tag. HTML automatically adds an extra blank line before and after a paragraph. This is a paragraph This is another paragraph

What is HTML validation?

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It means checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML Markup Validity: However, Just as texts in a natural language can include spelling or grammar errors, documents using Markup languages may (for various reasons) not be following these rules. The process of verifying whether a document actually follows the rules for the language(s) it uses is [...]

How is headings and text size made larger or small…

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1. You can use FONT tag in that particular place. 2. You can apply CSS Class. In that CSS file you will use FONT tag. For example, 1. 2. Inside the CSS class you can use the following. .txtnorm { font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; font-weight:bold; color:#000000; } According to your requirement you can change the color and size of the [...]

What is contained in HTML markup?

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It consists of : 1. Character-based data types 2. Several key components, including elements (and their attributes) 3. Character references and entity references. 4. Also the document type declaration.

What is SPAN in HTML?

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The SPAN having notation as is used for highlighting text of any color desired, for adding colored text, for adding background image to text. SPAN doesn’t cause a line break. It delimits text and it allows styles to be applied to a ‘elemental’ region, or for the ‘elemental’ region to be identified, without causing a [...]

What is Empty Elements in HTML?

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Empty Elements in HTML depicts that there is no text contained and EMPTY attributes are not permitted to have an end-tag. They are used simply as markers.

What are the reasons for validating a HTML?

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To ensure one shared HTML coding standard in the World Wide Web To ensure smooth spiderability of the HTML page To ensure better positioning of the HTML in Search Engine

What is BODY in HTML document?

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The effects which we want in the window are mentioned with the help of tags in the body. It is the place where the actual data is given in html. All the changes can be viewed by changing the tagscontent in the body whereas the head part is the introduction part and the body [...]

How is picture displayed in background in a HTML?

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You have to use following code in your HTML web page

What is Semantic HTML?

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Semantic HTML means using HTML tags for their implied meaning, rather than just using (meaningless) div and span tags for absolutely everything. Why would you want to do this? Depending on the tag, the content in the tag can be interpreted in a certain way.

What is DIV in HTML?

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DIV IS SAME AS SPAN BUT IT HAS AN ADDITIONAL PROPERTY OF ALIGN IN IT WITH THE HELP OF WHICH WE CAN ALIGN THE TEXT WITHIN IT,FURTHER IF WE WANT TO PLACE OUR CODE ANYWHERE IN OUR PAGE WE USE DIV TAG AND OUR CODE WITHIN IT.

What is the format of document structure in HTML?

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Following is the required details for you: My first HTML document Hello world!

What is HEAD in HTML document?

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The head of an HTML document is an unordered collection of information about the document. The HEAD contains general information, or meta-information, about the document. The head appears first in a document above the BODY.

What is the history of HTML?

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The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple markup language used to create hypertext documents that are portable from one platform to another. HTML documents are Standard Generalised Markup Language(SGML) documents with generic semantics that are appropriate for representing information from a wide range of applications. Versions HTML2.0 HTML 2.0 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force [...]

IMPROVE YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE

2008-11-11T03:58:00.000-08:00

Some people have naturally high levels of confidence but everybody can learn to be more confident. Firstly, it's important to get a clear idea of what self confidence really means, otherwise you won't know when you've got it! So, self confidence means:

1. Being calm: For every situation in life you need to run on the appropriate level of emotion. Too much emotional 'leakage' into a experience can spoil the experience. You make great strides towards confidence when you begin to relax in a greater range of situations.

2. Being cool: The second part of self confidence is about being able to relax with uncertainty. To be 'cool' in a situation really means relaxing with not knowing how things will pan out. If you truly tolerate uncertainty, you can do pretty much anything.

3. Not being too concerned with what others think of you. You know when you imagine what some place is going to be like before you go there but when you get there it is totally different to your imagination? That's how reliable your imagination is! Stop trusting your imagination so much. I've long since stopped bothering to imagine what others think of me because so often I've turned out to be wrong.

4. Being specific - where do you want confidence? 'Confidence' is meaningless until you tie it to something specific. You are already confident that you can read these words or can switch a light on and off. So you don't need more confidence everywhere. To get what you want in life you have to establish exactly what you do want. Where do you want confidence in your life? Think about the specific situations now and write them down. You are beginning to steer your brain towards confidence.

5. Understanding that what you expect is what you get. Your brain is an organ that needs clear goals to work towards. When a task has been set in your brain it will do everything it can do to bring about the completion of that task. If you've tried to recall someone's name but can't, hours later you'll often find their name pops into your head. The 'trying to recall' experience set the task or blueprint for your brain's future subconscious behaviour which eventually produced the name for you - when you weren't thinking about it consciously. You can use this natural mechanism to start feeling more confident. But, to ensure you set the right task for your subconscious mind, the next point is vital.

6. Don't task your mind with negatives. Instead of: 'I don't want to screw up' (which sets the task of 'screwing up' for your brain), set the blueprint for what you do want! Your brain doesn't work towards what to do by being told what not to do. And nature has given you a wonderful natural tool to set the right task blueprints with.

7. Use nature's goal-setter: Now you understand how vital it is to set the right task for you brain, you need to know how to do this reliably. Good hypnosis will strongly 'program' the right blueprint in your mind through the use of your imagination. If you powerfully imagine feeling confident and relaxed while in a relaxed hypnotic state it will be hard for your unconscious mind to do anything else. The blueprint for relaxation has been set firmly into your subconscious mind.

3 simple strategies to get you feeling confident quickly:

1. Think specifically of the time/place/situatio n you want to feel confident in. Remember 'confidence' doesn't mean anything until you attach it to something specific.

2. Focus on words in your mind right now that describe how you do want to be in that time and place. Maybe words such as ‘calm’ 'relaxed' or 'focused'. Remember your brain works on clear positive instructions.

3. Close your eyes for as long as you like and think about how those words feel. Then, imagine the situation itself and rehearse it in your mind feeling confident and relaxed. This way you set the right blueprint or 'task' for your unconscious mind. You can repeat this often to make it more effective and use it with as many areas of your life as you need to. If you listen to a hypnotic cd or download that can make the benefits even more powerful. So if you feel like you'd be blessed with less confidence than some other people you can start redressing the balance by using your mind in the right way right now.

Be a confident person..!!

KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL JOB INTERVIEWING

2008-11-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

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Do take a practice run to the location where you are having the interview -or be sure you know exactly where it is and how long it takes to get there.
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Do your research and know the type of job interview you will be encountering. (See types of job interviews.) And do prepare and practice for the interview, but don't memorize or over-rehearse your answers. (See our some of the best collections of interview questions.)

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Do dress the part for the job, the company, the industry. And do err on the side of conservatism. If you're not sure, you should consider reading our article, when Job-Hunting: Dress for Success.
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Do plan to arrive about 10 minutes early. Late arrival for a job interview is never excusable. If you are running late, do phone the company.
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Do greet the receptionist or assistant with courtesy and respect. This is where you make your first impression.
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If presented with a job application, do fill it out neatly, completely, and accurately.
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Do bring extra resumes to the interview. (Even better, if you have a job skills portfolio, do bring that with you to the interview.)
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Do greet the interviewer(s) by title (Ms., Mr., and Dr.) and last name if you are sure of the pronunciation. (If you're not sure, do ask the receptionist about the pronunciation before going into the interview.
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Do shake hands firmly. Don't have a limp or clammy handshake!
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Do avoid controversial topics.
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Do make good eye contact with your interviewer(s).
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Do show enthusiasm in the position and the company.
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Do avoid using poor language, slang, and pause words (such as "like," "uh," and "um").
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Do stress your achievements. And don't offer any negative information about yourself.
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Do have a high confidence and energy level, but don't be overly aggressive.
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Do remember that the interview is also an important time for you to evaluate the interviewer and the company she represents.
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Do show off the research you have done on the company and industry when responding to questions. (See our Guide to Researching Companies.)
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Do show what you can do for the company rather than what the company can do for you.
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Do ask intelligent questions about the job, company, or industry. Don't ever not ask any questions -- it shows a lack of interest.
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Do close the interview by telling the interviewer(s) that you want the job and asking about the next step in the process. (Some experts even say you should close the interview by asking for the job.

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Do try and get business cards from each person you interviewed with -- or at least the correct spelling of their first and last names and don't make assumptions about simple names -- was it Jon or John -- get the spelling.
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Do immediately take down notes after the interview concludes so you don't forget crucial details.
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Do always conduct yourself as if you are determined to get the job you are discussing. Never close the door on an opportunity until you are sure about it.
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Do write thank you letters within 24 hours to each person who interviewed you. (You can see some sample thank-you letters here)
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Do make sure that your good points come across to the interviewer in a factual, sincere manner.
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Do wait until you are offered a chair before sitting. And do remember body language and posture: sit upright and look alert and interested at all times. Don't fidget or slouch.
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Don't tell jokes during the interview.
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Don't use chew gum during the interview.
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Don't rely on your application or resume doing the selling for you. No matter how qualified you are for the position, you will need to sell yourself to the interviewer.
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Don't smoke, even if the interviewer does and offers you a cigarette. And don't smoke beforehand so that you smell like smoke. And do brush your teeth, use mouthwash, or have a breath mint before the interview.
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Don't be soft-spoken. A forceful voice projects confidence.
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Don't act as though you would take any job or are desperate for employment.

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Don't say anything negative about former colleagues, supervisors, or employers.
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Don't ever lie. Answer questions truthfully, frankly and succinctly. And don't over-answer questions.
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Don't answer questions with a simple "yes" or "no." Explain whenever possible. Describe those things about yourself that showcase your talents, skills, and determination. Give examples.
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Don't bring up or discuss personal issues or family problems.
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Don't respond to an unexpected question with an extended pause or by saying something like, "boy, that's a good question." And do repeat the question out loud or ask for the question to be repeated to give you a little more time to think about an answer. Also, a short pause before responding is okay.
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Don't answer cell phone calls during the interview, and do turn off (or set to silent ring) your cell phone and/or pager.
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Don't inquire about salary, vacations, bonuses, retirement, or other benefits until after you've received an offer. Be prepared for a question about your salary requirements, but do try and delay salary talk until you have an offer. (You might consider visiting our salary tutorial for more tips and strategies.)

FACING AN INTERVIEW IS AN ART

2008-11-11T01:27:00.000-08:00

Reveal your analytical attitude to thrive

Facing an interview is more of a talent than knowledge and it can be easily acquired. While your knowledge, academics and other qualifications play a major role in the hiring assessment, the appointment is still very much based on the judgment of the interviewer.

Personality

The interviewer decides whether to appoint you or not on the basis of your credentials and whether your personality will be healthy for their organisation or not. Often, interviewers go with their gut feeling on who will get the job.

So, try to speak what the interviewer is looking for. Go ahead and analyse the situation yourself before you go for the interview.

Analysing the situation

During an interview, a highly nasty discussion can crop up regarding your previous job. Questions such as these can crop up: Why are you leaving your present job? How do you evaluate your present organisation? What do you think is an ideal working environment?

Do not let panic grip you when faced with unavoidable obvious questions like: Why are you changing your job. Such questions are easy to answer only if you are easily able to twist the answer with a group reason, like, my department was consolidated or my department was being liquidated etc.

This will save you from the direct limelight of the issue. Be sure you don't make stories, act smart and prepare such answers in advance. Knowing the answer will make you comfortable during the interview.

Positive Attitude

Have a positive attitude towards your present job. Do not look annoyed while describing your previous organisation because the recruiter may just be checking your attitude.

When asked to describe the best working condition according to you, it is only to know if you will be the fit for their organization. Don't say people should be helpful, understanding and reliable. Talk from the point of view of the organisation.

You can say that you would be happy to work in a place where people are treated as fairly as possible, just to tell the recruiter that you can deal with tough situations

Good Convincing Ability

Interviewers need to be won over. They need to be convinced that you will be able to fix their troubles and help their company achieve its goals. One of the finest ways to answer interview questions is to use your career success stories.

Career success stories are an account of the crucial instant in your career when you conquered important challenges to succeed. These stories will create unforgettable impression of you.

Connecting Past Success with Future

If you are interviewing for a totally new field, make connection between your exceptional abilities and associated situations in the new field through the success you have achieved in the past.

MAKE A BIG IMPRESSION AT YOUR INTERVIEW !!

2008-11-11T01:21:00.000-08:00

Interviews are a nerve-wracking experience for most. Being quizzed about one's capabilities in a new environment by someone you don't know can make even the most confident candidate get a little weak in the knees.

Apart from what you say, what makes a big impression on most interviewers is the way you say it, or the way you carry yourself -- whether you can overcome your nerves enough to project a confident, personable individual.

Tackling just these issues is the Body Language book by Carolyn Boyes, part of the need to know? series published by HarperCollins. Here's an excerpt:

An interview is, in effect, a sales meeting in which you are selling the product -- 'you' -- to a purchaser -- 'the interviewer'. Creating the right kind of chemistry with the interviewer through body language could clinch the interview for you.

In an interview, the recruiter will generally see more than one candidate with similar qualifications, knowledge and skills. 'Chemistry' or 'fit' between the interviewee and interviewer can be the winning factor. You can learn to create chemistry by being aware of your body language.

Making your entrance

As soon as you are seen walking through the door, you are making an impression, so make sure it is the right one. Slowing down or dipping your head as you enter will look anxious and tentative. Rushing in can also seem nervous. Keeping an erect posture with your head held high in contrast looks confident.
Pause at the door, smile at the interviewer and walk through decisively. You are aiming to appear personable and warm, as well as business-like.
Transfer any coat, briefcase or handbag into your left hand to leave your right hand free ready to shake hands confidently with the interviewer.

Handshakes

Be aware of your handshake. Avoid bonecrusher or limp/dead-fish handshakes. If you have a tendency to sweat or have cold hands, make sure you have wiped your hands or warmed them up before you enter the room. Use a firm handshake. Hold out your hand horizontally so that your palm meets the other person's at the same angle.

Remember that a handshake can give you a lot of information about someone. Notice how the interviewer offers their hand. When they clasp it, do they turn your hand so that their palm is facing down, putting themselves in the dominant position? Do you both walk towards each other into each other's personal space equally or do they pull you towards them? Do they release your hand first and push it away? Are they relaxed or nervous? Is their hand warm, cold, dry or damp? Is their arm fully extended or relaxed? Do they touch you with their other hand?

Eye contact
Make eye contact with your interviewer(s) when listening. If there is more than one interviewer, make sure you make equal eye contact with both. Remember that too much eye contact can seem aggressive, so scan the upper triangle of the face (from the eyes to the forehead), rather than stare directly into the other person's eyes without interruption. Break your eye contact when you are thinking of an answer. It looks natural.

Sitting

Keep your posture confident and relaxed. A good trick is to take a deep breath when you sit down and lower your shoulders. It will make the interviewer response positively to you. Make sure you do not slump down in your chair or lean back away from the interviewer. It will look as if you are not interested. Instead, sit back into the chair so that you are well supported and, if you can, rest your elbows on the chair arms.

Personal space
Be aware of rules on personal space. Make sure your chair is positioned so that you can chat easily without invading the interviewer's territory. If you break the unwritten space rules, you could scupper your chances of success.

Open body language
Avoid leg and arm barriers and closed body language -- you will just look defensive or submissive. Keep your gestures open and relaxed.

If there is a desk between you and the interviewer, sit back slightly so you have room to move freely. If you want to emphasize a point, keep your palms open and towards the interviewer to look friendly.

At the same time, be aware of how relaxed or formal their interviewer is. Stay in tune with them and let them set the tone for the interview. If you relax too much and are far more laid-back than they are, you will appear either sloppy or overconfident. If, on the other hand, you are too formal, they will find it hard to relate to you.

Matching

Get into rapport with the interviewer as quickly as possible. If you are not mimicking each other's body positions naturally, do it consciously. Match the angle of their back and position in the chair. Notice how they are breathing. If they talk quickly, they are probably breathing high in the chest. If they talk slowly, they are probably taking deep breaths. Get into their rhythm for a few minutes. After a while this will become automatic.

Watch while you speak
Be aware not only of your own body language but also the body language of the interviewer. Let their body language signals be your guide as to the level of their interest. Are they bored? Interested? Defensive? In agreement? Disagreement? When you make a point or give an answer, how do they respond? Notice if their body language suddenly changes. Interviewees frequently speak for too long, so be aware if the interviewer starts to nod more rapidly or tap their fingers. They may want to interrupt you.

Show interest
Vary your facial expressions to show enthusiasm and interest. When they speak, lean forwards, nod, or rest your forefinger to your chin to show your full attention. Lower your eyebrows, even frown slightly, to show concentration. Part your lips slightly. Also, make sure you avoid arm barriers when you are listening, as well as when you are speaking.
Vary your facial expressions to show enthusiasm and interest. When they speak, lean forwards, nod, or rest your forefinger to your chin to show your full attention. Lower your eyebrows, even frown slightly, to show concentration. Part your lips slightly. Also, make sure you avoid arm barriers when you are listening, as well as when you are speaking.

Be definite
Use your hands to emphasise points when you are speaking, but be careful not to use aggressive gestures such as making a fist or punching the air. Keep the conversation free of interruptions.

Leakage
Be aware of any possible leakage in your gestures when you are being interviewed. Prepare for the interview and rehearse answers to any difficult questions that you expect to be asked. This will allow you to feel relaxed during the interview, which will come across positively in your body language. Otherwise your body language could inadvertently make you appear deceitful or cause you to look as if you are avoiding an issue.

Saying goodbye
When you say goodbye, allow the interviewer to instigate a handshake. Return it with a firm handshake and then be aware that they will probably usher you from the room, as they are the dominant person in the situation. Finally, make sure you end the interview with a smile and eye contact.

INTERVIEWS:WHAT DO THEY LOOK FOR?

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Interview, according to Collins Concise English Dictionary, is a formal discussion, especially one in which an employer assesses a job applicant. 'A formal consultation usually to evaluate qualifications (as of a prospective student or employee)', defines Webster's Dictionary. It can be meeting with a candidate to ascertain, by questioning and discussion, letters suitability for a post.

The art of interviewing forms the very basis of the utmost input requirement, in the form of humans, of organisations. The process constitutes an important part of the recruitment procedure.

The interview Board, in the allotted time, has to bring out the best and the worst in the candidates and then arrive at conclusions, most subjectively, on a common-sense basis, since assessing a candidate on each and every attribute infallibly is neither possible nor feasible for the interviewers; rather there are chances of faltering.

To find the ideal candidate for any post is not possible, nor it is easy to define the concept completely in the context of the metamorphosing managerial and administrative values. The best course left to the Board is, therefore, to pick the best of the available candidates; to obviate repetition of the entire gamut of the selection procedure. This holds good, more often than not, in the case of selections for senior positions.

Often for the purpose, the Board evolves a check-list, an exhaustive but practical one, whereunder ratings are accorded for different personality traits. Experience has shown that this strategy works quite satisfactorily in all types of interviews.

The undermentioned can be the tentative parameters for the Board to look for its picks; not necessarily in the same order or weightage, for they may vary from post to post and from organisation to organisation, depending upon their needs.

The candidate, prima facie, ought to have the needed potential and keenness for the purpose of being developed into a better one, in the near future, and on, to impart benefits to the organisation, for it spends its resources on the new incumbent with an eye for good returns.

Self-acceptance of the past failures, if any, by the candidate will prove an asset, a qualification. It will speak of his frankness and will inculcate value ethics in managementa compelling need of the hour the world over.

The candidate should be able to 'look within' as Christ has said, in the face of taking decisions, especially when confronting with hard situations. He must have a clear vision of himself and of the assignments required to be accomplished. As a matter-of-fact, his performance itself is a perennial source of inspiration to him; a source of fulfilment and pleasure; and a robust antidote to (counter) the stress, both in his personal and official life.

To be receptive and considerate to the aspirations and expectation of colleagues is the need of the time. The Selection Board therefore, looks for such a possibility and potential in the prospective candidate. Not only that, the ability to inspire confidence among the staff, while inter-acting with them, is also a pre-requisite to be searched and found out by the interviewers.

Another sought-after trait is candidate's ability to communicatenot only his ability to express, as is generally mixed up. For this purpose, the interviewers have to try for all the essential parameters of a good communicator viz; logical flow of thoughts, directiveness in the needed side for the needed purpose, maturity in expression and communication, ability to listen and the art of a rational persuasiveness in arriving at the right decisions and passing on the instructions germane thereto to achieve the results. The art of communication is the hub of successful and result-oriented human relations.

The candidate should evince an abiding interest in updating his knowledge to qualify for being selected by the Board. Especially, such a policy plank is more needed when the interview is for the selection of a specialist. Both depth and breadth of the candidate's knowledge are indicators to his intellectual seasoning.

The candidate is expected, rather is required, to exercise self-check in all situations that he will face in his would- be organisation. He is to be assessed on his ability to shoulder both, praise and criticism, success and failure, authority and responsibility, with equanimity. Self-control, self-management, shedding of false egos are the time-tested recipes for successful managers, together with courage and conviction, backed-up, nevertheless, by firmness of action. A stiff and artificial stance will never be appreciated by the Board.

And overzealousness in conduct may also jeopardise the chances of being selected. If not checked, temperament can always sway away one's decisions to an un-wanted level of human relations, which may turn out to be a point of no-return. On part of the candidate, the deepest mental posture, even if provoked during the course of interview by the Board members, is sure to carry the day. This will help him give balanced answers to the satisfaction of the interviewers.

The interviewers end up, with the best available of the lot: the near-ideal; but not the ideal.

Some Frequently asked Questions in Selection Interviews

Tell us about yourself.
Why do you want to do this course/job?
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Who is your role model and why?]
What do you think about the current economic/political situation?
What are your hobbies?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
If you are not taken, what will you do?
Questions about your background and academic record.
Questions about your habits, likes and dislikes.

First Impressions

Prepare for the interview: Do not leave preparation for the interview for the last stage, or hope to say anything that comes to your mind at the moment. Developing confidence is a long-term process. Make it a point to discuss issues with family and friends. Carry your certificates in a file. Make it a habit to read extensively. This will prepare you for the interview.
Dress formally: Be neat. Boys should make sure they are shaved while girls can apply a light make-up. Well groomed hair, cleanliness, polished shoes are some essentials. Avoid jewellery, trendy clothes and casuals such as jeans. Formal dress should be worn: keep a suit away for special occasions and do not wear your everyday clothes for the interview.
Be on time: Err on the side or caution. Take a bus to the destination a few days before the final day. If that is not possible, allow yourself adequate time to find the place or unforeseen circumstances such as traffic jams. If you are early, do not go directly to the office but to a nearby restaurant and have something to eat.
When you enter: Greet the interviewer by saying, "Good morning, sir". Do not be over-friendly. Do not sit down until asked. Sit straight and do not fold your arms. Look in the interviewer's eye while answering questions.
Avoid controversy: Always stick to the subject, without giving opinions. Do not be critical of your insitute or past employer. If you do not know a particular question, say, "I don't know, sir."
Listen carefully: Pause before answering a question to gather your thoughts. Listening will help you realise what the interviewer wants. Do not ramble or use long-winded examples.
Be pleasant: Keep a cheerful disposition, do not contradict the interviewer even if he is wrong, keep a pleasant outlook. Do not be funny, though one can be witty.
Tricky situations: If you are nervous, admit it. Stay calm, even if provoked. Of course, one cannot anticipate all questions so be ready for some surprises, too.

MOCK Interview
Candidate : Good afternoon, sirs.
Member1 : Good afternoon. Please sit down.
C: Thank you sir.
M1: You seem nervous. Would you like to have a drink?
C: No thank you sir. I'll be comfortable.
M1: Tell us something about yourself.
C: Yes, sir. My name is Varun. I have done my B.Com and I am waiting for the results of the final year. My schooling was in Shimla. My father is in the IAS and I have an elder sister who is a doctor.
M1: Your second year marks are less than first year. Will they go down further in the final year?
M2: Didn't you want to try for IAS? Since your father is a bureaucrat, you could have followed in his footsteps.
C: Let me answer one question at a time. I will take up the second question first. I am not interested in IAS, sir. I was always interested in a career in management. That is why I did my B.Com and fortunately I could get good marks. My father has never pressed us to do IAS but has given us the freedom to choose our career. My sister became a doctor because she wanted to be one. Regarding my marks, during the second year I had to miss classes because I was unwell for a while. However, this year I have put in a lot of effort and I am confident of covering up.
M3: Why are you not interested in IAS?
C: I did not want to be a bureaucrat where you have the authority no doubt, but you are still stuck in a groove. I feel that a career in management will offer higher growth which depends on individual performance. I do not want a comfortable job but one in which I can prove myself.
M1: Why only MBA? After B.Com you can become a Chartered Accountant and prove yourself.
C: I feel that Chartered Accountant is limited to finance and accounts. I would like to do something more than that. My background of B.Com has given me an understanding of accounts but I would not like to make it into a career. Management, I feel, is more exciting and one can do much more compared to CA which is limited to one area.
M3: What do you understand by management?
C: There are many definitions, sir. But the simplest one is that it is the art of getting work done from other people.
M3: What do you think are the qualities that a manager should possess?
C: I think that a manager should have planning and organising skills. He should be hard working and honest. Above all, he should have leadership qualities too since he has to manage people and lead by example.
M2: Where did you learn all this?
C: I have not learnt this, sir. Some of it I have studied in B.Com and then I have just gathered my thoughts. I have also read about the examples of successful managers who are featured in business magazines and formed my opinion.
M3: Which of these qualities do you have?
C: I have good organising capabilities. I used to organise many events in school and college. I am also good at planning and since my friends used to like working with me, I can say that I have leadership qualities too.
M2: So you have all the qualities of being a good manager. Tell us, what will you do if we do not take you?
C: I am quite confident that you will take me, sir. But to cover my risks I have applied to a few other institutes too and fortunately have got interview calls from them. As I am keen to do MBA. I am sure to get admission in one at least.
M3: Why, were you not confident that you will get through here?
C: I am confident, sir. But I applied to other institutes just to cover my risks. I did not want to waste an year just in case I missed one institute.
M1: What are the problems that India faces?
C: India is a large country and has many problems. At present the main problem faced by the country is that of instability. The elections gave no majority to any single party so each party is looking for coalitions. We have seen coalition governments in the past and they never seem to work. Secondly, there is the problem about the economy. The previous government kept inflation down by artificial methods which is bound to increase now. Debt has also reached huge proportions which has to be brought down.
M3: Don't you think the country has social problems?
C: Yes, sir. In fact, there are many social problems we face. There is the problem of dowry, which leads to torture and harassment and even to bride-burning. There is also the problem of female infanticide as people want to have male children only. This is going to skew the sex ratio in the country. Illiteracy, poverty and population growth are some of the other problems.
M2: Can these problems be removed through stability and economic methods?
C: They may not be removed totally, but a stable government will certainly have the time to address these issues. An unstable government will be more concerned about its own survival. There is also a very real danger that an unstable government may take the country backwards, as V.P. Singh had done during his time. He had played the caste card merely to survive, with disastrous consequences. Secondly economic growth can certainly solve our problems of poverty and unemployment. People will have more opportunities and can increase their incomes. In fact, poverty has already come down since the country took up the economic reforms programme, as was claimed by the previous government. If that is true, certainly our problems can be solved to a great extent by economic growth.
M3: But don't you think that economic growth brings in its own problems? There are many problems in the West which has seen some of the highest growth rates.
C: There are indeed problems which affluence brings. There are social problems there too, besides those of environment degradation.
M3: So what you are saying is that we should get rid of our problems through economic growth and import a new set of problems.
C: No, sir. Fortunately we have the example of the West before us. It is not necessary that we should commit the same mistakes. We can have economic growth combined with traditional knowledge so that we do not get the problems of the West.
M2: What are your hobbies?
C: I like to play games and read books. Another hobby I have is DX-ing, which is tracking radio stations of distant countries.
M2: That's an unusual hobby. Tell us more about it.
C: Almost all countries broadcast on shortwave. They want to know whether people are actually receiving the broadcast or not. Whenever I have spare time I try to catch unknown stations and send them reception reports. They send an acknowledgement card, called a QSL card. It is a good way of knowing the world and increase one's knowledge, besides participating in discussions and even learning a foreign language. They often send gifts to regular listeners.
M2: Have you ever got gifts from them?
C: Several times, sir. They send T-shirts, cassettes and books. But the best is if your views are aired by an international radio station.
M3: Which games do you play?
C: I play cricket, sir. These days I get less time but I play whenever I have time.
M3: Who is the manager of our cricket team?
C: Sandeep Patil, sir.
M2: What was your favourite subject in school?
C: I liked practically all the subjects that we had, but my favourite was English. I loved to read the books prescribed and also borrow from the library.
M3: Who wrote Gone With the Wind?
C: Margaret Mitchell.
M3: Why did the book become very famous?
C: It was made into a highly successful film which is still regarded as a classic. The book was a bestseller and thus became very famous.
M2: You must have had Shakespeare in school.
C: We studied Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night. I liked Julius Caesar very much, especially since it had those moving speeches. It is also a study in human character. I think these books help you to understand human nature.
M2: Did you not think of doing something which would help you retain touch with reading, since you like it so much?
C: In whatever profession one is in, one can keep up the habit of reading. Even successful managers read a lot. I will keep up this habit even when I graduate.
M1: Has any of your friends also applied here?
C: Yes, sir. One of my best friends has also got a call.
M1: Supposing we had only one seat. Should we take you or your best friend?
C: Ideally, I think you should take both of us. But if there is only one seat, you are the best judge to decide.
M1: But if we left the choice to you, what would you decide?
C: That is really a tough choice, sir. But if you left it to me, I would ask you to take my friend.
M1: Even if it means that you do not get admission?
C: Yes, sir. Friendship means rising above selfishness. If I took the seat that would make me selfish. I am sure to get admission this year. It would be ideal if my friend also got it.
M1: Do you have any weaknesses?
C: Yes, sir. I think everyone has certain weaknesses. I think I am a perfectionist, which sometimes creates problems. But I really cannot help it. I believe that whatever is done should be done well.
M1: Well thank you, Varun.
C: Thank you, sir.

Analysis
Varun was able to defend the questions relating to IAS and Chartered Accountancy well. The answers show that he has thought about them and made up his mind. He also can define management in a concise way, which shows that he has studied his textbooks well. In fact, the student should be well versed with his subjects. Varun also declined politely the drink offered to him. There are no hard and fast rules about this, but if you ask for the drink, chances are that you will not get the time to drink it.

Note how Varun handled the situation when two questions were asked simultaneously. Be careful when you say you have good planning or organising capabilities. The board can well ask why you think so. Do you have the answer? Similarly, the questions related to applying to other institutes are tricky but Varun answered them well. Note that he was well-prepared about the problems faced by the country. But he should not have made statements about coalition government. Avoid getting into controversial areas and playing the caste factor certainly is. But if you feel strongly about it and can defend it forcefully, you can take a chance and mention it.

Fortunately the board moved on to hobbies. Note that Varun had a hobby which was entirely different and he could speak on it. He could also speak on his reading habit. The question on whether his friend should be taken is another tricky one. If you say you should be taken, can you defend it without sounding selfish? The answer to weaknesses was also a satisfactory one.

On the whole, the candidate comes across as mature. He seems to have thought about his answers. He is well prepared and was not trapped in the cross-questioning. If you can't do so, simply back out and say you are not sure rather than saying something which you cannot defend.

HOW TO FACE TOUGH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

2008-11-11T01:01:00.000-08:00

Interview tips: How to face tough questions

How would you solve this problem?’

These hypothetical questions could well be risky enough to make or break your interview. First of all, they may not like your answer; if they do like it, there’s a chance they will steal it. It happened to Suresh Iyer (name changed) when he was interviewed for a sales manager’s position at an FMCG firm.

When asked about marketing ideas, he laid out his entire plan. He didn’t get the job, but later recognised some of his strategies were being used by the company. And in India, going to court for this may not be worth your time.

Suggested response:

“I think you can increase product awareness by enacting some marketing strategies that could employ advertising, direct mail or media placements.”

‘Why did you leave your last job?’

HR experts suggest presenting everything in a positive light. An interview is not the time to dish the dirt on your previous employer.

Suggested response:

“The company just wasn’t a good fit for my innovative personality. But what I learned is that organisations have distinct personalities just like people do. Now I know to concentrate my job search on companies who value independent thinking and alternative methods.”

‘Why do you want to work here?’

Questions such as these require you to do your homework before the interview.

Suggested response:

“I want to be a part of a rising Indian company that last year alone invested Rs 20.4 crore in research and development of ecofriendly industrial processes.”

Tell me about yourself’

This is a chance for you to shine, but not to tell your life history. Begin by listing your traits and accomplishments you feel are relevant for the position. Don’t delve into personal information unless it relates to the position you’re vying for.

Suggested response:

“I am very creative and resourceful. I have been a sales manager for the past five years and used my abilities to devise unique incentives to keep the sales representatives motivated. Because of this my sales team earned numerous company awards.”

Tell me about the worst boss you ever had’

Although you may have had the most devilish bosses, take the high road and don’t give in to the temptation to vent any past frustrations.

Suggested response:

“While none of my past bosses were awful, there are some who taught me more than others did.” (You may also narrate a humourous incident about your previous bosses which shows your attitude towards your superiors).

‘What are your goals?’

This is best answered by reiterating your objective statement on your resume. There are quite a few aspirations which you would want to keep to yourself: like being a vice president of the company, own a yacht company or retire at 40. Give a practical, detailed response.

Suggested response:

“I want to secure a civil engineering position with a national firm that concentrates on retail development. Ideally, I would like to work for a young company, such as this one, so I can get in on the lower level and take advantage of all the opportunities a growing firm has to offer.”

INTERVIEW ETIQUETTES

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Never make the big mistake of treating an interview lightly. It s not an important thing where you depend on your improvisation skills. An interview requires careful thought and planning before you take it. Keeping in mind some basic attitudes and presentation techniques will help you sail through it with panache.

So if you thought that going for an interview just meant pulling your best suit out of the wardrobe and updating your resume, please think again. You are forgetting the other essentials: body language, basic etiquette and attitude.

Remember that you are actually selling an entire package and the packaging, in this case, is as relevant as the product inside. Ultimately you are presenting yourself as a valuable professional to a new job environment. And you can t do that without minding the basic interview etiquette to get you ahead of the rest of the pack.

An interview is the sum total of many parts. It s not just what you say but how you say it that matters equally. So it s good to brush up on more than just your training skills when you do go in for an interview.

ATTIRE

How you dress for an interview is perhaps as relevant as the way you lay out your resume. Says Nina Kochar of Upgrade Management Services, an organisation which coaches executives in the basic rules of corporate etiquette: "A person who is sloppy in appearance shows a sloppy personality, so you have to be decently dressed." Of course, decently dressed does not necessarily mean being dressed to the gills. In most cases, this would mean you would wear long sleeved shirts and a pair of formal trousers. In fact, Nina Kochar does not recommend suits, especially for younger people. "A lot of young people do not have the money to invest in suits, consequently, they wear ill-fitting or borrowed suits and that looks even worse. A tie, shirt and pant should do the trick for most junior level positions."

Most HR experts would also tell you to mind the accessories like ties, belts and shoes. To be sure, badly matched shoes and ties can have a jarring effect on an interviewer. Similarly, please avoid heavy jewellery or personal accessories as they would look incongruous on you.

ENTRANCE AND INTRODUCTION

Even though most of us are primed for the basic grilling that we would face during the interview, we seldom pay attention to the way we enter an interview room or how we introduce ourselves. Says Subhashish Mitra, deputy manager, Essar Cellphones: "A lot of people do not think it important to knock properly while entering the interview room. They assume that as an interview is taking place, the panel will be expecting them. To my mind this is a very major faux pas which really jars." In fact, the best way to enter an interview is to knock, ask for permission to enter and then wait for a while before you actually sit down. Few interviewees know this but the interview panel needs a little quiet time to discuss the previous candidate before they get around to the next one. So your silence till you actually get seated would be very valuable. Try and keep a bag with you for all your papers and certificates; make sure this bag is an unobtrusive as possible.

ATTITUDE AND RESPONSE

This is a grey area for most interview candidates. While dressing up and resume writing are skills you can handle with a little practice, cultivating the right attitude as an interviewee requires a lot of patience and reading between the lines. The usual complaint of most interviewers is that few interviewees are able to stri perhaps the best thing you can do for getting your answer right. Most interviewers like to give a lead to the candidate in the way they ask the question, so it s entirely up to you to note facial expressions and the tone of the words.

Do you show your certificates immediately to the interview panel?

Not till you are asked actually. You might already have sent in your resume, so you shouldn t try and offload all your achievements and skills onto the panel till a turn in the interview leads to such a situation. Try and take cues form the tonal variations, facial expressions and thrust of questions from the interview panel. That in itself will give you a clue as to where this interview is heading.

TEN THINGS THAT AN INTERVIEWER LOOKS IN YOU!

1. Family Background

2. Education

3. Experience

4. Stability

5. Initiative

6. General Ability

7. Interpersonal Skills

8. Confidence

9. Aptitude

10. Pleasant Looks

How one wished that an interview were a simple meeting of minds and hearts. Just one casual meeting where an employee s future gets sealed. Unfortunately, it s not something as pre-ordained as you would like it to be; it s a pre-meditated exercise which fetches you dividends only if your homework is done right.