Fresher Interview Tips: How To Stand Out?

Let us start with a list of things an employer would hire a fresher for instead of an experienced candidate:

  1. Freshers are motivated with energy and enthusiasm
  2. Freshers add a fresh perspective to the organization
  3. Freshers come up with more innovative ideas
  4. Freshers are in-expensive and likely to stay longer

In order to increase your chances of being hired as a fresher, you must capitalize on each of these traits and show yourself as the ideal candidate for the job. Here are few fresher interview tips that can help you succeed.

Show your enthusiasm

It is not simply enough to look and talk enthusiastically in an interview. Your seriousness and desire to work in an organization is reflected by your preparedness and research about the company. It is a blunder to miss out this basic step of making an effort to read up on what the company does. Some interviewers might explicitly ask “You must have gone through our web-site. Why don’t you tell me what you know about us?” but others would certainly assume that you have done your homework as it tells the interviewer that you’re interested in the work the firm does and they have something to start discussions on. You are not expected to know the latest quarterly turnover or name of all board members, but you should know enough for the interviewer to feel you’ve not made a superficial statement.

Talk about challenges you have undertaken

Every fresher’s resume claims that they know all major languages and platforms but few if any have any work experience that an interviewer can test them on. To make yourself stand apart, you must talk about projects you were involved in and highlight how you saw a problem and how you have applied your learning and came up with a solution. Telling someone that you created a website for your college canteen may not sound very interesting, but when you present it to look like you created a solution for students to manage their dietary problem and save them time which they can now use on their studies, then it projects you as person with analytical and problem solving abilities. Remember that you are there to sell yourself as an employee and you only have a limited time to do so.

Differentiate yourself from others

No one has time to go through a lengthy resume and series of questions to understand your potential. (Though it takes much less time to figure out you’re not the right fit). Highlight the interesting stuff you have done and skills that the job requires. As each company has different criteria of selection, you should have multiple versions of your resume ready. If you’ve done your research right, you will be able to customize your resume for the job on offer. Once you are shortlisted companies also search for you online to see if there’s anything else they find. So maintain a LinkedIn profile, even if you don’t have work experience and try getting recommendations from your professors, or from senior professionals that you do your college internships with. That counts a lot.

Also remember that one thing an interviewer does not expect from a fresher is practical knowledge which comes from working in a professional environment. If you can gain practical knowledge by taking up an internship or live project training then it will be an added advantage. Surprise the interviewer and you will surely have a foot in the door. Where you go from there would of course depend on your power of persuasion.

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If you need any consulting. Let me know in the comments below , i would be happy to help!  All the best. 

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