Cracking Job Interviews

Why people fail and how to succeed

Practical tips and a proven framework

I developed this practical guideline from my interviews with

IBM, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Airbus, Mercedes, and many more.

Doing well in a job interview is not one thing.

It is a combination of various things. E.g., doing well in:

• HR screening interview

• Technical/core skill-related interviews

• Behavioral interviews

• Salary negotiation in the right way

• Proving soft skills

• Showing motivation

• Asking good questions

• Identifying what is important and demonstrating that you can do those

• Presenting yourself in the right way

• Answering questions in the right way

• Showing your knowledge depth and knowledge breadth

What is Inside

From the 1st version of the book

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. My Story
  • 1.2. Components of doing well in a Job Interview
• 2. What do interviewers look for while hiring?
  • 2.1. Everyone should have these qualities
  • 2.2. Freshers and Junior candidates should show these qualities
  • 2.3. What do interviewers look for in Mid/Senior candidates?
  • 2.4. Situation based expectations
  • Summary
• 3. Hiring Process
• 4. Junaed’s Framework to Ace Almost Any Job Interview
• 5. Preparation
  • 5.1. Experience matrix
  • 5.2. Sort out important skills in 3 dimensions
  • 5.3. Prioritize the skills and prepare examples
  • 5.4. No experience?
  • 5.5. Summary
• 6. Tell Me About Yourself
  • 6.1.  A Big Mistake
  • 6.2. Topics you should cover
  • 6.3. My example: This is how I tell about myself
  • 6.4. Template for freshers
  • 6.5. Template for experienced
  • 6.6. Tips to well prepare
  • 6.7. One tip for the experts
• 7. Discuss
  • 7.1. A big misconception
  • 7.2. Purpose of the discussion
  • 7.3. Powerful questions to drive the discussion
  • 7.4. How to drive the discussion towards your strength
  • 7.5. Use this loop during the discussion
  • 7.6. How to Stop the Interviewer and How Not to
  • 7.7. Summary
• 8. The Questions To Ask At the End of the Interview
  • 8.1. Prove yourself and Know more about them
  • 8.2. Powerful questions and how to use those
  • 8.3. Summary
• 9. Show Correct Motivation
  • 9.1. Importance of correct motivation
  • 9.2. How to show your motivation
• 10. Interview Steps: What Happens in a Job Interview
• 11. HR screening interview
  • 11.1. Purpose of the HR screening interview
  • 11.2. Steps of the HR Screening interview
• 12. Final interview
  • 12.1. Steps of the final interview
• 13. Salary Negotiation
  • 13.1. Mistakes I made
  • 13.2. When will they ask about your expected salary?
  • 13.3. When they offer what you wanted or more than your expectation
  • 13.4. Negotiating
  • 13.5. When you are nervous
  • 13.6. Remove your fear
  • 13.7. Negotiation steps
  • 13.8. Not only money, but you can also negotiate many other things
  • 13.9. Summary
• 14. Mistakes you should avoid
  • 14.1. Mistake #1: Non-convincing "Tell me about yourself"
  • 14.2. Mistake # 2: Not knowing about the product of the company
  • 14.3. Mistake #3: Not asking clarifying questions before solving a problem
  • 14.4. Mistake #4: Not using "I" while describing what you did in a project.
  • 14.5. Mistake #5: Not discussing when the interviewer challenges you
• 15. Answer questions in the right way
  • 15.1. Understand the 'hidden' question
  • 15.2. Open ended questions
  • 15.3. Show your soft skills.
  • 15.4. How did you solve this problem?
  • 15.5. Summary
• 16. Behavioral Questions and Answers
  • 16.1. Purpose of the behavioral questions
  • 16.2. A framework for answering behavioral questions
  • 16.3. How to identify behavioral questions
  • 16.4. Example of Behavioral Question and Answer
• 17. Follow Up after the job interview