<p>It was a government job so there were some bureaucracy involved. But the job is purely technical. I made a fatal mistake by not preparing for the first question which is "what do u know about XXXX?". ( even though i gave a vague answer and admit I knew very little). </p>
<p>Had a few rambling on the question "How do you communicate? " This was perhaps the most stupid mistake i've made. I took the meaning too literally and answered that I prefer to communicate in person instead of through emails blah blah. </p>
<p>After all the interview was quite flat and the employer asked in 2 ques that if I have more to say. I said that was about it for both. (not sure if I made another mistake by saying too little.)</p>
<p>In the end, after my ques have been answered, he said "take care". And I took that as a vague signal to say no. </p>
<p>How can I improve? This time I was too focused on preparing for any technical ques he may ask and totally forgot to think about wut to say for behaviour ques.</p>
<p>There’s no such thing as a purely technical job. You’ll always be reporting to somebody and/or working in a team or group. Was ‘XXXX’ something related to the job? If so it probably wasn’t as bad as you think to admit that you didn’t know much, but you have to hedge that by saying something along the lines of you’re interested in something related to it and love to learn new things. Something that shows that just because you’re not an expert now doesn’t mean you can’t or don’t want to be one. If ‘XXXX’ was precisely about the job (eg: you’re interviewing to monitor paint quality and know nothing about paint) then yeah you’re probably screwed but that’s not because you interviewed poorly; it’s because you’re unqualified for the job.</p>
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<p>Don’t ramble. There’s nothing wrong with pausing and thinking about your answer, or asking the interviewer to clarify if you’re confused. In fact, pausing for a few seconds to think of an answer is almost always going to be better than saying the first thing that comes to your head. Your eventual answer wasn’t really that bad though, since on an open-ended non-specific question like “how do you communicate?” they have to be ready for a wide array of interpretations and answers. It was really a bad question and you should have asked him to clarify what he meant, but they can’t really hold that answer against you.</p>
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<p>I really have no clue what you’re saying here, except that you didn’t ask any questions after the interview. You absolutely should have asked more questions at this point. There’s no way that you know everything about the job that you’d need to know to make a determination as to whether or not you would accept a job offer. The BEST thing to do is to research the company and ask questions about things you found out about them. This has the double effect of showing that you researched their company and are really interested in the job and getting you more information. It’s a time commitment but it is necessary.
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<p>To be honest I wouldn’t read much into him saying “take care.” Sometimes an interviewer will give you a good sign (saying something like ‘I think we’ll be talking again soon’) but if he’s interviewing a ton of people for a position he’s probably not going to be comfortable giving anybody that kind of hope. There was probably a ton of body language and tone throughout the interview that would give you a better indication of whether or not you have a shot.</p>
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<p>Well, you’re off to a good start because you know what your problem is. What you have to understand is that they are not hiring you for your current technical knowledge. Whoever they hire they’re going to have to train, and that’s going to cost them time and money. If you’re a poor communicator then no matter how much they train you you’re not going to be a good employee. If you don’t fit in with their culture, or don’t know anything about it, then even if you make a great employee you’re probably going to walk out of there in 3 years after they’ve invested so much in you. They don’t want to take that risk.</p>
<p>Here are basic tips for interviewing:</p>
<p>1) Know the company. Know what they do, where they do it, and what the corporate culture is.
2) Know yourself. Be ready to tell them why you’re a good leader and what relevant experience you have. Furthermore, be prepared to talk about your hobbies and what you want to do with your life.
3) Ask questions. They want to see that you’re interested, and asking intelligent informed questions is the best way to do that. You are interviewing the company exactly as much as they are interviewing you
4) Relax. Smile. Don’t act flustered. If you don’t get this job there are other companies that you can try for, and it won’t be the end of the world. This interview isn’t the most important thing in your life and it’s as far from life-and-death as you can get. You should be focused and serious, but don’t be nervous.</p>