8. Do your homework. Just don’t do theirs for free
It took a while for Pratyusha Chakraborty, a PhD student at SRM University-AP in Andhra Pradesh, to realise that she was providing free labour under the guise of completing recruitment assignments. She warns that plenty of reputable organisations will have candidates write or read reams of material as assessments, and that “the probability of hearing back from them is low.” But the possibility of the campaign you submitted as part of your assignment appearing on their website’s homepage without credit or remuneration a few months later? Very high. While you can’t get away with refusing to turn in an assignment altogether, make sure you safeguard your intellectual property against misuse.
9. Don’t think of the job interview as a blood oath
Satakshi Thapliyal, a marketing specialist and founder, thinks we take interviews “more seriously than we need to.” Her formula is refreshingly simple. There are no mathematical calculations. Prepare well. Know the company. Be on time. Stumble over an answer, crack a joke, take a sip of your drink. The best interviews, in her experience, feel less like an interrogation and more like an actual conversation. “We are hiring a person, not a robot,” she states. Someone, please frame these words in every conference room from Gurgaon to Salt Lake Sector V.
10. Don’t bring the pre-coffee version of yourself to an interview
Olivia Roy, an assistant editor from Bengaluru, has one golden rule for interviews: if you’re caffeine-dependent, never walk in uncaffeinated. Her order of choice is a Vienna roast Americano. Carrying an iced coffee into a meeting is something Roy refuses to apologise for. If anything, she argues, it makes the whole process more serious because coffee helps some people think. “Take the coffee away, and you will get the groggy, bitter version of me that is actually unhirable.” The actual faux pas, in her opinion, is smoking right before walking into an interview. “Smoking or smelling of smoke is not polite,” she concedes.
11. Bring the coffee. Just don’t leave your personality at the counter
Saheli Chatterjee, an entrepreneur, won’t scan your hand for coffee like it’s contraband. If anything, she is actively looking for signs of personality in the people she hires. Her real red flag is treating the interview like a formality—showing up because the calendar invite said so or answering like someone is holding up cue cards and a gun behind the webcam. “You can bring a coffee, but please also bring a personality, a point of view and some evidence that you Googled my company,” she says.
And now, a memo for the other side of the table…
It’s not only candidates who can use a little coaching. Srijita Chakraborty Debnath, a quality assurance and content specialist from Kolkata, believes the latte-carrying candidate did the interviewers “a favour”. Interviews are known to cause jitters, so perhaps this incident will teach recruiters to offer candidates tea so they can relax. “Intimidation will never bring out the best in someone,” she shrugs.
