My Technical Knowledge is very strong! Still I am not getting selected for the companies! What might be the problem?

Yes! You answered all the questions that were thrown to you, you solved the Bit Masking Problem almost 90%, You successfully traced down the recursive call for the QuickSort Question that was thrown to you, you also managed to answer that Dynamic Programming Problem which no one else in your batch was able to do! Still, when the results came out, your name was NOT there in the Final Selection List for the company. There might be others for who you might subconsciously think, how come he got selected, and you didn't.  

In this post, we are going to look for an answer to this question, as to where might be the problem! 

In a nutshell, the interview is nothing but how you can convince the interviewer that you are the right fit for the job, with the limited knowledge that you have! You cannot know everything. And that is perfectly fine. It doesn't matter if you don't remember those complex git commands, or you forgot the standard definition of Thrashing in Operating System Subject. If your way of presenting yourself is not right, then your probability of selection goes DOWN significantly. 

Here is a list of the things that you can keep in mind while attending the next interviews, some of them might take time to master, but everything can be achieved - 

1.  Work a little more towards improving your communication skills - Suppose the interviewer asks a question to you - "What is the process that gets triggered when the SUBMIT button is pressed for the Enrollment Form on your Student Portal Website?". Yes, you know the answer to the question, but if you are not able to express the answer to the interviewer in the language of communication (mostly English), then it is as good as you not knowing the answer to the question. The interviewer is no GOD to automatically understand what you are trying to say unless you explain it to him properly. 
   Try to spend at least 30 minutes per day improving your communication skills if it is really not that great. And if you speak decent enough English, try to form answers to the commonly asked questions in a professional way of answering! Try to eliminate Slangs in your speech. Assume that you have an interviewer sitting in front of you, how are you going to explain the answer to him if some question is shot at you. Try to show that you are confident about the answer that you are telling, and try not to use unnecessary words like - "aaa, umm, eh, dude, damn, sup, continuously saying You know, You know (He obviously knows! 😆), etc.". 
2. Be Cheerful, Don't Be Too Serious, Don't be too Casual! - You just need the right amount there. You are just a student who is still completing his studies, and the interviewers do not expect you to know each and every question that they shoot at you (This rule is applicable to even the experienced ones I guess!). The interview is not like defusing a bomb, wherein if you cut a wrong wire (Give a wrong answer to a question), they are gonna kick you out of the interviews. Just have faith in you and your preparation. Even if you are feeling nervous about something, just try to show that you are not. Show him that you are friendly too, but you are staying in your limits at the same time. Ultimately it is what you show to the interviewer that he perceives about you while making the hiring decision. At the end of the day, your resume will be in front of him, and he needs to make a call. He will remember his interaction with you throughout the day. And you need to make sure that it was a good one. 
   Be cheerful, If you don't know the answer? Say him, "I know this is related to this concept in this particular subject and this happens this way. However, how it functions after this, that I am not quite sure about!" with a smile.  If you can give a try, then that will be even great.
   If you know the answer, explain the answer to him by giving examples whatever you feel might be good to hear. Interviewers want to hire people who can be good for their organization. A person with a NOT so great attitude might spoil the atmosphere of the company. 
3. Sit in the right posture, and keep a check on some of the wrong behavioral aspects! - Sit straight on the chair, keep your hands on the table or place it on your lap. Do not lean towards the interviewer or sit in some weird posture that you feel comfortable at your home sofa or chair. Do not shake your legs or bite your nails in between (you might do it unconsciously! So beware). Do not play with your hair or look here and there. Maintain eye contact with the interviewer, while answering the questions. 
   Practice the correct sitting posture, and you will automatically get adapted to it. 
   To keep control on shaking of your legs, just lock them into one another. 
   For eye contact, if you are not comfortable looking directly into the eyes of the interviewer (Might be because the interviewer is a girl 😆 or because he looks a bit serious), try looking at their FOREHEADS, parallax will take care of the rest 😛! 
4. Keep your mind cool on the day of the interview - Your mind needs to be calm and quiet on the day of the interview. You don't want your mind to be full of chaos just because the interview is going to start in the next 2 minutes, and you are gonna take at least 30 minutes to reach the interview spot. Try to be on time! 
   Try to be as cool as you can, do NOT try to learn an entirely new concept at the end moments. You might screw up with the rest of the things that you learned recently. 
   Drink a good amount of water throughout the day to keep yourself and your brain hydrated. A hydrated brain works better compared to a non-hydrated one. 
   If music is something that helps in soothing your mind, then listen to it. I have seen many people using this trick to cool up their minds.
   Taking a DEEP BREATH is one of the easiest ways to cool your mind. 
5. Look Presentable - Usually, the Campus Placement Team has certain CODE OF CONDUCT as to how you should dress for the interviews. However, there are many edge cases there as well.
   Suppose the guidelines say - "Light Colour Shirt, Black or Brown Formal Full Pant with Optional Tie and Black or Brown Shoes with matching Socks, Proper Haircut and No Beard for Boys, No restriction on Mustache unless and until it looks presentable." 
   Now it is your responsibility that - Your Shirt and Pant are properly Ironed and there are no wrinkles in any of them, The shirt looks fresh and there is no mark of that Paneer ki Sabzi that you ate this morning, Make sure you are properly groomed and that your hair in no way looks similar to the hairs of the TikTok Stars 😜! 
6. Do not bluff about something that you are not - Do not bluff about something in your resume that you cannot explain more than 2 lines about. We understand that you are a very technical person, and you want to show that you have done so much work in different fields. But that doesn't mean you keep on highlighting everything in your resume thinking that you had written a Hello World Program in this language someday. 
   For example - If I wrote a "Sum of 3 numbers" Program in Python and I mention Python in my resume so that my resume looks better, then that's a BIG BIG Mistake. 
   Now if the interviewer picks up Python from your resume and asks only questions from Python in your entire technical interview - You already know that you have screwed up this interview! 
   However, if you mention only the things that you know confidently, then the interviewer will ask only questions related to those topics. Those topics you know you can defend and justify your answers. It might be so that the interviewer might ask you - "Do you know Python as well?". And there you can discuss with him that you are exposed to these and these functionalities of Python also, but you have not mentioned it in your resume. This makes the impression that this person knows more than what is there in this piece of paper (Resume)! 
   Now decide which one looks better among the 2 scenarios? 👀

I will add more such content whenever I get time! Do share it with people who might find this useful. I do not share it much, neither do I promote this blog in any way. This is something which I like writing in my free time! 

AUTHOR - Abhishek Kumar Rai