How to Win Interviews without getting Stressed

I help many people prepare for their interviews. I have observed frequently that whenever someone is preparing for their new job interviews they will usually by under lot of pressure. I have also seen lots of exceptions where people directly goto a job interview without any preparation as if it is a meeting with a friend or a date with a girl friend. There are also many Guru's who dont need any kind of preparation, their years of experience have build strong knowledgebase for them to handle any tough technical or person interview rounds. I am not writing this blogpost for such Guru's I am writing this article for the normal guy/gal who has not got soo many years of experience. Who has not given too many interviews. I have even seen experienced people getting stressed out when they have to go through a new job interview.

Let me share few tips to help you relax & give a winning performance in your interview.
1. Preparing for an interview is an ongoing process. It is not an even which occurs on the last day prior to the actual interview scheduled date.
What i mean by ongoing process is , even before you have scheduled the interview date start your preparations. Be very focussed when you are doing your normal work or tasks for your present job or while in college. When you configuring your new linux server, when you are tweaking your old application server, when you are troubleshooting your network switch, when you start learning new things about your brand new storage array - when you are doing your normal job be very alert & learn those small & big details , learn with a vision to handle questions on these areas when you are faced with them in your real interview.

2. Try to cover more topics in less time Only if you can absorb it. There is a limit for information absorption for everyone. You can read a whole Brocade manaul & digest within 1 week , I may need a month. You may learn all the administration commands for your new NAS appliance within a day I may need a week. You may learn to do all Linxu Server tweaks within a month I may need a year. Point is when you are preparing for interview I agree you have 10 to 20 major topics to prepare on like
Storage domain
Networking
Operating System
Management Software
Security
Troubleshooting
Performance Improvement

But dont try to read 100 page materials for each topic if you have only 4 days for interview. You wont be able to finish even more than 2 topics. Instead read fast or skim through huge text materials or prepare compressed notes before hand to use as last minute interview quick reference guides.(I am planning to write one such guide email roger.smithson@gmail.com if u r intersted - u gotta pay for it if u need it).It is important u prepare well on all required/essential topics without spending too muc h time on any one,but spending time based on ratio of More time on Topics of your weakness & Considerably less time on Topics in which you are already strong. Also its a very good practise to read your profile(resume) & anticipate what questions may come based on what keywords you have used on your resume. List out all those possible questions and make sure you get answers for all of them before you go for the D-day.

If you have enough time better read some more reference materials on each topics, reading online is good only when you get specific material fast & spend actual time reading that material. What generally happens is people keep searching for right material using google or any other search engine , they search for hours & hours & download all materials. But then they will say I will read them all tomorrow since there are so many materials to go through- chances are he/she never gets enough time to read them. So instead of spending time in searching/googling spend quality time to actually read atleast 20 to 40 pages of compressed materials on each topic based on what you have mentioned in your resume & skillset.

Have some one who is already in the industry with some good experience to track your preparation progress & evaluate you constantly- this is a very strong tip. If you can get this to happen you can surely win the interview. But i have usually seen people are soo busy they can hardly take out time for others. So in that case be ur own mentor & try to evluate ur self as an independent person

Give stress to more hands on or lab exercises it is always important that you work more on practical section rather than preparing all the time on theoritical aspects. This is very much true for any Software or Storage or System administration or Networl administration kind of job openings.

prepare well for that dreaded common interview question " Tell me about yourself " . Make sure you talk only tech & career stuff & nothing personal here.
Prepare a script that includes the information you want to convey. Begin by talking about past experiences and proven success:

"I have been in the Storage administration area for the past five years. My most recent experience has been managin SAN & NAS infrastructure from Vendors like EMC2,Netapp & HP. One reason I particularly enjoy this work, and the challenges that go along with it, is the opportunity to solve complex problems & improve data storage solutions. In my last job, I deployed & succesfully optimised some major Storage solutions resulting in a 30 percent increase in availability ,reducing 15% recurring costs & increasing utlisation by 25% in a matter of months."

Next, mention your strengths and abilities:

"My real strength is my attention to detail. I pride myself on my reputation for following through and meeting deadlines. When I commit to doing something, I make sure it gets done, and on time."

Conclude with a statement about your current situation:
"What I am looking for now is a company that values Storage innovation , where I can join a strong team and have a positive impact on overall team's success"

Practice

Practice with your script until you feel confident about what you want to emphasize in your statement. Your script should help you stay on track, but you shouldn't memorize it ,you don't want to sound stiff and rehearsed. It should sound natural and conversational.

Even if you are not asked this type of question to begin the interview, this preparation will help you focus on what you have to offer. You will also find that you can use the information in this exercise to assist you in answering other questions. The more you can talk about your product -- you -- the better chance you will winning an offer at the end of all the interview rounds.

How to prepare for interviews for Storage Openings

Previous 2 posts mentioned some storage job openings. You can click on EMC2,Dell,HP Openings ,Netapp Storage openings.
If you are worried about how to prepare for these interviews this blogpost is for you.
First Step Do Not apply for all openings when it does NOT match your profile. Making sure you apply for only those job openings which suit to your present profile or your interest is essential. This helps you to avoid the confusion & prepare with a focussed mind .Also this increases your chance of clearing all the rounds of interviews. Since interviewers are looking for persons who have the maximum points in their present profile matching the job requirement of the company.

So always make sure you get detailed Job description before you plan and schedule the interview. Once You have detailed JD(Job description) make sure you have atleast 1 to 2 weeks time to prepare for the interview. Interviewers always try to push you to take interviews very early. But if you request or sometimes even if you push then they will agree for a date of your convenince.

Once a date is fixed be serious & plan how you want to cover the major areas of your skillset. Example would be if you have mentioned below points as your skillsets
2 Years experience in Linux administration
Well versed in SDLC (Software Development Life CYcle)
Expertise in Release Engineering(RE) Process
Good experience in perl and shell scripting

Then you need to see what are your strong areas & which ones are weak areas. Start with Weak areas first & try to finish them early & with more stress.
Example if you feel SDLC,RE process are your strong areas & Linux administration,Perl/Shell scripting are areas you feel you need to improve on then you start with Weaker topics & strengthen yourself. Its always true that whenever u feel u r strong in any topic even if u prepare briefly on those topics you can still manage to do well in interviews. But if you are not at all confident about any topics then you will be shaky & will loose lots of good points/impressions when u are not able to answer or handle them in interview. So my suggestion is always strengthen your areas of weakness & make sure you are in a good enough defensive mode before you take the real interview.

It is always a good habit to go through several MOCK interview sessions or simulated interview sessions before you take the actual Real interview.This gives a clear picture & is a big winner for many of the people whom i have helped to win interviews. Believe it or not almost 60% to 80% of people have done very badly in their first & second mock interview session. Only those who were dedicated enought to prepare & take 3rd or 4th mock interview have done well in mock interviews as well as won their acutal company interviews 100%. These are the guys who came back with a big smile from their real company interview. Since they have fought the interview battle several times before hand .

instead of loosing your best chance by directly going for an interview its always safe & better to go through some simulated or mock interviews . This saves you from lots of frustations .

I will contiue writing about your interview preparations tips in my next post which I will for sure post by tomorrow. For those wise people who want to get personal guidance for their interview preparation I have a paid service where you pay me only $60 and I guide you for 15 days through emails & support materials for your job interview. Email roger.smithson@gmail.com with your interested job openings/job description & what are your expectations. I will do my best to support you but at the end of the day it is your dedication & sincerity in preparation that makes you win any job offer letter.

Storage Job Openings in EMC2,Dell,HP,HCL,Inmage

COMPANY: EMC2 Data Storage
Required Skills:
4 to 8 years experience; very strong on storage & should have worked on clariion

COMPANY : HP
Position: SQA / QA Lead

Responsible for conducting the daily testing activities including
Good understanding and experience for conceiving and managing testing life cycles
Good Exp in Storage Technologies such as NAS, NFS, NETAPP, DNS, SAN, RAID, Veritas, Volume Manager, Disaster Recovery, Backups and other storage technologies [Must]
Ability to develop testing strategies for [Must]
Black Box testing [Must]
Regression testing [Must]
Compatibility testing [Must]
Performance testing
Usability testing
Ability to develop Test Plans and Test cases [Must]
Ability to develop test scripts and experience with testing tools would be
added advantage [Desirable]
Ability to do test management from release based product development
Perspective
should be from product development background
Well conversant with build and software configuration tools
Ability conceive, implement and execute test cases
Having good exposure to System Development Life Cycle & SDLC Testing, Test Plan Design & Development, Automated test tool design and development.
Excellent people management skills
Storage background is desirable
SQA Exp : 3-5 yrs
QA Lead Exp : 5-10

Position: Test Manager (QA Manager)
We do have Test Manager Positions with the same above technologies & Exp Should be 10-15 yrs
Minimum 4 yrs lead exp in Storage Technologies such as NAS, NFS, NETAPP, DNS, SAN, RAID, Veritas, Volume Manager, Disaster Recovery, Backups and other storage technologies [Must]

COMPANY :Dell Storage openings
Skills required :STORAGE MANAGER
SKILLS : SCSI,RAID,SAN, NAS,FIBRE CHANNEL
exp : 5-15 YEARS

(TEAM LEAD,TECH LEAD,PROJECTLEAD, PROJECT MANAGER,STORAGE MANAGER )
TESTING as well as DEVELPOMENT SIDE


COMPANY : INMAGE Storage Job Openings
InMage aims to redefine the traditional day to day IT operations view of data protection and
elevate it to the level of seamless alignment with business objectives. InMage is the pioneer of event-based recovery
and is a founding member of SNIA"s SIG on Continuous Data Protection.

SKILLS :
Sr QA Engineers

These people will be responsible for conducting the daily testing activities including
• Good understanding and experience for conceiving and managing testing life cycles
• Ability to develop testing strategies for [Must]
o Black Box testing [Must]
o Regression testing [Must]
o Compatibility testing [Must]
o Performance testing
o Usability testing
• Ability to develop Test Plans and Test cases [Must]
• Ability to develop test scripts and experience with testing tools would be added advantage [Desirable]
• Ability to do test management from release based product development perspective
• Product development background is MUST
• Well conversant with build and software configuration tools
• Ability conceive, implement and execute test cases
• Good Documentation Skills
• Storage background is a Must

Experience: 5-7 years. Minimum BE (ECE, COMP SC)

COMPANY : HCL Technologies
EXPERIENCE OF TESTING NETWORKING OR STORAGE PRODUCT
OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:
EXPOSURE TO MULTIPLE FLAVORS OF UNIX (BASIC ADMINISTRATION - INSTALL, UPGRADE, CONFIGURE) & NETWORK ADMINISTRATION ON INDOWS/UNIX.

STRONG NETWORKING CONCEPTS (A. TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP ETC. B. TOOLS - ETHREAL, TCPDUMP) STORAGE TECHNOLOGY –

A.CONFIGURE TESTBEDS WITH STORAGE SYSTEMS, FC/IP SWITCHES AND USING RELATED TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS MULTI-PATHING, CLUSTERING

B.UNDERSTANDING OF FCP, ISCSI, NFS, CIFS, SAN/NAS

Qualifications:
ME / M.Tech/BE / B.Tech/ MCA /M.SC/B.SC/BCA

NetApp Storage Job Opening Job description

Here is a Job opening description of one of the major Storage company.If you are qualified email your resume to roger.smithson@gmail.com for this storage job.

COMPANY : Netapp ( Network Appliance )
RESPONSIBILITIES, EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE INFORMATION

Job Summary: VTL(Virtual Tape Library) Quality Assurance Manager is a first level management position responsible for building and managing a high-performance team of QA engineers in NetApp Bangalore. The QA team is responsible for functional and system testing of all aspects of VTL product.

Essential Functions:
Responsibilities will include some hands on execution, evolving into a people and project management role as the team grows.
Project management activities include developing and tracking multiple concurrent QA projects. The candidate will need to review product requirements, design and functional specifications to scope testing requirements, design test strategy for testing of NetApp Virtual Tape Library Product.
Administrative functions include handling budgets, interoperability labs, and working with administrative functions such as HR, finance, and so on.
Management of QA team delivering products.
Manage multiple priorities in a dynamic and changing work environment, and work effectively with other remote managers (SVL Management) to deliver projects on time.
Be a strong leader with skills in hiring, motivating, mentoring, and retaining engineers as a first level manager.

Requirements:
Demonstrated experience in managing and leading teams with a successful track record of delivering projects on time.
Demonstrated experience in test planning, tests design, and test execution
Good knowledge of test methodologies like black-white box, integration, system testing. passion for quality,
Ability to manage and interact with remote/geographically distributed teams and excellent people management skills.
Ability to manage change well and provide clear vision to team.
Demonstrated experience of managing multiple priorities and tasks in a dynamic work environment . Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills to interface with other managers and partners.
The candidate must have a good understanding of release management and defect tracking processes.

Desirable:
Expert level of proficiency in Tape libraries.
Working knowledge in major backup applications like Veritas NetBackup, TSM , Legato etc. Experience in working on Windows / Linux / Solaris/AIX platforms.
Good understanding of storage technologies including iSCSI and/or Fibre Channel SAN
Experience in Test Automation framework and automation of Test cases using either third party/home grown tools.
Experience in scripting using any structured scripting language (Perl, TCL/Tk, and Python) or any other programming language. .
Prior experience in system administration with emphasis on data protection is a plus.