How can a Mentor Help and Boost Your Interview Preparation?

Who is a Mentor and Why do you need a Mentoring Program?

“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”

~ - Bob Proctor

High school, college graduation and post-graduation studies, working a job - sounds like a typical education and career trajectory, right?

Have you ever felt that while you have been part of this journey, it could have been a lot smoother if you had someone guiding you along the way? 🤔

A guide to support you in your journey by all means.

Picture this - you are fresh out of high school and applying to college just because your grades fit a particular classification.

Or, your parents have unknowingly steered you towards pursuing studies in a field in college where your interests don’t really lie, making it difficult for you to excel. 

When it comes to applying for jobs as well, most of us blindly apply for jobs where our degrees fit the job description and eligibility criteria.

Don’t you wish you had some guided expertise in the form of a mentor to take you through these difficult decisions?

How Mentor Influence Careers of the Best in the Field?

Have you ever actually evaluated your strengths, weaknesses and then applied for a job that is suited for you in long-term?

How can you arrive at this assessment? 🤔

With the help of a mentor.💡

Mentors are becoming increasingly popular in every industry today.

Be it IT, law, business or even creative arts, and youngsters are keen on having a mentor guide them through their career trajectory.

A mentor to give them important knowledge and experience-based information on dealing with roadblocks in their career.

In this way saving their time and mental efforts.

With the right mentoring program, you can get the help you need to sit for interviews, understand your strengths and weaknesses and align your personal and professional goals.

Let’s look at fields like sports and fitness.

We’ve all heard of the best of sportspersons - from Virat Kohli to Saina Nehwal, having mentors and coaches.

These mentors and coaches help these sportspersons hone their skills to reach a career peak.

Mentors keep the best of sportspersons grounded and help them achieve greater heights.

Even while working out in a gym, people hire personal trainers and nutritionists to guide their fitness and wellness journey!  

Similarly, then, in the world of IT, finance, management and marketing, why do people shy away from letting a mentor guide them?

In these fields, mentors are equally, if not more, important to help people boost their careers.

Did you know that 71% of Fortune 500 companies have a mentoring program?

What are some ways in which mentors can help you succeed?

The mentor plays the role of a lighthouse in navigating the journey of your career in an unending sea of preparation.

In the journey like that, if you cannot see where you are going, It is wise to ask someone who has been there before.

Someone who knows the directions, challenges to tackle in between and most importantly the ways to tackle them.

🟢 Learn new things

Treat the glass as always half full!

With a mentor by your side, you get the opportunity to learn a host of new skills - These includes soft skills like: approaching people, speaking to new connections and answering questions during meetings and interviews.

A mentor can guide you through it all.

With a mentor to guide you, you are bound to gather new knowledge and become enriched in your approach towards work.

🟢 Make decisions

Puzzled with how to approach a situation during an interview or while applying for jobs?

Wondering what the right answers are?

Rule 1 - there are no right answers; however, you can avail of a mentoring program that can guide you towards the answers that are most likely right for you at the particular stage of your career.

Mentors help you discuss uncomfortable and difficult questions that may arise at your workplace or give you the knowledge or coaching you need to get over roadblocks at work.

They give you advice that can help you make the best decisions for your career.

🟢 Make connections

Mentors are usually industry veterans - they have several years (even decades!) of experience in a particular field and have connections in a lot of networks.

If you work closely with your mentor, they can introduce you to connections through their networks and communities.

For example, suppose a mentor is part of a community of software developers in a particular MNC.

In that case, that can be useful to a candidate looking for openings in that MNC.

🟢 Manage stress

A mentor is a prime example of a person who has faced challenges during the course of their career and has emerged enriched on the other side.

Having faced stress during various aspects of their career, mentors provide candidates tips and tricks on stress management, keeping calm during interviews and not losing one’s nerves erratically.

Through mock interviews and meetings, mentors help candidates build confidence internally.

Continuously discussing the job, career prospects etc., give candidates a better grip on the industry, subject and equip them with the right ability to handle pressure and stress.

Mentor Guidance in Technical and Non-Technical Interview Processes

Mentors provide undivided attention and unique insights to mentees, specifically in cracking interviews, be it technical or non-technical interviews.

To prepare for interviews, mentors can provide tips and tricks on succeeding at interviews, with a view to help freshers and experienced professionals by -

Arriving at an interview preparation strategy and help in career goal setting

Preparing for an interview is an equally difficult part of sitting for one. Mentors help mentees prepare for interviews by:

✅ Setting career goals,

✅ Identifying their strengths,

✅ Helping them undertake mock interviews,

✅ Impart knowledge on setting timelines and schedules to go about the interview preparation, etc.

For example, a mentoring program can help a candidate create an interview guide or preparation schedule.

This includes: tips on searching for the right company, the right role, being aligned with professional expectations, finding the right resources to prepare for the interview, developing skills and creating a timeline for interview preparation.

Giving insight on important interview questions based on the role and the company

Mentors have years of experience in giving and taking interviews.

Thus, they are some of the best people to approach to get an understanding of what a person can expect when sitting for an interview.

For example, if you are interviewing for a technical position of a software developer at Amazon, then a mentor (who has significant experience working at Amazon or a competitor company in a similar role) will be able to guide you through the expectations of the recruiter.

He will be able to prepare the candidate to answer questions about the role, expectations of the role, as well as give the candidate an idea of how well the recruiter expects the candidate to know the company.

To understand this better, let’s look at Netflix.

As a company, Netflix is heavily focused on its culture and one of the criteria for hiring, in addition to the candidate having sound technical knowledge, is the candidate having sound knowledge about the company's culture.

This is a tip a mentoring program or an insider from Netflix will be able to provide a candidate, and knowing about the company’s culture is sure to set the candidate apart from others.

Providing insight on tackling technical interviews

Technical interviews can be tough to crack.

Did you know that some companies even go into rounds and rounds of technical interviews just to get one right hire?

Technical interviews don’t just involve taking tests but also answering questions in a specific and concise manner.

As a candidate, you may be proficient and able to handle a written or multiple-choice test to ace a technical interview, but how do you go about this process when you are verbally interviewed?

The right mentoring program can help you handle all of that. In short, mentors provide candidates with:

👉 An understanding of technical concepts,

👉 How to explain technical concepts across in an interview,

👉 How to answer technical questions, including information on the best resource material to hone technical skills.

Helping candidates build interpersonal and soft skills

Mentors provide candidates with soft skills training.

This includes helping candidates develop interpersonal skills, communication skills and even interview etiquette.

Soft skills training is typically undervalued, but these can go a long way in assisting a candidate’s professional development.

Soft skills also include problem-solving, managing stress, communicating with colleagues and handling situations where decisions need to be made.

Mentoring Your Way To Success with Preplaced

Think of a mentor like a career guru - with their experience, knowledge, and connections.

They are willing to enrich your life in a positive way and ensure personal and professional growth.

Mentors help impart knowledge in a succinct manner and steer you through some of the toughest challenges you may face in your quest to landing the perfect job.

At Preplaced, we truly believe that a mentor can fulfil your needs personally and professionally, especially when it comes to preparing for interviews.

However technical interview may be, or if you’re vying for a particular position at a particular company, it’s always best to undergo a mentoring program that can guide you, so you make the right decisions and ultimately land your dream job.

At Preplaced, we provide you mentors that are top industry experts and have experience working at companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber - you name it.

Preplaced provides candidates with mentors from tier 1,2 & 3 companies across a range of industries and domains spanning engineering, finance, management, marketing etc.

These mentors have relevant knowledge and experience, especially when it comes to interviews.

At Preplaced, we ensure that a user is taken through the course of what exactly to expect during an interview, how to handle questions and emerge victoriously.

Head on to Preplaced to know more.

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