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The ‘Fun’ Twist: Tackling Some ‘Interesting’ Questions

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In many of our previous posts, we have talked about answering those commonly asked questions well. Questions like “can you walk me through your CV?”, “can you tell me about yourself?”, among others. Answering these generic, formal questions is relatively easy because these are the questions we expect.

But what if we are suddenly asked a question and the answer is expected to be…fun?

In other words, how should questions like the following should be answered?

  • Can you tell me a fun/interesting fact about yourself?
  • What are your other interests?
  • What do you like to do in your spare time?

 

Why Such Questions:

The logic is similar to the one behind “can you tell me about a weakness?”. That is, the interviewers want to take a look beyond the candidate’s interview persona. Such questions give them a sense of what they are like outside the office.

Everyone is formal and serious during the interview, but the world beyond the interview involves undertaking tasks, managing teams, coordinating with colleagues, talking to clients and associates, maintaining interpersonal rapport. A well-rounded  persona, with proportionate amount of seriousness and fun won’t harm, right?

Such questions are thus beneficial for the interviewer to know more about a candidate, and for the interviewee to show a different side of their personality.

 

What Can Such Questions Do:

Such questions asking about interesting aspects of one’s personality give the person getting interviewed opportunities to:

  • Shift the interview from a formal question-and-answer session to a more conversational interaction. We talk about this more later on.
  • Talk about their hobbies (if any, given that these days people don’t have hobbies) and interests
  • Give a sense of what they would be like during out of the office formal events like conferences, dinners, etc,.
  • Talk about themselves as a worker by drawing analogies

 

The Shift:

This is one of the strongest reason to cash in on such questions, when asked.

Answering (and listening to the answers of) generic questions can get boring. It’s not going to be interesting beyond a point. Think of the interview in terms of rhythm. Changing rhythms keep us engaged. Questions which take a look about the beyond the professional life  can change the rhythm of the interview.

There are times of a calm, almost quiet rhythm, when one talks about the more formal issues, like their skills, their work experience, their strengths and weaknesses; there is a little rise in the tempo perhaps when one begins to talk about how one handled a difficult situation. The rhythm will get peppier as one starts talking about the “fun” things. It will keep the interview interesting.

 

 

How Exactly Is One Supposed to Talk about this?:

You have been asked something about yourself. Generic is the last thing you want your answer to be. Relevancy and specificity are some qualities to keep in mind. And the answer should connect to some aspect of your professional life in some way, be it how the interest helped you develop certain soft-skills, or how you got better at a hard-skill.

An example will make it clearer.

A: “I like art.”

B: “I like art. I am not a pro, but I like drawing illustrations based on the everyday things I see around. The last illustration was about the quiet that I noticed in my building when the electricity went off, and how the people came out to talk to each other. It initially started as idle doodling but now I think I have developed an eye for minute details and for making ordinary tasks interesting.”

A is too general. What does it tell about the interviewee besides the fact that they pursue art in their spare time? Not much. On the other hand, B gives a sense of what the interviewee pursues, what their view of the world is like, and what other skills they have developed in the process. Fun fact indeed!

 

Talking about a fun or interesting fact about yourself in a balanced way can give the interviewer a sense of what kind of a worker and a person you are. It can give a glimpse of your soft-skills, good qualities and how you act when faced with challenges.

 

Bringing Happiness to Workplace

Happiness and work should be two terms which go well together, but as we all know, the contemporary trends in work culture often leave them on two different poles. Dr. Yogesh Pahuja’s efforts to bridge this gap between happiness and work is what has brought him recognition.

In the recently held World HRD Conference in Mumbai, themed ‘Building Happiness in Workplace’ , Dr. Yogesh Pahuja was conferred the award of the Global Happiness Leader. He was part of the 51 Most Fabulous Happiness Leaders, selected by a distinguished jury.

The World HRD Conference is composed of around a hundred nations from US, UK, Asia, Africa, GCC and Europe.

In addition to being a corporate happiness expert, Dr. Yogesh Pahuja is the founder of Happiness Studio and dons multiple roles: he is  an author, OD facilitator,  trainer, faculty, operations head, with an expertise in content design and taking workshops. With an experience of more than two decades, he blends the academic and the research oriented with the hands on experience of industry. The award is indeed a fitting tribute.

 

Below are some memorable moments from the event:

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Giving Back to the Community, One Smile At A Time…

What better way to celebrate your birthday than by putting smiles on the faces of little angels? CEO Dr. O.P Pahuja had one such birthday this year.

A happy coincidence saw the birthday and an important event fall on the same day. What was the important event? Reading Aloud Day, organised by Kadam Education Initiative (KEI), which reaches out to underprivileged kids in Ahmedabad through the help of civil society groups, government authorities and corporate groups.

Through Kadam Education initiative (KEI), smiles were brought on the faces of some underprivileged kids this Reading Aloud Day. Stories are a fun and engaging way to imbibe good values in children, and to provide them with a sense of hope and belief  in ‘happy ending’. In an event organised by KEI at the Human Resource and Development Centre at St. Xavier’s College campus, educators and volunteers, called the Bal Dost provided and read out loud hundreds of such stories to the children.

What are the two things kids absolutely see as favourites? Stories and birthdays. So, naturally, an event which saw both- Dr. Pahuja’s birthday and Read Aloud Day stories- is bound to be fun. The day saw the kids singing the birthday song and a prayer, followed by storytelling sessions. Kids are the future, and educating them is the best way one can give back to the society.

In another act of giving back to the society, we also distributed computers through Rotary Club Ahmedabad(North) to Ashram Vinay Mandir Girls School, a public school in the city.

The Ashram Vinay Mandir Girls School, located across Gandhi Ashram is a schooling and hostel facility for underprivileged girls from in and around the district. Contributing to the school was a step towards making technology a little bit more ubiquitously available tool in the country to boost skills, knowledge and information accessibility.

 

Below are some memorable moments from the two events:

At the KEI event.
At the KEI event.

 

 

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At the Ashram Vinay Mandir Girls School/Rotary Club Event

 

 

All about the tech.
All about the tech.

 

 

Work-Life Balance or Work-Life Harmony?

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Everyone talks about maintaining a work-life balance.

But is it really a balance that we want? Is “balance” the right word?

Think about it. Balancing means equalising. It implies trading off one thing for another. When we balance, we compensate. We let go of something in favour of something else, and vice versa.

 

The Balancing Act:

Maybe an example will give a little more clarity. You get off your work a little early so that you can attend a sports event your niece is participating in. The work may or may not have been done the way you would like but you trade it off a bit to balance this personal commitment. That’s work-life balance.

Trying to achieve work-life balance is not wrong in itself, but it can be inconvenient and overwhelming at times. What if we tried to achieve work-life harmony?

 

In musical parlance, harmonizing a song implies making a brilliant piece of music out of seemingly incompatible tunes. In isolation, the song would sound incomplete, and the tunes random. But together, in harmony, it becomes music.

 

What the Big Shots Have to Say:

In an interview cited in this article, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft talks about work-life harmony. He says, “I used to always think that you need to find that balance between what’s considered relaxing versus what is working…What I’m trying to do is harmonize what I deeply care about, my deep interests, with my work.”

In another interview cited in the same article, Jeff Bezos, says in a similar vein, reflecting on the “circle” we talked about earlier, “If I am happy at work, I am better at home — a better husband and better father. And if I am happy at home, I come into work more energized — a better employee and a better colleague.”

 

 

So, What Exactly is Work-Life Harmony All About?  :

Finding work-life harmony is more about attitude. An attitude to work which doesn’t see it as “work” but rather as an activity which you deeply care about and something that helps you nurture your interests. In other words, an attitude which sees “work” as an energy giving activity, rather than a draining one. An attitude which doesn’t see personal life as a set of “commitments” but rather something that nurtures your emotional and psychological well-being.

To re-frame it, we can stop looking for “quality” time to spend with the family to “balance” work commitments. Instead, we “harmonise” the two. For example, you might think you need to take a vacation to give time to your child, to balance the time you lose out with them when you are working. And later, you work overtime to balance out that long vacation. To harmonise, you can actually talk to and listen to what your kid is saying on your way to dropping them to school in morning instead of considering the commute as a chore. After all, any time could be a quality time. The interaction leads to a good mood, leading to a good day at work, where you see your work as something that allows you to learn and grow,  and you go home with a smile, leading to a happy evening. Kids are much happier at an emotionally nurturing home than an emotionally stormy vacation.

Of course, there are some personal and professional events which are unavoidable. You have to “balance” at times, with no option to harmonise. But that doesn’t mean you have to discard the idea of harmony altogether. We can still develop an attitude, and when we have the attitude, we can find a way. We can try.

An attitude about “balancing” work and life might lead to positive experiences in one area and negative experiences in another. An attitude about establishing harmony is about happiness and fulfillment in one area leading to happiness and fulfillment in the other, in a cycle. The circle goes on. It’s like setting your life to music.

 

 

Don’t Just Search; Research!

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We have talked about the necessity to research a company to see if the company culture would suit you in a past article. But what exactly can you do to undertake research about the company? And how do we begin the research process? What does one mean by research anyway? And why is it needed?

 

Intention:

Research about the company should be done with an aim to gather some information about:

  • Company history
  • Company culture
  • Leadership and management
  • Mission statement and values
  • Recent news and events
  • Business model

But one must know how to use that information, especially during interviews.

  • Do use the information as a way to know more about the company
  • Do use the information to try to ascertain whether you would be a good cultural fit there
  • Do use the information to try to better understand the company
  • Do use the information to be prepared
  • Do be strategic in how you use the information
  • Do ask the questions you have based on the information
  • Do use the information to augment your skills and experience

Moreover, there are ways one must not use that information; there are some don’ts  one must adhere to and some limitations one must keep in mind:

  • Don’t be insensitive while talking about sensitive issues you found in your research
  • Don’t make an assumption that the information you found is up to date
  • Don’t stick to the online information 100%; while the world today demands everyone to be tech-savvy, it shouldn’t be the only criteria for any decision, unless being tech-savvy is a professional requirement
  • Don’t stick even to the offline information 100%; relayed and second-hand information can be subjective

 

Now, let us dive into the process! Below are some pointers you can start with as you undertake research about a  company. You could be researching for an interview, a potential collaboration or just for some general  knowledge.

 

The Bigger Picture:

Before undertaking research about the company, it is a good idea to research a bit about the industry, especially if you are a candidate about to switch industries. Knowing a bit about industry norms and standards, its functioning, can give you a sense of what you should be researching about.

 

Online:

As we talked about in the article mentioned about, the obvious first step of a research these days is running an online search.

Check the company website. How updated or outdated it is can be telling. Don’t forget to check the ‘About Us’ page. Look for their mission statement if there is one on the site. Mission statements directly talk about the values of the company. In case the website isn’t too text heavy and a mission statement can’t really be seen anywhere, look for recurring words and pictures; they can indirectly tell us about the values the company identifies with.

Running an online search also includes checking the company’s social media. How active or inactive they are, the kind if posts they share can also give you some idea about the company’s functioning and core values.

Social media also gives us idea about any recent events or functions the company may have hosted or been part of.

An online search can not only give you glimpses about the company culture but also things to talk about during an interview. Depending on where your priorities lie, you may uncover some potential red-flags or green-lights!

Check your LinkedIn. Do you have any connection who was associated with the company? You can ask things about:

  • The company culture,
  • What it is like working there,
  • What differences there are, if any, between the brand image and the reality,
  • What the management/leadership is like, if there is someone new in the management and how they have changed or not changed the functioning
  • What the employees are like
  • What the employee and employer relationship is like

Researching about a company also means researching about personnel. LinkedIn can take you to the profiles of your potential boss and colleagues.

One can also use websites like Glassdoor, where employees themselves give a glimpse about the workings of the company.

 

Offline:

If it happens to be an internationally or nationally well-known company, an online search often proves to be enough to know about the news and events, the business model, the values and their mission, and even news about personnel and management.

But what to do if it’s a newly emerging or a fairly old-fashioned company with no telling online presence?

No problem. We just need to look somewhere else.

Information about companies can also be found in good old offline resources like:

  • Newspapers (local and national)
  • Relevant business journals and publications
  • Word of mouth about the company
  • The old grapevine of ‘gossip’ which can be known by networking with people, be it your neighbour or your colleague or your acquaintance or a friend’s friend or a relative…the grapevine is endless

Researching about a company thus entails running a background check about them. Chalking up a schedule to research particular aspects of company on a particular day or hour is a great idea to organise information. So go ahead, and use that information to your advantage!