FAQs

A letter of recommendation may be requested by an employer during the application process. The letter is generally written by an employer, co-worker or friend, and serves as a reference for your past accomplishments and on the job performance. The letter of recommendation is a powerful tool, if your letter can be written by a previous boss or someone higher up in the company for which you are employed or were previously employed. Why would your current boss write a letter of recommendation so that you can gain employment elsewhere, thereby creating a vacuum in his own team? The most logical reasons for this could be :

 

1. Change is constant and hence, it is every employee’s right to move on in his life and career. This change in organization could be voluntary from the employee’s side to look for better career prospects.

2. It could also be organization induced, where during layoffs, even though your performance was good, downsizing is needed for company and your shifting to another organization would only help to achieve that goal.

 

In addition, you could even seek a letter of recommendation just for your own record. This obviously depends on your relationship that you currently share with your boss or co-workers, however if you do ask for it and do get it, it will prove as a valuable asset in your future.

To begin the process, you must first choose who will write the letter, then seek their concurrence to write a letter of recommendation for you. Once you have identified who is willing, you should give the person who is writing the letter, the format of the same. Below is a sample outline of what a format might contain:

 

1. What was their relationship with you (your boss, co-worker, etc)

2. How long have they known you

3. The responsibilities of your position

4. Any significant achievements by you while on the job

5. A brief outline regarding the organization.

6. A detailed evaluation of your performance as an employee / co-worker.

7. Your strengths and weaknesses. Highlighting the weakness would make the recommendation letter look genuine, not a cooked up one. These weaknesses would be the items that you can state that you are improving on.

8. If he/she would recommend you for a position in the organization if they were in the shoes of the hiring manager and in any future eventuality, would they re-hire you if you should so consider.

In general terms, when we talk about Curriculum Vitae and a Resume there is not much difference and they are almost similar, however technically there is a small difference between them i.e. the CV is slightly longer and contains some more information than a Resume. A Resume is a one or two page summary of your skills, experience and education etc. and hence one cannot mention information that is not absolutely necessary. But a CV would contain all the information present in a Resume as well as some additional information about specific achievements, special awards, grants, some specialized courses completed, etc.

This question is generally used to start the interview formally. Of course a lot about you has been written in the CV itself, hence that is not what they are specifically asking. They would like to know about you as a person, your skillets, and your confidence levels when you are speaking about what is written in the CV and such attributes. It is always good to start from where you belong to, your education, your first job, your career, your aspirations and leading up to the current organization where you have come for an interview. Remember, your confidence while repeating all that mentioned in the CV and more is what counts here.

This is a very basic and simple question and be clear as to where you came to know about this job from. If it is through NumeroUno that you have reached that interview, you can go ahead and tell them, because they would already know it. If you have been referred by any friend from this organization, please do not hesitate to mention that either. Be truthful here.

The need of the hour in this question is, to be tactful while answering. You might have specific personal problems, either related to HR issues OR related to your bosses OR related to the work culture in your current organization. But, be careful while projecting this information in front of the Interview panel, such that you should not come across as a person who is demotivated, a person who cribs about your bosses/organization and a person who is unnecessarily dissatisfied with what you have. On the contrary, the reasons that you point out should be more positive in nature. Like, one of the reasons could be your goal in life to get into a particular profile, to be able to reach a particular level in an organization, etc. The honesty in your answer needs to be seen by the Interviewer. During this monologue, there could be a number of unsaid gestures that could convey your feelings/aspirations and could help you in handling this question well.

If you are still employed with your current organization, definitely it would not be wise to agree to contact them, but about former organizations and former bosses, there should not be a problem to do so. However, after receipt of an offer letter from the new organization, you might agree to let them contact your present boss for the latest reference.

The answer to this would be in line with what you would have mentioned as an answer to point number 3 above. You need to be frank but tactful while answering this question.

Normally, before you go for an interview, you would do a bit of research on the organization that you are meeting and which you propose to join. Hence, the answer to this might be peppered with the information about products offered, work culture, growth prospects and HR practices, etc which would have been published in public domain on their website OR what you have tried to know from any friends/acquaintances who work there. Your answer needs to bring out the fact that you are keen to join the company for positive reasons and also mention why you feel you are a good fit for the kind of profile that you are trying for.

You need to mention the benchmark relieving period as the one mentioned in your current organization’s offer letter. However, you need to emphasize on the fact that depending on the urgency of the new organization and the flexibility of the current organization, the relieving period can be worked out mutually.

Be positive and grab this opportunity to let the Interviewer know about your strengths. Good points to put forward would be – your analytical skills if any, your leadership skills if any, your ability to be a team player in crunch situations, your communication skills, etc.
However, do not be as forthcoming, when it comes to your weakness. As mentioned above in the section on Letter of recommendation, your weaknesses mentioned should only be an honest assessment of areas in which you feel you could improve upon. Don’t mention points like – late coming, tend to get angry easily, get overburdened by targets, etc. – as weaknesses, which can project you as an incorrect fit for the profile that you are applying for.

Though every organization would have slightly different roles and responsibilities for specific profiles, you would be better equipped if you could try and figure out some basic details about the position you are applying for and the responsibilities that go along with the same. Though the Interviewer would not expect you to know everything about the particular position, total lack of knowledge also will surely place you in a bad light in front of them. Hence, you would be better off to try and find out something about the same, either from your acquaintances in the new organization OR at least use your past experience to derive a basic idea regarding the same.

Again, this answer would be in line with your answer to question 9, relating to your weaknesses. How you answer that question would also ensure your answer for this one. It will clearly reflect your ability to discuss and communicate on such sensitive issues and would go a long way in cementing your place in their minds. Hence, please ensure to be very crisp, honest but tactful when you answer this question. You might even give an example to highlight your answer, where you could highlight any particular instance and show how you handled that situation.

If you have put in sufficient efforts into ensuring that the letter of recommendation is framed positively, you would have come across couple of highlights of your career, which would also include your achievements in all your previous organizations. Try to pick one of them, as the best/toughest/greatest of them all. This would be the one which you now have to highlight on, under this question. This question would probably come towards the end of the interview and by now, you would have the attention of the panel to what you are about to relate. This would definitely create a lasting impression on the Interviewer’s mind, if handled well. As far as possible, use career achievements for highlight at this juncture, rather than talking about personal achievements.

When you surf our web page ( Current Openings )you will find an option “Apply Online”. You need to fill the form reflected on your screen, browse your computer and attach your CV and click on the Send button to finish uploading your CV.

When you open our web page Current Openings you would find an option “Current Openings” on the top right corner. This section would details all the current jobs that are available and would be reflected differently for each Industry and would be then classified based on the experience required therein. Once you are able to spot the profile that best matches your skill sets, you could go to the “Apply Online” icon and post your resume.

Once your CV has been shortlisted, you would receive a call from the organization for which you have applied for and at the same time you will receive a call and mail from the representative of NumeroUno Placements as well.

Yes, you can apply for more than one job at the same time but we suggest that you only opt for those jobs that best suit your profile. If not, there are chances that the organization might not respond to your candidature.

Yes, you can definitely submit your CV even if there is no matching profile. But in that case, the response would definitely take some time, as we would have to wait for jobs to come across that suit your profile. We would forward only CVs that best fit a particular profile, to the organizations.

No, you need not send / courier a hard copy of your CV.