Interviews

One of our advertising campaigns for ZEAL read "Hi Failure". The ad said: No one likes to be a failure, but everybody does not become successful...why?! We were very doubtful about the response we would get from people for such a negative ad, but it turned out to be a huge success. The reason - everyone wants to be successful, but more importantly, no one wants to be a failure in life! 

MY FAILURES

Most of us relate success and failure in our life to our career. The battlefield in our career to ascertain success and failure happens in interview situations. I recall some of the interviews that I went through. During my MBA at Madurai Kamaraj University, I had to go through a series of campus interviews, one of which was with the Brooke Bond Company. I immediately considered that as my lifetime job because I come from a plantation family. Besides, a guy brought up on a coffee estate couldn't ask for a better job than that of a management trainee at the coffee division of Brooke Bond. After passing through the initial rounds, I was called for the final round at Bangalore. Completely awed by the ambience of the place, I promised myself to spend a lifetime working for BB. I had even dressed up perfectly for the interview. I believed at that moment, I was confidence personified! I knew the offer would land on my lap because I was the only candidate with a background in plantation.

I scaled through the group discussion and entered the chairman’s room with great confidence. On seeing my CV, as expected, the Chairman and the head HR wanted to check my knowledge about plantation culture. It was all very easy until I was asked the difference between Robusta and Arabica coffee plants. I said Arabica is a small plant while Robusta is a big one. Arabica grows in good soil and Robusta grows on rocky soil. Arabica’s life span is about 15 to 20 years but Robusta’s is more that 50 years. They were not happy with my answers and said: “Mr. Rajan we are here to market coffee. From a marketing point of view what is the significant difference between Arabica and Robusta?”  I couldn’t answer the question, but came up with many other explanations.

The outcome was that I had to experience my first failure in an interview. I realized later that it was the taste and price of the coffee that I should have spoken about.

My next interview was with Taj. This time I decided that I shall prepare myself more than the best. I did extremely well in the preliminary interview. I was then called in for the final interview in Bangalore. Before I could go for the interview, I wanted to have complete knowledge about the hotel industry. I approached a friend of mine who was in the catering industry. We had a party almost every night in the name of getting to know the world of hospitality. Finally, I went to Bangalore with the highest level of hope and telling myself that I can’t be written off in this interview. While waiting, I interacted freely with all the other people who had come to attend the interview and they were enthused that I called them by names during the group discussion. I was obviously the best member in the group discussion.

When I went for the final interview with the Marketing and HR Head of Taj, I was able to answer question relating to my MBA very confidently. Then I asked what my main focus would be as the Marketing Executive of Taj in order to bring in business. I started thinking about all the unique information I had collected in seven precious days and answered that I would bring in revenue through Conference rooms, Banquet hall, Restaurant… They said, “Mr. Rajan, you are missing the most important part. Tell us, in the hotel industry, where does the revenue come from?”. I thought again and replied, “I would bring in revenue from the Boutique, the bookshop, club membership, the swimming pool…”

This time, the marketing and HR Head were very obviously disappointed. They said this would be my last chance to come up with an answer. So, giving my best, like a bright 100-volt bulb, I said, “Yess! The laundry service!” I was very politely shown the door. I realized later that it was the rooms in the hotel that I should have talked about.

MY SUCCESS IN AN INTERVIEW

I would also like to discuss one more interview that I attended – one for my Bachelors of Business Administration in Madurai. At that time I was in Chennai and aspiring to get into a film institute and had no intentions of doing a BBA. But my mother forced me to attend the interview. I went with a strong determination to fail, and kept giving wrong answers. Finally the professor asked me the easiest question possible: Who is the Prime Minister of India? I purposely answered M.G.Ramachandran (a popular Tamil star). By then the professor had lost his temper and asked me who is the chief minister of Tamil Nadu? Without any hesitation I answered “Rajinikanth”. I was sent out, but after a week, I received the admission card for the BBA program! Until this day, I do not know how I got through that interview and joined the BBA Program.

The lesson we can learn about success and failure through these simple experiences is that ‘Success can be archived by any means, but failure can occur only through mismanagement’